More Than A Game

Chapter 54

Ollie and I were standing in the cue of the fish and chips restaurant taking in the Gold Coast atmosphere for one final time. It was already our final day at the beautiful place before our flight back to Adelaide tomorrow morning.

I took a glance at the board, deciding what I wanted to have for lunch. Looking at the choices, I sighed, continuing to wonder what was the best choice to eat.

"So are you going to miss this place?"

I paused a moment, shaking myself out of my thoughts as I turned to face Ollie. Did he just ask me a question? I cleared my throat, confused and looked at his face to which he just raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, did you say something babe?" I asked as Ollie laughed to himself before asking his question once again.

"I don't know, am I supposed to miss this place? Yes, it is very beautiful but for some reason, I haven't grown an attachment to it like I would have for Melbourne." I said automatically noticing Ollie's facial expression change. As I was about to ask him about it, I hesitated and continued to decide what to get.

"So anyway, what are you grabbing for lunch? A burger? Fish and chips?"

"Yeah, fish and chips sound great thanks babe." I said as we made our way to the front of the cue to where stood a couple of middle aged people smiled at us. They took our orders as I gestured to Ollie that I'd be happy to pay. Ollie shrugged his shoulders and moved out of the line to look at the artworks on the wall behind him when the short women began telling me something I would not have expected.

"Oh, you're Kurt Tippets girlfriend, aren't you?"

"Excuse me, but what? Did you just say Kurt Tippet's girlfriend?"

"Why yes, apparently it's what everybody is talking about now. Something about a summer fling or a similar thing to that." The woman behind the counter said as I could feel my stomach begin to tie in knots.

"Summer fling?"

"I don't know much about it, since I've been working for most of the morning but I just know a little bit. Anyway, here's your food, have a nice day." She said, slowly giving me the wrapper food as I thanked her and walked out the door. Ollie soon trailed behind me.

"What was that lady talking to you about?"

"I don't know, some stupid hollywood gossip probably, I wasn't paying too much attention. Hey, let's cut the chit - chat and go a spot to have our lunch at, right?" I said anxiously as we both headed to sit underneath the tree, staring out into the distance of the beach.

*  *  *  *  *

"This is just a curious question but how are you going with you Journalist degree?" Ollie asked, taking a bite out of the crunchy, golden chip in his finger.

"Great I guess. Only have two years to go until I get my degree which I'm pretty proud of." I said smiling before eyeing off the piece of fish that sat crowded by the chips scattered around it.

"Travis texted me but there's a position available at the club for a Port Adelaide media intern and I don't know much about it but I think you'd be really awesome at it."

"You really think so?"

"Of course babe. You're currently studying for your degree and have a dream to work within the industry, so why not have a go at being the club's media intern. You'll learn heaps of new things that you take back to Bridgeton and probably impress everyone with how awesome you are."

I blushed as Ollie looked down at me and smiled brightly. It was pretty exciting to become a media intern, especially if it was for Port Adelaide. It would not only be a dream come true but also a huge opportunity to add a couple of new skills under my belt.

"So what do I need to do?" I asked as Ollie looked up to the sky and thought hard before looking back at me.

"There's a form you'll need to fill out online, so you could probably just go on Port Adelaide's website or something. Don't worry, I'll get Travis to text you the details to make things easier."

"Thank you Ollie. Thank you. I don't know what I would honestly do without you."

"Hey, don't thank me, thank Travis. He's the one who told me about the job opportunity. Anyway, I think you should eat that last piece of fish, I know you want it. Plus, you deserve it heaps more than I do." Ollie said as I froze before we ended up laughing to ourselves. I slowly grabbed the last piece of fish and took a bite. Then, innocently moved it closer towards Ollie's mouth as he ate the remaining piece of fish.

*  *  *  *  *

Walking down the busy pathway, Ollie wrapped his arm around me as we slowly made our way back to our hotel room to begin the tiring process of packing.

After spending a week in the sunshine coast of Australia, it was now time to head back home where all kinds of mysteries were awaiting for me.

The thing that still bothered me, is that although I was happy today, that lady at the restaurant made me feel uncomfortable. What did she mean by a summer fling? Why did she think I was dating Kurt? Was I still making news headlines? I prayed to myself that this wasn't the case; the attention from first dating Chad and The Brownlow speech was more than enough for the headlines. I didn't need another thing to happen.

I felt nervous as I wondered what Ollie was going to think and especially what Chad was going to think. I know I shouldn't have cared much for him but I couldn't help it after our last disastrous meet up at the cafe. Who knew what he was going to think when finding out about a pathetic summer fling?

"Carmen, you alright? You seem a little uncomfortable."

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine thank you. Just uh.. Missing home, that's really it." I lied as I glanced around suddenly becoming paranoid that somehow I was going to become questioned about the non - existent fling with the Sydney Swans player.

"Honestly Carmen, you don't look fine, you look kinda fearful or something. Did I put you off about the media intern position?"

"Huh? What? No, no of course not babe. -" I stopped when the cool, crisp wind danced across my face. I felt guilty about the whole thing, even though I didn't do anything wrong. Yeah, I might have kissed Kurt but like they always say, accidents always happen.

I knew Ollie wasn't buying my words when I showed hesitation in my speech. Maybe he knew what the latest gossip was and thought it was all true. Or maybe he had no idea. That was they option I wanted, but knew that was rather unlikely. It was called social media for a reason.

Ollie begun to stroke my chin as he looked in my eyes. I knew this was a bad idea with the rumours filling around and without any hesitation, I gestures for Ollie to back away watching the heartbreak written across his face. He moved his hand away from my face and sighed.

"Seriously Carmen, what's the matter? I know something is up and hiding it from me isn't going to help anyone, especially yourself Carmen."

"Ollie, please stop asking me what's wrong when there is absolutely nothing going on. It's getting really annoying to be asked that question all the time. Sorry but I guess that's the truth Ollie."

"You're right Carmen, and I really am sorry babe. I understand that with the drafts and our relationship, it's put you understand a lot of stress. So how about we just drop the subject and continue walking back to our hotel room."

"Why not." I muttered aloud feeling the tension between Ollie and I that had suddenly surfaced out of nowhere.