The Love Diary

Saturday 9th March

I laid in bed this morning for a long time thinking about the kiss.

When I eventually got out of bed I decided I needed to shake this off and get focused on something else so I did some yoga and then put a playlist on and started dancing around wildly while I got myself ready to take the boys out.

I quickly made a slice of toast and shoved an apple into my bag along with my water bottle before calling the magic word to the boys. They were watching me closely and they could tell I was going out and their little tippy taps showed me they hoped they were coming too.

When I said walkies they both dashed to the door, Duke stopping to grab the tennis ball on the way. We headed to the beach at Dunwich and walked along the bit just off the beach that's grass. I was throwing the ball for the boys and enjoying the sunshine fighting it's way through the fresh sea breeze.

We got home and I popped myself onto the sofa and decided to text Callum.

“Thank you for my lesson. I think I need some more time on the bike though…x’ 

I put my phone down and opened my book.

I don't actually know how long I was sat here but the first thing that got me up was my stomach rumbling. Duke followed me into the kitchen and sat by me as I made a salad. I ‘dropped’ a bit of carrot which he gobbled up and naturally I had to then ‘drop’ a bit of Chester who rushed in where he heard eating.

I ate and watched a rerun episode of Friends. Laughing, despite knowing what was going to happen. I looked over at my phone but nothing. 

I sat and read for a bit longer, this time setting an alarm so I knew when I needed to start getting ready.

My friends from school, partners and I were heading out to ‘boom bar’ tonight and I decided trousers would be a good bet yet again.

When I was ready I settled the boys and put the radio on for the boys to have some background noise and headed out.

I picked up Harriet and Penny and we sang along to the radio the whole way there. 

We were the first people there so we waited outside chatting and laughing quietly together.

“Who's that?” Harriet whispered to us.

Penny glanced over my shoulder and I had to fully turn around to see what Harriet meant. The rest of our group were walking towards us, Ally and Liam, Holly and Barry and Lizzie and David. And there were another two girls and a guy. 

At first I thought they were just walking weirdly close to the others but then David turned and started chatting to the guy and the girls moved closer to Lizzie.

Lizzie spotted us a waved and we waved back. Having not actually said anything to one another about these new people.

“Hey guys.” Lizzie said, smiling, upbeat.

“Hey.” We chorused, smiling.

I pointedly looked towards the other people and Lizzie did a little jump as if she just remembered they were there.

“I hope it's ok, this is Shannon, Becky and Rhys… we mentioned we were coming here at work the other day and they said they'd never been.” 

We all said hello to Shannon, Becky and Rhys and headed to the bar. 

We ordered drinks and found a large table to sit at and discuss what we wanted to do.

You pay a flat rate to be there and you can do their activities, like pool, darts, bowling, axe throwing and there's some arcade stuff there too. Then you just pay for food and drinks as you wish.

“Well I'm definitely doing axe throwing and I vote we do that before having too many.” I indicated the drinks in front of people. I wasn't drinking as one of the designated drivers but my point was valid.

“I don't want to do that.” Penny looked at me pulling a face.

“You don't have to.” I laughed.

The group split up a bit and I headed over to axe throwing with Holly and Barry, Rhys, David and Becky. 

I went last and was awful. It's so much harder than it looks but I was determined. I could hear chatter close by and assumed the rest of the little group were chatting and therefore not paying attention to my failing.

“May I?” I paused and saw out the corner of my eye Rhys stepping close to me slowly. I nodded and he came up behind me and placed his hands over mine on the axe handle. 

He adjusted my hands and said quietly to adjust my stance slightly which is what I did. He pulled my arms back and gave me the qué for them I should throw.

“Now try.” He said as he stepped back.

It stuck.

“Yes!” I cheered and turned around to see Rhys smiling.

“Thank you.” 

“Go again.” He gestured to the other few axes by my feet.

I prepared myself slowly and threw.

It hit. Much closer to the centre. I smiled quickly over my shoulder at Rhys and went again.

“So how are you so good at that?” I said to him as we headed to the bar to get more drinks.

“I've done it a few times. Not here, but it's becoming popular at fair things.” He shrugged when I looked over at him.

We got the next few drinks and headed over to join the group around the pool table.

We all regrouped at the table and ordered some food and I ended up sitting near Rhys and we chatted a bit just us and then rejoined in with the group. A few times Rhys turned to David on his other side but then he would whisper something to me and I would try to hold in a laugh.

After a couple of crazy rounds of bowling we realised how late it was and headed down to the car park. We said our goodbyes and I unlocked the car for us. I looked back and saw Rhys look at me from over David's car. He lifted his hand in a wave and I did the same before ducking in.

The drive home was quieter but we chatted about the others. Harriet said Shannon was a bit strange and kept talking about Rhys the whole time and said she assumed they were together until they didn't sit together to eat.

“It might have just happened tho. Holly and Barry didn't sit together.” Penny said.

I dropped the girls off and looked at my phone quickly. Nothing from Callum.

I drove home and got myself ready for bed, climbed under the sheets and scrolled for a little bit before putting my phone on my bedside table and rolling over.