Night Dancer

Sixteen

Grabbing his towel, Bret wrapped it around his waist after drying off his face and rubbing it over his hair. He slid his feet into his flip flops and then made his way across the locker room to his bag, lifting out his phone and checking it. Still nothing at all from Alyssa. He'd messaged her and tried calling her the last few days but hadn't had a single response. He reasoned that they were both busy and maybe things were tough at home for her again, but he had a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that it was more than that. When he thought about it she'd started behaving oddly immediately after they'd made love the other night and he wondered briefly if he'd scared her by more or less dragging her away from Fantasy Bookings as he'd felt so angry and jealous, but she'd seemed fine after they'd had it out with one another and the sex had been good. It couldn't be that but he wasn't sure what it was. Clearly there would be a reason she wasn't contacting him. He had debated messaging Josh instead to check everything was ok but then he figured that was likely to really piss her off so he didn't. Instead he'd bide his time and maybe tomorrow when he had a lighter day he'd go to the college at lunchtime and try and find her. Satisfied he had a plan he sent her a message to let her know he'd like to meet her for lunch and suggested a location and then stuffed his phone back in his bag and made his way out of the arena, heading home.

The following morning he made up a small picnic and added in a couple of bottles of sparkling water which he'd discovered she was quite fond of and then headed for the West Park entrance to meet Alyssa. She appeared at just after one, walking towards him and he beamed at her, surprised when she didn't return his smile. Instead she looked a little cold, her face hard and her body language not at all friendly. He figured she'd had a bad lecture maybe or not much sleep the night before. Her eyes were shadowed and her face a little pale, but when she wilfully avoided his kiss and his attempt to take her hand Bret realised with a sinking feeling that the problem was him. She wrapped her arms around herself protectively and strode in front of him without a word and he followed, carrying the bag he'd packed their food into. Finding a quiet spot at the park where they were unlikely to be disturbed, Alyssa sat down on the bench with her arms folded and a scowl on her face, looking more like a truculent teen than the caring girl he was used to spending time with.

"What gives?" Bret asked, as he placed the bag between them on the bench. Having the barrier between them seemed to take a little of the tension away from her and she looked across at him for the first time, something in her gaze seeming to soften a little as she actually looked at him.

"Why are you here?" she countered and he raised a surprised eyebrow.

"I haven't seen you in three days, Alyssa and you've been ghosting me. Figured you owe me an explanation..."

"Right, because I'm the one at fault, aren't I?" she said, shaking her head and he looked at her , confused.

"Well from where I stand, I've been messaging you and trying to call you and you've not responded. Was there something wrong with your phone?"

"No sir, nothing wrong with my phone. Just I got a few things real clear in my head after the other night and I know how you see me so I figure maybe it's best to just cut all ties now before this mess becomes an actual disaster."

Bret took a moment to process what she had said but then his stomach dropped as if it had filled with ice and he stared at her.

"What? I don't understand..."

"Well I'll spell it out for you. First you drag me from my place of work as if I'm some sort of naughty child in need of a telling off, you belittle what I do and make me feel like crap because of the work I have to do to earn enough money to keep my family afloat, despite the fact you ain't too proud to pay for those services yourself and not just from me but from any number of girls over the years. You then accuse me of cheating in front of you with Steve, who is a married man and who has offered me nothing but friendship since the day I met him, been real open and upfront about his marital situation and I have never had an impure thought about him in my life. But flirting with him is my damn job as well you know and for me and Steve, we both treat it as a bit of fun, nothing more!"