Soul Harbour

0.20|when winning a bet|

0.20|from Sabah's tape-recorder: when winning a bet|

"Why are you so freaking late?" Auburn asked the moment they sat down at 'their' table. I stifled a laugh.

Anthony took off his Real Madrid jacket to reveal an auburn t-shirt inside. An auburn t-shirt. Can believe how much they are meant to be? He reached up with his slender fingers to sweep his hair to one side, "Uh, everyone was celebrating and it was my debut so I couldn't have left earlier."

I asked with a sly smile, "Were there any models there?"

"No," he said easily, without catching my drift. "Just Mister, that is, Coach Benitez, all the players and their family members." He smiled hugely, "I think the people like me and Iwassonervous but," he laughed, "it actually went pretty good. I just can't believe the debut was good. Have you seen my passing average? It's so-"

He stopped suddenly, "Sorry, I don't want to bore you two with statistics..."

"Are you crazy? It's your day and you rocked it. Go one, we want to hear all the statistics," Auburn looked at him warmly after giving me a glare for having mentioned her jealousy-inspired-imagined-model.

When the coffee was done, I set out three cups and while I was pouring out the dark, aromatic liquid, I looked at Anthony whose fingers were as usual mere millimetres away from Auburn's. "So, Anthony, did your family members come to see you? Are they here?"

His smiled immediately dropped and he swallowed, looking out of the window, sad grey eyes unfocused on the dark alley outside. Almost immediately I wished I hadn't asked the question. He turned and looked at me, with a poorly attempted smile, "No. They were-uh-busy." He took a deep breath, "Besides, my brother had a match today so coming here would have meant missing it..."

"Your brother is a footballer?" Auburn frowned. "Is he famous?"

"Mikhail Kroff? Plays for the German National Team and Bayern Munich?" Anthony replied calmly.

I looked at Auburn's face to judge if Mikhail was a huge deal which judging by her shocked, open mouth, I guessed he was.

Her violet-blue eyes were round as she exclaimed, "Mikhail Kroff is your brother!? Of course, you two have the same surname. Wow, he's a legend already." She explained to me, "The main reason Germany won the World Cup was Kroff. He's Germany's best striker and I don't need to actually follow Bundesliga to know that. No wonder you're so talented, Tony."

Anthony looked as if he would pass out, "Th-thanks." He tried to cover up his discomfort by looking very interestedly at the table cloth as his pale fingers drew some unseen pattern on the cloth.

Auburn bit her lip, sensing that something was wrong. She reached for his hand and held it between both of hers, "But I suppose, after today, people are going to refer to Mikhail as Anthony Kroff's brother."

Anthony looked up catching her honest stare. His eyebrows were raised in disbelief as his lips parted for words that wouldn't come out.

She shrugged, "It's the truth." And the best thing about the girl was that you knew when you looked at her that she absolutely, totally, remarkably believed it to be true.

So did I.

Anthony blushed as he finally broke out his shock and gave a small smile, his pale cheeks colouring to a pastel pink, "Danke." He didn't draw back his hand. Instead, he slowly reached with his other hand to cover hers.

"Coffee is here. Ta-da," I placed the tray between them.

They looked away shyly, drawing their hands back.