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"I can't believe it! It's happening!”
"No, Celinho, it's not happening at all.”
“But it is! All this slander for the wedding incident, and all this time I was right!" Alisson swore he could hear Pitaluga bouncing in excitement from across the phone line. "You and Virg are going clothes shopping!”
“Yeah, and that's it. We're just making up for lost time, that's all.”
“Let me guess, Virgil read your diary again?”
“Well, sort of...but not exactly. I kind of owe it to him to cheer him up after he read one of my letters to myself.”
“Oh, not again. Well, you'd better get going. Don't want to be late for your date.”
"It's not a date, tonto. Te amo, falo com você mais tarde ." Alisson chuckled as he hung up the phone. By now, he was so used to the jokes about him and Van Dijk dating that he would just laugh along with whoever was making them. Van Dijk was a good friend of his, but to Alisson, the thought of dating him was like dating a best friend.
Alisson looked in the mirror again and adjusted his teal scarf, making sure he looked presentable. He'd promised to go shopping with Van Dijk the Friday before the Norwich match, but after Klopp's announcement that day neither had been in the mood to do anything of the sort. Between matches, interviews, rehab, and boosting the youngsters' confidence, Alisson and Van Dijk hadn't had much time to spend together in the past couple of weeks. But now things were starting to look up, and they'd finally found time to catch up.
"Ali!" Van Dijk called, leaning into the doorway. Van Dijk's room, which he shared with the Double Dutch and Quansah, was only six doors down the hall, but Alisson still was surprised when Van Dijk popped up out of nowhere. “Ready to go? If we get to the mall early, we can burn off all the calories by walking around!”
"What calories?" Alisson picked up his coat and followed Van Dijk out of the room and into the hall. "Are you plotting something again?"
Instead of answering, Van Dijk just smirked, crossing his arms. "It's a surprise. Wait and see, and then we'll both be glad not to get chased down the halls with Mona's meat tenderizing mallet.”
"Is it sweets?”
"It's a surprise!”
Alisson chuckled as he pressed himself to Van Dijk, leaning on his shoulder even though the two were almost the same height. "That sounds like sweets to me.”
*
They ended up driving Alisson's car to the mall. The fullbacks had been on a pranking spree ever since they found a box of old costumes in the basement, and, judging by the three-foot styrofoam Shrek head glued to the hood, Van Dijk's car was the latest victim.
“I’m going to kill both of them, one by one, and fry them in Saudi Arabian lip balm,” Van Dijk seethed as he narrowly dodged a flock of pigeons. “They could’ve chosen something good-looking. But a Shrek head?! Do they think I look like a big green ogre with a bald head?”
He turned to Alisson, unamused. “Go ahead and laugh already. Your face is turning red.”
“That’s not even the worst they’ve done!” Alisson coughed out after five straight—well, not really—seconds of laughter. “Wait until you see what they did with the belly dancer costume and the David Moss cutout.”
“Yep, there’s my next nightmare.” Van Dijk hit the brakes as the light turned red and took a long drink of black coffee. “So, where are we planning to shop today? Michael Kors? Calvin Klein? Gucci?”
Alisson blanked out for three seconds before turning to Van Dijk with a dumbfounded expression. “I was thinking more in the realm of the mall. You know, not costing a month’s paycheque?”
Van Dijk didn’t answer, instead switching lanes three times to get to the green light.
“Virg?”
After two minutes of driving like Mario Balotelli, Van Dijk finally stopped holding the wheel in a death grip. He sighed in relief, draining the rest of the coffee before speaking.
“Sorry, but I had to get away from there. A certain one of our teammates was performing a pole dance with the stoplight.”
*
Since they were going clothes shopping, Alisson was more than surprised when Van Dijk made a beeline for the food court. He waited on a bench by the water fountain at the entrance, unsure what to do, until Van Dijk came back with two bowls of…ice cream? Granita?
“Sherbet,” Van Dijk explained, handing Alisson the pale green sherbet, holding the light orange one in his other hand. "This one's lime coconut, and this one's orange spice. I didn't want to spoil the surprise by asking you, so I guessed, but we can get another if you don't like it."
"Are you kidding me? I love it." Alisson forced himself to put his spoon back into the paper cup after five bites, scooting closer to Van Dijk. “We should make this at home, you know.”
Van Dijk smirked, balancing his already half-finished sherbet cup on the arm of the bench. “You’re in the mood for hugs today, aren’t you?”
“When am I not?”
“Fair point.”
As they finished their sherbet, Van Dijk leaned in and whispered, "Actually, there is another reason I wanted to come here first.”
Alisson raised an eyebrow in question.
“I heard there's a new men’s clothing store that just opened up in the mall, and I thought we could check it out.”
Alisson chuckled. “Only you would want to go clothes shopping after eating two hundred kilocalories."
Van Dijk shrugged. “Look at it this way. We don’t have to linger in this crowded entrance for too long, and whatever we buy will fit us even if we splurge at a bakery.”
*
Van Dijk and Alisson reached the store in only two minutes, likely due to the fact that it was only a couple of doors away from them. It was pretty much empty except for two or three other people at the other side.
As they browsed through the racks in front of them, Van Dijk couldn’t help but theorize out loud about the clothing on the racks. When it came to his passions, fashion was only below football in the list. And he loved talking about fashion, especially when there was someone to listen to him talk.
“Oh no, don’t go with that olive one! You want to make your eyes pop when you’re selecting a top! Try this rosewater shirt, you’ll look lovely in it. Or you can try the jade green, or the tangerine, or the heather charcoal.”
Alisson eyed the handbasket, groaning under the mounting stack of Van Dijk’s suggestions for him. He’d expected Van Dijk to get carried away while discussing color theory and flattering necklines, but not to the point where there were twenty dress shirts in the recommendations stack! “We’re both here shopping, Virg. Why don’t we find some stuff for you, and then we try them on together?”
Van Dijk paused his musing between cherry red and cerise red, almost dropping the two shirts to the floor in excitement. “That’s a splendid idea! We can pretend we’re in Milan for Fashion Week!”
Alisson shuffled through the rack before finding the shirt he’d spotted seconds earlier. “Here's one.”
Van Dijk almost grinned as he stared at the shirt Alisson held up. It was peach-colored, with ruffles and pleats down the front and tiny bejeweled buttons. It was opulently glorious—and a stark contrast to his usual style.
He wanted to grab the shirt. He wanted to wear it…or did he? He didn’t want to break his personal style. But if it was such a break of style, why did he want to wear it?
Van Dijk shook the thought off with a wry smirk. "Why are you trying to turn me into a two-meter orange sherbet?”
Alisson laughed, holding up the shirt in front of Van Dijk. “You won't look like sherbet, I promise. I think this would give you a floral look. You'll be a beautiful peach-coloured parrot tulip.”
“Still, you're trying to dress me as a flower.”
“I like flowers, and I know you like them, too. Just like how you love this shirt."
“Shh!" Van Dijk pulled Alisson out of the aisle behind a display of suits, gesturing to where they'd been standing. Two men chatted among themselves as they walked by, pushing a stroller. Inside the stroller was a little girl, dark curls draped over her forehead as she slept, oblivious to everything going on around her. “Okay, I do like the shirt. But I don't think it's for me.”
“It's hand-dyed designer silk, it's precisely your size, and look at these buttons! It's one of the prettiest peach colors I've ever seen." Alisson handed the shirt to Van Dijk, opening the door to the fitting room. “Go on and try it.”
The more Van Dijk looked at the shirt, the better the idea of trying it on seemed. But the more he thought of trying it on, the more he thought of looking like a floral orange creamsicle.
The heck. It’s not like anybody that matters is going to laugh at me, anyways. “Only if you try on the gold silk shirt I found earlier," Van Dijk said with a mischievous grin. "It's your turn to step out of your comfort zone."
Alisson rolled his eyes, but couldn't help but smile at Van Dijk's enthusiasm. "Only if we both promise not to laugh at each other.”
They entered their respective fitting rooms, and within minutes, Van Dijk emerged wearing the peach-colored shirt, while Alisson stepped out in the gold silk shirt. They both looked at each other, stunned.
"You look amazing," Alisson murmured before quickly covering his mouth, blushing in embarrassment. "I meant platonically! It looks amazing on you, but you're making it better. Amazing-ier--wait, what? NO! Ai Deus, Celo is never going to let me live this down."
"Neither will sixty percent of the team." Van Dijk smirked, crossing his arms. The soft cuffs felt cold and slippery on his wrists, yet at the same time they warmed him. "Have I ever told you that you're stunning in gold?”
"Not fair. It's my turn to produce the suspiciously queer comments that make people think we're dating even though we're friends! I never thought I'd see you in something like that.”
"I have to admit, it's not bad. Maybe I should change up my style a little, y'know. Step out of my comfort zone.”
"Comfort zone.” Alisson looked down at his own shirt, the metallic threads glinting in the light as it danced around the hem. "I like that. And I like this."
Van Dijk brushed his fingers over the ruffles with a small smile. "Me too."
They both decided to buy the shirts, and as they walked out of the store, they couldn't resist taking a selfie together after stopping in the fitting rooms to change into their new shirts. Van Dijk uploaded the photo to the team group chat, and soon, the chat exploded with comments and a few rainbow emojis.
"Darwin?"
"Darwin."
Van Dijk and Alisson stopped at a fruit vendor selling cubed watermelon before continuing to walk through the mall with no clear aim. They stopped by a fountain to watch the koi. The large, multicolored fish swam in circles over glittering coins, once in a while stopping to investigate any newcomers.
"Thanks for coming with me today." Van Dijk broke the silence between them as he watched Alisson dangle a cube of melon above a group of koi. Since they'd stopped by the fountain, most of the fruit had ended up in the fish's mouths instead of his own. "I mean, ever since you got injured, we won our 5th round tie, Jayden got his first goal, heck, we even won a trophy. But I've missed this stuff. Not worrying about reputation or living up to expectation or goodbyes. Just eating, shopping…existing.”
Alisson smiled at Van Dijk, before abruptly rubbing his eyes. "Darn it, Virg, how do you always make me emotional at the worst times?”
Van Dijk shook his head fondly, dropping another cube of watermelon into the fountain. “I don’t know, Ali. I don’t think it’s such a bad time, after all.”