Victoria and Pablo meet by chance when she has to interview him after the Nations League final 2023.
He's immediately infatuated by her, but due to a few years age difference, she only sees him as a younger friend.
Will he make it out of the friendz...
At 11.05 sharp, my plane landed in Rotterdam on a warm Sunday. As I only had hand luggage, I was quick to make my way outside and take an Uber to my hotel. There, I revised all the notes that I had prepared yesterday. I had spent all day memorising names and shirt numbers and reviewing all the team's past game scores, goals and their journey throughout the Nations League.
At four in the afternoon, I made my way downstairs to the lobby to slowly get going. Many other journalists were staying at this hotel, but I knew no one as I wasn't a sports journalist. "Eh - wait! Are you Hernandez?" a guy in his fourties asked. "Who are you?" I replied without answering his questions as my defensive mechanisms kicked in. "Sorry, Felipe González, I'm the head of sports at TVE" he introduced himself and stretched out his hand, which I shook. "Hernandez, how do you do?" I greeted him. "Listen, thanks so much for filling in, Juan was very generous" he blabbered and searched his backpack for something. "Erm... filling in? I'm just reporting for Vanguardia" I said confusedly. "Oh, didn't he send you an e-mail? Our interviewer got food poisoning and won't be able to work today, so I called him since we're good friends and I asked him who he was sending and if we could borrow her and apparently we got... you" he said and looked at me from head to toe. I knew exactly why he was squaring me like that. They had Veronica Vallés as their journalist - big boobs, filled lips, always dressed in very very figure-hugging dresses that left little to imagination — and now they got me, dressed in a short flowy summery flower skirt. "Can't you just do the interviews?" I asked him. "Darling, the people watching want to see a pretty girl, not a middle-aged man" he replied and shook his head. "Here are Veronica's notes, you can ride with us, let's go."
While we were in the Uber to the stadium I saw that I had indeed gotten an e-mail from the editor informing me about my extra job. Fuck, what else did he want from me - hopefully I wasn't getting a call from him that I had to commentate the whole game by the time we arrived. As soon as we arrived, there was lots of stuff to do: set up the cameras, find our place in the media panel and then the cameramen started to take trial shots of me, to change their various settings and get the best shot of me. I was mostly clueless and followed their directions while still trying to take notes for my newspaper article.
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📍 Stadion De Kuip Rotterdam vicky.hernandez For those who want to see me embarrass myself (and a bit of good football) tune into TVE at 20:45.
ireneegc Boss Lady!! 😎😎😎 kike_hrnndz WHAT chiara2203 omg will you meet Pedri 🤤🤤🤤 Replying to chiara2203: vicky.hernandez No, Chiara, he's injured...
At 19:45 the broadcast started and I read the text from the autocue, in which I introduced myself shortly and then talked about general infos on the game. The rest was thankfully done by the expert commentators back at the studio in Madrid and I could lean back a few minutes to take notes for my real job. I had to admit, I was quite excited about the game - the stadium was full and the fans were producing a great atmosphere.
The first half started and we had two great chances by Ruiz and Gavi, which didn't turn into goals unfortunately though. The Croatians were also quite good, but they also missed their chances, and so we went into half-time with a 0-0 score. During the break, I had to do a short segment, but the main job was done again back at the studio. The second half was filled with even more chances by both teams, but we were a tad bit better. Again, it ended goalless and they were going to extra-time. I was a bit annoyed because that meant that my job was dragging out even longer and I just wasn't made for standing in front of a camera.
Also extra-time remained goalless and we were headed to penalties. Croatia started and the first six went all into the net, until our goalkeeper blocked the shot by Majer. The Spanish fans erupted in cheers and even I found myself crossing my fingers. It continued well, but unfortunately Laporte's penalty hit the bar, making the score even again. But if Croatia missed the next one and we could get our next one in, we could be champions. I held my breath when Petkovic ran towards the ball and threw my hands in the air when Simon blocked it again. Now we were all standing nervously with our fingers crossed and Carvajal delivered when he chipped the ball right into the net.
The whole stadium roared and our players stormed onto the field to celebrate. Even I hugged the TVE guys in ecstasy even though I didn't know them at all, but I guess we were all high from that winning feeling.
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📍 Stadion De Kuip Rotterdam vicky.hernandez CAMPEONES ⚽️👏🏼🥳❤️
kike_hrnndz Still can't believe you're there clairecollins Didn't know you did sports!! Thought you had gone into politics Replying to clairecollins: vicky.hernandez I did! This is just the result of a strange series of events 😂
The end of the match also meant that I had to get ready to interview the players and I looked at the list that Mr Gonzalez had given me with the names of the players I had to interview. Simón, the goalkeeper obviously, Laporte, Rodri, Carvajal and Gavi. We went downstairs to the media panel and waited for the players to appear for their media duties. After waiting for more than half an hour, Simón finally appeared and got ready for being interviewed by me.
I kept my focus on questions mostly about the penalties and his two fantastic saves. When our time was up and I thanked him for the interview, I saw Gonzalez giving me a thumbs up. Then it was Laporte's turn and I inevitably had to ask him about his feelings on his missed penalty. I think that pissed him off a bit, but it was a question the viewers definitely wanted to have an answer to. He walked away from the interview without saying goodbye when we were done. Rude. I tried to stay composed as Rodri was up next: he was one of the squad's superstars, having just scored the winning goal of the Champions League. I asked him how he was feeling after winning the treble at home in England, now the Nations League and after the summer break he would also have a chance to win the Super Cup. He was so friendly and down to earth that my mood soared up again after Laporte'a bitterness. Carvajal was already waiting in line for his interview and I congratulated him on scoring the winning penalty and asked him a few questions about his time on the pitch after being subbed in at the 97th minute.
After a few questions, I was also done with him and Gavi was the last player on my list. And boy, did I have to wait for him.
