You are a young aspiring designer, your father is one of the heads of Dior. You moved to Paris from Manchester for his job. You have everything you could ever wish for, and more but deep down you wanna work for something that is only yours and in th...
Summer in the South of France, let me paint the picture. There is a fresh breeze, poolside facing the ocean, a drink at hand, and so much to look forward to when summer is over.
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But for now, I'm enjoying my family's favourite holiday destination, Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, with my best friend, Béatrice. A place where most celebrities come to escape, enjoy the French Mediterranean scenery and relax. My father was friends with the family who owned the hotel, making this better.
"Shouldn't we get ready for dinner?" Béatrice asked with her French accent.
"Probably," I answered, "it's going to be formal, so we need to start."
"Ugh, why did I ask?" she asked, "this sun feels amazing."
"Because you are secretly excited to dine with celebrities," I responded as I gathered my things around the lounge chair.
"You know me so well," she admitted.
I laughed, stood up and said, "let's go."
"Fine," she said with an attitude.
Béatrice and I have been practically inseparable since high school. She was my first friend, and her fierce personality always got us into trouble and out of it as well. This was around the time I moved to Paris with my parents.
My parents and I moved to Paris for my dad's job; he got a fantastic opportunity to work with the fashion brand Christian Dior. There he worked as a Chief Marketing Officer; as a result of this, we were always invited to exclusive fashion events and always had the crème de la crème experiences.
We went to our room, showered and wore our stylish dressed with accessories and shoes to match.
*knock, knock*
"Coming!" I yelled as I rushed to open the door.
I opened it, and it was my mom, "are you girls ready?" she asked.
"Yes, mom," I answered, "B, let's go!"
"Right behind you," she said with her ears blocked from my yelling.
"Désolé (Sorry)," I giggled at her reaction.
We closed the door and made our way to the Louroc Restaurant in the hotel.
"Where's dad?" I asked her.
"He's already at the restaurant," she responded, "talking to his friend."
Not surprised, I said, "as always."
My father is a very social person, very good at networking and just making friends in general. My mom, on the other hand, is a bit shy. But around my dad, she was confident and the only person who could take the words out of his mouth. I'm like a healthy mixture of both but more to my mom and Béatrice like my dad.
When we arrived at the restaurant, my dad sat at a table with many other men and discussed his and my favourite thing, football.
I got closer to recognise some of the people there, including Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, Mauricio Pochettino, a team manager and many other influential people but the one I immediately ran to was a dear friend, Neymar.
"Ney!" I said as I rushed towards him.
"Y/n!" He said back as he stood up to hug me.
"How are you?" I asked as I hugged him.
"I'm good," he replied as we let go of each other, "how about you? Long time no see."
"I'm good," I answered, "and yes, I had been studying but just graduated university, now you'll see me everywhere."
He laughed and said, "finally, that's good to hear."
He then turned to greet B and my mother, then I asked, "When did you get here?"
"Today," he said, "I got back from Brazil and decided to come here before the season started."
"That's great," I told him, "does that mean we are going hard tonight?"
"Yes, it does," he replied, and B cheered.
"This is why I always love being with you, Ney," she mentioned, and we laughed.
"Before you 'go hard', can you please greet your father first," he said and emerged from behind us.
"Of course, dad," I said and hugged him.
"Be warned, Ney," he started to speak, "you're going to see a lot of us watching you in the stadium this season."
"I wouldn't expect anything less, sir," Ney replied.
Before being stuck in my studies constantly, my dad and I went to many football matches. The first time I watched PSG play in their stadium, my father set up a meet and greet with Neymar himself. From that moment, we hit it off as friends and hung out from time to time.
We had a lovely dinner and stayed up chatting with Neymar, Cindy Bruna, a model that is our friend and more people. Since there was no actual party, we created our own at the restaurant before getting kicked out because it was closing.
It's nights like these when I stop and wonder if this is actually my life and ask myself how the hell did I get myself here. But B always reminds me to live in the moment and not overthink, so I try not to be an overthinker and do so.
So that was our last night at the hotel. Paris, see you tomorrow.
