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3one3 · 8 years ago

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The Sequel - 829

Eeny, Meeny

André Schürrle, Juan Mata, other Chelsea/BVB players, and random awesome OC’s (okay they’re less random now but they’re still pretty awesome)

original epic tale

all chapters of The Sequel

“I have until like 2, so I would like to go shopping somewhere- I’m desperate for shopping. I haven’t bought anything but food and diapers in forever- and then take a nap. Also I would like for someone to remind me later tonight when I say I want to wake up extra super duper early to ride on the beach in the morning, that I in fact do not want to do that again. No, no, no, no, no. Nein. Nuhuh.”

“To be fair, you don’t compete until after 10:30 tomorrow morning, so you could do it without having to wake up that early.”

“Stef rides at 8 though.”

“Never mind. Go do the shopping, then. Make sure to have something for lunch.”

“Yes, Dad.”

The Jumping International de France event in La Baule had a few things going for it, in Christina’s opinion, that set it apart from other Nations Cup qualifier venues in Europe’s Division I. The CSIO5* show took place at a permanent equestrian center, with permanent stabling. Most of it was shed row style but the Nations Cup teams were in an annex building with central aisles, so it was quite comfortable. The show ring was grass, and enormous, and featured a small hill with two step-down jumps. The schooling ring was dirt and enormous, and very close to the stabling. Most uniquely, the venue offered riders two different opportunities to ride in water. It was just a few blocks from the beach, and the Atlantic Ocean. Anyone with a horse well behaved enough to follow the established walk through the city streets down to the surf could enjoy the beach until 10 every morning. That was a novelty offered to members of the equestrian club year-round, and tourists too. Riders competing in the 5* classes would also get to ride through water on course in the Nations Cup, Derby, and Grand Prix. There was a 35’-ish tract of shallow water to pass through between regular fences. Christina had been to La Baule before and so some of her horses were familiar with that test, but she had Socks and Calvin with her and neither of them had ever been through that sort of water before. She took Socks to the beach to get familiar with the idea on the first morning, and considered taking Calvin over on the second. It just meant waking up really, really early, and at 9:30 in the morning on the first day she was already feeling tired.

The individuality of the La Baule event mattered for one reason: it wasn’t boring. Christina was happy to be there once she arrived. Meeting up with her Germany teammates and her coaches was actually nice. Lukas and Espen weren’t there with her, but she wasn’t lonely because there was actually a sense of the existence of a team mentality right off the bat. The Nations Cup team for the French event consisted of Daniel, Marcus, Christian, and Marco in addition to Christina. Christian wasn’t so harsh to her face anymore, thanks in large part, she believed, because her success were undeniable and couldn’t be bought in the form of great horses. Marco was still just a colleague, not a friend, but one that she was getting to know more all the time. He was perfectly nice, and content to defer on some things to his more experienced teammates. He’d been competing a lot longer than she had, but not as part of the top Germany squad. It was unlikely that Heiner and Holger would select him to actually ride. Stefanie was there with Julian for the Under-25 classes. Heiner took “the girls” to dinner on Wednesday night and got them a little drunk, which didn’t help with the whole wake up very early to ride on the beach thing but did help set a nice tone for the show week.

“Should we change first or just go to the avenue with the stores?” Stefanie asked while Christina gave Dirk nose kisses on the crossties in one of their stalls. The King Of The Barn was there to compete for his country in the Nations Cup, and his rider was very into that. There was a derby on the undercard, which normally would have been a Dirk class. Christina thought it more important to do the Nations Cup with him and continue his legacy as a great team horse, and she didn’t want to over-jump him and make him do the derby too coming off his little injury. She bravely put Calvin in it instead, and had low expectations for success and high expectations for hilarity. Her attitude was that it didn’t matter if they didn’t do well, that it would be a good learning experience for him, and that it might be really fun and/or funny to try to get him around the extra-long and extra-difficult derby course. Heiner said he liked that- that she thought the still young and still dopey Hanoverian stallion would find cantering through water and jumping off hills challenging and potentially terrifying, and that she would enjoy whatever antics ensued as a result. It took the drinks at dinner to get her to explain that attitude. The story she gave Holger, the horse’s owner, was about how well prepared Calvin was for a derby class because he loved to gallop out at home and jump natural obstacles. She hoped he hadn’t forgotten about that since moving to Germany, away from the field and the natural obstacles.

“Let’s just go. I need coffee on the way. Can we walk there or do we need to get a cab or an Uber or something?”

“It’s raining. Why would we walk? Get coffee in the gourmet village and I’ll get a car to meet us on the street behind there.”

“Mkay. You have the rest of the day off, bro,” Christina told her favorite Holsteiner. “Enjoy your blanky and your hay and stuff and I’ll bring you something nice later.”

“I like presents too,” Tom interjected. He was drying the horse’s legs. She patted his head and tried to look a certain kind of way while strutting out of the stall, but then tripped on the lip between the stall and the concrete aisle. Everyone, including the horse, laughed at her.

Shopping tiiiime, she sang to herself once she zipped her team jacket on in place of the show coat and down vest she’d had on since she finished her second round of the morning. What’s boyfriend doing, she wondered, liberating her phone from the pocket she forgot it in earlier. The temperature was in the 50’s when she left the hotel to get her horse and go to the beach, and it rose to about 60 since then, but also grew damp and drizzly, so the Germany star had been changing layers constantly to adapt to the conditions and the level of physical activity she did in them. There was a text from a Chelsea midfielder on her phone that couldn’t keep up with the wardrobe changes.

“What time is your qualifying competition this afternoon? I want to watch on the train to West Brom,” he told her with the train emoji. He’d only just sent it.

“It starts at 1:45 your time, so you’ll probably still be on the training pitch. It’s nothing that special anyway. Watch the Nations Cup tomorrow while you’re sitting around getting nervous about THE TITLE WINNING MATCH.” It’s not possible to make him nervous, Christina smiled to herself, falling into step with Stefanie. The two girls were going shopping in white breeches, knee socks, and sneakers. One wore black and white Chelsea socks, and the other wore the stocking variety. The West London club was three points from the Premier League title and the one in the tributary hosiery was practically giddy about it. The team put in a professional but swaggering performance on Monday evening to relegate Middlesborough, and fans everywhere couldn’t wait for Friday. Their biggest fan in the German show jumping team warned everyone that if they won the Nations Cup that afternoon and wanted to celebrate a little that evening, they’d have to do it without her. She had an appointment with the TV in her hotel room.

“I will. I’m trying to keep that off my mind. You better help with that tonight. I’m counting on you cariña.”

“Moviefone once you get settled in the hotel for the night? I have team dinner but we’re ahead of you.” Juan’s best girlfriend knew he was teasing her. He didn’t get nervous that far ahead of playing. He got pumped during warm ups, and he could become a little ball of Spanish nerves on the pitch during crucial moments, like penalty shootouts, but not the night before. Nevertheless, Christina wanted to spend bedtime with him, virtually at least, to make sure he went to sleep feeling relaxed and ready.

“Yes. What are you doing? Have you ridden yet today? I don’t want to get out of bed.”

“I’ll get the coffee since you bought breakfast,” Stefanie offered as they neared the tent in the gourmet village- a small section of exhibitor tents set off the main drag of regular horse show shopping. There was an extremely Parisian bakery tent with way more coffee options than were available in the rider’s restaurant. The 5* riders were entitled to free breakfast at the hotel, lunch in the rider’s restaurant, and dinner in another nicer restaurant at the show facility. The U25 riders were not. The girls got smoothies from the continental buffet at the hotel after their workout, and then Christina sprang for baked goodies between the beach ride and her morning class. She felt sad going back to the tent for just coffee instead of coffee and another delicious Nutella croissant.

“I did Cal and Dirk in a little warm up class already, and we rode Socks and Jules on the beach at sun up. I made an Instagram story. What do you do in bed before getting up besides look at social media? That’s all I do.”

“I think about what I’m going to eat when I get to Cobham.”

“Cafe au lait again or something different?”

“Nah I need it with espresso this time or I’ll run out of battery.”

“Un grand crème, s’il vous plait, avec le lait à part...and...un café noir,” Stefanie shrugged to the lady behind the domed platters of fresh baked treats. She then went back to looking at her phone, like her coach, to get them a ride to the city center for shopping purposes. Her coach was actually glaring at her, jealous of her knowledge of the French language.

“Since when do you drink black coffee?”

“I don’t. I asked for a double espresso for you with the steamed milk on the side so you don’t end up with way too much. I just want a few drops in mine, so we can share.”

“Mkay.”

“If you win tomorrow, will Conte play the kids on Monday and let you guys stay home?”

“Yes but probably me too because I missed so many games. I would go down there to see you if I could.”

“I just wish we didn’t have to wait until Cannes.” Especially because Cannes might be super weird, Christina thought, leaving the coffee conversation aside and allowing herself to feel sad about how much she missed her ex-boyfriend. She hoped he might be available to come to the horse show on Saturday night and hang with her throughout Sunday. Her own packed schedule dictated that she had to go home Sunday night so that she could have some time there with her husband and her son and her other horses before heading to Madrid on Thursday for the next round of the Tour. After that, it was just one full day at home and then on to another round in Hamburg, which André would probably be able to attend for a day or two if he still couldn’t train. Even if he could go, it would only be for the beginning of the event, during the non-consequential classes, because his team would play their cup final on Saturday in Berlin and he wanted to be there whether he could play or not. Christina would be home for two and a half days after Hamburg, and then travel to St. Gallen for her second Nations Cup qualifier of the season. She’d get a couple of days at home before then heading to Cannes for the Tour. The plan was for Juan to be there with her for 5 days, on the boat.

The wait was far too long for her, firstly, and she didn’t know how exactly to explain to the Lilly XO crew that she was spending the better part of a week with Juan, sharing the same bed, being affectionate, and then say goodbye to the Spaniard and hello to her husband and son, who were spending the next week with her on the boat. Obviously their employment contracts demanded their silence on such matters, but the rider feared their judging looks. The situation actually seemed completely impossible. The choice was to try to hide the nature of her relationship with Juan and thus not fully enjoy the experience, to actually explain it to the chief stewardess and assume she would explain it to everyone else onboard but not go sell the story to the media, or carry on however she wanted and just not address the appearance of an affair at all. She cringed uncontrollably at the thought of the looks she’d get from the crewmembers when they saw her sitting in André’s lap or something a few days after they watched her do the same with another guy.

“Come here Sun night. Even if I play Mon, the manager will probably allow us to sleep home. Night time kickoff, meaningless match. Stay just the night.”

“Maybe.”

Christina had to put the text chat on hold to assemble her coffee and get in the taxi to the shops. She was most interested in the Lacoste store, and buying a polo shirtdress. They were a staple of her wardrobe when she was a little kid, and for some reason were staging a comeback in her mind. Also, she was determined to play more tennis despite no longer having her own court. André joked that she should have made better use of the one they had, and his joke fell flat. His wife reminded him that she wasn’t the one who wanted to leave her tennis court behind in the first place. She also reminded him that Juan had a tennis court. That went over about as well with him as his joke did with her.

He was waiting for her to call home on Thursday morning. They discussed her plan to work out and ride on the beach, and he knew she had a class at 8, so it didn’t surprise him that Christina hadn’t called yet at 10 when he left for training. It was going to be day-two of individual training for him, and that was great. He was out of the gym and off the treatment table and back on the pitch instead. It felt great. Getting to do some work with the ball felt great. The possibility that he could play some role in the cup final felt great. What didn’t feel so great was knowing what Christina’s schedule looked like for the coming weeks. She was taking Lukas away with her for some of it too. And then there was the whole holiday with Juan in the south of France thing. That really rubbed him the wrong way. André told her so, but he also told her that he accepted that she wanted some time to see her friend. She invited him too. If he wasn’t going to be with the Germany squad for the pre-tournament camp, he was invited to Cannes. It was pretty obvious that joining his girl and his ex-teammate would be weird for everyone, and perhaps even more so than what she was envisioning with the guys being there separately. There were questions, like if they were all going to hook up again, or if he would be expected to stand by why they cuddled on the top deck or shared a kiss in the water or something. He wasn’t entirely sure what it would all look like, in part because he stopped asking what went on when Christina visited her best friend. It was more palatable to just let them go on their own, for at least part of the week. That left him with a month of very little face time with her. He tried to Face Time her on his way to Brackel. The rider declined the call and then rang him back normally.

“Mooooorning,” she greeted him cheerfully. “I’m just getting out of a cab and it’s raining and my phone is safer in my hood by my ear than if I hold it in front of me. Watcha doin?”

“Driving. Did you ride yet?”

“Yeah, it was fine. How’s Lulu Schü?”

“He had his first poached egg today. Not made by me, obviously.”

“Did he like it?”

“He likes everything.”

“Does your ankle hurt?”

“No. Does yours?”

“Always.”

“How are the horses? Are they behaving?”

“They’re good. I miss you.”

This is why her showing sucks, André sighed with disappointment inside after hearing Christina switch from giving a conversational update to making an unhappy plea. She said she missed him as if she wanted him to be there with her- like it was serious, and not some throwaway “I miss you”. Sunday night she starts crying because all she wants is to feel the way she used to, which she can’t even explain but apparently hinges entirely on me but not in any way I can actually control because it’s just some subliminal effect I have on her, we spend every minute together possible after that and she says it makes her start to feel better, and then she goes away. We’ll have to go back some steps. It goes backward when we don’t see each other enough. I hope it’s like it used to be, and it’s okay, and that our problems before were just because we were apart so much for so long. We used to be fine when she had shows. It was hard to be apart but we didn’t have to re-establish our relationship together each time she came home. Being apart for 5 days didn’t damage how we relate to one another. That’s got to stop.

“Get out of your head, Prinzessin. Don’t think so much. You’re going to have all sorts of fun with your horses and your friends and you have to experience that when it happens instead of missing out on it because you’re thinking about how you want to feel. When we made everything okay for each other, that was true no matter where we were, apart or together. You were still calm and all right at your horse shows without me and I was still calm and good at home without you. We’ll get back to that.”

Wasn’t his whole argument for what was wrong between us for most of the last year that we can’t be okay when we’re not together? He’s so...hypocritical lately, Christina reasoned while hopping over puddles behind Stefanie to get to the protection of an awning over the front of a shoe boutique. Every problem is something to do with my career and definitely not something between us, and now we’re fine when we’re apart? I don’t even think he’s this way deliberately. I think he’s so busy trying to find an answer that makes everything okay and nothing to worry about that he doesn’t bother to actually examine the situation and find the RIGHT answer.

“Chris?”

“Yeah.” And yet, it was working for him earlier this week, the equestrian countered herself. We had a few days together that almost felt normal- like the “olden days”. I was so upset on Sunday because it’s like...It’s like I’m never going to feel the way I did when I last really loved my life. Or like I’m never going to get back to true north or something. I’m always lost, and unsettled. And I told him about it and he actually did make me feel better. It wasn’t anything he said, or did. I just cried on him and then when I stopped, it was better. Maybe it’s not even him. Maybe I have to purge the unsettled-ness from myself. How long does it take to cry out a year of bad feelings? I’ve tried sweating it out. That doesn’t wor-

“What are you doing?”

“Um, shoe shopping? I just got inside.”

“Okay...”

“I’m fine. I- I was just- I miss you, is all. You sounded...I don’t know, some way, when you asked if the horses are behaving, and I had like a rush of missing you.”

“I’m here.”

“I know, babe.”

“What sort of shoes?”

“Uhhdunno.” Christina turned around and looked up to survey the shoes on the walls and on some tables around the store. The selection included a mix of trendy and classic styles, with no obvious theme. Her student was already browsing in the casual sandal section. “All kinds?”

“Get some slutty stilettos for when you come home.”

“K. Let me go. I have a coffee I really want to enjoy, and Stef’s holding a hideous espadrille. I must go talk her into putting it down.”

“Have fun, Prinzessin. Love you.”

“Love you, byyyye.”

“I don’t want to get up,” was the message waiting for her from Juan. She rolled her eyes and started to write back that he was a lazy bum. Instead of finishing the thought, she deleted it and told him she wished she could be a lazy bum with him. This horse show would be amazing if I could take a break between classes to drink delicious coffee like this in bed with Juanin and do nothing. Actually, what would be amazing is if someone could tell me why Schü can ask a joking question and make me desperately wish I were home with him and looking at his dopey face, and then a minute later I’m dying to go snuggle with Juanin and espresso and milk. That would be amazing. A guide to my own brain. It would be wonderful.

“Chris, do you like these sandals?”

“No.”

#hello to you if you somehow wandered in here

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