"It's weird, that's all," Holly murmured, trying to avoid the pothole obstacles blocking her path to the local pub.
"Weird like a twenty-eight year old playing Pokémon Go?" Sassiness slipped from each syllable Meera spoke. Best friends with attitude were hard to find but impossible to ditch. "Explain this daft phone app game to me again. And if it helps, pretend that I give a shit."
Holly focused on stopping the hem of her summer dress flipping up in the breeze. Her lace knickers were the sort you wore to bolster your mood on a crap day but she didn't want to display her blue wares to the neighbourhood.
"You know I'm only playing it because I'm bored and waiting for my new job to start. It gives me an excuse to get out and do loads of walking."
"Bollocks does it. We both know that's not the real reason you're playing."
She always knows how to catch me out.
Meera, a Cambridge trained psychologist, could analyse people within seconds and always knew the buttons to press to get a reaction.
Especially when it comes to me.
"I don't know what you mean." Playing dumb was the only option she had. Occasionally she sneaked a look at her phone, trying to see if any digital creatures were popping up nearby.
"Why else are you obsessed with that game? And don't give me some crap about how it reminds you of your childhood. I'm talking about our dear
friend
Lewis." Meera grabbed her mid stride, yanking her shoulders and swivelling her so that they were face to face. Eyes bored through her, daring her to share the truth.
"Fine," Holly replied with a shrug, before rolling her baby blues dramatically. "Playing the game makes me feel closer to Lewis. It's the sort of thing he would love playing and he probably would have tried to make me play with him."
Which I secretly would have loved doing
.
"Because he was an immature nerd who didn't know when the best thing that could ever exist in his life was staring him in the face?"
Don't rush to his defence, he doesn't deserve it.
The tearful days and nights after he'd made it too difficult to be in a relationship with him were testament to that. Holly ran a hand through her thick dark hair, frustrated by all that resided in her head. Unanswered questions crossed her consciousness before being replaced by more unfathomable anxieties.
"I just don't understand what went wrong," she finally drawled.
"He was one of life's many dickheads," Meera replied, the impatience in her dark almond eyes adding to the beauty that shone wherever she went.
But Lewis wasn't a dickhead. The evidence was in his behaviour over the time they'd spent together. The "immature nerd" had been there for her during the months of redundancy; letting her weep when her nose was rubbed in the prospect of being without a job. Sad days were transformed into happy memories due to the hours they spent in stitches of laughter. The instances when they'd try and outwit each other now brought a pained smile that poked at her heart.
Their day at the fair on the edge of the local beach where he'd failed miserably in winning her a stuffed Pokémon character, a Pikachu, replayed in her mind most nights. It made it that bit more difficult to battle the tears.
"Everywhere we go together makes it a better experience," he'd told her that day. The words were etched on her mind like a tattoo. It wasn't just those words either. "I adore you," was something he said often, usually when drunk.
Was that a lie?
There had never been a man in her life as genuine as him.
Was I gullible, believing a loveable geek like him couldn't charm me with lines?
"I'm still waiting for you to explain this game to me." That was Meera's way of dragging Holly from the overthinking funk that pulled her mind in circles.
"Okay, so you open up the app and walk around. The different creatures, Pokémon, appear on your screen in a variety of locations and you have to swipe these balls to catch them."
"It sounds lame."
Ignoring the justifiable opinion or the way Meera's long legs swept them quicker to the pub than Holly could keep up with, especially as her head was still buried in the game, she continued. "There seem to be more Pokémon near poke stops, random places mostly in town and city locations, and sometimes people set lures."
The summer breeze was picking up and happily Holly felt the heat of the day finally ease from her body. The hot summer was glorious but made walking around and searching for creatures uncomfortable.
"These lures are set for half an hour by other players and they attract more Pokémon. Part of the fun is going to where these lures have been set."
"What you're telling me is that it's all about balls and being lured somewhere in order to get a poke? No wonder you like it, you dirty bitch."
"Yeah, whatever," she joked back, but her heart wasn't in the banter.
I miss my rude, filthy side.
But Holly had closed herself off to that as well since Lewis had forced the end of their relationship. Orgasms had become dull and without him seemed a waste of time and energy. Sometimes Lewis used to send her a text and she'd be dashing home to get herself off or rushing to his, if he could get out of work. The day she straddled him as he sat in the driver's seat of his car had nearly ended in public indecency; hot fast sex right outside his office. But they'd managed to hold off.
"Hard-core grinding doesn't count as serious foreplay," she'd whispered, before sliding her hand into his boxers.
Other nights his tongue would linger on her clit coaxing her climax closer, sensually bringing the tip of his muscle to her swollen bud until, just when she thought she couldn't take any more, he'd force her higher, sucking it with abandon. The wails of pleasure would blast silence from her flat until the neighbours banged on the wall, demanding they reduce the volume of their passion. It didn't stay quiet for long, though. The attention he gave her nipples was worthy of an Olympic gold medal.
