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“Your case is a little different,” Flora continued. “While I think you will both greatly benefit from continuing with your individual therapy sessions, we’re going to try another approach for your joint sessions. I’m all for thinking outside the box, so here’s what we’re going to do. You’re teammates who need to learn to work together, and that’s going to be our goal. Each day, I want you to do two things together. Firstly, I want you to sign up for one of the activities on offer. To avoid arguments, you’ll each take a turn to choose the activity. Secondly, I’d like you both to do something together of your own choosing. It can be something as simple as sharing a meal, or taking a walk along the beach, or even working out. As long as you do it together, every day. At the end of the week, the three of us will meet again, and I want you to tell me some things you’ve learned about each other.”
“Every day?” Jordan’s horrified tone matched my thoughts.
“Every day. And I want you to make an effort to really talk to each other and to listen.” She paused, her gaze scanning mine, then Jordan’s. “I believe this approach will work for you, but you both need to commit to putting the effort in. It’s up to you. I can’t do this for you. You need to choose to work at it.”
Jordan sighed. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him rubbing his hand over his jaw, which was lightly dusted with stubble, instead of his usual clean-shaven look. “I guess…I mean, that’s why we’re here, right? I don’t wanna be transferred to another team. I—I can try.” When I glanced over at him, I saw that his mouth was downturned, his expression defeated.
“Theo?” Flora gave me an encouraging smile.
I couldn’t say no, not when Jordan had already agreed. It would reflect badly on me. I nodded, and she clapped her hands together.
“Perfect! There’s no time like the present. Go and sign up for one of today’s Focus activities. I’ll see you back here at the end of the week at the same time. Good luck, boys.”
“I’m choosing the first activity,” Jordan announced as I fell into step next to him. The sooner we got this over with, the better.
“No, I’m choosing. I have seniority over you.”
He stopped dead, staring at me. “How exactly did you come to that conclusion?”
“I’m older than you, and I’ve been at Glevum longer than you.”
“Not by much, and you were only there for half a season before I showed up.”
“I’m choosing.” Picking up the pace, I strode towards the main building, leaving Jordan pouting in the middle of the path. I didn’t have time for his antics. All I wanted was to get this nightmare over with.
* * *
“The waterfall’s this way.”
“For fuck’s sake, Theo. We’re following the yellow markers, not the orange ones. It’s this way, I guarantee.”
“Fuckoff,” I shouted, swatting away yet another mosquito from my arm. “Fucking bloodsucking bastards!”
A laugh burst from Jordan’s throat. “Wow, you really don’t like mozzies, huh?”
“Stop making such idiotic comments.” I wiped at my forehead. It was so humid today, and ominous, heavy grey clouds were gathering overhead. I was already jittery and on edge from the lack of sleep combined with my withdrawal symptoms, and the weather wasn’t helping. I was stuck in a mosquito-infused jungle hell with my rival, and now, thanks to his insistence on hiking in the wrong direction, we were hopelessly lost.
“I’m so hot.” Jordan shrugged off his pack, pulling out his canteen and gulping down half of its contents. When he was done, he swiped his hand across his mouth and then peeled off his T-shirt, leaving him in nothing but a pair of extremely short blue swim shorts that looked like they could pass for underwear.
My own mouth was suddenly dry, and I spun away from him, reaching for my own canteen. When I’d sufficiently lubricated my throat, I decided to remove my own T-shirt because it was sticking to my skin in an extremely uncomfortable way. It was only when I’d shoved it inside my small pack that I realised my swim shorts were almost as short as Jordan’s.
Jordan turned to me, his gaze dropping to my abs. He tugged his bottom lip between his teeth as he stared at me. Then he moved forwards, and I moved back, but he took a step closer. Then another, and another, until he was right in front of me and I was backed up against a tree.
“How do you get such good definition here?” His finger traced lightly over the lower part of my left oblique, and goosebumps pebbled all over my skin. “Mine don’t look like this.”
“Uh. Yours are defined.” I should’ve been pushing him away, but I was frozen in place.
“They are, yeah, but not like this.” He trailed his finger down the muscle again, and fucking hell, my dick jumped. This was bad, bad, bad.
“Side planks,” I ground out, pushing him away from me and picking up my pack. “Come on. It’s going to rain.”
“No, it isn’t.” Jordan’s voice held a bit of a rasp, and when I dared to shoot him a glance, I noticed the flush on his high cheekbones and the redness of his full lower lip, where he’d been biting down on it. “It’s not going to rain today. It’s—”
A streak of white lightning split the sky, and a loud crack of thunder echoed around us.
Then the rain came, a torrential downpour that we had no hope of escaping, and so we ran.
Within minutes, both of us were soaked to the bone, slipping and sliding as the ground beneath us turned into a mudslide. We were even more hopelessly lost, and I’d lost sight of any trail markers of any colour.
