Fever Dream ~ Neymar Jr

Chapter 62

2018

"If my eyes don't deceive me, you've a beard going on." I told Peter as soon as I saw him come out of arrivals at the airport. I hadn't seen him since Marina's funeral but since then he had taken a sabbatical from school and he was working full time on 3P, albeit remotely. He had flown for the launch party tomorrow and then he'd stay for a few weeks to work from here. We had rented an office space, where Angelique and Morena worked, but it wasn't anything fancy.

"Do you like it?" He asked, hugging me. "I think it suits me."

"Well, if people weren't sure you were a geek before, they sure are now." I mocked him and he laughed.

"Alex says hi. He's bummed he can't be here." Peter said as we walked towards the car.

"Olivia! Olivia!" I heard and saw a little girl approach me. "Pouvons-nous prendre une photo?" She asked me.

"Bien sûr!" I told her, obliging to her request. I bent down and took a picture with her. She thanked me and happily ran back to her parents.

"I can't believe you're famous now." Peter said and I chuckled. "You know I spoke to Martin the other day."

"Really? It's been a while since I've heard that name." I said remembering my first teammates back in university.

"Apparently he's tried to contact you on Instagram but you haven't replied."

"That's been happening a lot lately." I said. "Give me his handle and I'll check it out. Unless what he's written me is so characteristically Martin that I wouldn't reply anyway."

Peter laughed. "No, he actually said he thought you were a great player, better than the rest of us anyway. And he didn't doubt you'd make it."

"That's nice of him." I said, a little bit surprised.

"He also said you looked really hot in those paparazzi pictures he saw."

"And that's more like him." I laughed as we got in my car.

"I love the wheels. What year is it?" Peter asked me. I knew cars was one of his passions.

"1966. It has the original engine." I told him and I half suspected he'd jump out to take a look. "How have you been?" I asked him when I started driving.

"Good. Good-ish. It's still hard. I hadn't seen her in so long, it's difficult to think of her as gone."

I nodded. I had thought the same. For us it wasn't the same as it was for my brother, where her absence was visible every day. "How is he? Michael?" Peter asked me as if he read my mind. They had a good relationship, considering the one was dating the other's ex. Not that they had many occasions to meet or talk.

"He's not doing that great. Between Marina being gone and rehab taking longer than he thought... He's actually at our place now, he came for the party too."

Peter nodded. "I don't know if it's my best idea, but maybe he and I can talk. After all, we both loved her."

"Yeah, I don't think that's a bad idea." I said, a wistful smile on my face. "Imagine if she were here for this party."

"It would definitely be a party then. She was the life of every room she walked into." Peter said.

"She was."

~*~

I looked at myself in the mirror for one final check before I left. I was wearing a satin, pleated midi dress in burnt orange with black strap sandals and a long black coat. It was a new dress, and was now the most expensive piece of clothing I owned. But we had to go all out today, because it was the soft launch of 3P!