Part I: Erin's game
"It kind of started when she hit me with a cushion," James said.
Anna nodded curiously, while Erin smirked and absently rubbed the side of her face. The bruise was starting to fade now.
"Well, if she hit you, how come she's the one with the bruise?"
James kept his expression mock serious and relaxed back into his armchair. "I was just coming through from the kitchen with a can of beer and as I came through the doorway, she swung the cushion right at my face. Totally unexpected, it was. Made me drop my beer."
Erin laughed lightly. "You should have seen his face. He looked so shocked. He nearly fell over."
"And then..?" Anna prompted and then sipped from her mug of coffee.
"Well, I hit her of course." Anna spluttered into her cup. "Well, she made me drop my beer."
"What?" Anna finally managed to find some coherence.
"Yeah, of course. I just smacked her in the side of the face" James studied his knuckles ruefully, as if looking for bruises of his own. "She went straight down. Not even a whimper – if I wasn't so mad at her, I'd have been proud of her. She's got a hard skull, though."
"What?"
"Well, she deserved it. She made me drop my beer."
Anna's eyes were wide with shock now, but the surprise was giving way to a building anger and her cheeks were being flushed with outrage. She was looking more attractive by the second, James thought.
"You think that a joke like that deserves being assaulted?" She was starting to rise from her seat to emphasise her point. "Do you seriously believe..?"
"Hey, come on! She started it."
A strangulated choking noise distracted the two and they turned round to face Erin. Anna was astonished to see that she was trying to restrain a fit of the giggles.
"James…" she blurted out, finally. "James, stop being… stop being cruel. Tell… her the truth."
"OK, so I kicked her a few times when she was down, but her ribs'll heal without permanent damage."
"James!"
Anna was looking from one to the other and back again, in total confusion now. Gradually Erin's sobs of laughter subsided and she waved Anna back into her seat. James sat back and waited – still wearing the same dead-pan expression that was only partially marred by twitches at the corners of his mouth giving away his own amusement while he tried not to smile.
"We had a wrestling match and we just got a little carried away. That's all. It was a bit of fun and games, but… you know… accidents happen."
He stumbled backward, reeling in surprise as the cushion impacted on the side of his head. He heard her snort of laughter as the can of beer hit the floor and that sound gave way to a squeal of surprise and excitement as he lunged at her. His arm caught her round the waist and his momentum carried her over to the couch, where she crumpled immediately.
"Oh, the big bad bear is angry, eh?" she said. "Coming over all masculine, is he?"
"Better believe it, darlin'. I dropped m'beer. You're gaunae pay for that."
"And who's going to make me?"
Suddenly, she had wriggled away and, tipped off balance, he had collapsed forward onto the couch in her place. She slipped an arm round his neck and swung round, pinning him down with her own weight. He squirmed round and half fell off the couch and onto the floor, but she followed him all the way down and suddenly she was sitting astride his waist and pinning his shoulders to the floor. They were both breathing heavily and paused for a moment, taking stock of the situation. He, however, was finding himself distracted by the way the top button of her shirt had come undone, revealing a lot more of her cleavage than he had ever seen before. She wasn't wearing a bra.
"Damn, James! You had me thinking you were some kind of closet wife-beater or something, there. That wasn't nice."
"Nahh, maybe not. It was a laugh, though. You should have seen your face."
"It was just a play kind of thing, then? You two were just larking around? All perfectly innocent?" Anna's raised eyebrow was very eloquent. She was becoming intrigued now.
"Well, I wouldn't say it was entirely innocent." Erin answered, confirming Anna's suspicions.