This Season

I

[3 months later]

At dawn, Vin sits in an empty room, quiet and lit by sunlight, large windows and pure nature ahead. There are crumpled pieces of paper that can be seen scattered all over the red carpet, and works by assorted artists hanging on the black wall. Trying to write an old-style letter to his mother, since her birthday is coming up, using his most profound words, the man fails miserably. And since every year he always does something great, he is frustrated with the results as he is in this unfinished attempt for days.

Having an idea, he gets up and goes into the next room to take his speaker to the place he is in, also bringing with him a trash can to throw away the failed drafts. A secret that no one but his curious neighbors knows, is that he often dances to Pop music when he is out of creativity. Joke or no joke, it is his greatest "feeling himself" moment.
Putting his playlist on shuffle, he starts dancing amusingly and totally awkwardly to a track named 'La La La' by Shakira and Carlinhos Brown, until his doorbell is rung and he stops the music automatically feigning naturalness.
Laughing a little at himself, he leaves the room locking it and hiding the key and walks to the kilometer-long door.

Vin paralyzes when he sees the figure in front of him, totally lost, without understanding a thing, he decides to speak:

"Lola Areum." He says, letting out the breath he didn't even realize he was holding. "Huh... Come in! Weren't you in Washington?"

"That's right! 'I was' in the past tense, kitten." She says it in her most cynical way, touching the tip of his nose, walking through the door, leaving her things lying around the previously organized room.

Galaretto is the kind of person who has a super difficult time cutting people out of his life. Lola, was someone in his life who he had been in a toxic relationship to the extreme, and since she was his only girlfriend, he took that whole period as something healthy, but it was only with his mates warning him that he began to notice and report her actions more closely. Since he could not find the words or the courage to end his long-time relationship, he decided to give her reasons to break up, which took a while. And even after the end, distancing herself is probably one of the last things on her mind.

Vincenzo then frowns and clears his throat before turning back and offering her a glass of water. Without even hesitating, she sits on a glass table and accepts.

"Lo, I like you very much, for real! But please do not sit on the glass table."

"Why you're being so fucking dramatic?" She complains before getting up.

'Pay for one of these with your own money and you'll understand the drama!' - he thinks, and instead of saying it, he just takes a deep sigh before he hands over the glass in her hand

Whiskers appears in the room bringing peace to the environment. The only thing the two of them like in common is none other than Vin's furry gray cat. He has just arrived from the PetShop along with one of the two maids in his house.

Acting like a nice polite cat that he is, Whiskers finds a way out of Lola's arms and goes into his master's.

And so they stayed for the rest of the afternoon, making small talk until she decided it be better if she didn't sleep at Vincenzo's house.

As she leaves, glancing at his watch, Vin realizes that it is almost time for his last meeting before the gaming pre-season. Leaving a glass filled with white wine and ice on the kitchen counter, he goes upstairs to his room to unpack his suit and then into the bathroom to shower and get ready.

After dressing and rinsing off his woody perfume with a super-strong aroma, Galaretto goes downstairs to his kitchen to find Adam waiting for him. Who entered the house using a key Vincenzo gave to use in cases of emergencies.

"Tonight the music seems so loud
I wish that we could lose this crowd
Maybe it's better this way
We'd hurt each other with the things we want to say
We could have been so good together
We could have lived this dance forever
But now who's gonna dance with me?
Please, stay
And I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a fool
I should've known better than to cheat a friend
And waste the chance that I'd been given
So I'm never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you, oh"

Playing the song on a boombox, he hums along with George Michael.

"NOW THAT YOU'RE GOOOONE NOW THAT YOU'RE GOOOONE WAS WHAT I DID SO WRONG, SO WROOOONG" Vin decides to join in "THAT YOU HAD TO LEAVE ME ALOOOONE?"

Trying to hold in their laugh - caused by fun - both of them end the song hugging each other from the side and pretending to cry. A friendship of quality and respect!

And now, laughing, the player takes an extra glass of wine for his manager, serving him with the liquid he was drinking alone before.

"Ready for the next season?"

"Yeah... I think I am! The team and I are training harder than ever, so I'm hopeful that this season we'll have a better performance. And now with Igor as the new goalkeeper, I'm pretty confident." Replies to Adam with a sideways smile.

"Everything will be alright, kid! Just remember not to depend your game on the play of others." He puts his dish in the sink and walks to the door. "Come on, you're already late."

"Yessir!"

For Vincenzo, his advices is the best. Having Adam as a father figure was certainly the best decision he have ever made.

A few minutes after leaving the house, driving one of his cars, the duo arrive at the place and get along in the meeting, solve all the pending issues and then leave for dinner with the team.
The group of players, upon entering the restaurant, see a scene that makes them burst out laughing. The team that lost to the Chicago BlackOwl at the finals of last season is sitting at a table in the place. And like fairly mature adults, they walk in to sit at the reserved table, walking past the opponents making jokes. Until Vin notices the presence of someone familiar, and even though he can't remember exactly who it is, he shuts up and sits down in one of the chairs.

"Quite mature, by the way." The CBO central hears someone from the other table whispering.

"I also thought it was quite mature of you to almost break Galaretto's jaw." He replies.

The whole table reacts to the speech with varying whispers of surprise, so the contrarian just stays silent to avoid further embarrassment and Vin makes a high-five with his mate.

And as one word leads to another, the man is still trying to figure out who is the angelic beautiful looking and familiar girl at the other table. But since she is accompanied by a basketball player who is known for getting into pointless fights over anything, he has to keep averting his gaze every five seconds, so as not to get into any discussion for the day. So he decides to ask Sheldon, the central:

"Hey, do you know the woman next to Kendrick at the other table?"

"Oh, Vin! Don't even go there, bro. You know: if they're with a NBA player, they're trouble."

"I-I know! I'm only asking because I think she's familiar, not a big deal." He hears his friend sigh and then taps him on the back of the head.

"It's Cecilia Ellis. Songwriter, friend of several famous singers, has an EP and is Kendrick's girlfriend." He talks trying to remember something else.

"Sounds like you did THE homework, huh?" He laughs.

"Nonsense! She's just friends with my girl... Oh, and she was at our last game for a friend of theirs, who is from that shitty team over there."

"Oh!"