Sure Thing • Gavi

Chapter 68: La Vanguardia

🎶 Formidable — Stromae 🎶

After another sleepless night, I found Kike the next morning in my kitchen, brewing some coffee for us.
"Whoa, you dressed up nicely" he said as I got out of my room. He looked at me surprised, apparently he had expected me to appear in joggers and a worn-out t-shirt, but there I was, freshly showered, hair blown out with my Dyson, light make-up and a black dress with a long, warm cardigan to brave the chillier temperatures.
"I'm going to the office" I shrugged and took the TV remote to tune in to whatever channel would pop up first.

It was a morning talk show.
"But the question now is: what happened with Gavi? He was filmed arriving at her place yesterday and leaving mere minutes after with tears on his face?" one of the women asked her co-host.
"Well, it seems pretty obvious they broke up, right?" she answered and I pressed the off-button on the remote.

"Please tell me not all of Spain is wondering about my relationship status" I sighed.
"Um... it is. Instagram is full of videos of everyone who enters and leaves the building, the paparazzi only left this morning when the police came and made them." Kike replied. "You sure about this office thing?" he asked, eying me up and down.
"Yes. I need to get back in the grind. I need something to do, I can't live like a prisoner again, locked up in my room" I sighed.
"Just... take care. And if it's too much, I'm just a call away" he said with a worried look on his face.
"Chill. You should focus on your job." I said and rolled my eyes.

"Oh, erm... by the way... Pablo has been texting me like crazy, asking about you and how you're doing and when you want to see him..." my brother mumbled.
"And what did you say?" I asked.
"Left him on read for now, but I'd like to know from you what to do..." he replied.
"Ignore him. Or text him whatever, but don't tell him anything about me." I said sternly. After a glance at the kitchen clock, I downed the rest of my coffee and said: "Ok, I have to go, see you later."
After grabbing my apartment keys and stuffing them in my bag with a few other necessities, I shut the door behind me and got downstairs.

I hailed a taxi and paid him with cash I still had at home. As of right now, I had no phone, no credit cards or personal documents. This was all on my agenda for today. But first things first, I drove to La Vanguardia. The paparazzi had moved there, they obviously expected me to show up here at some point.

📍 Barcelona, Catalunya, España
revistadiezminutos Victoria Hernandez has returned to her office at La Vanguardia just 36 hours after returning from being missing. She has not been pictured yet with her boyfriend Gavi since her return.

user1 Was that last sentence really necessary? 😂
gavicky_fanpage oh god, she looks awful 😭
Replying to gavicky_fanpage:
vichernandez.fan Yeah, but still looking on point though 👀🔥
user2 stop sharing pictures of her in this state!!
gavimylove They broke up 100%

I was met with incredulous looks and stares when I walked through the office building. I made my way to the eighth floor, where our chief editor's office was located and hoped that he wasn't in a meeting right now. But he was already waiting at the doorstep of his office and extended his hand, which I shook. He had tears in his eyes and pulled me into a hug, which I reciprocated. Vanguardia has always been my dream employer and everyone made me feel valued, my superiors had helped me immensely in becoming a better writer day by day and had always put a lot of trust into me.

He showed me in and I sat down across from him at his desk.
"I'm so sorry for what happened, I should have never sent you over. I feel so guilty" he said and looked at the ground.
"I should have told you no, I wasn't prepared at all and it wasn't the right moment for me. But we can't change the past" I sighed and he looked at me with an expression worth more than a thousand sorrys.
"Here is your exclusive. It's what happened, I sure hope it's worth front page" I chuckled and pulled out a flash drive.
He looked at me incredulously and asked: "When did you write this?"
"Yesterday. It's been kind of the first step for me. Writing is... well, I don't have to tell you, you're a journalist too." I replied.

"Miss Hernandez... I do have to put you on sick leave, at least until the end of the year." he said and I nodded.
"I need a medical stamp for it each week and I felt so free to book you an appointment with a therapist tomorrow. She's really good, she also works with veterans and... well, if you're not happy with her you can obvious choose another one" he continued.
"Thank you" I said and took the card with the therapist's name and the date of my scheduled appointment.

"Now, next thing: we don't need to discuss this now but since you're already here... we need to talk about how to handle your PR. Do you... are you ok with that or should we reschedule?" he asked.
"No, we can do that now" I replied and nodded.
"Great, just a second." he said and dialled something on his phone. "Hi Martina, Miss Hernandez is here, could you come to my office now?" he spoke and when he had finished his call we sat there waiting for Martina.
She arrived and immediately came over to shake my hand: "Miss Hernandez, welcome back. I am so relieved and happy you are alive."
"Thank you" I said and sat back down.

She sat down next to me and I studied her. She was a few years older than me and looked friendly, trustworthy.
"Ok, so we've been getting a million requests already, interviews, TV appearances, publishers have asked about an exclusive book and so on. Miss Hernandez, you've become a public figure now and my first question is, do you want an external PR representative or are you fine with Vanguardia doing that for you? I... would be responsible for your matters - but don't feel like you owe us anything, you're free to decide. The advantage would be that I'm paid directly by Vanguardia and you wouldn't have to pay anything extra for me" she said and smiled friendly.
"I choose you. I've always been loyal to the paper and I hope that it's vice versa too" I said and Mr Juan, our chief editor nodded.
"We are and always will be behind you" he said.
"Ok, great. I won't agree to anything unless you tell me what you're ready to do. But... I'm telling you this: more than half of the requests I'm getting are about your relationship status. I won't share anything if you don't want to, but do you feel comfortable enough to tell us what's going on? I need to know so I can react accordingly..." Martina asked and I took a deep breath.
"He cheated while I was away. We haven't talked yet and I won't be commenting on anything. I'll send you a copy of the NDA they made me sign back in the day, just FYI." I simply said.

Mr Juan put his head in his hands and Martina mumbled "Men".
"Ok, listen. I don't want do anything right now: no comments, no interviews, nothing. I'll go see the therapist tomorrow and then we'll see how I'll be doing from there. My personal items are still in my flat in Israel, I would be very thankful if you could let me have them back somehow. I will go get a new phone and personal stuff this afternoon, so you should be able to contact me again." I said and stood up. They both nodded and after we all looked at each other in silence for some seconds, we acknowledged that the meeting was over and said goodbye.

Before leaving the building, I went to Irene's desk to return her computer to her. She was happy to see me and showered me with compliments about how great I looked, to which I just raised an eyebrow jokingly. The make-up that I had applied this morning must be smeared all over my face now due to the tears that kept coming and coming throughout the day.

When I walked outside again, the fresh air hit me and with it, fresh tears. Just when did everything go down the drain?