Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER SONG: RUSH BY AYRA STARR

She told them about her childhood, where she grew up, what led her to Paris and how she met Kylian. As she spoke, it was like she started to regain her confidence little by little and she knew it mostly had to do with Kylian's words of encouragement on the way over.

"I'm not saying this to scare you, but I want you to be prepared." He'd taken her hand in his and told her softly.

"What is it?"

"My family... we're a close-knit group and my mom takes that seriously. I say that because she is the one who is more protective than my dad and dare, I say the person to impress tonight?"

So, with his words in mind, she tried to remain calm as she did her best to prove her worth to Melissa and his mom. She answered their questions as best as she could and even joked about with them when she saw the two women had somewhat started warming up to her. Even when she occasionally felt Faizah keep a watchful eye on her, she tried to not feel too self-conscious.

"You know, Sapphie, cooking is an art," Faizah said as she inspected the seasoning that Sapphie had added to the Chorba frik she was teaching her to make. "You have to do it just right, or it won't taste good."

Chorba frik was an Algerian soup the older woman had chosen for their starter. From the way it smelt, Sapphie knew it would be amazing. But as she considered Faizah's words, she nodded, measured the amounts with even greater care before adding them, hoping to prove herself.

As Faizah continued peering over Sapphie's shoulder, she couldn't help but scrutinize every move she made. She had always been a tough critic—or so people said, especially when it came to both her sons' romantic interests. Particularly now that it was the first time Kylian had ever brought a girl home and introduce her to her and Alfred. She wasn't going to let Sapphie off the hook easily.

"Be careful with stirring too much, dear," she said purposefully and observed her. "You don't want to move it too much."

Faizah watched her nod, though she saw the tension in her shoulders begin to mount. But that didn't surprise her. In fact, that had been the intention of her words. Sapphie hadn't been stirring the pot too much. If anything, she'd been doing everything correct. But she had her reasons for doing what she was doing. However, though she'd anticipated the wariness rising within the girl, Faizah couldn't have predicted what Sapphie then did next.

Sapphie breathed in deep and moaned.

"This soup smells amazing, Ms Lamari—I mean, Faizah," she said, "And I don't mean to be presumptuous or offensive when I say this but, I was a little surprised to see that you cook for yourself."

Sapphie didn't miss the surprised look in the older woman's eyes.

"Yes, it's a general misconception people have about me," she said as she cleaned up her station. "While I am... well off than many people, I still prefer to do things for myself and my family. That's why none of the boys get any free passes when it comes to doing the dishes or cleaning after themselves. Besides, I enjoy cooking." She smiled.

Sapphie grinned, "Wait, you're telling me both Kylian and Ethan still do the dishes."

"You'll see. They always try to get themselves out of doing their chores but, whenever they visit me, I tell them to leave their fame outside before stepping into my house."

Both Melissa and she burst out laughing. From then on, to Sapphie, although I wasn't quite smooth sailing yet, things were getting better. She knew she wasn't out of the woods yet and she constantly had to keep on reminding herself that. Because as much as Faizah was being polite to her, it was just the bare minimum. She was well aware of the fact that she still had a long way to go in terms of impressing her.

About an hour later, dinner was ready. All ten of them sat down to eat. The table atmosphere was warm and welcoming as Sapphie took her seat next to Melissa. Kylian came and occupied the chair to her right. His father sat at one end of the table and his mother sat at the opposite end.

"I'm surprised to see you survived an entire hour with her in there," he whispered in her ear as he sat down. "you, okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, great!" She looked in his eyes and smiled so he wouldn't worry. She'd done so well so far. Surely, she'd pull through the night.

Right?

"Good." He grinned before turning his attention to the food in front of him.

"So, Sapphie," Alfred said, his voice curious and laid back, "I hear from Kylian you two work together? You're the equipment manager, correct?"

"The assistant equipment manager, yes." She nodded.

"I'm actually curious to know you two started dating? You did mention you've been working there for a while." Asked Faizah.

"This should be great." She heard Ethan mutter to Brice, who laughed.

"It's a funny story, actually." She had to keep herself from laughing.

"Try hilarious." Laughed Brice.

"You weren't even there."

"No, but I saw the video." He and Ethan laughed together.

"Can we just leave it alone?"

"Now I'm really interested. You absolutely have to share." Piped up Melissa.

"We started talking after Kylian basically tried to unalive me with a ball during training."

"It wasn't that serious." He defended.

"I'm sorry, tried to what?" Frowned Alfred.

"He hit her in the face with a ball and she chew him off for it." Said Ethan.

Everyone burst out laughing. But after the laughter had died down, she continued with her story.

"The day after the incident he came looking for me to apologize and we became fast friends and the rest is history."

"Aw, well, that's very sweet." Said Melissa as she rubbed Sapphie's arm.

As they continued to eat, both parents took turns asking Sapphie a series of questions, especially Faizah. Almost all of hers were designed to probe into her life and her intentions with her son. But Sapphie answered each one politely, trying to keep her nerves in check.

"Do you enjoy your work?" Asked Alfred.

"All things considered, yes. The best part is the travelling and the people I get to meet and work with. But my dream is to do something else."

Faizah raised an eyebrow and shifted in her chair. "Tell me about that."

She told them about her gaming hobby and how she wanted to turn it into a lifetime career.

"How is it all working out for you? Financially?"

Sapphie's heart skipped a beat. "Um, I made a decent living. Enough to support my family and I."

Faizah's eyebrows met her hairline as she nodded. "I see. And do you have any plans to further your career?"

Sapphie nodded eagerly. "Yes, I'm actually going to pursue game development school after I finish with business management. I know it will not be easy—far from it. But I'm willing to go through whatever to fight for my dreams."

"Interesting," she said as she sat back in her chair. "I don't mean to be rude and invasive by asking this but, who would be paying for this degree?"

Now why did she feel like she'd set herself up with her previous answer?

"I would," she replied quickly as she felt her face flush with embarrassment. "I have a steady job, some savings and I would take out student loans if I needed to."

When Sapphie saw Faizah's gaze shift to Kylian, she knew they'd made eye contact. That plus the hand beneath the table, she felt giving her thigh a squeeze. The air felt a little tense and more quiet.

"Well, it's good to see that Kylian seems to have chosen himself a girl who's got her head on straight. I can respect a woman who continues adding value to herself and doesn't let her circumstances stop her."

She smiled weakly, "Thank you."

Despite Faizah's praises, Sapphie couldn't help but feel like she had backed her into a corner, especially with everyone watching.

Feeling like an outsider, she tried swallowing the lump in her throat and focused on finishing her dessert. What made it worse was that, were it not for Kylian, she knew his mother would probably have continued with her line of questioning.

"So Sapphie, Kylian, tells me you're a master at Fortnite?" This was Brice who chimed in.

"Yeah, it's my favourite game," she said, glad to have anything changes of the topic. "Why? Do you play?"

"Yeah, but I'm curious to know what you're better at FIFA or Fortnite, so I can know my chances of beating you at it."

Sapphie scoffed, "If I could beat Kyky in FIFA, I know I can take you anywhere, anytime in Fortnite with a blindfold on."

From then on, the conversation at the table picked up, causing Sapphie to smile with a sense of relief. And after dinner, as everyone was relaxing while watching another football match. At some point, Kylian stood up and offered her his hand.

"What?" she asked.

"Come on, I want to show you around." He said.

And by showing her around, he'd meant his room.

"Seriously?" Sapphie stared at him after he saw that it was his bedroom he'd taken her to.

He shrugged with a smile. "I just thought it'd be fair if I showed you my room since you showed me mine. I promise I don't have any ulterior motives." He wiggled his brows, causing Sapphie to laugh.

Sapphie shook her head and started looking around as she looked at everything around her. Like the rest of his apartment, everything her eyes fell on looked luxurious. But at the same time, there was an air of simplicity that surrounded everything. This room summed up its owner to a T.

The walls were an inviting shade of ice blue. The first thing she noticed, beside the neatly made bed and the tempting in built bookcase on a nearby wall, it was a decent sized board with various items pinned onto it. Upon closer inspection, she found they were pictures and news articles of his biggest milestones. Things like when he won his first trophy at eight, or the team picture of AS Monaco when they won their first Ligue 1 Title.

"So? What do you think?" He said, shoving his hands into his pockets as he walked up to her.

"It's beautiful," she said, turning to him and giving him a fond look. "I love that you have books and that you have that," she pointed to the board, "It's really special. But I've got one question."

"What?"

"Did you make that or your housekeeper did it for you?"

Kylian shook his head, "I don't allow them to clean my room for me, this is all me." He spread out his arms as he spoke.

"Good." She giggled.

He laughed, "I'm glad you're impressed and I haven't even shown you the best part yet?"

"Is it?" She challenged by cocking her brows.

"Come on." He led her to the balcony, where she gasped when she caught the first glimpse of the breath-taking view it had of the Eiffel Tower.

"Kylian, you have this hiding in your backyard?" She gaped.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"Amazing!" she laughed. "I'm so jealous."

He remained quiet for a bit as he watched her, simply enjoying the look on her face. This was one of the things she loved about Sapphie. How the simplest of things made her eyes sparkle like the night sky. They way she was free to express herself with people she was comfortable with, which made him feel honoured that he was now one of those people.

"What is it?" She paused at the railing when she looked at him. "why are you looking like that?"

"It's nothing," he shook his head and reached out to take her hand in his, tugging her to him, "It makes me happy to see you laughing after what happened in there with my mom."

"Kylian—" she started shaking her head, but he interrupted her.

"No, let me say this Sapphie." He led her back inside to the settee that offered them a view of the balcony and the Eiffel tower beyond that.

"I apologize for my mom's behaviour earlier. She's usually is protective of us and I we love that about her, but what she did in there-with everyone watching was unacceptable."

She seemed to think for a little while as she remained quiet before speaking. She supposed even though she'd prepared herself for the worst-case scenario—just in case. Another part of her had expected to be welcomed with wide open arms onsite. But now that she thought about it, even to her, that notion sounded ridiculous. Though Kylian knew her, to the rest of his family she was a stranger, and that was the truth of the matter.

"The honest thing is, I don't blame your mom for being a little hard on me—"

"A little...?" He raised his brows questioningly.

"... okay fine, brutal for a moment there. It sucked. I won't lie. But if it makes her anything, it makes her good." She shrugged. "I mean, if I had an overly successful son, I'd like to think that I would protect him from what he could've failed to see."

She reached up to his face to caress his jaw. "You of all people don't need me to tell you how there are cruel people out there who will use others to get what they want. Even if it ends up hurting that other person."

He nodded and grabbed hold of her hand in his. He brought her dainty fingers to his lips and pressed a long, tender kiss to them.

"I don't deserve you."

She made a show of 'flipping' her hair over her shoulder. "I know." And Kylian burst out laughing.

"So..." she grinned after he'd calmed down.

"So...?" He mimicked her, as he continued to play with her hand.

"Girlfriend, huh?" She asked. Her heart only hope it was true. That he hadn't just said it to impress his family or something.

Kylian laughed with a shake of his head. It was clear that, like her, he'd completely forgotten about that.

"Sapphie, I'm sorry. I was nervous, and I panicked."

"Oh," Sapphie couldn't say those words didn't pierce right through her heart, "Nervous? What did you have to be nervous about? They are your family."

Kylian shrugged, "Nervous for the night to go well," he played with her fingers, "nervous for it to be true. And yes, I know it still doesn't excuse me from asking properly."

Wait, what? Was she reading the meaning behind his words correctly?

"What are you saying?" She held her breath.

"I'm saying, Sapphira Maida, will you do me the honour of officially being my girlfriend?"

Even though he was giving her one of those big charming smiles of his, she could see he was really nervous. His smile slightly faltered at the corner of his lips whenever he was feeling nervous.

"Oh, Kylian." She couldn't believe. She felt like she couldn't contain the joy she felt and that she would burst into a million colours. But as unexpected as that moment between them was, a dream come true. She couldn't help but not be able to mess with him a little.

"Non," the smile on her face refused to leave even when she tried.

"Non?" His eyebrows lifted to his hairline.

"Come here!" He grabbed her by her waist and started tickling her mercilessly.

"Okay, okay! I accept!" she breathed out in between hysterical laughter.

"What was that? I didn't hear you." He continued tickling her. She squirmed and rolled around so much that they both fell to the floor with her head in her lap.

"Yes, yes! I'll be your girlfriend Kylian!" She wheezed.

"Good." He stopped and gave her lips a kiss.

"You look happy," she said a little later, after she'd caught her breath.

"That's because I am. The girl of my dreams just said yes to being with me." He gave her a dimpled smile. He was leaning down for another kiss when she placed a hand against his chest to stop him.

"Wait, now that you've said that, it makes me wonder if this relationship is even legit since you coerced me into saying yes."

"You're ruining the moment. Shut up. It doesn't matter, anyway. You already said yes and there are no take backs." He said, then kissed her as if to seal the deal.

All the while, they'd had no idea that his mother had been by the ajar door, listening in on their conversation. When she walked away, she had a lot to think about.