andante ❈ benjamin pavard

FOUR

The silence of the ride was interrupted by Zoe's stomach loudly grumbling. Zoe had fallen asleep while Ben quietly sang along to whatever was playing on the radio. But her stomach grumbled again, even louder, so loudly that it woke Zoe up and caused Ben to lower the music.

With a slight smile, he asked her, "You hungry?"

"Maybe a little," Zoe responded. Now that she had to think about it, Zoe could not remember the last time she had anything to eat. The last time she for sure recalled eating was her lunch break at work. She was supposed to cook when she got back to her apartment, but she refused to cook with Gabin at the apartment, because she didn't want him eating her food. And Margot didn't want to stop and get snacks on the way to Noelle's. So the last time Zoe put anything in her mouth was yesterday afternoon.

"You're lucky your stomach grumbled when it did, my favorite pizza place is a few miles ahead," Ben told her.

"Isn't that where you broke up with Nina Girard?" Zoe asked, before she could stop herself. Shit. She didn't know why she had such a big mouth. Word vomit, as they said. Sometimes, she couldn't help herself. Ben didn't seem to take offense to it though, as he responded with a laugh.

"Oh, yeah, it is. I ordered like, three pies afterwards because I felt so bad," Ben confided, with a ghost of a smile on his face. "I felt like shit the next day at training."

Nina Girard was the It Girl of Maubeuge, until she moved away a few years ago. Zoe thought that she and Ben were going to get married because they had dated for such a long time— four years to be exact. The worst four years of young Zoe's dramatic life. They broke up because Nina was moving, and Ben was already living at Lille. From the snippets that Zoe heard, Nina wanted to stay together and try long distance, probably because Ben already established that he was going to make it as a professional footballer, but Ben didn't think their relationship was worth the try. They had already been on multiple "breaks", and that was when Ben first got with Noelle, who was Nina's close friend. The night of Nina and Ben's breakup, Nina and Zoe's brother Mathieu hooked up, which caused a rift between Ben and Mathieu. It was also the reason why Zoe was surprised that they still talked. They had gotten over it, sure, but they were still not as close as they were pre-Ninagate.

"I feel like shit whenever I look at pizza," Zoe said, shifting in her seat. She glanced at the radio, and 2:56 blinked back at her. They had at least another two hours before they were in Paris, and the pizza stop would take another thirty minutes. All Zoe wanted to do was be in a nice, comfy bed. She bet Ben's bed was super nice, because Ben was a super rich hot shot football star, and super rich hot shot football stars could afford nice beds. She bet his hotel room had a view of the Eiffel Tower and everything.

A few minutes later, Zoe and Ben were pulling into the parking lot of De Cherie. It was a tiny, cute place sandwiched between a hair salon and a post office. Both were closed.

Zoe got out of the car and followed Ben into the joint, where he was clearly known and Zoe knew it wasn't just because France had just won the World Cup. It was an intimate type of knowing. The hostess, whose name tag read Olivia, immediately hugged Ben when he walked in.

"Benjamin! We haven't seen you in so long. Almost thought you forgot about us." Olivia smiled, messing up Ben's curls. Zoe watched the interaction, a corner of her lip quirking into a small smile. It was cute, she couldn't deny that.

"You? Never." Ben gave a smile of his own right back at Olivia, who was fairly tall with wavy black hair and brown eyes. "How's Nicolas?"

Olivia rolled her eyes. "His terrible twos extended into terrible fives, but I love him. Etienne is out back, do you want to speak to him?"