Reality Bites - Wattys 2018 Shortlist

Chapter 41 - God Save the Queen

There was confusion for a moment, and I thought Eddie was still going to punch Dimitri. Then Dimitri rolled off me, lying on his back, losing it with laughter. Sitting up, he looked at Christian saying, "Christian, I promise you I'm not into women's underwear – at least not in that way!"

It sounded absurd, particularly in Dimitri's Russian accent.

Turning back to me, Dimitri continued laughing, saying, "And you sure took your time! I was standing here for twenty minutes rubbing your bra against my face waiting to get 'caught!'"

Eddie looked at me.

"You set this whole thing up?"

Nodding, I looked at him with a contrite expression. I was starting to worry he was going to go apeshit.

"Awww fuck! You got me good this time Hathaway," he moaned, looking up and starting to laugh. "And you Belikov? I had no idea you had it in you!" he said through his laughter, tears of mirth rolling down his face.

Christian saw the funny side of it, too – joining in our chuckles.

Adrian was doubled over he was laughing so hard.

"You should have seen your faces" I was giggling, glad they appreciated the joke. "Underwear pervert!" I repeated, lying back on my bed laughing uncontrollably.

The only one looking pissed was Lissa.

"Couldn't you have just told them that you and Dimitri are seeing each other?" she rebuked.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that Lissa?" I said still laughing. She looked annoyed, so I tried to stop giggling.

Jumping up from the bed, I gave Dimitri a quick kiss saying, "We're in Lissa's room, Comrade. I've got pizza and some Russian vodka."

"Roza," he said, the more serious Dimitri coming back out. "Do you remember how you felt the day after we last drank vodka?"

"Yes I do," I said, leaning up to kiss him again. "So I'm only going to have a couple tonight!"

"I'll be there in a minute, I'll just get changed," he said, unbuckling his belt and starting to thread it through his pants, laying it on the bedside before plucking his stakes out and laying them down too.

"Come on, the show's over!" I laughed, unlocking the doors and walking back to Lissa's room.

Christian was still shaking his head.

"I think that's your best one yet, Rose. I can't believe you got Belikov to go along with it."

"Call him Dimitri when it's just friends here," I said, smiling at him. "He's pretty funny when he's off-duty."

"So are you two really an item?" Eddie asked, curious.

"Yeah," I said to him smiling. "We're crazy about each other!"

I could see he was unsure if he was still being pranked. Looking to Lissa for confirmation she nodded to him.

"So how long has it been going on?" he continued, curious.

"Together? Not long. But we've been fighting the attraction for months," I said.

"And it's the real deal?"

"No doubt about it," I told him, although in truth my dreamy smile probably said it all. "The only bad thing is because he's a Guardian and I'm not yet graduated we have to keep it a secret. It would kill his career if it became known he'd started a relationship with me when I was his seventeen-year-old student."