Chapter 1. Friday Night Games
It was a great party. A Friday night release where everyone made an effort to kick off the stress of the week, look fine and let laughter bounce around the cocktail flowing vibe. It was only 9.30pm, but the slightly charged atmosphere had already sparked off a host of the type of games contrived to let people who shouldn't touch, touch while their partners egged them on, waiting for their turn to wrap themselves around the hottie whose legs had drawn their eye for the last hour up to the shortest of skirts and the occasional hint of what lies beneath.
Sophie, pulled out of a tangle of limbs from the floor by a giggling friend, adjusted her dress and made her way to the kitchen to top up. Something made her pause for a second at the door and look round; she met his eyes across the room, intently focussed on her. She hesitated, matching his gaze just for a second, then carried on not sure what to make of the little secret exchange, worried her other half may have noticed; wondering why she'd be worried by that? She'd never really noticed him much before; he was a friend of a friend, new to the circle who'd come with his wife. She casually made a note to find out his name, and hers, just to be polite of course.
As the night flowed on she found herself stealing quick occasional glances in his direction, but he was always occupied - with his wife, with his friends, not with her. She tried to put him out of her head, he was good looking, but he'd never be a film star or anything, just a normal bloke... however there had been something generated in that moment, something keeping her mind engaged, something stirred up inside her. It was just the cocktails of course! She didn't need her head turning, that wasn't her - certainly not by some married bloke she didn't know.
She smiled to herself and shook her head; her mate caught and asked her if she was ok. "Oh yes, having a great time, just remembered something stupid from work, what was that you were making before - the one with Bacardi and Malibu? Fancy one of them?" She grabbed her hand and pulled her into the other room where he wouldn't be a distraction.
The night chilled down, the assembled reclining onto the floor; couples lounged together on sofas, the slow Ibiza beat heat from the stereo matching the warm glow. With the conversation drifting and earlier encounters mostly forgotten she took herself upstairs to the bathroom. When she turned the corner and reached out for the door ahead she almost let out a scream; he was stood there, perfectly still, in the hallway. He must have been to the toilet himself, surely, but she hadn't been aware of anyone move for ages, had he been waiting up here? She looked down embarrassedly and nervously to avoid his gaze, smiled weakly and went to move past him. He put his hand out to stop her gently, but firmly, then lifted her chin and fixed her with his steely blue eyes. The ground seemed to move below her feet and she instinctively felt the urge to run, but she didn't. She was mesmerised.
He moved in and pressed her against the wall, so close she could breath in his heat as he pinned her in place. Immobilised, partly by fear, partly by anticipation and conscious of the burning flush and flutter welling up through her body, she thought he was going in for the kiss and she closed her eyes ready, but instead he simply whispered in her ear "Do you like games?"
Not believing she was brave enough to respond, she was surprised when she heard her voice simply say ... "Yes."
"Do you have your phone?"
"Yes," she'd taken it with her for some reason, and without thinking offered it to him. He typed in a number and pressed call, he held his phone up for her to see it was ringing, then flicked the screen to hang up and slid it back into his pocket.
"I'll be in touch, we'll play." He gave her a playful peck on the cheek, paused another second to give her one last blue flashed look, then put on a wry smile and made his way downstairs. She stayed there frozen to the spot for what seemed like hours but was really a few seconds, then stared at her phone, half panicked, as if trying to work out if it was on fire and if she needed to drop it to save her from getting burned.
She composed herself, and quickly ran into the bathroom, locked the door and sat down on the loo, realising she was shaking so hard she could hear the seat rattle underneath her. She took a deep breath and looked at the screen again, his number was still there. Trying to bring her mind back into sensible focus she gave a little grunt and went to delete it... but then stopped, clicked 'new contact' and after a couple of seconds of thinking typed in three simple letters - TGP. 'The Game Player'.
Chapter 2. Roll With It.
She checked her phone for the 20th time that morning, 3 days and nothing! Sat at her desk, she was trying to focus on the spread sheet in front of her, but the figures weren't making a great deal of sense and every acronym reminded her of those three letters - TGP.
Was it just a drunken prank? Had he filled himself with Dutch courage after accidentally catching her eye, then bottled the snog and adopted some bizarre character to hide his embarrassment? Perhaps, maybe? She'd had quite a few too; things seem different through the fuggy haze of raspberry mojitos (as she'd found out to her cost that time in Ibiza with that French bloke - lucky escape that one!)
She checked her phone again. "Expecting a call?" her colleague, just wondering past said with a little smirk on her face.
"Sorry? No, not really - just asked for a quote for something for the house, they said they'd ring this morning and they haven't."
"Getting the builders in again hey? Thought you'd just had your new kitchen in?"
"Yes, you must come round and drink wine in it with me, you've been promising. Look, can you clear this one up for me, I can't get this column to make sense..." Phew, she thought to herself as Mary engaged with the screen and away from the phone questions. She was being obvious in an office where the notice of a hair out of place at lunch becomes heavily gossiped evidence of a full on affair with the MD by teatime!
Mary, having solved the 'too easy to have been a conundrum' conundrum, finally walked away, with a smile on her face. She went to check the phone again - and stopped herself, instead deciding to pop it her bag and out of the way. Just as she was about to let it drop into the depths of old receipts and packs of chewing gum, she felt the tell-tale vibration of a text. It could be anyone. She blushed and hurriedly, bag in hand, headed for the loos, found a quiet cubicle and dug it out. 'New message. TGP.'
For the second time in a week she felt the seat shake under her and berated herself for being so stupid! She paused, and flicked the text open.
It just said - 'You are going to need a die'.
Her first reaction was shock, what's he saying? Then she reread it. Game player! 'Die' - as in singular of 'dice'. He's showing off a bit there, she thought - and I bet he knew it would cause a reaction at first glance. She'd not known what to expect, this was strange. She reread it again and to be sure typed back 'as in 'dice' I presume? I can sort it'.
She waited for another minute of nothing - then the phone buzzed again.
'The Rules. I will give you six options. You will roll your die and text back a picture showing the number. I will have the same options, in a different order, in front of me numbered 1 to 6. The number you send me will relate to my list here, not the one you have, although the options will be the same. You will not learn what option your die has chosen for you until you see me. As soon as you send the number you agree to carry out the chosen option. Agreed?'
She played the text around her head for a while. What if the options were, well, not her thing? She could find out and just not text the picture of the number, couldn't she? What should she do, was this stupid? If she got caught, well, all hell would break loose. And worse! She pictured TGP again - something told her he wasn't the careless type. Did she need this? No. It was daft. She should just delete the text and go back to her desk. That's the only sensible thing to do...
'Agreed'.
'Find your die, options will be sent tomorrow.'
She popped the phone back in her bag, took a deep breath, flushed the toilet out of habit (and in case anyone had spotted her going in there - you never know) and headed back to her desk.
"So, shall I grab a couple of bottles and come and get jealous of your new kitchen then?"
"What?" She stared blankly at Mary who was hovering next to her. "Oh, of course, tomorrow night, no sorry, not tomorrow, erm. Can you make Friday?"
The day ended slowly and she left the office making sure her phone was on silent before she got home. Her head was spinning with trepidation, a lot of self-doubt, but a magnetic pull towards, well, whatever! She arrived home first, retrieved her phone and started pulling out old board games from the cupboard in the spare bedroom. She found one in an old snakes and ladders set she'd had since childhood - smoker's tooth yellow with fading red numbers. "Well it's a dice, sorry, a 'die'" she muttered to herself.
She started typing a text - then paused and deleted it again. '...options will be sent tomorrow'. There was nothing more to say.