How hard can it be to fall in love with a football player when you're afraid of footballs...?
---
Helping out her best friend by playing the lead in that music video project for university had seemed like an easy enough feat for art student Lorelai...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
»I can't believe you made me wear a dress for this.«
For the umpteenth time that late afternoon, Lorelai took a scrutinizing look down her body. Instead of her usual pants and shirt, a — in Jane's words »cute« — dress was gracing her features. The dress was simple, Lorelai was happy to acknowledge. And yellow (her favourite colour). A bright, sunny sort of yellow. She had to admit that Jane was right; it was cute.
Nevertheless, it was not the kind of dress Lorelai would have picked out for a casual meeting with the players from FC Barcelona. But Jane had fallen in love with it as soon as she had seen it in Lorelai's wardrobe. Yes, the figurative shopping had taken place, not a mere hour ago. Unfortunately, due to Lorelai's therapy work with her dogs on Mondays, they hadn't had too much time getting ready — otherwise Lorelai sure would have been able to talk Jane out of the dress-thing. But Jane could be persistent. And pestering. So the best way to get out of arguments with her when she was in the mood was to just relent to her wishes.
»I can't believe you had that dress all this time and not worn it once!« Jane countered, eyes focused on the busy Barcelona traffic ahead.
Jane wore a similar dress, only it was green, which was her absolute favourite colour. Unlike Lorelai, the Irish girl loved wearing dresses and playing dress-up every once in a while.
The two girls were on their way (by Diego's car) to the Joan Gamper training grounds, where Dani had told Jane to meet this Monday at four o'clock in the afternoon. Lorelai felt giddy and nervous. The production company would publish the video in a short while. How did people handle this sort of stuff anyways? When you were at the mercy of the media, the fans, whoever cared to watch and criticize your work?
»There's a reason for that,« Lorelai replied. »I don't like dresses too much, if you haven't noticed this in the last three years of knowing me.«
»You look gorgeous! Now stop fiddling with the edges. It's not too short!«
Lorelai scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. She distracted herself by looking outside the passenger seat window, barely noticing the buildings rushing by. A few minutes later, Diego's fancy navigation system announced to »take the second exit at the upcoming traffic roundabout, then, you have reached your destination«. Finally, Lorelai thought, fidgeting in her seat.
»Here we are,« Jane declared as she pulled the pickup truck into an empty parking lot and killed the engine.
They got out of the car and freed Khan and Dante from the load area of the truck. Jane had called Dani to see if it was okay to bring the dogs; since Diego was busy with work Lorelai just couldn't bear the thought of having them stuck alone in the apartment, even for a short while.
After Lorelai put them on the leash, they walked the short distance to what they assumed to be the entrance. She surveyed the block in front of them: a large tower-like structure extended high over a lower but wider building; a huge emblem with the letters FCB was painted on the wall: »FCBarcelona, CiutatEsportiva, Joan Gamper« was written in huge letters next to it. Whoever Joan Gamper was.
