Neighbor » NEYMAR JR ✓

Eleven.

"You're all free to go now! Thanks for playing the game, you all know how important is this exercise and I'm glad to see that everyone took it seriously. Have a good night!" Angelina smiled, and everyone started to leave the staff room to take the elevator and leave.

It was almost 6:30 pm, and Cassie was exhausted. The exercise was just about sitting in the floor and be quiet, but it was enough to piss her off. For once, she was ready to leave the office early, but of course, Angelina had other plans.

Why don't we do that exercise, like, in the morning? When it's not dark outside and everyone is more or less awake and not that tired yet?

Since the whole building was leaving at the same time, she couldn't find Mélissa to say goodbye to her. She just took her car and obviously, as if the day was not shitty enough, got stuck in traffic.

When she finally parked in front of the building, she had a text from Neymar.

However, she still had Mélissa's article to read before going to sleep. She was tired, but not enough to give up on her best friend that was waiting for her opinion.

She was pretty curious to read her words, probably because of all the mystery that Mélissa did about this article. She took it out of her bag and started to read.

And her heart missed a beat when she read the title that said it all. She closed her eyes and read the words again. "How I feel in love with a girl, by Mélissa Lévy".

She didn't think twice before giving her a call.

"Hey, are you home yet?" asked Mélissa in a sing-song tone. "This exercise is the worst, I swea—"

"Liss."

"Yeah? What's going on? Did something happen with the hot neighbor?"

"It's about your article."

Silence.

"I'm sorry Cass," said Mélissa's voice, and even though she was miles away, Cassie could hear that she was about to cry.

"Why are you even apologizing?"

"For not telling you. I was just scared, and I still am. But the other day I told you that we always have something to write about, it's just that sometimes, we don't want people to read it, and I realized...that I don't want to feel like...stuck. I can talk about whatever I want. Even me falling in love with a girl. And the more I think about it, the more I want to publish this article."

"I love you Liss."

"I love you too. Do you find the fact that I fell in love with a girl weird?"

"No, I don't find it weird. I just want to meet her."

"We'll see about that. I know you didn't read the article yet but as I said in it, we are not dating. I don't think that she likes girls. I don't even think that I like girls either, just...that specific girl, you know?"

"Yeah," Cassie nodded her head. "But maybe that's the same for her. Just go for it."

Mélissa laughed.

"Thanks, Cass. You're the bestest. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Have a good night."

_

"Wait...you mean that this girl work at Victoria's Secret?" Cassie yell-whispered, and Mélissa hit her with her forks.

"Shut up! Remember when you said that people didn't need to know about you and N? It's the same for me!"

"For the hundred times, there is no 'me and N'. And no one heard. How could you fall in love with a girl in Victoria's Secret? Like, did she help you to pick underwear?"

"Well...yeah. And then we went for a drink at Starbucks."

"It sounds like a date to me."

"It was not. I didn't even have those feelings yet. I was like 'she's nice, we could be friends'. And then suddenly she was talking and it was just...hot. And then it was too late."

Mélissa sighed.

"We exchanged numbers so I'm just going to call her on Saturday if she didn't call me first."

"That's the spirit," Cassie nodded.

"So, are you nervous to meet N's family?"

"I'm not dating the guy. So I'm not."

"Yet."

"Shut up, Liss. I'm helping him out and then, he will just forget about me, and I'll forget about him."

"Try to make good impression with his parents, I'm telling you."

_

When Cassie knocked at Neymar's door, she was completely calm and collected.

"Hey babe! Come in," Neymar smiled when he opened the door, and her heart missed a beat.

Okay, we never talked about pet name and I certainly not gave you my permission to use that one.

"Hey," she smiled back. "are you guys busy or—"

"Where is she!" a voice screamed and Rafaella appeared, looking very excited. However, she stopped when she saw Cassie, out of word. "Cassie?! Oh my God, I didn't make the connection with Girl Boss! You are that Cassie! Why didn't you tell me, Juninho?"

"Wait, you read her magazine?" Neymar frowned, lost, and Cassie smiled.

"I am that Cassie. Nice to meet you."

"I really love your articles, they are my favorite, really. You write about you, but not too much, and it's just perfect."

"Thank you, it means a lot."

"Mom also reads Girl Boss sometimes! I think that they are in the kitchen with Jo, c'mon," Rafaella took her hand, and they start to walk to the kitchen. Cassie turned her face to look at Neymar that muttered a silent "thank you so much". She shrugged.

"Oh, I didn't hear the door, sorry Cassie," Nadine said, raising her eyes from the newspaper that she was reading with her husband. "How are you?"

"I'm good, what about you ma'am, sir?"

"Nice to meet you, filha," Neymar Sr shook her hand, "you can just call us Pai and Nadine."

"Okay, I can try," she said, because she felt really uncomfortable doing so for now.

"Where are your brothers, Rafa?" asked Nadine. "I baked a cake, it's time to eat it."