“Oh you know...” Owen said, readying to get into the shower. “Making the most of being home.”
“You didn’t make plans during the sponsor event tomorrow, right?”
“Uh... no.” But he had completely forgotten about it. If he was going to defeat the nasty shadowy aspects of the business, he needed backers. Sponsors with deep pockets that believed in him or his ability to generate money for them.
“You forgot, didn’t you?”
“No, no. No. I remembered. It’s on tomorrow morning, right? At um... um...”
“It’s after our weights recovery at 8AM—”
“Eight! See, I knew,” he replied, tossing his shirt on the bed and rounding the corner to the bathroom. “I knew that. No worries.”
* * *
“Have you got condoms?”
The question made Tegan pause in dabbing her lip gloss. She and Fiona were inside the café’s toilets. Fiona was giving what she thought was sound, albeit rushed and manic, advice as Tegan got changed.
“Don’t look like that,” Fiona said with a mock finger of admonishment. “Safety is everybody’s responsibility.”
“I’m not going to screw him.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I hardly know him, for starters.”
“Are you serious? This isOwen Gasnierwe’re talking about!”
“Yeah, to you babe. To me, he’s a handsome guy that asked me out. That’s all.”
“And made out with you twice in the space of twenty-four hours. You are so lucky
you’re not a fight fan. Anyone else would be freaking the fuck out.”
But she was freaking out. Her mind was whizzing at a hundred miles an hour. The condom question had only reinforced her confusion. Was sex in the cards? Would he expect it? She’d like to think not, but he was the biggest ‘celebrity’ she’d ever met. She knew of girls that were pursued by football players and vice versa. Most were used as cheap pieces of arse. What’s more, it was commonly accepted by both parties that this was the case. The girls just wanted to say they screwed someone famous.
Tegan’s last boyfriend had taken off over a year ago. He had balked at the idea of meeting her family when she asked if he could take time off work for her cousin’s wedding. He didn’t even feel right about going to visit her parent’s graves with her. She hadn’t been in a relationship or gotten laid since.
Things had just been pottering along. Stale. Familiar. Boring. The one thing cutting through her anxiety and questions about tonight was her sense of adventure. She had been asked out by an MMA fighter. Was it a big deal? Did it mean nothing? Who knew? Who cared? If she went into this with an open mind and few expectations, she would be OK. But the biggest expectation she had was the same for all her first dates. No sex.
She checked the clock. Right on time. “OK, I’m ready.”
Fiona walked Tegan out to the front door, and they both spotted him across the road, leaning against the side of a car, looking over at them. Fiona gave Tegan a quick hug and then set her free, chanting softly, “Work it baby, work it.”
She approached him, the small grin on his face giving her butterflies. “Hi,” she said, to which he replied by taking her hand and bringing it to his mouth.
“Shall we?”
“We shall.”
He helped her into the car and headed across to the driver’s side, giving Fiona a wave before getting in and taking off.
“So... where are we heading?” she asked.
“Ah, well now. That’s a great question. Bullshit answer is I have an amazing night planned.”
Tegan furled her eyebrows and tried not to laugh. “And the real one?”