After eating what the Michelin Star Chef has cooked for the event, I felt two arms wrapping around my shoulders. I instantly smiled, planting a kiss on the arm accessible to me. In return, Kylian planted a kiss on my head.
'No girl tagging along?' I asked turning my body towards him.
'Unless it's you I don't want it.' he smiled.
He went around and said hello to everyone else at the table.
'I can't believe they didn't let you sit with us.' Luca smiled.
'I'm actually sitting with Pedri and Gavi.' he winked.
'You are?' my eyes grew wide.
'Yep.' Kylian nodded his head. 'I'm going to have the best time of my life.' he said and jogged towards his table.
'Ustedes tres son como niños pequeños.' (You three are like little kids.) Hiba chuckled.
'Dudo que nos llevemos bien de otra manera.' (I doubt we'll be getting along otherwise.) I smiled.
***
At around 9:15pm, a man got up on stage and started speaking.
There were screens that translated what he said behind him in multiple different languages. As soon as the man's speech was finished, who was more of an introduction to the World Cup, big writing appeared on the screen.
AND NOW WITH A FEW WORDS TO SAY,
IRINA DAVIES
I knew this was coming but I didn't know they went this out with it. A small introduction would've been more than enough.
Everyone turned their heads around to where I was sitting, some confused, some surprised, some cheering and some clapping.
'You got this.' Luca whispered to me as soon as I stood up.
The lights became dimmer, and a small video started playing. All my 'bloopers' from PSG and Barcelona were all shown while I was walking up to the stage.
Where the hell did they get these videos from?
The video finished as soon as I reached the bottom of the stage and the applause only subsided once I reached the top.
Nervousness and excitement started taking over my body, making me take a deep breath and face the cheering crowd, who would throw a few whistles here and then.
'Good evening.' I smiled, making everyone cheer again. 'Thank you all so much for being here tonight and thank you to those who tuned in from home to watch this event live.' my eyes were scanning the room. 'Thank you FIFA for giving me the opportunity to be here and watch history in the making...'
Every time I would finish my sentence, people would start cheering and applauding again.
'Good luck to you all and I'm so excited to see you all play and make yourselves proud, your families, friends, teams and countries.' I smiled.
My speech lasted only 3 minutes, but there were more applause than when I was introduced. On the way back to my seat, some of the boys were whistling, making my cheeks heat up.
'Eras asombrosa!' (You were amazing.) Antonela smiled broadly as soon I returned to our table.
'Fue bastante intimidante.' (It was quite intimidating.) I smiled, shaking off all the nerves.
***
Everyone returned to talking and mingling, Kylian approaching me and Luca.
'I didn't know you were going up on that stage.' Kylian smiled.
'It was more last minute.' I shrugged my shoulders smiling.
'Everyone was so excited when you got up there.' Luca winked.
'Oh, please.' I shook my head. 'You know how intimidating is to have a bunch of football players cheering and whistling for you?'
'No, but I guess you can tell us.' Kylian and Luca chuckled.
The rest of the night consisted of mingling and chatting with everyone at the event and taking pictures. By 11:45 pm, I started getting exhausted, just like the rest. Some of the people already left and some were trickling out.
'I'm going to go change and I'll come to you after.' I told Pedri, giving him a kiss.
'Okay.' he smiled widely.
I said my goodbyes to the rest of the people and headed towards the elevator with Luca. I dropped Luca off at his floor and then pressed the button to go back to my room.
'Hey! Wait! Hold it open!' someone said as soon as the elevator doors were starting to close.
