It's Always Been You

Chapter 10

November 2021 - Lyon, France

After the international break, we had a match against Soyaux-Charente, which we comfortably won with a 1-6 score. Despite not scoring or assisting, I had a relatively good performance, and did play the full 90. It was coming up to our Champions league match against Bayern, and it was important that we won the game. Although Bayern definitely didn't have the best start to their European campaign, they were our strongest contenders in our group, and although there was almost a certainty that we would qualify for the quarterfinals, it was important that we finished top of the group as well, in order to make it easier for us to progress to the later rounds. They had drawn against Benefica during their first match, and so were second in the table at the moment, but would overtake us if they won.

Match kick off was at 9pm, quite a late start, so we had most of the day to rest, as it was a home match. Daan and I had been trying different coffee places all over Lyon, and it had become a regular occurrence after her suggestion in September, so initially we were going to try a different cafe somewhere, but instead we opted for an outdoor restaurant, as it was quite warm and winter was closing in soon, so we wanted to make the most out of the nice weather.

"Hey." I greeted, sitting down. Daan had already gotten us a table outside of a cute Italian restaurant, and I couldn't wait. Apart from coffee, I was such a foodie. I loved cooking and baking, especially when I'm in Sweden with my family, which was usually over Christmas time, and we loved making delicious meals and baking winter themed deserts.

"Valentine." Daan responded, her smile suddenly turning into one of interest, "Random, but why are you named Valentine?"

"I'm born on Valentine's day. I was originally going to be called Klara, and born two weeks after, around March, but I came early, a little bit of a surprise."

"Aw you're born on Valentines Day?" Daan said, smiling, "That's super sweet actually. Valentine's day, and Val's day of birth."

"You know that's the first time you've called me Val the whole time you've known me?" I responded, slightly shocked at the use of my nickname. Daan has always called me Valentine, as I had always called her Danielle, and it had never been any different.

"Well you're always calling me Danielle, and I like Valentine!" She protested, laughing.

"I never said there was anything wrong with it," I answered, shrugging. "To be honest Val has just stuck ever since I was young, but I don't really mind Valentine. I guess some people found it too long. Plus on the pitch having a shorter name is an advantage, it's easier to scream Val five thousand times than it is Valentine!"

The waitress soon brought our meals, with Daan ordering some sort of watermelon salad. I had never been a big fan of sweet and savoury mixed, but she was always looking to try slightly weirder combinations. I had gotten some avocado toast and eggs, along with a fruit salad, opting for a more breakfast focused meal.

"Cheers." I said, holding my glass of water up for Daan. Pulling out my phone to take a picture of her, she was caught slightly off her guard, but it ended up cute. "Look how nice this picture is." I said, showing her my phone.

"I love it." She exclaimed, quickly airdropping it to herself, sarcastically saying, "It's so amazing and demonstrates your perfect photography skills, that I'm going to post it on Instagram."

"Maybe caption it in French, if you have the imagination to think of a caption, even if it was in Dutch." I said, teasing her about her Instagram captioning skills.