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...
The regular person would have been afraid of going to breakfast on Sunday morning. But not me. I was ready to walk confidently into the food hall and quickly made my way to the journalists' table. "Congrats Hernández, you're officially a villain reporter now" the guy from Diário Sport chuckled. I just shrugged and ordered a cappuccino from the waiter that passed. I wanted to stand up to walk to the buffet when an arm grabbed me softly and I looked up to see Luis. "You'll certainly excuse me for stealing her for breakfast from you today" he told the rest of the reporters and dragged me to a table for two at the other end of the room.
"I'm gone for one day and miss all the action!" he chuckled exasperatedly and I laughed at him. "You should have seen Roque's face when I told him I would have preferred to shag some players rather than wait an hour for him" I said between giggles and we sat down together. "Where even were you guys yesterday?" I asked. "Sponsorship talks with my uncle. We need to find money now after the pressure of signing Felix is rising thanks to your little stunt" he muttered. "But you have to admit it was a clever move" I said and pointed my fork at him. "Of course. You're just a class act through and through and that's making him feel even worse now" he said as he nodded at Roque who was eyeing our table. When our looks met, he quickly looked back down at his cornflakes - coward. "Pablo apparently called him to tell him to apologise" I mumbled. "Pablo... as in... Gavi?!" Luis asked surprisedly and I nodded. "And how do you know?" he asked. I pulled out my phone and showed him the chat.
Luis raised his eyebrows. "Cute" he commented with a grin on his face and gave me back my phone. "What's cute about that? He texted that with a naked Ana laying next to him probably" I scoffed. "He still loves you" he said and my head shot up. "You can't be serious" I huffed. "I'd never send a message like this to my ex" he said calmly and I rolled my eyes. "He just feels bad because he's in the wrong" I stated and he shook his head. "Those are the words of a man that loves you, Vicky. Believe me" he said and I just rolled my eyes again and stood up to get some food from the buffet.
As I was walking back, Roque got in my way and quickly said: "I'm sorry about my comment yesterday. If you want we can do the inter-", but I cut him off. "Shut up. And whatever Gavi said, forget it." I said. "He said you're the most amazing person he has ever met..." he mumbled and I rolled my eyes. "Well, since everything that comes out of that guy's mouth is a lie, it's probably wrong." I replied and walked past him, making sure to bump into his shoulder.
After breakfast, I went down to the gym as I was sure to not encounter a player there before the game and ran 10k on the treadmill. I returned to my room and took a nap, because honestly, I really needed it - those past few days had been a lot and I still wasn't completely fit mentally. My alarm clock rang at 4pm unfortunately though and I had to wake up and get ready for the game. I arrived at the stadium earlier to soak in the atmosphere that I wanted to transmit in my article - that may sound weird but... it's just how I did things.
Football in Arab countries was just something else. The hospitality was overwhelming and us reporters were stuffed with good food and drinks before the game and half an hour before the start, I made my way down to my seat, where I already found Luis talking to some guys. "Ah, Vicky, come meet Rodrigo and Alfonso, they both work at Real" he said and introduced me. "You're Alfonso Clemente, Ari's brother, right?" I asked as I shook hands with both of them. "Yeah! You're Kike's sister right?" he asked and I nodded. My parents knew his parents and us kids had played together when we were little at parties our parents attended. We chatted for a while longer before we saw down, waiting for the game to start.
"We're going to get buttered" I mumbled when I saw the players walk out onto the field. "I hope not. But it's definitely going to be intense" Luis muttered back and our eyes were set on the pitch, my hands ready to type the action on my laptop's keyboard. It looked like I was being right though: 10 minutes in and Vinicius had already shot two goals. Lewandowski shot a great strike, making a remontada seem possible, but when Araujo brought down Vinicius in the box and Real converted the penalty for that successfully, it seemed impossible that we could still turn this game around.
During half time, Luis looked like he just wanted to go home and cry. "If I were Xavi, I'd let the whole La Masía bench play now. They know what a Clasico means more than anyone and... what's there to lose now anyways?" I muttered, frustrated by the result myself. "Remind me to never work in the financial department of the club you're coaching one day." he chuckled and I didn't know what was so wrong about my idea, but at least it had made him smile a bit.
In the second half, there were some changes and maybe... maybe there could be a teeny tiny chance of making a comeback. But Rodrygo shot a fourth goal and well - my pre-game prediction had been right. Completely getting buttered. 70th minute, double yellow for Araujo - now he was getting buttered by me after the match, I was FURIOUS! Knowing that I had to interview Vini's gleeful face almost made me throw up.
After 90 minutes we were finally released from our pain, Real winning 4-1 and taking home the Supercopa with them. I knew that I had to get down to the media panel and the Barca players were definitely up first as the Blancos would be celebrating for who knows how long. During the medal ceremony, I got on Instagram and scrolled around - I was bored, annoyed, angry, heartbroken (more because of my ex-boyfriend than because of the loss tonight though), frustrated and tired. I needed some action. I scrolled around in my settings and set my profile on public. Immediately, all my follower requests were accepted automatically and I shut off my phone quickly, feeling a bit giddy inside.
Eventually, I walked down to the media panel and saw Fermín in a corner, talking to some staff. Our eyes met and he looked... lifeless. I spread out my arms a little and he immediately walked over, hugging me. He buried his head in my shoulder and I was definitely going to stink but in that moment, it didn't matter. "It's so embarrassing and humiliating" he mumbled. "Now you know how I feel with Pablo" it blurted out of my mouth. It definitely wasn't the right comment for this moment, but it just slipped. He loosened the embrace and looked even worse than before. "I'm so sorry, Vicky. He'd do it right if he could" he said quietly and walked back to the locker room. What the hell did that mean?
Xavi was definitely not in the mood to talk to me, especially after my little article today, but hey, at least Roque didn't get one minute of play here while Joao was subbed on two times. I insisted on talking to Araujo but Barca's comms manager told me he wasn't going to comment anything today. Whatever, I'd drop a column about his 0/10 performance tonight with or without an interview. Frenkie was actually the only player that was willing to talk and admit their absolutely shit display and I was at least going to give him credit for standing up for the team.
The Madrid players' arrival to the media panel was crazy, however. Vinicius was swarmed and I didn't get the chance to talk to him (which was for the better maybe) and Bellingham was around taking pictures all the time. At least I managed to get some comments from Rodrygo, before Kroos found me. "How's it going Mrs Gavi?" he asked me. "You want to kill me even more now after what you did on that pitch?" I asked him annoyedly. "Sorry. What do you want to know?" he chuckled and I hit him with a few questions. "Wow. Finally someone who actually thinks before asking something" he replied before giving me answers.
I saw that I wasn't going to get much more, so I took a taxi back to the hotel to pack up quickly, as the plane to Barcelona was leaving tonight again.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
📍 King Saud University Stadium vicky.hernandez No Gavi, no party 💙💔 Goodbye Saudi, back to Barcelona now
user1 hell nah, no way she posted this 😂😂 user2 PATHETIC BITCH luislaporta 😭😭😭💔💔💔 madridistaforever go cry in your corner kike_hrnndz confused but ok user3 No Gavi, no heartbreak
