Chapter One

August 2024

Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious...

For the love of all that was good, she couldn't figure out why of all the times that TikTok sound was playing over and over in her mind. Perhaps it was the fact that to anyone possibly watching her jump out of her little old Renault Clio with her hair flying all over the place-she looked comical.

Sapphira cracked open the emergency exit door and peered inside the long, empty hallway. She blew a stray lock of her hair out of her eyes, made sure the coast was clear, then slithered inside. At the back of the property, this was the best way to get to her office without being seen, because almost no one used it. Plus, this was like the waking hour at the famed football training facility. Most of the employees would be on their way to work at this hour.

Speaking of time, she pulled back the sleeve of her track jacket. Fantastic! She was now one hour, thirty minutes and fifty-two seconds late for work, but who was counting. Pierre maybe. Sticking close to the walls, she quickly scurried down the eerily quiet hallway, cringing with every squeak her sneakers made against the polished tile floors.

The Lord knew she'd be dead meat if she ran into Pierre. This was the third time in a row she was late this week. It didn't matter if she had a perfectly good excuse for why she'd slept through her obnoxiously loud alarm, she knew he would never give a dime.

Argh, "I don't get paid enough for this." As if on cue, she rubbed her eyes and yawned.

She'd barely made it out of the house fully dressed and now for the sake of not looking homeless, she frantically gathered her frizzy hair up and put it into a bun. She rounded the corner that led down to the basement where both hers and Pierre's offices were. Now that she was almost out of the woods, she relaxed a bit more as she passed the physio room where a few of the injured players were already working with their therapists. But her relief was short lived, because as she was about to go down the first flight of stairs when someone abruptly appeared in her path. A surprised squeak escape from her lips. Her heart dropped into her stomach when recognition hit her, because this somebody wasn't just anybody.

"Pierre..." she gulped, skidding to a halt.

"Sapphira..." he clasped his hands behind his back and arched a brow.

Lord, please let him not have heard what I said.

"I can explain-" Pierre lifted his index finger.

"Did I ask for an explanation?"

"I-"

"If you do not want this job Mademoiselle Maida, you only have to say so."

Her heart hammered in her chest, "No! I need it."

"It is too bad your actions say otherwise." Pierre curled his lip. His dark, beady eyes regarded her with this look that made her want to shrink away. It was as if he were picturing her utterly at his mercy in a very sinister way. Sapphie hesitated but ended up taking the step back from him

"Perhaps I should type your resignation letter for you since you will probably 'have no time' for that either." He said, causing her already accelerating heart to pick up its rampart beating.

"I never-I mean, please Pierre." She swallowed, "Just give me another chance. It won't happen again."

"That is what you said last time," he barked, "You were not hired to be incompetent and useless!"

"Your job not your hobby as assistant equipment manager involves you being at the club early for morning practice. You know you're supposed to be here before the players-seven o'clock sharp so you can get their training gear ready on time. I had to do your job for you!" He waved his hands about his head.

At that moment, a few people poked their heads out of their offices to watch the spectacle, causing Sapphie to wrap her arms around herself.

"I have already taken it up with HR. I'm cutting your pay for the rest of the month."

What? She gaped at him.

"No, please...!" she cried. Her hands trembled with the effort it took to not grab his forearm and try to make him see reason. Could he be so heartless? He knew what she was going through. She'd told him as much in her request for a study leave. The leave he'd denied her and hence they were here.

"Shut up!" Sapphie pressed her lips shut. She bowed her head and trained her gazed onto the floor. "Perhaps this ought to teach you to take your job seriously. This is a Ligue 1 club. If you cannot keep up with its standards you can go and find yourself another job in a place where you can fit in. For added measure, I'm putting you entirely on laundry duty and you will be in charge of locker room and shower clean up after every training session for the next two weeks."

"Showers? But-they are guys Pierre." They had male janitors for crying out loud.

"I don't care. All I know is if you still want this job, you'll make sure I find those facilities squeaky clean when I inspect them. Do I make myself clear?"

Sapphie stared at him with teary eyes.

"I don't want to repeat myself."

"Yes." She whispered.

"Good." He'd started to walk away but then stopped to say, "Oh and there is a mess in their locker room. Kylian pulled another prank on one of the guys. I left this one specially for you. You'll need your cleaning gloves." He chuckled and disappeared around the corner, whistling away.

***

"Freaking Fudge balls." She huffed with a breath.

Sapphie shoved open the door into her office and slammed it shut again before stalking up to her desk in the nearest corner of the room. She hated this job! All she ever wanted was to follow her dream and make a name for herself, but instead she was stuck with a boss who was the devil incarnate, a degree she wanted little to nothing to do with and all for what? Just so she can scrap someone's toilet?

The hinges on her door creaked against but she didn't look to know who it was. Only one person came by without knocking first.

"Uh-oh. I'm guessing you ran into-"

"Pierre the Prick? What gave it away?" She tossed her keys onto her desk, ripped off her track jacket and grabbed the plastic bat she occasionally used for moments like these. Sapphie liked to think of herself as an even tempered and one of the reasons why she liked to think so was because of the method she used to release stress in moments like these. She gripped the bat with practiced efficiency and took a few good swings at the rubber mannequin the team sometimes used for skill training. Of course, her vivid imagination allowed her to see Pierre's face instead of the dummy's.

"I was going to say the stomping, the slamming and the demon face you've got going on-but never mind. You got busted again?"

"Lucky guess." She rolled her eyes. After the tenth hit, Sapphie's limbs started to feel like rubber and eventually she gave up and dropped into her chair behind her desk like a sack of potatoes.

"Hey, hey," Renée rounded the desk and ceased her hands by the wrists, "you have to take it easy Saph. Or else you'll go crazy."

"That's just the thing! I feel like I already am going crazy." She brushed away the hot tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand.

The blonde regarded her messy, the crumpled clothes and the bags forming beneath her eyes.

"Yeah, I can tell. You look like..."

"If you value our friendship, you won't finish that sentence."

"Okay." She raised her hands in mock surrender, "But why don't you just quit Sapphie, you're almost done anyway? I don't understand why you put up with this kind of treatment." Renée moved to sit beside her.

"You know I can't. I need the money so bad. Besides, how many people get to say they worked at Paris Saint-Germain on their resumes?"

"Even if it's scrubbing toilets and moping the floors the stars walk on?"

"Do you have to be so awful," laughed Sapphira, "gosh I can be a mess."

"At least you're hot one." They burst out laughing again, then went quiet for a little while.

Sapphie sighed, "At this rate, even my resume looks bleak. I mean, Pierre would make sure I don't get another job if I list him as my reference. He absolutely hates me."

Renée rolled her eyes, "upgrade to six zeros in your account and change your job description to 'professional footballer' and he'll be the one kissing your shoes. Maybe."

"It's just his racism showing." She added.

"My point exactly."

"Look forget about him. You're going to be amazing with or without him. If anything, he's holding you back, you're the assistant equipment manager not a janitor. At least look on the bright side, he delegates so much of his work to you that you practically can take his job from underneath his nose." She winked.

"Maybe you're right." She got up from her chair and started making coffee for herself.

"You know I'm right." Renée too got up and leaned against the wall close to the counter.

"Speaking of which, I've got to hurry up here before he catches me 'slacking'. He's got me on toilet duty for like ever." Sapphira groaned.

"Seriously?"

"You know I'm not kidding. Some of the things I've had to do on this job..." She shivered.

She'd be dealing with that for the next two weeks. Did Pierre have any idea how bad some of these errands he sent her on were? She suspected that that was the reason why he was torturing her this way.

"Well," she took a sip of her coffee, "I've got to get to it, I have a little something something waiting for me in the 'man cave', and it's got my name written all over it."

"Until we meet again, I'll be praying for your safe return," Renée headed for the door, "when this is over how about I call up Devon and the other guys. We could go have some fun at The Attic?"

"Oh, you know wish I could," Sapphie fished out her iPod and earphones from her satchel then locked her satchel in her locker, "but I'll take a rain check. I've got a date with my bed. A weekend long date."

"Come on, who sleeps in on a Friday night?" Renée pouted.

"Uh-the girl who has no life outside of work, school and sleep... in that order."

"Fine, fine. But promise me that as soon as exam week is over, you'll make it up to me?" She batted her lashes at her.

"You know I will."

"Great, good luck today."

"Thanks, I'll need all the luck I can get."

Hello guys! Welcome and thank you for readng my new story. I hope you liked it! Please vote and comment!

Hope to see you in the next chapter!! xoxo