La Reina | The Story of Melanie Kavitz

dinner

"Hey!"

When I got to the restaurant, as soon as I said my name and showed my identification to the front desk, I was whisked all the way to the back of the restaurant. Leo was already there waiting in a private booth, and I must say, seeing him looking rather dashing in his casual clothing made me feel incredibly overdressed. I wasn't much of a dress girl, but I had thrown in a few of them while packing to come back from visiting my parents - almost as if I thought I would need them.

"Hey - you look incredible!" Leo stood from his chair to greet me with a kiss on the cheek. It took a lot of willpower to not melt into a puddle then and there.

"Thanks! It's good to see you again," I said while sitting down on the chair he kindly had pulled out for me. "I was wondering when we'd actually end up seeing each other while you were here."

"I just didn't want to get in the way of your mental state during the tournament," Leo candidly admitted while returning to his seat.

"Oh, come on. You're never in the way of anything."

This made Leo smile, which inadvertently made my stomach do backflips. This was my friend - but he was also still Leo Messi.

"The boys were giving me a hard time after they found out I was seeing you tonight - they want to see you as soon as possible too."

"We're going to figure that out soon because I want to see them just as much."

They weren't my teammates - hell, I barely knew them, but meeting them back in May resonated deeply with me - as if I had already known them for so much longer. And having them come out to watch our team play when they could've been enjoying their time off doing anything else... that was an honour I still didn't know how to adequately describe.

"Please tell me your teammates weren't asking you too many questions about you going out for dinner." The apologetic look in Leo's eyes as he said that almost made me want to laugh out loud.

"Fortunately, most of them decided to pass out once we finally got back to our hotel rooms." We did have a long day, and what better way was there to celebrate a win than to snuggle into bed as early as possible and call it a day?

The hours began to melt away after our initial set of dialogue. The nerves within me shivered away, and knowing just how introverted Leo was in real life, he looked to be so much more comfortable as the night went along.

We talked about our families and what they meant to us. Even though I knew some of his life from being a fan, it was wonderful to get to hear some stories of his childhood directly from him. He told me about his time with Newell's, I told him how my father was the one who became my first coach, and I learned how to work with my feet by copying certain movements from the pros I saw on television.

"I remember being so flabbergasted when I saw Zidane do 'The Roulette' in one of his games back in the day, and all I could think of was how in God's name was I going to even try to do that," I chuckled while digging into my enchiladas.

"I felt the same way about Diego's wonder goal during the '86 World Cup."

I knew exactly what he was talking about - who wouldn't? The first goal may have technically been an illegal goal, but it almost didn't matter because of just how spectacular the second goal had been. A long-distance dribble shoving past every defender, taking on the entire team on your own, and then hammering the goal in the back of the net - it had been a thing of beauty. Even though I wasn't alive to witness it in real-time, the videos of the goal told the story, and they told it well.

Fortunately, I was able to see a version of it from a player just as capable.

"Well, it should be safe to say not anymore, right?"