A few hours later, I reached for the water bottle with my name on it and dropped onto the grass of the pitch, completely exhausted. Practice had felt like a trial in hell, as the temperature had only barely dropped since the afternoon and was still above 30 degrees Celsius. Somehow Jonatan still thought it was necessary to practise our speed today.
I got up again, undid my braid, and shook my hair vigorously. They were still soaking wet from all the sweating, freaking disgusting. Suddenly I felt a strong hand on my shoulder and spun around. Mapi was standing in front of me with her arms now crossed.

"Can you please come with me?"

How stupid did she think I was? No amount of money would make me go anywhere with her, especially if there were no witnesses. Determined, I shook my head.

Mapi rolled her eyes. "Don't make such a fuss about it. We'll stay on the pitch, okay?"

Had Klara been right and Mapi wanted to apologize? If so, this was a terrible attempt though. My curiosity overtook and I followed her to the other end of the pitch, where she stopped at the rail.

"I..." Mapi stammered. Suddenly she looked vulnerable, very different from just a moment ago in practice where her anger got the best of her once again. "Listen, Emilia. I want to apologize to you. The way I acted towards you was really immature. It's not your fault that I don't support Jonatan's decision literally recruit every single midfielder on this planet. You have to believe me though, it has nothing to do with you personally." She lifted her head a little, her eyes looking directly into mine, but this time, I couldn't see any emotion in them. "And uhm... well I now know that misread your intentions on Monday" she grinned cheekily.

That was all I needed to hear to know that Mapi hadn't magically changed overnight, but definitely just doing this for Alexia. How else would she have known about my intentions?
I gave myself a push, because after all, I was at least partly to blame for what had happened on Monday. We were never going to be friends, that was sure, but at least I had an enemy less.

"Apology accepted. I promise you that you have nothing to fear from my side, neither in the game nor in private. I could have actually told you that on Monday, but..."I let out a small laugh and shot her a quick look. "But to be honest, you're a little scary with your neck tattoo and all."

Mapi took a step toward me and put her hand on my arm. Her fingers felt cold and tingled on my hand, but she quickly removed it again and I began to wonder if what I felt had just been a cold breeze.

"We have team bonding again at a restaurant this Sunday" she changed the topic almost a little too quickly for my liking. "A couple of us are going to the beach after practice and then straight to said dinner. If you want, you can come."

I raised my eyebrows. An invitation from Mapi herself? It was fairly not the nicest invitation I had ever gotten, but I gladly took it.
Mapi nodded in acceptance and told me to follow her to the locker room, thus declaring the conversation was over. Silently we walked across the pitch and finally entered the locker room, where our teammates were already getting ready to leave. I had to hurry as well because Antonia had finally convinced me to go on a date with her. I reached for my cell phone to see if she was already here.

[13/08/2024 19:57:39] antonia.vargas.24: See you later, I'm looking forward.
[13/08/2024 21:05:17] antonia.vargas.24: I'll be there in half an hour:))

On the one hand, I was excited to see her in person, but on the other hand, I was kind of hoping she would still cancel, because I was afraid we wouldn't get along right away.
I sighed and wrote a quick message on WhatsApp to Klara to keep her updated on the latest developments.

[13/08/2024 21:16:00] Emilia: You were right! Mapi apologized to me.

Seconds later, I noticed the check marks turning blue meaning she'd read my message and would reply soon.