‘Want to try again?’ said AJ pulling her up by her hand.

‘You bet your arse I do.’

AJ rolled Meagan’s ‘lucky’ ball aside handing her a smaller, lighter one. She wanted to cut him some side eye but he was probably right. She stepped up to the line, staring down her lane. AJ tucked himself beside her and Meagan began to wonder if she might like this guy. He had a very grabbable butt, that was for sure, and sexy eyes that were also nice, like he’d care if you orgasmed first. Deals had been broken over less. But then, she scoffed at her silliness, almost forgetting her plan. No one was going to distract her from that. Meagan felt AJ’s hand rest on her side as he pointed to where her ball needed to land. He was closer than he needed to be. She inhaled. If smells were edible his cologne was fine dining. But it didn’t matter how lovely he smelt or how good he looked. This wasn’t the plan.

‘Are you okay, Meagan?’

‘Hmmm, yeah. So, what am I doing?’ she said trying not to inhale anymore AJ.

‘Bend the knees, breathe, swing, release and remember…’

His warm breath brushed across her face.

‘Don’t kill anyone.’

Ignoring his deliciousness, Meagan let the ball swing in her hand before releasing it. It thumped onto the lane, then veered in the direction of the gutter. AJ winced as it rumbled towards certain death but then miraculously bananaed away from the edge.

‘You’ve put some spin on it,’ AJ gawped as the ball rolled on, now almost centred.

Meagan held her breath as the ball careered into the middle pins sending them flying, knocking all ten down. The pin-setter cleared the deck and their scoreboard broke into a celebratory cacophony. STRIKE!

AJ pumped his fist then hoisted Meagan into the air.

‘You did it! And no one’s dead!’

‘I told you, it’s the heels!’ she laughed.

As she let him spin her around and her laughter ebbed away, she felt vulnerable. It wasn’t horrible but it certainly wasn’t comfortable. AJ placed her back on terra firma and she looked up at him, his face catching the light in just the way Todd’s did. She put a hand on his cheek, pulling him to her and they kissed.

AJ and Meagan sat in their booth watching the staff close the place down. They all looked like students who’d taken this job to get through uni but forgotten to go to uni.

‘Can I call you?’ AJ asked taking up Meagan’s hand.

Her heart thumped in her chest. The hand that AJ was holding usually held her phone and she hadn’t looked at it for five hours. She pulled it from the side pocket of her bag, horrified at the stack of notifications. Meagan switched to autopilot working through the backlog. Her solicitor, some clients, Antonia De Silva, Todd, Glenn and a weird text from Simi about underwear.

‘Fuck it,’ she said.