When we reached the port again I gathered all my courage as I descended the stairs. I saw the place was swarmed with paparazzi and Bruna was escorted through them to a car.

"Some of the guys are going out in Rio for a bite since the cruise ended early, are you up for it?" Alex asked me.

"Not really. I feel exhausted." I said as we waited our turn to leave. "But you should go."

He started to protest but I cut him. "Really. I mean it." I said. Discreetly I pushed him behind a wall where no one would see us.

I kissed him on the lips.

"I really don't have to go." He murmured between kisses.

 I giggled. "Oh yeah?"

"I am really exhausted." He said as he moved towards my neck. I closed my eyes and pushed my head back.

"Mmm."

"Alex? Alex?" We heard someone say and pulled apart quickly.

Peter emerged from behind the wall. "Ah, here you are." He said. He looked at us quizzically. "Am I interrupting?"

"No." We both shook our heads but Alex's cheeks were so red they probably gave us away.

"So Marcelo is waiting for us. You are still coming?" Peter asked Alex. The tone in his voice suggested that he thought Alex might ditch him for me and it all must have hit him too close to home after Marina.

"Yeah." Alex said. "Let's go."

It was mayhem out there. Police had arrived to contain the people and we made it to the cars.

We found Marcelo with David and Sarah.

"Sarah this is Alex and Peter, guys this is Sarah, David's girlfriend." I made the introductions.

"We should go." Marcelo said and the guys followed him.

"So what are your plans?" I asked David and Sarah.

"We were thinking of going to dinner too. Would you like to join us?" Sarah asked me.

"No way. You two should go alone."

"And how are you going back?" David asked me.

I knew that if I said I had no idea they would insist on driving me but I didn't want them to miss the chance to go out together after they hadn't seen each other in so long. And seeing David happy was everything.

"I am actually going with the guys." I lied.

"Really? Okay then have a great time!" David said.

I nodded and moved along the parking lot. I saw David and Sarah leave. The parking lot was almost deserted now and no one paid any attention to me so I pulled my hoodie up and started walking.

"And where are you going exactly?" I heard a voice behind me. So much for my great escape plan.

"Thiago." I said when I turned around. I looked at the face he was making, as if he was 007 and couldn't help but smile.

"I hadn't decided." I said.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked me smiling too.

"Sure." I said.

"So where is your other half?" He asked me as we started walking.

I opened my mouth to answer but closed it again, realizing I had no idea who he was referring too. It could be David, Neymar or even Alex.

"Half? I am not sure who you mean."

"You are right. Where are your other quarters?"

"Haha, you are a funny one." I joked. "Isn't that your car?" I asked as we walked past it. "You're gonna leave it here?"

"It depends on what you wanna do. Are we going for a walk or back to the compound?"

"Let's go for a walk. So where is Belle?" I asked him.

"Sao Paulo. With the kids."

"Ah. Are they coming at all?"

"Yeah probably. They will be here for the first game definitely. And maybe before that."

"Cool. You must miss them."

"Yeah I do. But when you are training like that, living in the compound, it's almost like living a different life."

"Yeah I know what you mean. It's so surreal. Two weeks ago I was at school, doing papers and going to class. And today I was sunning in a yacht."

He laughed.

"It was awful."

"That bad?" He asked.

"It made me realize I am definitely not the type to go on cruises."

"What type are you?"

"I am figuring it out I guess. Scavenger hunter isn't that bad."

He laughed again. "I wanted to play too!"

"Maybe we'll do one in every city, if we have the time."

He nodded. "So where would you like to go?" He asked me.

"Nowhere in particular. Just pull your hoodie up or we really won't be able to go anywhere."

"Two weeks in and you are already looking over your shoulder." He commented.

"I have already been burned, don't forget." I answered.

"Yeah, I know. It's hard but... Football is everything around here. So everyone wants to know what footballers are up to."

"Especially him, ha?" I asked pointing at a huge caricature of Neymar painted on a wall.

"Especially him."

We walked around for a little while and when it started to get dark went back to get Thiago's car to drive back to the compound.

"You are a good leader you know. I can see why Scolari chose you. You have this... I don't know calm, underlying power."

"Thanks Livvie. I hope I can take us all the way."

"I have faith that you will."

When we went back to the compound I went for a quick shower and to change my clothes and we agreed to meet up again in the game room in a half hour.

When I went to the game room there was no one there and I settled on one of the couches, propping my foot up.

I woke up by the voices and saw that it was pitch black outside. I don't know for how long I had dozed off.

"Hey sleepy." Thiago said. He was sitting on an armchair across from me talking with Neymar.

"Hi." I told them. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Not too long." Neymar said. "I didn't know you were coming back. I thought you went to dinner with Marcelo and the others."

The only one I had told that to was David and Sarah and I realized Neymar must have asked them.

"I run into Thiago and we decided to walk around the city for a while." I told him.

He nodded.

"Neymar was angry we didn't invite him." Thiago said.

Neymar turned to look at Thiago but I wasn't sure what he told him.

"I thought you'd go with Bruna."

"No." was all he said.

"So how about a movie?" Thiago asked.

"Are we past dinner?" I asked.

"I'm sure Meerene could whip something up." Neymar said and stood up. We followed him to the restaurant where he found Meerene and talked to her.

"I hope you didn't ask her to do something too difficult." I said.

"Nah. I'll come back in 20 minutes to get it. Let's go."

We went back to the game room and I settled back on the couch.

"So have you seen 'Goal'?" Neymar asked me.

"Yeah."

"Yeah? Really? All three of them?" He asked in astonishment.

"Yeah. But I wish I hadn't seen the last two." I said.

"Truer words were never spoken." Thiago commented.

We laughed.

"How about the notebook?" I asked them. The look on their face made me realize they had both been forced to see it at least once in their life. "I'm only kidding! God, I hate that movie!"

Thiago let out a sigh of relief.

"So you don't like romantic movies?" Neymar asked me.

"I never said that. I just don't like cheesy ones."

"So what would you like to see?"

"I am up for anything. Drama, comedy, action-adventure... I don't like sci-fi that much to be honest."

We all looked at each other trying to think of something but no one spoke. "Okay I know what we are going to do." I said. "It's the only choice really."

"And what's that?" Neymar asked looking amused already.

"Harry Potter marathon of course." I said and started giggling.

When the movie was ready to play, Neymar went back to the restaurant to get our food. I smelled it before he came back.

"Homemade pizza? Meerene rocks!" I said and Neymar flashed me a smile. I sat back on the couch and Neymar set the huge plate on my lap as he sat next to me, Thiago who was sitting on the other side pressed play.

Neymar took out his phone and took a picture of all of us.

"Instagram again?" I asked rolling my eyes.

"Of course. I have to keep my followers updated."

I couldn't help but laugh. "I hope I don't look horrible."

"You look beautiful." He said and I quickly turned my eyes to the screen, pretending I didn't pay much attention to his comment.

Soon my phone started ringing like crazy.

"You haven't disabled the notifications, have you?" Thiago asked me amused.

"I didn't have a reason to! I had no notifications!" I said. "You tagged me?" I turned to Neymar.

"I might have." He said and winked at me.

"Untag me!" I said outraged.

"It won't do you any good now." Thiago said. "Once it's out there, it's out there."

"Oh my God." I said as I shifted through my phone's setting to disable the notifications. "I am not sure I ever want to look." I said.

Neymar smiled. "You are not into Instagram a lot. I am following you and I haven't seen you post anything since you first got here."

"Except the picture of the pond." We said together. We looked at each other and for a moment I could feel the tension in the air. Then we started laughing.

"Internet stalker much?" I mocked him.

"You've got to do what you've got to do." He said cryptically.

We focused on the movie once again and I munched on my pizza. It was delicious. I was getting used to Meerene's superb cooking and I wondered how I could leave it behind when I had to go back. Looking at Neymar I wondered how I would leave a lot of great things behind.

I sighed and they both turned to look at me.

"What was that?" Neymar asked me.

"What was what?" I asked.

"You sighed. But why?" He asked, looking between the screen and me. I looked at the screen too and saw Harry and Ron fighting the troll in the bathroom. "Are you crushing on the troll?"

I shoved a pillow in his face. "No, I sometimes forget to breathe and then I have to take a deep breath."

They both started laughing. "Forget. To. Breathe." Neymar said between laughs. "How can you forget to breathe?"

I threw a pillow at him again. "Stop talking, we are missing the movie." I said.

How would I leave all this behind? I wondered. And at the same time I asked myself how could things be so simple and so difficult at the same time, with me and Neymar. When we were together, alone or with a couple of friends like now, it seemed to me like nothing could go wrong between us. But whenever we were in 'public' it was a different story. In public we were just acquaintances. In public we didn't spend time together. In public he had a girlfriend and after today I probably had a boyfriend too.

I felt guilt as soon as I thought of Alex. Technically I wasn't doing anything bad right now, but what I was thinking about was just as bad. And it wasn't fair. I liked Alex and I felt great when I was with him. But when I wasn't I didn't long to see him again, or touch him, or kiss him. And that wasn't what relationships are supposed to be like. At least not to me.

Looking at Neymar again I realized that I was only myself around him when we were alone or with Thiago and David. All other times I had to pretend and be detached. Was he doing the same?

I thought about how distant he was in the boat today and I believed that he did. Maybe he wanted us to be friends but didn't want his girlfriend to be worried or jealous and that was a good thing, that he was so considerate. But maybe I should help him make sure that Bruna had nothing to be jealous of.