“You look beautiful. You always do,” I say, my voice low as I pick up my own menu.
Lily casts her eyes at me over the rim of her menu, a slight content smile on her lips, before her eyes drop down to the menu again.
The next few weeks will be hard, but something tells me they’ll be amazing, too.
Chapter 4
Lily
I don’t know if it’s the jetlag that’s messing with my brain, making me hallucinate and imagine things.
Sebastian just called me beautiful.
I can’t help but smile at his compliment, and his obvious discomfort when he thought he had insulted me.
Sebastian James being flustered was something I never thought I would see.
It’s been a long day, and as he suspected, I’m not too keen on being photographed by a bunch of paparazzi when we’ve stayed awake all day to avoid jetlag.
I can’t wait to get back to my fabulous apartment, take a long shower, and wash away a tiring day, before falling into bed, preferably sleeping for at least twelve hours.
“We should make a schedule for our meetings, and I’ll send you my program of practices and games,” Sebastian says.
The leading proponent of my assignment is my interview with Sebastian, in which he shares his thoughts on performing.
Calling it an interview when he’s such a close friend feels a little weird, but I’m hoping we can set a professionalboundary so he sees me as a researcher rather than a friend in those settings.
I want to write a stellar assignment, and I hope he’ll be open and share as much as possible about how his brain works in sports.
How does he think?
What’s different when he has a good game compared to a bad one?
How does he handle tough periods?
Does he have any specific routines?
I’ll also be observing him during practice and games. That might be the aspect I’m looking forward to the most.
Seeing Sebastian excel in a sport he’s good at—the atmosphere of eager sports fans is always electrifying.
“Yeah, I’ll probably tag along for most of it, but I’ll stay out of your hair,” I say, hoping he won’t get too tired of me hanging around.
He is a professional athlete, after all, with an intentional focus on his career, and I plan to stay in the background as much as I can so he can focus on his tasks and job.
Him taking time out of that to help me with the paper is very thoughtful of him.
“Yeah, we can go over the schedule tomorrow when we’ve both had a good night’s sleep.”
Our food arrives, and we both inhale our meal, hungry after a long day with little food in our system.
We eat in comfortable silence.
Doing this project on someone you know well has its perks.
I don’t really have to build a relationship with Sebastian. I already know him, and he knows me, which makes this easier.
If my original plan didn’t get abandoned, I’d have to spend some time building a relationship with the athlete, but with Sebastian, that time is spared.
