I nodded, putting my hands on her waist, and drawing her in closer. “Will you follow?”
She nodded, knitting her eyebrows closer together.
This didn’t feel anything like a role-play anymore.
Rona wrapped her arms around my shoulders and we moved together, as one. Holding her felt like two jigsaw pieces slotting together. There was a quiet satisfaction in knowing you’d found the exact fit for your piece. Rona felt like that for me. It was the only way to explain it.
I wouldn’t say we were dry humping but a few inches closer and we could have been. My heart pounded. She smelled of coconut. Her lips were so close I could feel her breath on my neck, caressing my skin.
At the end of the song, she pulled back. I missed her already. “Thank you for the, um, dance,” Rona said. “I have to go now but can I get your number? I’d like to see you again.”
Still dancing but more swaying on the spot now, I considered what to do here. Her question wasn’t a real question; this was a role-play challenge, and it was over now. Plus, we already had each other’s numbers from the WhatsApp group, and we followed each other onInstagram. It was my duty to end the game sincerely. Didn’t mean I couldn’t flirt a bit more though. “I’d love to see you again. Would you like the address of where I’m staying? I’d be happy to show you my bedroom and talk more about our auras.”
She smiled, more like herself again, as if this had all been a big act, although we both knew it wasn’t. “Gotcha.”
If only she knew.
I smiled back and held my palms up as if she’d caught me red-handed. “One hundred percent.”
“That was fun,” Rona said, sincerely. “Let’s move somewhere quieter.” She laced her fingers in mine and gently pulled me in the direction of the bar through the crowd of people. That was unexpected. The intimacy of the touch sent my brain into overdrive.
When she let go, I had that same pang of loneliness when our role-play ended.
“So, how’d I do? Any pointers?”
The tequila started to catch up with me. My head felt woozy, or maybe it was from being here with Rona and having this feeling that we were perfect for each other. “A plus. You were amazing. I don’t think you need to practice on anyone else, and you should count it towards our game.”
The big smile that she gave me made my heart feel happy. I tried to take a mental picture of it, but my drunken brain was struggling.
“I think two challenges completed in one night is pretty good. I’m drunk and I hit on a woman. Whoop! Whoop! I’ll sleep easier tonight knowing I’ve still got it. Thank you and goodnight,” Rona announced.
“It is. You do,” was all I could say, for fear of making a move on her for real, still kind of in the moment. God, shewas so cute. I didn’t want to broach that line just yet. Something about it didn’t feel like the right time.
“Sorry. My phone’s vibrating in here,” Rona slid her hand into her bag and pulled out her phone. “It’s Nell. She’s on her way back. She wants to know if we want to get a taxi back to the villa yet.”
I checked my watch, not really looking at the time. “Yeah. It’s late.”
“Great. I’ll let her know.”
Rona typed away on her phone. It felt like the moment was well and truly over, at least for now.
~ 7 ~
Lily
Three days later I was on a run, sweating buckets in the hot Greek sunshine, thinking about Rona. I hadn’t really stopped thinking about her all week. That moment when we danced together was now burned into my brain. Was it really just a game to Rona, or had that been as real for her too? Since our epic Tuesday together, we’d been with the group pretty much the whole week and hadn’t had any real time on our own, apart from bumping into one another in the hall on our floor once or twice. All of our conversations were done in earshot of one of our friends. They really were a tight-knit group. At night, I thought of Rona next door to me and all the things she had said that day.
While hungover on Wednesday, we’d agreed to pause our secret pact to do new and challenging stuff for a couple of days. We both wanted to just chill at the villa. On one hand, I was glad she was on the same wavelength as me about the need to just relax for a bit, and on the other hand, I wasn’t sure if it was Rona’s way of cooling whatever was going on between us down. On the plus side, we did agree to think of something for the last day and go out with a bang, so there was that. I couldn’t wait to see what we would get up to.
I finished my run with a sprint and stopped when I got to the gates to the villa. Breathing hard, I put my hands on my hips and walked around for a few minutes to cool down.
After I showered I stayed in my room checking my emails and catching up with my messages for a bit. The bigone was the email from the BBC. I had an offer to be a guest commentator on an Arsenal match next month. I also had an email from my good friend Sam, an ex-player who was now regularly commentating with the BBC and branching into hosting. She’d said ages ago she thought I’d be good at it and had been begging me to give it a shot for a while. I wasn’t sure I’d like it and had been non-committal. But the last time we’d met I’d shown a slight bit of interest. This must have encouraged her to push full steam ahead. So here it was, an official invite from a producer at the BBC.
I read and re-read the emails before closing my laptop and mentally filing them away for until I got back to London. It was a fantastic opportunity but there was something not feeling quite right about it. It wasn’t nerves. More like dread. I was fine with my post-match interviews and press conferences, after a little training a few years ago. This felt more like a high-profile cage. Like I’d be a zoo animal on display for the public.
But I needed to figure out what I was going to do with myself and maybe commentating was the next logical step. It would be a very privileged cage.
Some voices carried up to my window from near the dining table below it. It was Rona and Bouchra. Their voices were low and hushed.
