Page 22 of The One That Got Away

‘What songs do we include today seeing as we’ve just met?’ someone asked. I wasn’t sure who, because I was distracted. I quickly tore my eyes from Max’s legs hoping he hadn’t noticed. Thank goodness I was wearing sunglasses.

‘Great question!’ Jasmine replied. ‘You can choose songs that reflect your first impressions of each other. So for example it could be “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt or “Happy” by Pharell Williams. You don’t have to think too deeply about every lyric. As long as it means something to you about how they made you feel for example during dinner last night or today’s activity, that’s the important thing. It’s a good way to document your journey together. And hopefully you’ll play this playlist for many years to come!’

Actually, now that Jasmine had explained, choosing songs for the first part of the playlist wouldn’t be difficult. ‘Caught Out There’ by Kelis sprang to mind. Max didn’t cheat, but I related to the part in the song where she screamed about how much she hated her exright now.

That angry Alanis Morissette break-up anthem ‘You Oughta Know’ would be perfect too. This exercise could be quite therapeutic.

‘And do we wait until the end of the trip to share them?’ a guy with short locks asked.

‘No. We think it’s nice to share them as you make them.There’ll be instructions on how to do it on The Love Hotel manual which will be in your rooms when you return.’

Jasmine explained that they’d chosen to use a hard copy manual rather than a phone app because they wanted to encourage us to disconnect from our phones as much as possible during our stay.

‘Any other questions?’ Jasmine scanned the group. ‘No? Great! As you can see, it’s a glorious day.’ She pointed to the clear blue sky. ‘So today’s activity will be a Pool Volleyball Tournament! You and your match will work as a team to compete against the other seven couples here. The winning team from each round will go through to the next stage and so on until the finals and the winners will receive a prize.’

‘Oooh!’ a lady two rows in front called out. ‘What’s the prize?’

‘It’s a secret, but I’m sure you’ll love it! First, I need you to work with your match to think of a team name. You’ve got ten minutes, starting… now!’

Everyone turned to face their partners. Max got up and moved his seat opposite me.

‘Any ideas?’ he smiled and his dimples appeared.

Damn those dimples. My stomach flipped and I reminded myself that when it came to Max, stomach flipping was not allowed.

‘How aboutNemesis?’ I suggested.

‘Erm,’ he sighed. ‘I can see why you might think that’s valid…’

‘OrTeam Mismatch?’ I tilted my head. ‘Actually, no. How aboutCalamity,Worst Nightmareor justMisery?’

‘Okay, I get it. You’d rather pull off your toenails with a pair of hot, rusty tweezers than spend time with me. But like I said last night, we’re here, so let’s try and make the most of it. How aboutsomething a bit more positive likeDestiny,Fortuneor…Serendipity?’

‘The problem with those names is that they imply that us being reunited is a good thing. But we aren’tdestinedto be together. This situationisn’tgood fortune and it isn’t remotely lucky that we’ve both ended up here.’

We sat in silence. I hated the anger simmering inside me. Normally I was fairly easy going, but it was hard to feel calm right now. Even though we broke up years ago, Max really hurt me and I could remember the pain like it happened recently. Seeing him just brought those emotions flooding back.

‘What aboutTeam Chance?’ Max said. ‘OrTeam Unexpected? No, I’ve got it:Thunderbolt. It’s a strong name and shows our shock at seeing each other again.’

I paused, considering his suggestion. As much as I wanted to get as far away from him as possible, I’d committed to stay and we’d been given a task, so I had to try my best to put my feelings aside and get on with it. We only had a few minutes left until Jasmine asked for our team names and I didn’t want us to be the only ones who hadn’t come up with something.

‘That could work,’ I replied. ‘No one likes when thunder strikes. It’s sudden and unpleasant. Just like the shitty situation we’re in right now.’

‘Yeah…’ His voice trailed off. ‘How are your volleyball skills these days?’

‘About as good as your communication skills.’

‘That bad?’ he grimaced. ‘You were pretty good that time we played volleyball on Brighton beach. We made a great team.’

I was surprised that he remembered. A group of us from college had driven there one weekend. Pretty sure we’d won too. Max was always good at sport so it wasn’t a big surprise.

‘Has everyone got their names?’ Jasmine called out.

She wrote them on a white board then announced that Max and I would be in the first round.

Once two hotel workers had set up the net in the pool and dropped the ball inside, Jasmine asked us to take our positions.

I walked over to one of the sun loungers at the opposite end of the pool so that I was as far away from Max as possible. I cautiously removed my kaftan and sunglasses, adjusted my bikini top which felt tighter than I remembered, then hurried down the steps and into the pool.

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