6 Interlude: Closer

Michael came back that night.

I watched a Korean drama and snacked on some chips. The main character just confessed and they were making out next to a piano.

Michael wore a formal suit and tie and it was a sight to behold.

I always thought he was off limits even before we became flatmates. Though we only started living together last year, we knew each other as acquaintances before. I was dating someone and had broken up just before we made our agreement to be flatmates.

Saying that he was an uptight nerd to Fern was a cover for me. In truth, if anything nerdy was sexy to me. Now he just looked dashing, and cute too. Some of his hair stuck out in tufts as if they had gone on a wild journey during the day.

Uh oh, dirty land appearing again.

He tugged his tie off and I licked my lips, the edge of the chip disappearing inside my mouth. I grabbed my mug and downed the water to stop myself from saying something stupid like "choke me sir."

What a thirsty ass fool I was, in more ways than one.

As he changed shoes, his steps padded over to the couch.

"Still up?" His lopsided grin made butterflies swirl around in my tummy.

"Yeah, just watching some drama" I said, hoping he wouldn't think I'd been waiting for him.

"Sorry I was AWOL today. Had to go to a memorial service for a family friend." He explained.

"It's fine, not like you need to report to me every day, sir." I said.

He raised an immaculate eyebrow, and I hiccuped when I realized I actually said sir. He came closer to where I sat.

To distract myself, I told him, "you had some mail today."

I pointed to the stack sitting on the coffee table. He picked up that pink envelope, and when a half smile appeared on his face that tickled my curiosity again. Curiosity and a bit of jealousy. Who was making him smile?

He plodded to his room, and Fluffs followed him. Maybe Fluffs wanted to know who had Michael's attention too.

Tomorrow was Wednesday which meant the second challenge of the week before we could take a break from filming.

Fern had not texted us yet or alerted us as to what the challenge would be. I prayed it would be easy and breezy, lemon squeezy.

Before bed, I had a call with my best friend who lived two cities away. I went to my room and spoke to Anna.

"Hey girlfrenn!" She said.

"Why is it so loud there?" I asked.

"It's girls night out! Going clubbing after just grabbing a drink from the bar now! So I heard something happened between you and Michael!" She asked.

"What, who told you that?" I said.

"Jen texted me." Anna's family members worked in the medical field too and they bonded over that. I only found out Anna and Jenny knew each other after the filming started. I put two and two together and realized Anna's summer fling she didn't want to name was Bradley.

Shit. I loved Anna but she was bad at keeping secrets.

"A, could you maybe keep this from people? Nothing's happened between us…well, not really."

"Oh my god bitch you totally did something with him." Anna could guess.

Afraid Michael would be able to hear our conversation, I told Anna, "I'll talk to you next time we meet. By the way, you didn't even confirm your visit!"

"Rawr." I heard Anna flirting with someone on the other end and I rolled my eyes to the heavens.

"What was that? Oh yeah, sorry girl. Let's plan next week??"

"Fine. You owe me an extra hour of your time." I huffed.

"You owe me the deets on you and Michael. Wow, out of all the guys…does Graham know?" She suddenly mentioned my ex.

My eyes got a faraway look as I thought of Graham.

"No, we don't talk anymore." I said.

"Oh right yeah. That man is herstory." She expressed.

I laughed. Anna was so wild and fun and free, and I loved that about her.

Anna said she had to go and I said, "Love you, talk later boo."

After our call, I started thinking of the past relationship I had and what Graham said to me.

"Mar. C'mon, let's stop kidding ourselves." Graham ran a hand through his hair.

"No, we can make it work. I can spend less time at work…you can take time off and we can get together on Saturdays, the drive won't be that long."

"I don't want a long distance relationship." He said.

"Then don't make the distance long!' I said.

Graham left after saying some more damaging things, and ever since then we had not talked. Our friend group was aware of our breakup but did not comment for fear of either of us snapping. It had been a delicate time. I remembered deleting all our photos on social media, crying myself to sleep.

We dated for a year and a half, and at one point I thought we could make it, we would be married, we would have babies, we would be happy.

But with that one fight we were no longer together. Both of us had to move on, and I needed a fresh start too. That was when I asked friends if they knew anybody looking for a roommate. I had a disaster experience before with finding roommates online and it didn't really work out. So I wanted a roommate that could be relatively trustworthy.

I sighed, pushing thoughts of Graham away. For now I had to focus on what was happening in the present reality. I received a text from Anna with a selfie of her and her friends on her girls night out. I replied with a tongue out sticker and devil emoji.

As I pressed send, a new notification on my messaging app popped up. It was Fern texting us about the second challenge.

"Hello Marie and Michael. Tomorrow is a new day, and a new challenge for you! The second challenge of the week will be testing your coordination skill. You will be tied together ;) for the evening until after midnight, and play truth or dare with a pack of cards supplied by one of our sponsors Hatter Games. As to what I mean by tied together, expect the unexpected! Get ready!"

I choked then, because my prayer had been heard by the god of giving opposites.

It would not be easy. It would be torture.