Page 15 of Below the Barrel

Me:

What?

Griffin:

She’s not over you, bud. I think it’s time you pull out all the stops. Remind her why she fell in love with you in the first place. Remind her she’s still in love with you.

And how the hell am I going to do that?

I let out a groan as I re-read his text. He makes everything sound so much easier than it really is. How does anyone convince Maliah Cooper to do anything? I’ve known her for the better half of my life, and I’ve never been able to do that. Not even when we were together.

So instead, I do something I absolutely know I’ll regret. Something utterly stupid. I exit my conversation with Griffin and click on Maliah’s name instead.

Me:

Sweet dreams.

I wait until my message switches from delivered to read. Another five minutes of waiting, but she still hasn’t replied. Regret crashes over me like a boulder when I realize she’s not going to reply. I curse under my breath, turn my phone off for the night, and toss it onto my nightstand harder than I meant to. Rolling over, I squeeze my eyes shut, letting the calm nothingness of sleep take over.

FIVE

MALIAH | VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

KOA:

Koa:

Sweet dreams.

My heart startsto pound in my chest as I stare at those two words, reading them in his voice in my head. When we were together, there was never a night he didn’t text me those two words, even if we were right beside each other. It was a nightly ritual.

I feel my body become hot as memories of him whispering those words in my ear start to swirl around my mind. He’d lean over, his lips brushing against my ear as I’d start to fade into sleep after a night of crazy sex, and he’d say those two words before gently kissing a trail from my ear to my collar bone.

I quickly lock my phone when I realize I’m panting, and an unbearable heat is building between my thighs. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to tame my breathing and think of anything but Koa, but it doesn’t work as the need grows stronger and I shoot out of my bed and run straight for the shower, turning the wateron the coldest setting before stripping out of my pyjamas and jumping in.

I refuse to let Koa Foster weasel his way back into my heart.

As if he ever left.

My eyelids feelheavy today as we tour around the Bushland Wildlife Animal Sanctuary in Victoria. It’s another excursion, as Koa put it, for entertaining television. I probably would have enjoyed this one a lot more than the hot air balloons yesterday if I wasn’t so exhausted. I follow the group towards the Crested Cockatoos enclosure which has a handful of colourful birds.

“What did you think about the hot air balloons yesterday?” Charles asks.

He’s been glued to my side ever since Koa and I arrived with the rest of our production crew, and I didn’t miss the scowl on Koa’s face as he watched us before wandering off to talk to a group of other surfers. I was partly relieved to see him go, but also partly sad.

Relieved because after the mind game he tried to play with me last night with his stupid text message, keeping me up until nearly three in the morning, I don’t want to be anywhere near him until I can sort out my thoughts. But sad because as much as the distance helps me think more clearly, a part of me just wants to be close to him. That same part of me is the reason I couldn’t leave the Shredders after we broke up.

“Maliah,” Charles sings my name, “are you with me?”

I glance at Charles, remembering he asked me a question.

“Oh, sorry, I’m just a bit tired. The hot air balloons were…interesting. It was my first time on one.”

“Really? Well, when you visit me in France one day maybe we can go again, just the two of us.”

I give him a forced smile before my eyes begin searching for Koa. Charles is nice, but he’s not my type. Do I even have a type?

Koa’s my type.

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