Poke the Bear by Sam Hall

Author:Sam Hall [Hall, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Freya

I could not do this, I just couldn’t. I’d felt on edge before when Jack asked me to come, but this went beyond bestie duty. I rubbed at my arms as I wove my way through the tables, keeping my head down, not meeting anyone’s eyes. The only relief I got was once I was beyond the seated players, stumbling out into the outskirts of the ballroom.

“You OK, Frey?”

Jack appeared at my side in seconds. Those keen eyes seemed to take everything in all at once.

“I’m fine,” I said, faking a smile. “I just need to go to the loos.”

“Frey.” She grabbed my arms and turned me towards her. “Freya—”

“I’m fine.” I palmed the room key she’d given me. “I’ll just duck upstairs and then I’ll be back.”

“C’mon,” she said, moving closer. “It’s me. If that little shit Adam has been messing with you—”

“No!” I blinked, then looked around me. “No, he’s been lovely.”

“Lovely?” Nothing could distract Jack from her job, nothing but this. A smile spread across her face. “How lovely?” She looked back over the crowded room, catching Adam staring back at us. “I mean usually I’d warn you the fuck away from one of the players, but Adam…”

“But Adam?” I prompted.

God, I sounded needy. Probably because that’s how I felt, because while I now had a good working knowledge of Adam’s 2023 season achievements, I knew nothing else about him but this.

He was like the sun. I felt warmer when I was around him, something that spiked into a bittersweet heat every time he looked at me.

And he did, over and over.

The experience was a weird one. I mainly served female customers at the cafe I worked at because guys just didn’t… see me. Their eyes skated over me and flicked to one of the other girls working behind the counter, putting their coffee order in, and I rarely challenged that, because things got exponentially worse when I did. Their eyes would narrow, their nostrils would flare. Even blokes old enough to be my granddad would do the same. it was as if by alerting them to my presence I somehow annoyed them for existing.

But not Adam.

Those blue eyes lit from within with a fire that threatened to consume me, and just like a clueless little kid, I wanted to reach out and touch the flames. But they’d burn me, mark me forever and that wouldn’t work for me.

I didn’t experience desire the way other people did. Looking at pictures of hot guys or thirst traps on social media didn’t do it for me. They were just a series of images of people’s bodies and while I could appreciate their beauty, they just left me… empty. But if I saw that actor or model on the screen? If I got to know their character, saw more clearly who they were, the floodgates would open and out it would all come.

I’d want them and it would hurt in a way, the intensity of it. It’d rush in and overwhelm me, take me over, sweep away all of my rational thoughts and feelings.

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