Chapter Three

After practice, Kylian still couldn't get the memory of that girl getting hit by his stray ball out of his head. Was she really, okay? He never got to properly apologize, not that she'd let him anyway. After his shower, he decided he'd look for her and make sure everything was okay. She ended up in the hospital because of his stunt.

Talk about first impressions, he sighed. Technically it hasn't the first time he'd met her, what did Ney say her name was? Sapphie? He remembered seeing her around quite often. Mostly during practice or when they had a match, he almost always saw her with their equipment manager. Other than a few exchanges when he needed a new pair of cleats after breaking his laces during a game or something like that, he'd never really had a decent conversation with her before.

As he followed the directions to her office, the equipment room, he couldn't help but mull over her words again.

"Yeah, no thanks to you again..."

Had he had a run in with her before? If so, he couldn't seem to remember. He bet the fact that he couldn't even recall it made her seem like the jerk she probably was painting him to be. Most of the times he didn't care what people thought of him. Online or in real life. His job was to focus on his game, his career—no negative energy. But this was different, Sapphie was art of the crew that made it possible for him and the guys to be able to play at their best. In his eyes, she was part of his team, and if there was anything he valued apart from being at the top of his game, it was maintaining good working relationships with everyone at the club.

When he knocked on the door labelled 'sports equipment', no one answered. According to the coach, she spent most of her time here. Kylian checked his watch. It wouldn't be surprising if she'd already left, but to be sure he continued down the hallway and knocked on the open door labelled 'Pierre Blanchard—Equipment Manager'.

"Pierre?" He called.

"Kylian! Entre, come in!" One hand pressed his cell phone to his ear while the other stubbed out the cigarette butt, "just one moment."

It only took about a minute for him to finish with his phone call.

"Why don't you take a sit?" Kylian, eyeing the small office, only leaned against the door frame.

"Sorry, I won't be staying long. I was just looking for your assistant?"

Pierre paused and tilted his head, "Sapphira?" Did something happen? Did she do something wrong?"

Sapphira. He made a mental note to remember that for later.

Kylian raised a brow.

Weird.

"Does she usually do that?" He asked.

Pierre just laughed it off with a wave of his hand.

"It's just that I've been having some problems with her recently," he steepled his fingers and sat back in his chair. The action didn't go unnoticed by the latter.

Kylian's brows furrowed and he stood up a little straighter, "Huh, really? What kind?"

"Oh, you know. Backchatting, consistently being late to work and thinking she can get away with it," the older man huffed, "frankly I hate working with her sorts—difficult to manage. Just one more mistake and she'll be kissing this job goodbye. You can only make so many errors on the job and keep it, am I right?" He laughed.

Kylian kept his expression neutral. Even as one of the best professional footballers in the world and being a French citizen with mixed blood, he was no stranger to racism. He could spot a racist person from a mile away. Pierre had reminded Kylian why he disliked the man. That and his beady little eyes.

The only reason Pierre and other people like him treated him any different from his assistant was that unlike her, he'd amassed enough money to almost make people forget the colour of his skin. It automatically had him warming up to Sapphira. In a way.

"It's nothing serious I hope, whatever you're here for?" Pierre's question broke his musing.

"No, nothing like that. The entire thing was my fault actually." He said, "So... is she around?"

"Sorry, Kylian. Sapphira knocks off at four pm. Perhaps I can help in some way?"

"I don't think so. Accidentally hit her with a stray one during practice, just wanted to apologize that's all."

He decided he'd leave it at that and try again tomorrow, but his curiosity got the best of him. He didn't know how he could find out whether he'd done something to offend her in the past and he definitely wasn't going to outright ask Pierre that. But maybe asking a little about her could help him understand her behaviour today.

"How long has she been working here?"

Pierre cocked his head and tapped his fingers against his desk, "Hmm, let's see...about two years and some months now. As far as I know she started out as an intern. Her contract was extended and she was offered to stay on as an assistant just before I came around."

Kylian knew she'd been around for a while. Now that he looked back over the years, he realised she was almost at every game, almost always around but it was like she was so good at melting into the shadows or something. He liked to think that he now understood a little bit about her. Perhaps her outburst had had less to do with him and more to do with the jerk of a boss she had.

"Thanks, Pierre. I guess I'll just take off then." He left with a mock salute, making sure to close the door behind him.

***

The next morning Sapphira woke up very early, got ready for work and helped her mother with getting the boys ready for school. They were always envious that she got to work with some of their favourite football players while they were stuck in school all day. Every morning she never heard the end of it, especially since she'd never managed to get tickets to a live game. Those things were expensive.

But she always ended the whining by giving them a long monotonous lecture about patience and a thing called 'saving'. They rarely ever allowed her to finish it before they got bored out of their minds and willingly opted to finish getting ready for school. Since her mother had taken the graveyard shift at the hospital the previous night, she volunteered to drive the boys to school and was at work by seven am sharp.

After draining her second cup of coffee, she promptly set up the players' practice gear in their lockers, pumped up the balls and made sure their lounge was stocked with fresh foods and snacks for breakfast. By the time the team started arriving, she was just about done setting up drills on the field according to the coach's directives.

From the moment she woke up until then, she finally got to get off her feet at around lunch time. She hung up the phone and dropped into her chair. Now that final details of the team's away game in Manchester, scheduled to be played in two days were taken care of, she could breathe a little easier. She was rubbing her tired eyes when someone knocked softly at her wide-open door.

"Kylian!" She shot to her feet. Almost immediately her cheeks started heating up when her brain recalled the altercation from the previous day. Her own mother would have been ashamed at her behaviour. Goodness, who was she kidding? Even she was ashamed by her own behaviour.

"Sapphira? Hello, I hope this is not a bad time?" he asked.

"No, not at all. Come in." she beckoned him into the storage room that also doubled as her office. Kylian walked up to her desk but, like her, he remained standing.

"You look better than I expected. You're good?" He asked while gesturing at his face. Despite her being put off by having to deal with the after effects of his pranks, she'd always had some amount of respect for the man. The fact that he'd cared enough to look for her even a day after their little incident had happened, didn't go unnoticed by her. It touched her that he'd cared enough to check on her. Speaking from hanging around the team just about every day, she knew how their schedules could be gruelling too. It only made his empathetic gesture more endearing.

"Oh, that... yeah. I'm fine, you have nothing to worry about." She nodded. It was nothing a little foundation couldn't fix, but he didn't need to know that. Besides, the area that got bruised was too small to make a fuss over.

Kylian nodded.

"Actually," she cleared her throat," it's good that you're here—I mean I was going to look for you but...this is convenient. I've been meaning to have a quick word with you but I... never got the chance to actually...." Her words faded away.

Was it that hard to apologize?

"I want to apologize for my behaviour yesterday. You were just trying to make sure I was okay when I was being rude and unprofessional."

She tried to not cringe as yesterday's events played back in her mind. As a person who thought herself to be level headed,

"It's fine. It was careless of me to do what I did and you were the one who ended up getting hurt."

"No," she shook her head, "it still doesn't excuse my behaviour. I'm not using this as an excuse, I promise—I was...dealing with some things and it was unfair of me to take out my frustrations on you. Especially when you even tried to help me."

"It's funny." He laughed, "I came here to apologize but instead I'm now the on the other side of that table."

"It's just one thing though." He licked his lips, "you said something that implied we'd had another altercation before?"

Sapphie cocked her head to the side. Her forehead scrunched up. Then she opened her mouth in an 'O' as it hit her.

"Oh, that. I'm really sorry. It had to do with the prank you did, with the paint?"

He nodded.

"Though it threw my entire schedule off because I had to clean it, the problem I had with had less to do with me that it did with Mr Charbonneau. He is—,"

"...the janitor who usually cleans the locker room." Kylian nodded as if in understanding. Meanwhile, Sapphie couldn't hide the surprise that he knew the older man... and by name.

"Yes, my concern was for him." She said.

Kylian looked at her for a moment. He didn't say anything at first. Then once more, he caught her off guard when he finally spoke.

"Sapphie, to me you don't come across as the kind of Person who pulls her punches."

"Excuse me?" She frowned.

"Don't take offense. Don't be concerned by how I'll feel. I want to hear the truth. Say what you want to say."

"Okay," she flexed her shoulders and sighed, "I personally don't have an issue with pranks, but what I do have an issue with is when people do things without considering others. The person who had clean up after you is a fifty-five-year-old man. Imagine how that could have been for him."

He nodded in understanding and seemed to consider her words for a while.

"I get it, and if the roles were reserves I'm sure I'd have felt the same way. With that said, I will really think things through first before I make another prank."

Sapphie nodded, "Thank you."

"So, we are cool?" he asked.

Sapphie smiled.

"Don't worry. You won't find your gear shredded when we land in Manchester."

They laughed in unison.

"Okay, that's cool then. I guess I'll head back before lunch break is over. I'll uh, see you around."

"Likewise."

He'd just made it to the door when she called to him.

"Oh, Kylian?"

"Oui?"

"It's Sapphie. That's what everyone calls me."

He left with a smirk and a nod.

***

Early Friday morning, Sapphie was in the training facility's carpark. With the help of a couple of groundsmen, she was loading up the team bus with bags of equipment and taking stock. It was the day before their first match in the first leg of their round of sixteen. The team was drafted into Group A and PSG would be flying to the UK for their first match which was an away game against Manchester City. For every piece of luggage that was loaded up, she made sure it was accounted for on her checklist. The last thing she wanted to happen was for anyone, to have anything important missing when they landed. Pierre would surely have her head, then her job. She had to prove to him she could do this in her sleep.

Placing her clipboard on a nearby crate, she backtracked to the baggage carrier and lugged a thirty something kilogram bag onto her back and doubled back with a waddle to one of the bus's open trunks.

"Let me help you with those."

She looked up to see Kylian leave his suitcase asideand jog up to the carrier. Sapphie frowned.