‘Sleeping with a married woman’

In my years of travelling, I’ve met many different kinds of people. Nice, weird, and rude ones!
Not even to start about attitudes from soccer wives!
But there is one in particular that I never thought I would ever meet… ‘The Croatian’.

After our second year in Texas a lot of new teammates with their wives/girlfriends/ and flings joined the club.

Every soccer wife knows the feeling of ‘being the new one’.
Because I know how that is, I invited her to my house when the guys had an away game.
They are gone for 3 days and sometimes even more, so alone is so alone I thought.
Not expecting she would take my offer, she came and stayed with me for the weekend.
As Europeans being in the U.S. it gave us an instant bond for some strange reason…

When she arrived to my house we had a connection right away. We had so much fun and she was instantly ‘best friend’ material.
But… if people stay over, I think it’s a very good idea to ask beforehand if they have any weird habits! With her staying over I had the creepiest first night ever…
Before we went to bed we made a “pillow bunker” between us, but really… It wasn’t enough, even in our California king-size bed.

In the middle of the night I felt a hand “petting” my hair and seconds later a leg over my legs…
My eyes were wide open and I only could say without sound ‘O MY GOD, WHAT THE F#*’!
I didn’t know whether to laugh or to be scared! So I secretly maneuvered my way out of that position like a pro and “rolled” her back at her side… I put more pillows between us and the only thing I could think of was how I would explain this to my husband the next morning.
Of course his imagination would be a nicer one…
I couldn’t sleep anymore after the petting and leg incident so I slept the rest of the night with one eye open.

The next morning I explained to her what happened and she was like “oh I do that all the time” with my husband. Sorry my friend.

Yeah… ok?

So the next night, we made sure the “pillow bunker” was set up better, but again she forgot to mention another unique habit!
Again in the middle of the night I felt eyes staring at me from behind… I woke up and turn around to find one of the scariest things ever! ‘The Croatian’ was sitting up and staring at me… I ask her if she was ok, but no response! I asked again… but she just continued to stare at me! It was like a scene from a horror movie, trust me.
She turns around, goes right back to sleep.
I went to the living room to get a bottle of water, when I came back she started talking to me in her own language. Any idea how that sounds? I heard her talk to her husband one time and it always seemed as if they were angry at each other. But when I asked she would say; ‘No I just told him I loved him’…

Uh… ok?
(I wonder what other people think of our language when we talk Dutch together, because that East European language sounds like they are always mad).

So when ‘the Croatian’ talked to me in the middle of the night… I just talked back in Dutch and we had a conversation for a couple of minutes.
The next morning I explained again what happened and again she was like “Oh sorry, yes I do that too”

Seriously!!! You couldn’t give me the heads up?

For months it went like this, but every time I was more prepared and knew how to handle it.
Last year they left the USA, but she is still one of my closest friends. We talk to each other almost every day and we think back to our good times and of course that first weekend together. The foundation of a good friendship!

She is one crazy person in the night, but she is the best friend in the day that anyone could wish for.