Dare me - PABLO GAVI

Chapter 5

Author note: Hey yall sorry for the delay.
I've had a really weird few days. I went to a show with a friend, which was super cool. And I came home and I felt weird. Next day 39.5 degrees fever. Day after 40 degrees fever. I could barely get out of bed let alone write a story. So that's why this chapter is a bit later. Let's dive back into the story quickly. Xoxo E.

Okay where ended chapter 4, dear reader? Oh yes, we had flown to Barcelona where we were met by part of the team. And yes, then I had a super awkward first meeting with football player Gavi.

We collected our luggage and got into the taxis hailed by the rest of the group. It was 4 taxis in total, 3 people per taxi.
The groups were as follows:
Taxi 1: Me, Emma Slüss, Nora and Alonso
Taxi 2: Ansu, de Jong and Depay
Taxi 3: Pablo Gavi, Clea
Pedri Taxi 4: Peña and Raphinha

Nora sat on my lap as I looked out the window. "Do you speak Spanish, Emma?" It was Alonso who spoke to me. "I used to follow Spanish in school and now on Duolingo, so un poco." He nods, it was a warming nod, a nod with which he wanted to say: everything will be fine, everything will fall into place.

The taxi driver was young, he was quite nice. "What do you think of Spain so far?" He looked back before changing lanes. I replied to him as I was pressed against the side of the car. "It's all still a bit overwhelming, if I have to admit it. I didn't expect the warm welcome at the airport at all, so that took me by surprise. I wasn't mentally ready for that yet." "Oh didn't you like it?" Alonso sounded a bit disappointed. "No no, it was very sweet, but I was nervous about the first meeting so I planned to write a kind of pro text, in my head, in the taxi." "A pro text? I've never heard of that before" he had to laugh. "It's a kind of dialogue where you predict what people will say so that you can agree or disagree in a conversation. I used to always do this when I had to present or when I was going to meet someone new, so that I could always say something and it didn't get awkward."

It was quiet for the rest of the ride. It wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, I was just tired. I felt the taxi making some turns but I didn't see much of Barçalona. There was still a lot planned today so a little nap in the taxi might be good. The 30 minutes we drove on the road were the quietest minutes of my day. Noor was also tired so she was also sleeping.

Soon when we arrive at the Barça sports fields I wanted to take Nora to her room. You might think: huh why do they have rooms near their sports fields?
They have built a mini apartment complex next to them, if someone ever gets sick or they have day after day footballtraining, they can possibly sleep there.

I requested two rooms. Nora is 5 as you know. From that age you actually want to try to let your child, or in my case niece, sleep alone as much as possible. So I requested two rooms. Preferably opposite or next to each other so that if something happens I'm nearby, and don't have to sprint all the way down the hall.

According to Xavi there were 3 floors:

The ground floor with a small restaurant, a large sofa with a TV, a few tables and probably also a toilet.

And floor 1,2 where the sleeping areas.

The top floor, called floor 3, was apparently one large laundry room. Good to know that Clea can also do laundry here.

Before Xavi showed us the ground floor he introduced himself, otherwise it would be a bit strange of course. He was the coach of the players and he had a good relationship with Mr. Síos.

Do you remember who Mr. Síos is, dear reader? He was the man who was also in the ZOOM meeting. The 'perfect on time' man.

According to Xavi I would probably never see him in real life only if a new player came along. "Or if someone dies" Xavi found his own joke very funny. Which is good for him, then at least someone is laughing.

Clea who finally got out of the taxi walked in with the biggest grin. She must have had a good time with Pedri and Gavi. Not that I care, I'm not here for the boys.

"Clea this is Xavi, the coach of the boys" she smiled kindly, he gave her a box, which I felt was a bit strange, and then gave me a map and a training schedule. Clea took Noor over so I could take a look at the papers.

"So tomorrow morning at half past eight they will be here on that football field?" I pointed to the first best green spot I saw, assuming it was a football field. "Almost, the little numbers next to campo de fútbol indicate which field we are on. And if you turn the map around." He waited until he saw the back of the card. "Then we have a map of all sports accommodations that we use as FC Barça. So tomorrow we will be here." He pointed to a space in the far right corner of the map.

That will be a fun quest tomorrow since every blade of grass looks alike, and the football fields are all connected and only separated by an unstable fence that you just can't jump over.

"You sleep in room 428. We don't have a room for your friend here. Room 28 is the last. We do have hospitable players who don't mind if there is a chick next to them, but you are not allowed to have sex here." I felt as if a nervous father was talking to his daughter about sex education, when she knew only too well how everything worked and felt.
It was that uncomfortable, it was probably even more uncomfortable for Clea because Xavi stared at her without even blinking.

Not that his 'unblinking eyelids' would stop her from having sex, I wouldn't be surprised if she rented a hotel room. "Ehm Xavi, I had requested two rooms. You even emailed that that was oke." I think he was getting a little nervous, as he was holding the key to room 4 just a little too tight. "Oh yes, that has become my room now." He laughed a little awkwardly, which I would have done if I had screwed  someone over at the last minute.

"Oh okay, I'll take care of that." I was quite surprised by this new spontaneous event.

Well there went my plan to let Nora sleep alone.

He put the key in my hand and pointed us in the right direction.