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...
On Tuesday morning, I returned to the office and opened up my e-mails after fetching a coffee from the kitchen. Pedro, the reporter I had been with in New York, had been selected to be our next correspondent in the Middle East and he had invited our team and a few others from different departments for some celebratory drinks this evening and I RSVP'd congratulating him and accepting the invite.
"How's Pablo?" Irene asked me on our lunch break. "Good. He's in Madrid now and they're flying to Seville tomorrow" I replied. "Are you sad that you can't go?" she asked. "A bit. It would have been a good opportunity to soft launch our relationship, but... Brussels it is" I sighed. "Are you ready though for tons of girls wanting to cut your throat open?" she chuckled and I shot her a look. "Do you think it's really going to be that bad?" I said, a bit more insecure now. She shrugged. "The first few weeks maybe. But you guys look so good together that the whole world will be at your feet in no time" she swooned and I laughed.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
📍 Barcelona, Catalunya, España vicky.hernandez Lunch break 🥪🗞️
clairecollins Omg looove the outfit, you Spanish girls have the best style 🤤 belengavira79 Very pretty, Vicky! Replying to belengavira79: vicky.hernandez Thank you Mrs Gavira! 😊 pablogavi ❤️
That evening, I took the scooter to the city center alone, as Irene wasn't invited. Actually, I found out that I was the youngest one invited, but I liked my colleagues, especially the ones from my department. Joan, the new head of the sports department made its way towards me and I clinked my beer with his. "How is it being Gavi's girlfriend?" he asked and grinned, completely taking me by surprise and my face fell. He had interviewed him just a few days ago, but Pablo told me there were no personal questions and he hadn't said anything about me. "What?" I said, still dumbfounded. I was better at interviewing than being interviewed. "I had to do some research before my interview. Turns out the fanpages on Instagram are great detectives, they noticed Pablo and all of his friends following you in a matter of just a few weeks" he said and I started sweating. "You're lucky I'm not allowed to break the story... yet" he added. "I'm sorry, what? My private life is no office matter" I stated, trying to sound confident. I didn't like the tone he was speaking in at all. "The chief editor said this isn't something that belongs in the sports section, but rather in the gossip column. If they haven't caught on by the end of the month, I'm allowed to break the story he said - to be published on the day of El Clasico" he said and grinned proudly. "What kind of stupidity is this? Are you 12?" I asked furiously. "I mean, I can understand why you wouldn't want it to be public. The hate would be overwhelming and I don't know if a girl like you can take it" he said, laughing stupidly. I didn't even answer, I saw red. That guy was unbelievable. I quickly said goodbye to Pedro and got home, a thousand thoughts going through my head.
Pablo couldn't know - I didn't want to add any more pressure on him now that he was playing two or three matches a week. And the Clasico was the peak of his stress, a win was expected and needed. I didn't like this at all, we had to go public now - Joan wasn't going to write a nice article, especially not if it was being published on the 28th. He would probably write about how badly a relationship with a journalist, who was five years older than him, has been affecting his gameplay. And I definitely didn't want that to happen.
Pablo had been the cutest since he was away, his new hobby was now sending me reels like "If your girl gets 5/5 she's a 10/10" and then it showed various pictures of football players from the past and present. He was having a good time, but still trying not to overdo himself, he was definitely more set on his goals with Barcelona this season than two matches in the EURO qualifiers now.
On Wednesday morning I woke up, with Chiara bombarding me with messages. I opened them and clicked on the link she had sent me. It was a headline saying "Gavi injured" and I read that he had left yesterday's training with the team early. What the hell? He hadn't told me anything. I shot him a message quickly, as I didn't know if he was already with the team.
Vicky ❤️ You're injured?
Not even two seconds later, he FaceTimed me. "Hey baby" he greeted me, still laying in bed. Lucky bastard, I was already in the bathroom, getting ready. "Hey. What happened?" I asked concernedly. "Nothing, the media spreading stupid news as usual. I felt a light blow and didn't want to overdo it, so I left earlier yesterday and got a massage. It's nothing, really, I'm still with the squad and traveling to Seville today with them. How are things in Barcelona?" he replied and I was very relieved. "Good, nothing new." I lied. "Pedro was chosen to be the new correspondent in the Middle East, we went out for drinks with him yesterday evening" I said. "Whoa, that must be so interesting, especially now" he replied. Yeah, I know, I would have loved to be in his place. "Oh definitely! Say hello to your family and friends tomorrow for me, I'm really sad I can't be there. But I'll see you on Sunday in Norway" I said and smiled. "I can't wait to see you, I'll be looking for you" he said and blew me a kiss. He looked so adorable doing that.
Irene, Chiara and I met for lunch and they obviously asked me about the rumours circling around Pablo's injury and I told them just what he had told me. "Let's hope de la Fuente isn't starting him tomorrow, he needs some rest" Chiara said, deep in thought. "You girls, I'm so excited to go to my first football game on Sunday. And yes, I promise to read a rule book first" Irene said as I was about to interrupt her, reminding her that she had absolutely no clue about the sport at all. But she was nice enough to do the weekend trip with me as Chiara was celebrating her mother's birthday and Ana... "You guys heard from Ana?" I asked. "Apparently she's super busy" Chiara said and shrugged. Ana didn't have it easy in life. Her parents divorced in our first year of uni and she fell off every cloud, her parents had always been a picture perfect couple, but her mother had found out that her husband had had an affair for years with a woman in France and had another family with her. Irene had been so shocked that she dropped out of uni - in the beginning, we were there for her, since we were all studying in different cities, we rotated and each weekend one of us was visiting and staying with her, but it got harder with time and us having more and more exams. She was now working as a social media manager for a local clothing brand which was quite famous, but I had noticed her being a bit more distant in the past weeks. "I'll write in the group chat, we should all go out for drinks again next week" Irene said, pulling out her phone and we nodded in agreement.
