Chapter Four

"You're here early." She remarked then checked her watch. Normally, players didn't start arriving for another hour or so.

He was wearing a black from head to toe. Everything on him, save for his cap—which was his personal brand, was black. He wore the black club tracksuit and black Nike sneakers. He looked good, she had to admit. Like he'd walked straight off a sport magazine cover.

They always did, partially thanks to moi, she smiled to herself. She had helped pick out the designs for those tracksuits.

Sapphie took one of the handles and together they carried the next bag to the bus.

"Couldn't sleep. Too much adrenaline, I guess." He grinned then shouted greetings to the other people around them. "You?"

She shrugged, "Story of my life. What, did you think? That your kit got itself prepared every morning?"

"Fair enough." He chuckled, then looked around, "Where's Pierre, I thought he was the one who usually runs the show when we're travelling."

They carried another bag to the bus.

"Oh, stepped aside for this one. Something about a meeting clash. I'm flying solo today, literally."

"I'll have to admit, that's why I'm a little nervous today," she added, "oh who am I kidding. A lot nervous."

"Really? Why? Haven't you taken care of like, a lot of the games at this point."

"I have, but this is the first time he has let me taken pointe on an away game. Anything could go wrong." She bit her lip.

Sapphie could never forget how this could also just have been the perfect opportunity he needed to set her up for failure. That's why it was so important to her now more than ever before for this game to go by without a hitch.

"Don't worry, you'll be great, I'm sure. Think of it as a chance to prove him you are capable of anything he throws your way."

"Thanks." She smiled.

"You, uh said too much adrenaline is pumping. Are you nervous about tomorrow's game? Do you even get nervous?" She asked.

Kylian laughed loudly.

"More like I'm overexcited actually." He rubbed his hands together, "It sort of feels like that day before some big event and you can't sleep. Like tomorrow is the first day back to school, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that." She smiled.

They picked up the last bag and put it away.

"And for the record," He turned to face her, "I am not a robot. I do get nervous too. It's just instead of letting my nerves eat at me, I translate it into pushing myself to play harder on the pitch. Don't worry about the next two days. Just do your job how best you know how to and you'll be fine."

"Thanks, Kylian. For this too. I appreciate all your help." She gestured around them.

"Glad to help." He smiled down at her.

When she saw that she was still staring up at him, probably like a star struck teenager, Sapphie cleared her throat and turned to the other men, "Thanks so much to you too guys. I owe you all."

Not wanting to leave any room for confusion later, she quickly made sure to check all of them off her list before she forgot.

"How about some breakfast after that hard work? Want to join me?"

Sapphie laughed and looked up at him for a moment before going back to signing off, "Are you kidding?"

"Everyone knows I don't joke about breakfast. Ever."

"That's nice, but the lounge is for the players. Only."

"Uh, there's nowhere that is written. Besides, it's not like you'll get arrested for it."

"No but I could get in trouble especially if Pierre found out. And I'm pretty sure I saw it written somewhere...once."

"I won't tell if you don't." he grinned and waggled his brows, "besides he's not even here."

Sapphie bit the inside of her cheek and considered the idea for a while. She was crazy for even doing that. Never in all her time, since she started working at PSG, had she ever so much as stepped on the 'do not cross this line' in her employees' code of conduct booklet. Yet here she was, contemplating it after Kylian Mbappé asked her only once.

But she was hungry though, she resisted the urge to rub her stomach.

Kylian crossed his arms and waited.

After a little while she sighed.

"Fine, but only because I'm super hungry and I forgot to pick u breakfast on my way here." She quickly finished with her paperwork and together they went to the player's lounge.

***

Kylian wasn't quite sure where he'd got the impulse to invite her to have breakfast with him. In fact, he could have just left his suitcase by the bus and go in by himself. Yet he hadn't.

He surmised that it must have been that he was curious about Sapphira, or Sapphie. She seemed like a naturally reserved person—evidenced by her limited time interacting with the team. She came in, did her job and played nice with the team for a little while but otherwise kept to herself most of the time. Yet whenever he spoke with her, she seemed almost like a different person. She was like a Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

When they got to the lounge, Kylian grabbed a tray with a glass of orange juice, a bowl of porridge and a plate with a couple of boiled eggs and fruit slices. Sapphie took a couple of croissants and poured herself a huge mug of coffee.

When she joined him at his table, Kylian must have caught a whiff of it because he gave her a pointed look.

"Don't judge. Trust me, between school and work, I need this more than you know?" She dropped into the sit opposite his with a relieved sigh.

Before she forgot, she sent a quick text to Pierre, updating him that everything was set for departure. With a sigh she finally tore her gaze away from the device's screen only to find him watching her with an amused twinkle in his eyes.

She paused from reaching for the butter, "What?"

"I didn't know you were still in school."

Her eyebrow lifted, "Why? Because I should have been done at my age?"

She tore a croissant in half and buttered it before taking a bite.

Why was that a touchy subject? He wondered.

"I don't even know how old you are." He forked a kiwi and threw it into his mouth.

"I'm twenty-five, turning twenty-six in February."

"A lot of twenty-five-year-olds are still in school." He shrugged.

Realising she was coming off as irrational and too defensive, Sapphie remained quiet for a moment then cleared her throat. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to perceive her as a typical highly defensive and angry woman.

"Yeah, I'm still in school."

"And working..."

She nodded, "And working."

"With a job like yours, that's impressive. Mind if I ask what you're studying?"

"A BA in management. I switched to night classes for obvious reasons."

He nodded in acknowledgement and watched as she bit into her food again.

"Do you enjoy it?" He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table.

Sapphie thought for a moment.

"If I'm to be honest no, not really. It's more of a means to an end. When we moved here, to France, I had completely different plans. Although the travelling part of the job, is the best part, I'm not going to lie."

His jaw went slack and he blinked at her, "Wait, you're not French?"

"No," she laughed, "my family moved from Zimbabwe to Paris when I was eighteen. It's a small country in the southern region of Africa. My two brothers, Michael and Caleb were eight and four at the time."

She promptly took out her phone from her pocket, light up the screen so she could show him her screen saver. It was a family picture of the four of them. He noticed that the only person missing in it was her father. Kylian didn't plan on asking that just yet, in case it is something sensitive and private. So far, their conversation was going extremely well. Sapphie was a very interesting person as it turned out. He didn't want to unintentionally strike a chord. For now, he would take what he received.

"Wow, I had no idea. Your French is so very good. Perfect even."

"It would be embarrassing if it wasn't. I started learning it when we moved, so that's...seven years now."

They remained silent for a while, Kylian was watching her with a twinkle in his eye. Sapphie couldn't avoid his gaze so she felt her face starting to heat up.

Thank God for melanin...

"What?" She shuffled her feet and shifted her eyes from his piercing gaze to stared down at the logo on his tracksuit instead. The grip she had on her mug tightened consciously. She was fighting the urge to touch her hair or mouth.

Did she have something in her teeth? Had she said something she wasn't supposed to?

It only took her seconds to realise her faults, so she tried to compensate by returning his gaze and lifting her chin.

"You're turning out to be a really interesting girl Sapphie." He grinned, returning her gaze.

Was her face heating up even more?

"Colour me curious. I wasn't interesting before?"

Her own question made her inquisitive enough to want to know what he thought of her after their encounter the other day.

"Not that you were not interesting. I didn't know as much about you before. It's good that we're talking now. I like getting to know people, especially those I work with."

Was he making eyes at her? Surely it was all in her head. This was a strictly platonic meal. She needed to get it together, perhaps that was how acted with everyone in any conversation. It meant he was engaged, right?

She cleared her throat, "Enough about me. I've got a question for you," she said, "but I don't know if you'll answer."

"Try me." He ate the last of his fruit and moved onto his cereal.

"If you ever had to give up football, for whatever reason. What would be your next step?"

He'd thought about it before. Everyone knows it only takes one serious injury to cut a player's career short. During times when he was forced to stay home because of an injury or in physio, he couldn't help but think about nothing else but this topic. Those were the only times he ever thought about retirement. Ever. Though he didn't like it, he knew that was part of life. Things could change in the time it took to snap your fingers.

Going back to Sapphie's question, he wasn't ready to retire. Far from it. He was only twenty-six, that was about at least ten more years of him playing at his peak. That's if he was lucky and didn't get hurt. This sport was everything to him. He ate, breathed, slept and drank football. So, him even considering anything else out of the question was almost impossible for him. But at the same time, he couldn't see himself becoming a couch potato. No.

"I'm sorry. Was that too personal? It's okay if you don't answer, I was just curious."

"You've done nothing wrong by asking that. I was just thinking." He smiled. He thought it was only fair he answered her. After all, he'd asked her some personal questions too.

"To be honest, thinking about not being able to continue with football for any reason scares me. Because to me, football is something more than just a passion—I can't resist it. But if I had no choice but to stop, I think I would take up coaching. Just to stay connected to the game."

"That's logical." She nodded, "you're an extremely talented player though and I've seen you during practice. You're a hard worker and it shows on the pitch."

Kylian laughed, "My dad once said that my love for the sport almost put him off sometimes. Even though at the time he was my coach."

"You're that addicted huh?" she grinned.

"I can never get enough of it. I can even watch up to five matches back-to-back."

Sapphie rolled her eyes and groaned, "Argh, you sound like my brothers. Trying to get the remote from them when its regular season is like trying to pull King Arthur's sword from the rock!"

"I think I'd get along with this brother of yours." They got up with their empty dishes and took them to the kitchen.

"Oh, I have no doubt about that. The boy practically idolises you." He leaned against the counters and crossed his arms whilst she rinsed her plate and cup.

"But really." She said, "you still have your career ahead of you and I hope you never have to give it up until it's time."

"Only..." she stepped back with a smirk, "like with the negative energy, don't ever let all the compliments get to your head. Just...do you. After all, nobody likes a bonehead, especially if they are a superstar."

Sapphie winked, leaving him in the kitchen grinning knowingly.