Never Let Go (Of Me) • Ferran Torres

Chapter 16: Goodbye Camp Nou

🎶 Always on My Mind — Pet Shop Boys 🎶

On the Saturday morning of Barca's last home game at the Camp Nou, work was buzzing. The stadium was sold out and so many people came to buy one of this season's jersey, that were on sale because... well, we had already gotten the new season jerseys in. Plus, our store manager was holding personal meetings with each employee to talk about their holidays. Since I had no plans or money to do whatsoever anyways, I told all my colleagues to go ahead and try to get their preferred weeks off, I'd just take whatever was left.

After serving the 23rd girl buying a Gavi jersey today, I heard the manager shouting my name, meaning it was my turn.
"Hello, Lina" he greeted me as I sat down across from his desk in his office.
"Hello" I mumbled back quietly.
"Very well, first of all, I would like to thank you for the good work you do. And I really appreciate you being a teamplayer - thanks for covering so many shifts last minute and always coming to work with a good mood" he told me and I was kind of touched by his nice words. This definitely wasn't my dream job, but I didn't know what else to do in my life and... the people and the atmosphere were nice, making it not too bad to have to stand up in the mornings. It could have been worse.

"Thanks, I really appreciate you saying that" I replied and smiled.
"Since you've not taken a single day off yet... how about three weeks off? Last two weeks of June and the first of July? I need every one back on the 10th because pre-season will start and we return back in full swing after the summer break too" he explained.
"Fine by me. Works!" I said, knowing that I was going to spend those weeks in Barcelona anyways. Sara and Dan were away for their Greek holidays and I didn't feel like going back home... for obvious reasons.

After chit-chatting about upcoming collections and new items that were going to be sold, the meeting finished and I was allowed to go back to working.
"A package for you, Lina" my colleague Bea told me and pointed at the shelves behind the checkout. I thanked her and walked there, finding an envelope with CATA written on it. There were few people calling me Cata, and they were all from Ferran's circle as they had picked up the name from him. I opened it and found a home jersey with Ferran's name and the number 11 printed on the back, as well as a note.

For my #18 fan
I counted my family, closest friends and agents before you and got you at no. 18, but maybe one day you'll be no. 1
I'll work on it ;)

I was very touched, but somehow also very shocked by the note. So, I quickly sent Sara a picture of it to hear her opinion on this.

Lina 🐽
▶️ Photo
Opinion on this?????
Friendly or romantic?????

Sara 🦧
Chill, I'd understand it as friendly
But you should definitely wear it 😏

Ok, maybe I was overreacting, it could definitely be understood in a friendly way. It was a funny note and to make sure to not lose it, I put it inside my wallet, in my empty compartment for banknotes. My shift ended at 5, and Sara had come to pick me up from work so that we could get to the stadium together. There were so many people around, taking the same route as us.
"Ok, explain to me why this stadium is so cool" I sighed and Sara looked at me as if I was the dumbest cow alive.
"Legends played here! Messi! Iniesta! Ronaldinho! History was written! League titles! Clasicos! Champions League!" she exclaimed agitatedly and I quickly nodded, waving my hands at her.
"Ok, ok, I got it" I quickly said, to make her shut up about stuff I knew nothing about anyways.

The tickets we had gotten this time were just three rows above the Barca bench, and I knew that Dan had gotten us these so that his girlfriend could swoon over him as he worked, handing out jerseys and water bottles. It must be cool to have his job if you were into football, I guess. You got to travel around a lot, see all the action from up close, but with no athletic responsibilities or whatsoever.

"This is so fun, us being here, almost like WAGs" she giggled and I rolled my eyes.
"It's already nerve-wrecking enough to wear his jersey around here - imagine someone asking me why him" I said, looking around nervously.
"Come on, you're friends, it's not a crime!" she chuckled.
The players now started running out onto the pitch to warm up and obviously, my eyes only followed Ferran. It was somehow fascinating to watch how he moved with the ball, his leg muscles flexing with every movement.

The players eventually returned to the tunnel and Dan waved at us ecstatically.
"He's so cute, Sara. You guys are perfect together" I gushed.
"We are, right? He could propose sometime now... He has a stable job and I'll be done with uni an a year..." she mumbled and I had to try everything to not giggle.
"Yeah... men are always so slow though..." I sighed, hoping that this would throw her off a bit.
"You're so right. They need a strong woman to guide them" she agreed with me.

The staff and benched players were now walking to the bench to sit down and Ferran let his eye wander around quickly, but his gaze shifted to me quickly when he saw where I was sitting. He waved at me but I froze and slid down my seat onto the ground in panic. Gosh, why was I acting like this?!
"What the hell are you doing?" Sara hissed at me and pulled me up by my jersey. Ferran was still looking in our direction with a confused face and I just shot him a quick smile, hoping that no one around us had caught on to this scene.

"What was that?" Sara asked in between fits of laughter.
"Very funny" I replied annoyedly. "Have you ever seen the crazy fangirls on social media? Gavi was seen with friends and one girl a few weeks ago, and now they dig up everything about her. Her uni schedules, where she eats, old childhood pictures - this is crazy! I don't want this to happen to me!" I told her.
"My gosh, it's just your digital footprint, you're exaggerating" she played it down.
"Sure as hell not. That's why I only post close friends stories and only work photos on my feed. Ain't nobody need to know if I like tomatoes in my salad or not! I could be getting death threats from the tomato lobbyists" I hissed and the game started now as the referee blew his whistle.

The first half ended with two goals for us and a red card for the others. Gavi shot a third one in the second half, which was way more interesting than the first to me because Ferran started warming up at some point and I followed him with my eyes, heavily trying not to drool.
"So you're allowed to stare, but he can't wave?" Sara teased me and I just hit her in her ribs.
"Tough luck for him" I bantered back. In the 83rd minute, he was subbed in for Dembele and I clapped for him as he entered the pitch. But no more big action happened and Barca took another three points, which weren't necessary anyways though.

After the game, the players and staff all gathered on the pitch to watch a special screening of Camp Nou's biggest and most memorable moments. So many people were moved and I must say, even I was a bit. Sara had been right - a lot of history had been written here. But everyone left with one sad crying and one happy crying eye - the stadium was going to be renovated and new history would be written.