"What is it?" He asked expectantly.

"Jorge's stairs." I said, showing him.

"Stairs again? And you know what it is?" He asked me.

I nodded. "It's the Escadaria Selarón." I said.

His face lit up. "You sure?"

"Positive. Chilean artist Jorge Selarón built it. It has to be right?"

He nodded.

We drove with the windows down and the breeze made me a little cold, since I was wet all over but I liked it. Neymar didn't speak at all and neither did I, but the silence was comfortable. My clothes had already started to dry.

I sneezed.

"That was the loudest sneeze I have ever heard!" He exclaimed.

"It runs in the family." I said.

He made a mocking face.

When we reached the place we run out of the car, our clothes dripping. We must have made an odd spectacle but I hoped it was only because we were wet and not because people recognized him. I am guessing Neymar running around Rio in wet clothes would make the news.

When we reached the staircase I stopped. "It looks so beautiful!" I said, looking at it. "You've been here before?"

He nodded affirmatively. "It finished a year ago I think." He said. "Liv I think we're gonna have to climb it." He gave me an uneasy look.

"I've got this." I said looking at him reassuringly.

"Alright." He put his arm around me again to help me. I leaned on him, trying to step on my hurt ankle as little as possible.

"The workout you wanted." I commented panting.

"No this is the one I was talking about." He said and with one swift move he turned me around and lifted me up.

"Neymar!" I exclaimed in surprise locking my hands around his neck and leaning on his back. He locked his arms around my legs to stabilize me and continued climbing the stairs.

"Now that's a good workout. If we go play some ball too it would be like a complete practice." He said.

"I hope you don't lose your balance. I mean we will only fall for about a hundred steps. No biggie."

He laughed as he continued climbing.  After a while he slowed down and I realized he was getting tired. I offered to climb down but he wouldn't have it.

When we made it to the top he let me down in front of a bench and then sat next to me exhausted. He was sweating and his cheeks were flushed, but it only made him look so much cuter.

I walked across the staircase and found the clue. When I read it I chuckled. "I'm gonna kill David! Seriously!"

"What does it say?" He asked me.

"Final clue. Go to Copacabana."

"That's not even a clue! We climbed 250 steps for that? I am going to help you kill him." He said.

"Let's rest for a few minutes." I said. I spotted a guy street vendor selling cold water and bought us two bottles. Neymar drank his in a gulp.

"Let's go." He said.

I was about to say we take a few more minutes but he stood up. He started walking towards me. "No. No way." I said when he tried to get me to climb on his back again. "Climbing down is much easier." I said. He was ready to refuse but in the end he nodded.

When we got down we saw Dani and Hulk running towards the staircase. Hulk was wet too.

"Give us the clue!" He said again.

"You have to climb mate." I said. "Just like the rest of us."

They started climbing as we got in the car. "We have a good lead." Neymar said.

"What are we supposed to do in Copacabana?" I asked.

"Probably something to do with swimming?"

"Then we've got this. Between your athletic abilities and me kicking your ass the other time, I think we are unstoppable." I commented.

"Who kicked whose ass?" He said as he started the engine. "As I remember it, I beat you."

"Your memory must be foggy." I said. "I kicked your ass." I hadn't. He had won, by a very small margin, but he had.

He chuckled. "Maybe we'll do a rematch." He said.

"Bring it on."

His eyes were focused on the road but his mouth formed a smile. And to think at the beginning of this trip we talked about how we shouldn't be around each other anymore. And now we were like the best of friends. Which was both good and bad I guess.

"Oh my God." I said as soon as we reached the beach. "So many people." Indeed I had never seen a more crowded place in my life.

"We should find David and Thiago." He said grabbing my hand.

We started making way. "And how do you propose we do that?" I asked him.

He gave me a smile but didn't say anything. Soon we reached the water and saw a commotion. There was a small yacht close to the shore and a lot of people swimming beneath it.

"We just found them." Neymar said.

"There are in the yacht?" I asked. "They own a yacht?"

"It's probably a rental. But I do, if you're interested."

"Of course you do." I said rolling my eyes at him.

"Hey! It's nice. It's in Sao Paulo now but when we go there for a game you should come. In the yacht I mean. Now, I suppose we are already wet so...?" He pointed at the sea.

"What about our phones? I don't think they are water resistant. They didn't really think it through. And I am not carrying it above my head."

"Although that would make for a funny sight, the yacht is coming ashore my dear friend. And of course I have thought this through."

"David!" I said turning around.

He and Thiago were standing behind us, wearing sunglasses and caps.

"You won!" Thiago said. "First ones to arrive!"

"That's it?" I asked.

"Why you wanted more?" David winked at me.

"I like a good competition as much as the next girl does."

"I had faith in you my dear friends." David said. "I knew you would make a good couple."

"Why are you calling us your dear friends all the time?" I asked.

"Because my dear friends, you are my dear friends."

I smacked him in the head. "So what did we win?" I asked.

"This." Thiago said pointing at the yacht. "Yours for the rest of the day."

"You rented a yacht for the winners?" I asked.

"Of course. A  nice tour of the coast, a romantic moonlit dinner... It's perfect right?" David asked.

"You didn't think this through really. I wonder if Hulk and Dani would have enjoyed a romantic moonlit dinner." I said but I was pretty sure David had those exact intentions and it was all part of his master plan.

"Like I said, I had faith in you guys."

I looked at Neymar and he was looking at me. Romantic dinner?

"Of course you can bring others in the cruise." Thiago said.

"No need." Neymar said quickly. "I see all of you all the time anyway."

I looked away from them. Neymar wanted to spend the rest of the day with me. It was wrong but yet it made my heart flutter.

We went into the sea for a swim as we waited for everyone else to arrive. Dani and Hulk came second.

"I still can't believe you made us climb all those stairs for nothing!" Hulk exclaimed.

Soon everyone had arrived and was having fun. I stepped out of the water and back to where we had left our stuff. Neymar's towel was there and I threw it around me. I had gone in the sea in my clothes since they were already wet from the fountain.

"Hey, congratulations." Alex said approaching me. We sat down on the sand.

"Thanks." I said.

"We would have come earlier too if we didn't spend so much time in the garden. It took us forever to find the clue. The water around the fountain was what tipped us off."

We must have made a mess around the fountain when we came out, I thought. I looked at the sea and spotted Neymar. He and David where talking, away from the others. They always talked in secret these days, I thought, but then again maybe I was the only one that paid attention to it.

"So you are going on the cruise?" Alex asked.

I nodded, not knowing what to say and he didn't push the subject. I suppose the right thing to do would be to invite him to come along, as Thiago said. But...

A few minutes later Neymar and David came out.

"Are you ready to go?" Neymar asked me. The yacht was at the port waiting for us and we would take the car there.

"Yeap." I said standing up.

His phone started ringing. He dug through the pile of clothes and found it. "Give me a sec." he said.

"Are you excited?" David asked me quietly so that Alex wouldn't hear.

"You are a sneaky bastard. But yeah... I am." I said smiling at him.

Neymar came back a few minutes later with a sad expression on his face.

"What happened?" I asked, my breath caught in my throat. He looked at me with an apologetic look for a second, but he quickly turned it into a passive one when everyone was looking at him.

 "Nothing." He said casually. "Um... We are meeting Bruna at the port."