Fever Dream ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 80

2018

When Neymar and I got ready, I drove us to Parc Des Princes for the second to last match of the men's team. Neymar was ordered to still use his crutches, which he still had a lot of trouble with.

"Your letter..." he said, his mind still on the site and my letters to him. "Oh Livvie, if I had read it sooner..."

"I too wonder how things would have been." I told him. "Every day I wondered. Maybe I'd have gotten a place at Barca's women's team. Or maybe I'd have found a research position I liked. Maybe we'd be married. But maybe none of these things would have happened. Maybe we wouldn't have managed to solve anything. There are too many maybes Ney. But now? Now, there are only certainties. And the number one certainty is that we won't repeat the same mistakes. And somehow, I think that lands us on steadier footing, even if it means it took us two years of heartbreak to get here."

Neymar nodded, squeezing my thigh with his hand. "You're right. It doesn't do to dwell on the past and what ifs. Not when right now is perfect."

"Perfect except the lawsuit." I reminded him. Just before we left, we both received emails with the official lawsuit. While Neymar and David were not named in it, I, as a CEO, was. So, it was now official, PSG was suing me.

"I've been sued in the past." Neymar told me. "It's not as terrifying as it sounds. It's basically all handled outside of court."

"But have you seen the damages they ask? If the ruling goes in their favor, our company doesn't have the money to pay it. We'd need to declare bankruptcy."

"I don't think there will be much of a company Liv, not if PSG wins. No one would ever want to buy 3P again." Neymar said, trying to deliver the bad news as softly as possible. "But like I said, there is no point in thinking of the what ifs. We have to wait for the forensic report first. If that clears us, then that will be the end of that."

When we reached my apartment, Peter was already waiting outside for us and he got in quickly. We reached Parc Des Princes which was full of people and cars, blocking at least a two-block perimeter. We drove to the underground parking and I was glad that Neymar thought to suggest we take one of his cars and not my Simca which was easily recognizable.

"Are you still going to run simulations?" Neymar asked Peter when we reached Neymar's box.

"Absolutely. It would be very useful to see what 3P would predict for today. I will record it all and make it available to the lawyers." Peter told him, as he got himself a coke from the minifridge in Neymar's box.

"There is still no progress on figuring out what the hell happened on the last game, is there?" Neymar asked.

"No." I told him. "It's tricky to try to recreate an error that you really have no idea how it came to be."

"What we've tried so far, essentially screwing up with parts of the code on purpose and misusing the software, it didn't bring us anywhere close to what seemingly happened that day." Peter added as we all headed outside to the stands.

Peter had proposed we invite Angelique and Morena, our 3P programmers to the game and it had been a huge oversight on my part that I hadn't invited them sooner. When I saw them on the stands, he and I went to greet them. Morena who was also Brazilian was super excited to be working for a company where Neymar Jr and David Luiz were investors and was very happy to watch the game from the VIP stands.

When we returned to our seats, Belle was also there with the kids and I joined her, while Peter sat next to Neymar on the row below us. A few minutes later both rows were crowded by my teammates.

"How was David today?" I asked Clara who came and sat next to me. With me spending almost all my time at Neymar's house and David at Clara's, Peter had our apartment to himself, which he seemed to enjoy very much but it also meant that David and I didn't do any of our pre-game rituals anymore.