'i'm so glad you came here zara.'

'me too! we haven't hung out together in months.'

zara is currently at her friend bianca's house with her other friend rachel. they've all known each other since they were fifteen as they all went to school together. they don't see each other as much now as bianca moved to west london and rachel moved to cambridge for university.

even though they don't see each other that much anymore they always keep in contact on facetime or by text.

'anyway miss zara as it's your birthday in a week. what are you doing for your birthday with your footballer boyfriend?' asks bianca before taking a sip of her wine.

'i'm not gonna do anything with him on my birthday. i'm going to be with my parents.' says zara with a shrug.

'you're not even going to spend time with him on your birthday?'

zara just shakes her head while both of her friends just stare at her blankly.

'what?'

'so you're telling me you're dating a fine ass footballer-'

'hey!'

'who's got a shit ton of money with probably a nice house and fast cars to not celebrate it with him?'

'yeah? well there's this thing. his friend told me he's going to propose.'

'excuse me what?' says rachel nearly choking on an olive.

'you're going to get married?' says bianca.

'no no no! i do not want to get married. if we stay together then yeah but only in like four years or something! i'm not even twenty two, i don't want that settle down lifestyle yet. a lot of footballers end up having like three kids before the age of thirty, i'm not having that.'

'so yeah his friend eric told me that he was planning to do this big surprise party and propose to me on this birthday. so eric's trying to talk dele out it, not sure how it's going.'

'well if you ever change your mind, i want to be a bridesmaid.'

'me too!'

'i'm not changing my mind! i've already had one pregnancy scare, i don't need more stress.'

'a pregnancy scare? damn zara, i know you said you guys did it a lot but you're at it like rabbits!' says bianca laughing.

'don't! i didn't even tell dele about it.'

'you didn't? why not?'

'just don't want to stress him out i guess.'.

'you need to tell him about stuff like this! you're not pregnant, just a scare so you can nothing to worry about. but besides that is he good? you know in bed?' says rachel.

'rachel!' says zara laughing, slightly embarrassed.

'come on you used to always tell us stuff like this. don't have to go into detail just yes or no.'

zara just sits there in silence for a moment while her friends wait in anticipation.

'absolutely fucking amazing.'

• •

dele stands in front of the front door of the house, nerves filling his body. dele rarely gets nervous, even before a match it's more excitement than nerves.

he takes a deep breath before knocking on the front door and a few moments later the door opens.

'hi misses bianchi, i'm dele alli, your daughter's boyfriend?' he says with a small smile. suddenly her face lights up.

'oh my goodness dele hello! come on in.' she says with a big grin letting him inside their house.

'is your husband here? i was wondering if i could talk to both of you.'

'yes claudio is just outside, i'll go and get him for you. would you like a drink of anything?'

'no thank you.'

dele looks around their living room, their house is very bright and homely. you can also notice how both of her parents have included both parts of their backgrounds into the decoration, the italian from claudio and the ethiopian from liya. dele notices a picture of zara and her parents, he picks up the picture frame and smiles.

'dele?' says a voice, dele puts the photo frame down and turns around.

'hi sir, it's nice to meet you.' says dele with a smile as he's shaking claudio's hand.

'it's really nice to meet you dele. what brings you here if you don't mind me asking?' asks claudio as they sit down opposite each other on the sofa.

'well i know zara didn't want us to meet until she was a hundred percent sure we were going to last but i felt like i needed to meet you. i came here as it's nearly zara's birthday despite her saying she didn't want to do anything. i think we coupe all do something special if we put our minds to it.'

'that sounds like a really good idea dele, what did you have in mind?' asks liya.

dele explains his idea to her parents as they both look at him nodding, intrigued by his idea.

'so do you think she'll like it?'

'i think so, it's simple but i think she'll love it.'

'yes i agree, if you need any help with decorating i'm more than happy to help!'

dele smiles at them both, considering this is the first time he's met them, they have made him feel extremely comfortable. he was expecting them to be rather very overprotective of zara or rather ask dele a million questions about what his intentions are.

'i just have one more thing to ask you about. it might seem crazy.'

'of course, what is it dele?'

'your blessing to ask zara to marry me,'