CC7

CC7 - Part 12

“Camila is not gone for good, she is not dead”, the brown-eyed said and smiled gently. “If you really feel that strongly about her then get yourself a plane ticket and go visit her!”

“You’re not serious?” I was baffled at his suggestion.

“Why not? It’s off-season anyway. What do you have to lose? You’re a mess already and there is still a chance she might have only said ‘No’ because she was about to leave the country”, he remarked. “If she says it’s over once you’re over there, at least you have closure. Then you’ll buy some expensive French wine, get hammered, fly back home and I’ll pick you up at the airport and drive you to Lexi’s dorm myself so she can choke the sadness out of you, or whatever else scary shit she did”, he added with a big grin.

I exchanged looks with Kristie who shrugged but also smiled. They were serious about this. The thought alone of doing something so drastic was causing my head to spin in possible outcomes. But Luis was right. I had nothing left to lose at this point. She was gone and I had to make more of an effort if I wanted any chance. If she’d deny then I would return to my apartment and probably not leave it for the next two months. For now I was running out of options though and a trip to Paris seemed to be my last shot.

-

Camila’s POV

My nerves were still killing me when I opened up my laptop and took a deep breath. It was first time Ariana had agreed to talk to me, other than exchanging text messages for the past weeks. Being able to see her, even if it was just via webcam, was a step in the right direction though.

Being in Paris was extremely strange and I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I was now living here. Thank God I wasn’t alone. None other than my best friend from back home had been playing for the Parisian soccer club for two years now. Dinah had family in France and was living with her sister, her husband and their little son. Lara and I had joined them in their admittedly big home and I was beyond relieved to have them around. Apparently the feeling was mutual because they urged me to stay for as long as possible whenever I emphasized that I didn’t want to burden them and would find an apartment as soon as I could. For now I was glad to be with them and who knew, maybe I would stay with them longer if they really didn’t mind.

But that was none of my concern as soon as I saw Ariana’s face appearing on the screen. Our situation was not the best but I wanted to see where our conversation would leave us.

Camila: Hey, it’s good to see you.

Ariana: Hi, good to see you too.

C: How are you?

A: I’m a little tired but nothing out of the ordinary. How are you doing with everything?

C: It’s an adjustment. But I’m trying to use this time before the season starts to ease into things.

A: How’s Lara doing with the move?

C: Surprisingly well! She’s doing a lot better than I am, to be honest. I think it has a lot to do with Dinah’s nephew being here. It’s like she finally has a sibling which is cute.

A: That sounds good. I’m glad to hear she’s doing okay.

C: Yeah but what about your meeting with the record label? How did that go?

A: It went better than I expected. I’m flying to LA next week to meet some other executives there. If I can impress them enough, they want to sign me to their label.