AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d love that. Let me know what time you can meet.
I will, she promises.Soon.
I give Sadie another twenty minutes in the dog park before calling her over and clipping her leash back on. It’s a strangely cool day; the cloud cover is heavy and breeze rolls up from the south, bringing with it the smell of the ocean. Checking the weather app, I realise we’re in for evening showers. Guess the heat had to break eventually.
When we get home, Sadie and I play in the backyard while I hang out the washing, keen to get it dry before the weather rolls in. Then I vacuum, mop the floors, take out the rubbish and generally do everything I can to be a fucking stellar housemate.
When the chores are done, I make myself another coffee and take the mug into my room, setting it down on my bedside table.
Pulling the stool out from the piano, I lift its fallboard and take the microfibre cloth off the keys. Running a scale, every note falls flat. The instrument clearly needs work before it’s playable and while I can appreciate a nice piano, I’ve never had to maintain one.
Bored, I decide to video-call Gabriel and he answers, bare-chested and sweaty, panting hard from his training session. ‘Hey.’
I swallow, trying to gather myself in the face of such unexpected erotica. ‘Um, hey, is this a bad time?’
He rubs his towel down his glistening chest and it’s actuallypainfulto watch him through the fishbowl-like lens of my phone. ‘No, we just finished training.’
‘How do you feel?’ I ask. My mouth is suddenlyreally dry. ‘Does your body feel good?’
He smiles, a breathy little half-smile. ‘Yes, Noah, my body feels good.’
‘I bet it does,’ I murmur, not realising I’ve said it out loud until Gabriel tilts the camera up.
‘What did you say?’ he asks.
‘I said I’m glad it does,’ I reply. ‘So, do you wanna go out tonight? To a restaurant.’ Like a proper date, I want to add but don’t. ‘There’s a place near mine that I’ve always wanted to try—are you up for that?’
‘Sounds good,’ he says. ‘What time?’
‘Six?’
‘Don’t stay out all night,’ I hear Bernard say in the background. Shit, I had no idea his dad was listening in. I have to watch what I say.
‘Be back by ten o’clock,’ Bernard says.
‘Ignore him,’ Gabriel replies. ‘Midnight will be fine. My match isn’t until tomorrow night.’
It’s nice to hear Gabriel and his father banter. Obviously, their relationship is complicated, but it’s also obvious how much Bernard loves Gabriel, and how the professional and personal become conflicted.
‘I’ll have a car come pick you up at five-thirty,’ I tease. ‘My driver will see you soon.’
‘I’ll be sure to look out for him.’
‘You should, he will be driving a Mercedes.’
‘This is a fancy outing, then. I will have to dress up.’
‘Please do. Only the best.’
He laughs, that dimpled smile coming back with a vengeance, and I long to kiss the corners of his mouth. If we continue with this romance after the tournament, I realise this will be my reality—seeing Gabriel only through a screen, not being able to touch, or kiss, or hug.
‘I gotta go,’ he says, running a hand through his damp hair. ‘I’m going to sit in the sauna with Papa and strategise. See you tonight.’
I tell myself to stop thinking about his sweaty body as I hang up. But it’s no use. The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak.
After pulling out practically everything in my wardrobe, at 1.34 pm I come to the frustrating realisation that I have absolutely nothing to wear. Nothingfeelsright.
Grabbing my keys and a cotton tote bag, I walk down the block and catch a tram to Sydney Road: the messy, beating pulse of the inner north. Sydney Road holds everything anyone could ever want within just a few blocks. There’s a Vietnamese bakery wedged between a barber shop and a halal butchery that always has a line, as well as a shop that only sells unique bongs. I walk past a tangle of bikes affixed to a nearby bike rack, each wedged in so tight they’ve become a single mass of spokes and seats.
