Page 55 of Going Overboard

‘Okay, Jessa, you’re good,’ he tells me.

I puff air from my cheeks, relieved to have pulled it off.

‘Yeah, well, ever the professional,’ I joke.

We stand with our arms on the railings for a moment, looking out to sea, admiring the view. There’s something so captivating about all the stars.

I blow out a breath, feeling slightly dazed.

‘Yeah. Total professionals, us.’

‘It’s gorgeous out here,’ I say softly. ‘I bet it would be lovely, to sleep out here, under the stars.’

‘Well, maybe you should,’ he says in a soft, breathy voice. ‘Seeing as it’s your turn in the bath tonight.’

Ugh, he’s such a wind-up. Honestly, I deserve an Oscar, for successfully convincing even one person that I could ever feel anything real for him. Brody Ryan. Professional cricketer and semi-professional tosser.

He’s good at this though, there’s no denying that. I’ll just have to put up with him a bit longer, I suppose…

22

I can’t believe I’m a gym girlie now.

Well, I’m not technically, am I? Because I only come here to hang out with my fake boyfriend.

Brody is lifting weights – although that makes it sound far less impressive than it is, because to a layman like me, it looks more like he’s lifting the machine than the weights. It’s hard not to stare at his muscles – it’s almost hypnotic, the way they contract, flex, twitch, ripple. It’s like they have a mind of their own. In fact, I could swear his abs were flirting with me.

I’m almost exercising today, technically, because I’m using an exercise ball as a chair, lightly bouncing up and down on it.

Brody comes over to me, wiping his sweaty forehead with the back of his arm.

‘I don’t think you’re allowed to do that in here,’ he jokes, nodding towards the bar of chocolate I’m eating, the one I swiped from the minibar before we left our suite.

‘We all have our morning routines,’ I remind him, popping another square of chocolate into my mouth.

He just laughs as he lies down on the mat next to me. Ithought he was going to relax for a second then but, no, he’s doing crunches.

‘You never stop,’ I tell him.

‘You never start,’ he claps back.

I keep bouncing, letting the momentum do most of the work.

‘So what does a typical day in the life of a professional cricketer look like?’ I ask curiously.

Brody stops for a second, rolling onto his side to look at me while we chat.

‘Wake up, protein, gym, training most days – depends when we have a match,’ he tells me.

‘When even are cricket matches?’ I ask, realising I have no idea when it’s on TV, because I actively avoid sport.

‘It depends,’ he replies. ‘I don’t want to bore you, but sometimes they’re in the day, through the week, sometimes they’re on a Friday night – it varies.’

‘Boring as it might be to watch, it’s interesting to talk about,’ I say with a smile. ‘What does a free evening look like?’

‘I live with one of my teammates, we share an apartment,’ he explains. ‘Something Nikki said was pathetic for a man in his early thirties, but we have a laugh. I go out to eat often, to bars with the lads, or we’ll watch movies and play video games. What about you? What does your typical day look like?’

I swear, my brain has stopped working. What does a typical day for me look like? The more I think about it, the more I realise that it’s not my mind that is blank, it’s my day. Beyond work there’s not much going on.

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