Open Play: Ladies, Goals, The Everything System in-between
Chapter 54: [54] "Celebrating Captain Mateo"
The music was loud in Mateo’s home. It wasn’t as big as a mansion, but it had way more space than two adults and one kid needed.
It certainly had enough space for a wild team party.
"Happy Birthday to you"
"Happy Birthday to you"
"Happy Birthday dear captain"
"Happy Birthday to you"
The whole team including coach Henri sang with their full chests, Mateo’s birthday song.
"Shit. Y’all are making me tear up."
Mateo was in a floral shirt. It fit him perfectly the way it was almost completely unbuttoned.
Coach was in the teams tracksuit. Atleast he wasn’t wearing his usual suit for a change.
Juliette wore a casual gown. Luc wore a casual shirt, solid colour, without design.
Bastien, Cillian and Hugo wore-- they wore the complete team’s kit... boots included.
"They must’ve planned that right?" Juliette said to Luc, holding back her laughter.
"I told them we’re having a collective photoshoot in Mateo’s home. Sucks to be them, they didn’t even ask why it was at Mateo’s."
The interior of the house was decorated completely with birthday decorations. Luc and Juliette had helped Mateo’s wife, Ariana, set up decorations the day before. They had dropped their daughter with someone... atleast till when the party was over.
"Luc! That was a dirty lie." It was Hugo. He was trying his best not to fall. Cleats and shiny marble slabs don’t mix. "You must hate me now, huh. Trying to re-injure me before Paris in just two damn days."
He said all he had to say and carefully and slowly walked away, Bastien and Cillian right behind him.
The team hurdled around Mateo saying something that wasn’t entirely audible from where Luc and Juliette were standing.
"Why don’t you join them." Juliette said.
"You’ll be fine without me?"
"I’ll be even better. Go on. I’ll look for Ariana."
Luc walked over to the squad. They were talking about Paris Royal.
"Who needs Luc. Mateo will score a hattrick."
"Yh. And I’ll provide all 3 assists."
Ekberg and Lacombe. Both obviously drunk. They were both in sharp suits. But the faces they were making took the attention away from the suits.
"Yankee." Mateo saw Luc and hit his shoulder. "Why aren’t you drunk?"
"That’s a very good question." Luc replied.
[System Notification]
[You can’t get drunk with me around]
"Hmm."
----
They were all seated outside. In Mateo’s patio.
Mateo raised a half empty glass and hit it with a fork to get everyone’s attention.
Click. Click.
Ekberg and Lacombe had stopped their jitter. Ariana and Juliette had also stopped their conversation. Luc had stopped making fun of his fellow young teammates.
"I would sincerely like to thank everyone that showed up. And everyone that made this possible. My beautiful wife, Ariana. Juliette too."
"You’re forgetting someone." Luc said.
"I’m not."
The players and coach Henri laughed.
"No, but seriously. Thank you, yankee. Not just for helping plan my birthday. For changing this ass team."
"Careful." Coach Henri said.
The players laughed again.
"We now play like a team now. Like a family. It’s all because of you. Thank you, Luc." Mateo had finally called him by his name.
[System Notification]
[Mateo’s respect has increased]
[+3 leadership stats (permanent)]
Luc only nodded.
"I feel sad to be leaving in January." Mateo continued.
"We don’t need you." Hugo said it from the end of the table, completely deadpan, the new confidence in his voice unmistakable to anyone who had known him in August.
The table erupted.
Mateo pointed at him. "This kid." He shook his head, grinning. "This kid is going to be a problem one day."
"Already is." Luc said.
"I swear to SC Valois," Mateo said, raising his glass. The laughter pulled back, reading his tone. "I’ll give everything I have until the last day. Same as always. That doesn’t change."
Every person at the table stood.
Even Henri, who had to catch his chair as it scraped back on the patio stone, stood and raised his glass.
The applause was unrehearsed and genuine.
Mateo stood in the middle of it and let himself have the moment. The big tattooed captain in the floral shirt under the garden lights, his wife watching from across the table with an expression that had nothing to do with football.
---
The squad thinned out across the next hour.
Ekberg and Lacombe left with Henri, the coach herding them toward the taxi. It was obvious he had managed drunk footballers before and would again.
Cillian attempted to organize a second cab with Demirci and Hadj. This took longer than it should have because Cillian had mislaid his phone, which was in his jacket pocket, which he was wearing.
Bastien helped him find it.
Hugo said his goodbyes early. Not because the night had pulled thin for him, but because Juliette appeared at his elbow with the a message. Something he wanted to hear.
"Goodnight, Hugo." She said it with a pleasantness that left no room for argument.
"Night," Hugo said. He pointed at Luc as he went. "Paris Royal. Two days."
"Yeah, yeah."
Hugo left. His ankle had held all night, which he would not admit had been a minor concern. But nothing happened with it, no thanks to Luc’s prank.
---
It came down to just the four of them.
Luc and Juliette, Mateo and Ariana, sitting at the patio table that now had the debris of a proper celebration across it, bottles and glasses and a melted birthday cake that nobody had properly cut because the knife had gone missing after the first slice.
Ariana poured the wine she hadn’t opened yet. The fourth bottle of the night, a different label, something she’d been keeping for the right moment.
"To the captain," she said.
"To the captain," the other two said together, which was the first time all night they’d been synchronized about anything.
Mateo drank and set his glass down and looked at the garden past the lights.
"Paris Royal on Saturday," he said. "Away."
"We’re not talking about football tonight," Ariana said.
"I’m not talking about it. I’m just saying it." Mateo turned his glass in his hand. "I’ve played there twice. Both times we lost. It’s a different atmosphere. Even the tunnel feels different."
"Fontaine’s stadium," Luc said.
"His stadium. His crowd. His referee on a good day." Mateo put the glass down. "You’ll need everything you have."
"I’ll have it."
Mateo remembered when Luc was still a college kid and the league was still nothing but theory to him.
"I know you will," Mateo said.
Ariana refilled the glasses before anyone could argue with her.
The garden was quiet around them. The lights moved slightly in the cold November air. Somewhere down the street a door closed, and the sound of it carried all the way to the patio.
Juliette leaned her shoulder against Luc’s arm.
"Tonight, none of that Paris shit." Luc said.
"Tonight s Mateo’s."