Fever Dream ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 79

2018

Over the next few days, the speech Neymar gave to us girls blew up. It was shared and replayed across social media so much and it was even already nominated by an award show as one of the best sportsmanship moments of the year, bringing together men's and women's football. I was beyond proud of him.

The speech and my goal seemed to have shifted the tide in our favor, with more and more people online defending us and saying there is no way we would willingly sabotage a club we loved so much. Still many didn't and they were vocal about it, but this overwhelmingly positive response, made us make up our mind and decide to go to the next PSG game that was taking place in Parc Des Princes to cheer on everyone.

The game wouldn't be for another few hours, so we had the morning to ourselves, Neymar and I. We were at his house which was empty, since his dad had left for something business related, early in the morning.

"I gotta ask." I said to Neymar.

"Uh oh." Neymar teased me.

"I was wondering if you've told anyone back home about us getting back together."

"Oh, that. I haven't, mostly because I haven't had the time. We've been together 24/7, not that I'm complaining."

"So, you will? Tell your mom, I mean."

"So anyone back home is really my mom." He said, chuckling. "I will. But Liv, it's never again going to be like before. I promise you. First of all, if my mom has a problem with us, it's her problem. And if she wants me in her life, she's going to have to deal with it and get on board."

"I'm not the girl I was back then either." I told him. "My Portuguese is better and so is my boldness. I am not gonna sit and take it."

"As you should." Neymar said, rubbing my back with his hand. "But for what it's worth, I think she has regretted what she did back then. Because she saw how tough the past two years were for me, without you. She hasn't admitted that she was wrong to meddle or anything, but she knows, I think."

I nodded, but I had the belief that saying sorry, was one of the most powerful things you could do. We all need to own up to our mistakes.

"Well, she did unblock me on Instagram after your birthday party." Neymar looked at me surprised, probably unaware she had blocked me in the first place. "And I've told Michael about us. He was really happy. And my parents too. They were really overcome with all you did for us in Switzerland. My mom told me afterwards, that you loved me and it showed in all you did."

"Of course, I loved you. I never stopped." He said, making eye contact with me, something that never seized to take my breath away.

"Gosh, don't you think we've been silly? Wasting so much time?"

"Maybe. But now we know better and we won't make the same mistakes again. I'm not gonna take you for granted, not like I did when you came to Barcelona."

"And I'm going to be more open with you. I still don't know what drove me to hide things like that. I don't know why I was so embarrassed."

"I should have realized sooner that this was a bigger issue than I thought. That we didn't see it the same way. When I gave you my credit card, when you first came to Barcelona, I thought that was that. That it was our money now, both of ours. I truly didn't think of it again, I thought you were using the card for anything you needed. Only after you left I saw it had only been used once."

"Yeah, for dinner with Toly. Mine was declined and he offered to pay. But I wasn't going to let him so..." I said, the last sentence trailing off. "Maybe I shouldn't have been so absolute, about money. It was just that the discrepancy was so huge. I felt like I had nothing to contribute."