While this is not a long chapter at all, I will say this is the conclusion to the 'DiegoxClaire' arc of them going from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend, but… there's a TWIST! This chapter opens on a 'particular group of people' just finding out about this recent 'status' change as well. Hope you all enjoy it!

({No POV})

Just east of Madrid in the surrounding towns and suburbs, Diego's fan club was having a meeting in their headquarters.

Well, at least a 'headquarters' to a group of teenage girls ranging in ages from 15 to 18 with a mutual celebrity crush.

After their former club president Marta was detained by authorities for her latest stunt on Heather's show and just recently turned 18 to now make her eligible for more harsh repercussions for her actions like prison time as well as Heather's personal legal team making sure to do anything and everything possible to put her away for a VERY long time at this stage… the club went through a long awaited 'changing of the guard'.

But, considering none of the other girls ever really liked Marta very much and only realized after joining the club and seeing how 'unstable' Marta was with her celebrity crush/infatuation with Diego, the club was ALL too willing to elect a new club president and make things more of a 'safe space'.

So the newly appointed president, Laura, gave the fan club a new location to have their meetings.

Well, not so much 'meetings', but more just a space to hang out, look at pictures and videos of Diego, and talk about how hot he is.

It was just a room off of the cellar of Laura's family's home and restaurant… but, it was good enough for the rest of the club and gave them a place to have fun and hang out.

They were all just sitting around and talking until another one of their clubmates, Valentina, burst through the door to the room and immediately exclaimed (looking overtaken by shock and dread), "We are SO fucked!"

Immediately Laura almost seemed to go into 'Panic-Mode' as she assumed/shouted in paranoia, "MARTA BUSTED OUT OF JAIL?!"

Everyone else looked like they were also going to start freaking out and running away, clearly showing how afraid they were of their former club president, and scared shitless of how Marta would react if she found out how much they changed the club without her.

But, Valentina seemed to now become the 'levelheaded one' in the situation with her friends as she immediately cut in, "Qué? No, idiota. If Marta broke out of the clink then I would've just said we needed to flee the country. But, look, we have a different shit storm on our hands. Remember what Diego said on his madre's show? Well… it's true. As of this morning on a paparazzi website, Diego was seen holding hands yesterday on a sectioned-off part of a beach down south with some girl."

All the girls in the room immediately went into silent shock for a few moments before immediately starting to almost act like their lives were ending.

Well, until Laura interjected, looking skeptical (and also trying to be in denial over the fact her celebrity crush was possibly taken), "OYE, OYE! Hold up! Val, are you sure? Or is this going to be a 'repeat' of that time last year when we all saw that picture of him dancing with that 'drop dead gorgeous' girl at that party he was at out in the countryside until we found out that she was just his cousin [i.e. Natalie]?"

Everyone started to calm down, also now seeing Laura's point that maybe it wasn't true.

But, judging by the look on Valentina's face… they realized that she wasn't kidding. Valentina even confirmed it as she shook her head and confirmed, "Guys, this is for real. A member of the paparazzi managed to get a long distance shot and zoomed in on the photo to get around Diego's dad using his political security to close down the area surrounding the beach, and it was true. Diego was confirmed to be seen walking on the shore, holding hands, and looking pretty close with a girl on the beach. From what I read on the site, I guess she's the daughter of some 'family friend' of theirs from Canada or something? And…"

But, Laura cut her off as she rolled her eyes and said, "Canada? Ha! What the hell is even in Canada anyway? What? Does she live in a log cabin chopping down trees with her lumberjack parents or something?"

Everyone laughed at her 'stereotyping joke' in an effort to maintain their denial as another club member added, "Yeah! I'm with Laura. I know Diego's mom is from there, but what? Big deal? She's probably just some stupid, backwoods whatever. I'll give it a couple weeks before Diego's single again."

Everyone else was laughing and making numerous other side comments, not seeming at all worried about the situation now.

But, Valentina was looking frustrated that her 'in-denial friends' weren't listening to her as she broke in, "GUYS! Are you not listening to me right now?! So just… LISTEN! Or better than that, you gotta see why we're FUCKED right now!"

They all just looked at her confused until Valentina rolled her eyes and sighed in absolute annoyance with her friends as she linked her phone to a projector they found in a supply closet below the restaurant that Laura's parents would set up in the restaurant to show games during the world cup seasons to bring in more customers.

Once her phone was linked to the projector, Valentina was determined to show her club members why they had 'reason' to be worried over Diego's new possible 'relationship status' and she found the picture and put it up on the blank white wall in the room.

At first the rest of the girls seemed playfully skeptical about the whole situation… until all their eyes went wide at what and more importantly who they saw on the screen.

Diego was walking on the beach in a pair of swim trunks and a casual steel gray button down shirt unbuttoned to show he was shirtless underneath. And under normal circumstances, would've just put them into a talking and swooning frenzy over him.

But, then they looked at who Diego was talking to with a practically a beaming and genuine smile on his face as he held their hand.

In the picture with him was a tall girl the same age as him with a lean yet athletic build in a cute strapless beach dress over her two piece bathing suit. Her long and straight dishwater blonde hair was down for the most part but held back slightly at the top with a hair tie to keep her hair from flying in her face from the breeze coming off the Balearic Sea in the Mediterranean.

And despite wearing sunglasses to shield her eyes from the bright mid-day sun… the fan club didn't need to see anymore to realize Valentina's point of 'being worried'.

While they had no idea who Claire was or even knew her name (and while Claire does not fully think this of herself personally), Diego's fan club suddenly became almost very insecure of themselves when they realized Claire was a pretty attractive young woman and (in their opinions) definitely 'looks-wise' was in Diego's 'league'... much to their annoyance at admitting it to themselves.

Some of the younger and newer girls in the club immediately became almost fascinated by Claire and immediately took to the internet to try and find out 'who she was', mainly that they at first assumed she was probably some kind of 'Canadian Teen Model' with how 'well-dressed, tall, and pretty' they thought she was.

Meanwhile the older members were still looking at the picture of Diego with this 'Mystery Girl' with a sense of dread, envy, and malice that seemed to stem from one specific feeling overall.

Jealousy.

Mainly that they even knew (and finally understood) what Valentina meant by 'they were fucked'.

If the look in Diego's eyes and smile and how genuinely 'happy' he seemed with this girl and the 'Mystery Girl' looking at him the same way… even they had to admit that Diego was nowhere near seeming anywhere 'bored with her' any time soon.

Finally, Laura almost had this look of 'defeat' about her, but managed to cover it up with jealousy as she said to herself, "Ay… carajo."

2 days later

Heather got back to the house after a quick meeting with a new sponsor and got into her and Alejandro's bedroom to change into something more 'sensible' for an afternoon at home.

She was about to do just that when she saw Alejandro looking out the balcony off their master bedroom and leaning on the banister.

With the Watson's in visiting and trying to complete a lot of work ahead of time, Alejandro decided to take some time away from his Prime Minister Duties for a few days and just have his staff contact him if anything emergency-related came up. Heather quirked up an eyebrow as she walked toward him to see what he was doing.

Although the 'clicking' of her heels gave her away as Alejandro looked back and smirked slightly as he greeted smoothly, "Hola mi amor, I'm just admiring part of my 'life's work' from here if you care to join me?"

Alejandro looked back down as his smirk somehow became wider and almost proud.

Heather continued to look confused about what he was talking about (considering he was just looking at the same garden that's always been behind their residence and who they pay gardeners to look after) and was about to make a remark about it until she looked down.

Heather's expression settled out once she saw 'the obvious' below that explained everything. With 'the obvious' being Diego and Claire walking arm and arm and talking and smiling as they walked through the garden together.

"Um… your 'Life's work'?" Heather questioned in confusion.

Alejandro looked back over at Heather as he elaborated, "I'm only speaking as a 'proud padre' seeing his son using what I have taught him. Now I am simply just 'enjoying the result'. Not to mention… I was starting to wonder when this was going to happen."

Alejandro looked back at Diego proudly… and also on some level also was satisfied seeing his son finally 'get the girl'.

It was no secret that Alejandro, Heather, Shane, and Aga kind of always suspected there was 'something more' going on between Diego and Claire, particularly for the past couple years.

Despite Diego thinking his crush on Claire was just a 'personal secret' between he and Natalie, Alejandro and Heather in particular completely saw through him as an 'obvious and easy to read' teenager… and this was further proven since it seemed the one one ignorant to the situation was Claire until the past couple months.

So the fact that the two now seemed to 'make it official' this past week and have seemed even more inseparable than before… neither set of parents seemed remotely surprised.

Heather scoffed slightly and rolled her eyes as she further expressed this opinion, "Took them long enough honestly. Especially after Diego thought he was being so 'subtle' on my show when he hosted with me. Even I was close to just asking if he was going to do anything already?"

Alejandro just chuckled and put a hand over Heather's on the railing of the balcony as he said, "Come now, Heather. It's done now. Just sit back and enjoy it."

After a few moments Heather smirked before saying, "I will… once I get changed into something more 'afternoon appropriate'. Besides, I'm just glad he's dating someone who isn't crazy."

Heather then proceeded to strut off to their main walk-in closet to change.

Alejandro gave Heather a slight look as she walked off before his expression slowly morphed into a slight smile, knowing full-well that despite how she said things just now, she did approve of Diego dating Claire (and not just because of her 'sanity').

Eventually he looked back down and continued to proudly look on at Diego and Claire walking around the back garden together.

So, while not the longest chapter, I do hope you enjoyed this little look into kind wrapping up the 'Diego and Claire getting together' arc. Now… is when things REALLY start to go through to our 'falling action' and 'conclusion' of the story. Plus, I hope you enjoyed the little 'bonus' I included from Diego's fan club. Which honestly despite being teenage fangirls that are shallow, idol-worship, and talk crap… they are kind of harmless in the grand scheme of things (ESPECIALLY compared to extreme fans like Marta who take their love of celebrities WAY too far and even make someone like Sierra look 'tame' at times). But, anyway, thank you so much for reading and stay tuned to find out what happens in these last couple chapters! Constructive feedback is VERY much appreciated and take care of yourselves and be kind to those around you as always. :)

Stay classy everyone!

Dexter1995