“Something happened,” she says, her already low voice dropping a register. She reaches over and waves her fingers in my face. “Something changed. Here. Now.”
“Nothing has changed,” I tell her. “But I do think we’re running out of time. Marco said it would be a quick interview.”
That was true, though we aren’t running out of time. I just want her to go onto questions about the game, about the team. Right now I’d welcome being asked if I’ll stay with Sporting.
“Okay,” she says, then shrugs. “We can hurry it up. I know I can go on a tangent sometimes and there’s nothing more annoying than when an interviewer talks more about themselves.”
That hasn’t been the case, but I let her think that.
She gives me a quick smile. “Onto the game. You went to boarding school for football, and then when you were twelve you were accepted into the Sporting Academy. How much do you think your loyalty to the team lies in the fact that they are the ones that taught you, therefore they are the ones that own you? And that you owe them?”
Holy shit. Why did I think the questions were going to get easier?
I shake my head slowly and can’t help but grin, impressed. “Are you sure your blog is called Ruby’s Replay? I’m not going to find out this blog has millions of subscribers?”
“One day I will,” she says. “But not today.” Beat. A twinkle in her eye. “Are you going to answer the question, Mr. Ribeiro?”
“It’s Luciano.” I adjust myself in my seat, straightening up. “Do I feel loyalty to Sporting because I went to the academy? Of course I do. They taught me everything I know, it feels right to stay with the team that has always been there for you. It’s what the fans expect, it’s what Lisbon expects. I don’t know why people think I’ll go to Benfica.”
“That’s not where I think you’ll go,” she says. “You’re going to go somewhere else. Man U, perhaps. Inter Milan. Barcelona. You’re going to go to another team and become someone else’s hero. Just not Sporting. Because you’re too good for that.”
I can’t help but blink, taken aback by her bluntness. “You really weren’t kidding when you said you were my biggest fan.”
She laughs, her head thrown back, displaying a smooth pale throat. You’d think I was turning into a vampire from the way I was staring at it. “Oh, you are surprisingly naïve.”
“Me?” I jab my thumb into my chest. “What now?”
She leans in and whispers, enough that I catch a whiff of sweet perfume. “I lied about that. I only started doing research on you last week after a guy I met at a café told me he was your biggest fan.”
Well shit.
“But,” she adds quickly, “I quickly learned why he’d say that. I did my research. I’ve watched and rewatched your best games. You are pretty fucking good.”
“I’ll try not to let that go to my head,” I say wryly. “But it’s hard to believe you now. You swore on your mother’s rosaries.”
She shrugs. “She swore on her rosaries all the time too. Told me she wouldn’t do drugs anymore. Told me she wouldn’t drink anymore. Told me she wouldn’t violate her parole. She lied each and every time.”
I don’t want to talk about myself anymore. I want to talk about her.
But then movement catches my eye and both of us look over to the aisle where Marco is walking up the steps toward us.
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Marco says, sliding his hands into his pockets, wearing a slick new suit that must have cost a fortune. He comes to a stop beside us.
“Not at all,” Ruby says to him, though I’m not sure I’d answer the same.
“I hope my brother is behaving,” Marco says, glancing at me only briefly before smiling at her like a dumbass. I know that look. I’m pretty sure that’s how I’ve been smiling at her too.
“He’s as charming as I imagined,” she says, and now she’s smiling at him this same way.
Figures.
“We were just wrapping up,” I say, getting to my feet.
She gasps and reaches out, grabbing my forearm, my skin alighting where her fingers press against me. “Noooo. We’re not done. We’re just getting started.”
“Then how about you continue this interview tomorrow,” Marco says. “That way, Luciano, you can go home, do whatever it is you’re wanting to do, and I can take Ruby to dinner.”
Ruby’s hand falls away from my arm and she stares at Marco.
Bold fucking move, brother.
“Dinner?” Ruby asks.
Marco’s shoulders lift in that way he’s perfected. All the women fall for it. He pretends to not care, and I don’t even think he’s pretending half the time. “If you want. You said you’ve only been in Lisbon a week and I doubt you’ve been to Cave 24, the best restaurant here.”
She laughs. I loved the sound of her laugh when it was for me, not so much now. “Listen, I’ve been living in a hostel and subsisting on those famous little pastries for days. You can take me anywhere.”
“Good, it’s settled,” I say, squeezing past Ruby so she has to tuck her legs in to let me pass.
“Why don’t you come too?” Ruby calls out to me as I pass by Marco.
I glance at him and see the pure disappointment on his face. As the older brother, I really shouldn’t indulge my petty side and agree to crash their little date.
So I take the high road. I always do.
“I’ve got plans,” I say to her. I pat Marco on the shoulder. “Have fun. We’ll continue the interview another time.”
“I’m going to hold you to that!” Ruby yells at me as I head down the stairs.
My
