ON HOLD! to the top! | élisa de almeida.

chapter two.

BRR..BRR..BRR!!!
⏱️: 9:00am

jia groaned as the sound of her phone ringing woke her up. she assumed she was the unluckiest person on the planet since she always gets woken up in the most chaotic ways.

"hello?" jia spoke out in her groggy morning voice.

"hello, i'm mr dubois from france sports investments, henri's dad."

"wh- mr dubois from france sports investment?"

"sounds like you were sleeping! the early bird gets the worm!"

jia's eyes widened as she cleared her throat, not wanting to sound unprofessional before the other continued: "no wonder you didn't get the contract."

"what? no," she defended herself, "i was going to go to the office this afternoon to pick it up- hello? hello?" she frowned as she got up, sighing as she got ready.

nevertheless, she was excited to sign this contract though. this could be one of her major break-throughs as an agent. putting aside all that embarrassing stuff that occurred back at the hotel, being an agent after one's defeat and helping them to bring themselves back up would really leave a mark on the fans. she really hoped yesterday's encounter wouldn't crawl back up to her. after all, they're 25 year olds, surely they can handle it as adults and not some teenagers holding grudges against each other. perhaps it would get her father off her back too.

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elisa had an apron tied around her waist as she finally finished hanging the sign 'brochettes tueuses (killer skewers)' at the local stall she was helping out at for a bit.

"great handwriting," belle said as she swung by after work, putting down the box of skewer seasoning with a grunt.

"what's that?" elisa asked, signalling to the box.

"seasoning for the skewers."

her face lit up, "oh belle you shouldn't hav-"

"calm down i'm taking it back."

"no! no! please don't belle!" elisa said as she rushed over and popped the lid off, tasting it with her finger. "ah, amazing. no wonder you're the nutritionist for a popular football team."

"ines is coming to my team."

elisa choked on the skewer she was gobbling down, "what? ines?" she asked, her mouth full.

belle raised her eyebrows, "you two were rivals until high school."

"rivals my ass, i was way better than her in everything. she just got lucky."

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jia angrily walked to the office car park where henri and his father were standing. "henri! why would you lie to me? huh?"

"who.. are you?" henri asked.

"i'm agent jia and your supposed to sign with me today."

"why would i?"

"because your father told me you would."

henri's mouth gaped open a little as if he had just remembered something, "ah so you're the girl agent my father told me about? well, my father says silly stuff when he's drunk."

jia scoffed as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, in disbelief of what this man was saying in front of her.

"besides, i only date girls, not work with them."

"what? this is literally the women's football industry..." jia said, poking her tongue through her cheek.

henri circled around her, but she didn't let her guard down - she kept her head up and held her breath to avoid inhaling anymore of that horrid cologne the latter was wearing.

"do you know coach pierre? what about coach manon? no? yet you still dare to sign with me? i'm a little offended, but i'll forgive you since you're pretty. anyways father, i'll be going now." and just like that, henri was off.

jia angrily and passionately followed mr dubois through his office. "why did you ask me to come?"

"to borrow your agent license."

"what?"

"the man who loaned me his license moved abroad," the man said as he was flicking through papers left on his desk, this man surely was unorganised, even for a 45 year old man.

"you've been working without a license?" jia asked.

"i can still get more work than you do."

she frowned, "why me? there are plenty of agents without work."

"you don't have work either."

"i'm going to continue working in this field."

"you can't make it in this field, you should just quit."

jia's eyebrows knitted together in anger, "why can't i?!"

"i'm sure you know why," the man answered as he was just stapling some papers together.

"i don't know."

"you don't have any connections in this field jia allaire." the man walked around organising things as he continued his conversation with her, "can you take the players to a sauna or sleazy bar to talk business? i doubt you can. besides, nobody will take a drink from you."

jia quickly jumped to her own defence: "i'll always do what's best for my players."

"don't waste the license you paid lots of money for, €150 sounds good."

jia's chest heaved up and down as she clenched her fist and snatched that stapler out of his hand, stapling it continuously until no staples were left. she slammed it back down on the desk, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as she put on a fake soft smile, trying to contain her anger.

"let's be partners mr dubois."

"partners?" the expression on the man's face was a mix of horror and shock.

"i have a license and you have connections. it's a win-win deal."

the man scoffed before laughing in her face hysterically, like she had just brought up an idea to stop global warming in 10 seconds or something.

her smile dropped as he continued, "okay you win, what about €10,000?"

jia rolled her eyes as she walked over to the door. however, when she was about to leave she turned back around to face mr dubois one more time.

"you were a great player in your heydays."

"i was, it sounds like you're kissing up."

"if you're going to be an agent, be a great one like your player days... instead of abusing your connections and putting newbies like me down," she said before walking out - leaving mr dubois in disbelief.