Reality Bites - Wattys 2018 Shortlist

Chapter 23 - With Him Beside Me

"Ugh," I groaned, eyes not open. I could hear a chuckle beside me.

"Come on, Roza," a familiar voice cajoled me. "You'll feel better once you take these." Opening one bleary eye, I looked tentatively around me. Yep. This is what hell looks like, I confirmed. There was clothing strewn everywhere. I vaguely recalled playing a drinking game with Dimitri last night. Something involving shots of vodka, and removing items of our clothing. After that, details were a little hazy.

"Did we...?"

"No!" Dimitri said. "I wouldn't when you weren't yourself. You fell asleep about 9 pm," he clarified. "How do you feel?"

"Not great," I confirmed, downing the two painkillers and my contraceptive pill he'd prepared for me. "How do you feel?" I asked.

"Good. Really good actually."

"That's so unfair" I groaned. "What time is it?"

"It's about eight. I thought we could go for a quick swim before breakfast?" he suggested. "Trust me; it's just the thing for a hangover."

I had to admit, swimming in the cool water sounded pretty appealing right now. Climbing out of bed, I detoured via the bathroom and then followed Dimitri through into the closet, changing into a one-piece swimsuit. He donned a pair of board shorts. Wrapping ourselves in a couple of towels from the bathroom, Dimitri grabbed one of his Western novels, and we headed out of our room and down the stairs and to the ground floor. We saw a few Guardians, but thankfully not my mother or Abe.

Walking across the patio towards the pool, I noticed all signs of yesterday's lunch debacle had been removed. Seeing the direction of my eyes Dimitri sighed.

"Come on Roza, let's swim."

The pool was under an annex of the house and enclosed with huge glass windows which were currently open. Putting our towels and his book at the water's edge, I dipped a toe in. I could tell the water was lightly heated, but it was still going to be brisk. Standing beside me at the pool's edge, wrapping me in his arms, Dimitri kissed me tenderly.

"Today is a new day, Roza. Let go of all the ugliness of yesterday," he implored.

Returning his kiss I knew he was right.

"Ok, Comrade," I whispered back.

Then, tightening his grip around me, Dimitri leaned sidewise, pulling us both into the water. Surfacing beside him, I eyed my man murderously.

"That's no way to treat someone with a hangover. I'm going to make you pay for that!" I threatened.

"You'll have to catch me first!" Dimitri laughed, swimming to the other end of the pool at an insufferably fast speed.

My resolve faltering before I'd even made it to the other end of the pool, I decided I'd focus my energies on kissing Dimitri instead. Although we were near the deep end of the pool, Dimitri was still able to stand on the bottom. Pulling me to him, I wrapped my legs around his hips and my arms around his neck. The water was on the chilly side, so it was nice to press myself into his body warmth.

"So how do you think today is going to go?" I asked him, resting my head in the crook of his neck.

"I'm not sure. It would be hard to be worse than yesterday," he admitted. "I'll have to apologize to your father for lunch," he added.

"Yes you will," I giggled. "Are you going to apologize to my mother?" I asked curiously.

"No chance! " he said fiercely. "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. And if she starts up again today, I'll not be staying around to listen to it," he growled.