(Leve DrØmet i
Norge)
Monday
9:15 p.m., Oslo
“Rose? You in here?” Paul called as he knocked on Rose’s hotel room door.
Rose opened the door. “Why can’t you just- Oh, sorry, I thought you were Mark.” She apologised.
“I’d rather you didn’t make that comparison if I’m honest.” Paul said. “You’re missing all the pizza.”
“I don’t really feel like it.”
“What do you feel like?”
“Not pizza.”
“No?”
“No.”
“So what’s up?” Paul asked, following Rose into the room, closing the door behind him.
“Nothing. I just feel…”
“Hungry?”
“No…”
“Cold?”
“No.”
“Tired?”
Rose smiled. “No.” She said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Erm… energetic?” Paul guessed, sitting next to her.
“No.”
“Ill?”
“No.”
“Intelligent?”
“No. Well, yes, but no.”
“Beautiful?”
“Erm…”
“Gorgeous?”
Rose just looked down at her hands.
“Really sexy in those clothes?” Paul said, lowering his voice and leaning in closer to Rose.
Rose looked at Paul and their eyes locked. They just looked at each other for a couple of seconds before leaning towards each other very slowly. It was almost inevitable that they were going to kiss when Rose suddenly pulled back and stood up, casually walking over to the television and flicking it on. Paul watched her walk away, smiling to himself. He got up and stood behind her, putting his hands gently on her shoulders.
“Maybe you just need to relax a bit.” He said, moving his hands slightly. “I give great massages.”
“Do you?” Rose asked, not moving.
“Yep.”
“Do you think I need a massage?”
“Your shoulders are very tense.” Paul said. “I can fix that. I can fix anything…”
“Okay.” Rose said. “What do I need to do?”
“Well…” Paul said, as she turned round to face him. “We can either do it standing up or lying down.”
A smile played on Rose’s lips. “Which do you prefer?”
“I can do it any way you want, babe.”
“I think I’d be more relaxed if I was lying down.”
“I think that sounds like a very good idea.” Paul agreed, watching as Rose walked over to the bed.
“I need to lie on my front, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve seen people do it on telly; would it work better if I didn’t have a top on?” Rose asked, raising her eyebrows slightly at Paul.
Paul smiled. “Definitely.” He said.
“Alright then.” Rose said, turning her back on Paul and pulling her top up over her head.
“Much better.” Paul said as Rose lay down on the bed. “Now just relax…”
Rose let out a breath as Paul placed both of his hands on the top of her back, gently kneading the skin. She closed her eyes and let him work out all the tension in her body with his hands.
Take that, Mark.
“There you are, Mark!” Kate said as Mark walked into his room, looking with dismay at the empty pizza boxes scattered over the bed.
He could get no peace.
“Where’ve you been?” Christian asked.
“Oh, you know… wandering the corridors, the usual.” Mark said despondently.
“Want some pizza?” Kate asked, offering him the last slice.
“No, thanks.” Mark said, wondering when they were going to leave.
Christian looked at Kate. “Anyway,” he said, standing up. “I think we’ll head off to our own room now; get some sleep.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea – got a full day of Oslo to tackle tomorrow!” Kate said, smiling at Mark.
“Yeah.” He said.
“Oookay, see you tomorrow.” Kate said, making a quick exit with Christian.
Mark shut the door behind them and then slowly went around the room picking up the litter his wonderful friends had left for him. When he’d put everything in the bin, he flopped down on his bed and sat there, in silence, for a full five minutes.
He didn’t know what to do.
He wasn’t tired, so he wouldn’t be able to sleep, even if he did feel like going to bed, everyone had retreated to their respective rooms – thank God – so there was no-one for him to talk to, even if he did feel like talking, and his head was so full of Rose that he couldn’t think about anything but her, even if he did want to. Evenings were the loneliest time of all when you weren’t a couple, especially when you were on holiday with people that were. Evenings on holiday were for couples and everyone knew it. Evenings were for romance, for passion, or simple togetherness: it didn’t matter what these couples were doing, the fact was that on any given evening, they would be together. And all the single people would be alone. No-one wanted an extra person tagging along, spoiling the mood and bringing them down with their yearning for someone who they could be together with. Single people didn’t belong in the evenings.
Mark wondered what Rose was doing right now. Probably with Paul, no doubt, having a great time, laughing at Mark and how he was all alone. She probably wasn’t even thinking about him, in fact – why should she be? She had Paul now. Eurgh, Mark couldn’t stand it. The thought of those two being together made his stomach turn. Rose was absolutely the love of his life; he was never going to love anyone as much as he loved her, if he ever loved someone knew again that was, because at the moment she was all he could think about. Why did Paul deserve to be the object of her affections? Why should he get to be in her favour when Mark wasn’t? He was doing it all over again, just like he had done with Ben and Chloe: taking from someone else, doing exactly what he wanted without a second thought for how anyone else was feeling. That was all Paul ever seemed to be able to do.
Mark knew why Rose hated him so much; he couldn’t pretend that it was irrational and unmerited, but that knowledge didn’t stop him from wishing that she didn’t. When Chloe had told him that she was coming on holiday with them he’d immediately conjured up a picture of the perfect reunion. But of course, whereas Mark’s feelings of amour for Rose had grown in strength since they’d been apart, Rose’s own feelings of loathing for him had also grown, and Mark’s fairytale meeting hadn’t come off the way he’d hoped. He was a fool for even considering that she might be pleased to see him after all this time, but he’d just thought that maybe…
Well it was too late for maybe now. He didn’t have a chance, certainly not with Paul now on the scene. Damn Paul for getting in the way. If he hadn’t been around then Mark would have had much more of a chance of getting Rose to talk to him. Well, he liked to think so, anyway. He knew that the right thing to do now – by all parties – was just to leave it. To face up to the fact that he was never going to get Rose back and it was never going to be how it used to be, and get on with his life. It would be best for Rose and best for him, in the long run. Except he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t just let her go, not without a fight.
The room was making him feel claustrophobic. Having spent the majority of the day in there, suddenly he needed to get out. Standing up and slipping his card key into his back pocket, Mark left the room, pulling the door gently shut behind him and making his way along the corridor to the stairs. He didn’t know where he was going to go, but it was time for him to do a little exploring of his own. On his own, of course, but he was feeling so miserable that he wouldn’t want to subject anyone else to his poor company. Maybe that was why Rose didn’t want him. It could be; look at him compared to Paul. He seemed to be in high-spirits at the moment and was just up for a good time; no hang-ups, no issues, no morals or deep conscience, just a bit of fun. And then there was Mark. Mark, who was so hung-up on the past that every second of his present life was just another long second of pain and misery. He knew who he’d choose.
So maybe that was the key. Maybe that was how he could get Rose back: by getting himself together and being someone who people actually wanted to hang around with, rather than avoiding like the plague. Because Paul was generally good fun to hang around with – he was quick-witted, tongue-in-cheek, up for anything – and Rose was obviously enjoying spending time with him, so if Mark could just lighten up a bit, let go a little, maybe, just maybe, Rose would realise what she was missing. He didn’t want to be exactly like Paul, but he definitely had the right attitude about things and so to be more like him couldn’t hurt. It definitely couldn’t make things worse. He also didn’t want to snub Rose or hurt her feelings by having a wonderful time, seemingly forgetting about everything that had happened between them, but if he looked like he was having a bit more fun than at the moment, maybe she’d want to have fun with him.
Feeling a bit better already, Mark walked through the lobby of the hotel and out the doors. It wasn’t dark outside – it didn’t get dark at all in the summer, the sun just went down and came back up again – and the air was still quite warm. Turning left, Mark walked along the street, taking in the atmosphere around him and thinking of ways that he could become more appealing to Rose. He tried to think of how he used to be in the days he’d spent with Rose – they seemed to be few – before everything started to go wrong. It was difficult; Mark felt so different now. He’d always had a general sense of being carefree, untroubled, cheerful, but looking back now, it was as if he’d aged ten years and not just two. Everything that he’d been through had forced him to grow up a hell of a lot and now he almost felt old before his time! God, no wonder no-one wanted to hang around with him.
Okay, so being more relaxed about things, more positive, more young at heart were good qualities to have. All those years ago, Rose had fallen in love with him almost immediately and even after the first lot of trouble they got sucked up in, she came back, so there must have been something about him back then that made her love him unconditionally. Something he didn’t have now. Argh, what was that? How could he have changed so much?
Narrowly avoiding being run over by a car on a road that didn’t look like a road at all, Mark turned right at a fountain and headed up the road towards what he suspected was going to be a very long night of thinking.
“Feeling a bit more relaxed now?” Paul asked, still moving his hands over Rose’s back.
“Mmmm, much.”
“Good.”
“I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Massages?”
“Mmm.”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know I can do.”
“I bet.” Rose said with a smile that Paul couldn’t see.
“I think my work here is done.” Paul said, finishing the massage. “You’re totally un-tensed.”
“Thank you.” Rose said, slowly sitting up. “I’ll have to think of something I can do to repay you…”
“I’m sure there’s plenty you could do for me.”
“Well you’ll have to let me know if you think of anything.” Rose said, getting off the bed and putting her top back on. “Because, you know, I can’t just go taking from you without giving you anything in return. It wouldn’t be right.”
“How about you buy me a drink in the bar?” Paul suggested.
“Now?”
“Unless you’ve got something better to do?”
“Nope, I’ve got an entire evening to do whatever I like.” Rose said, smiling at Paul. “I’ll meet you down there in 5 minutes.”
Holidays are fun, Rose thought to herself as she showed Paul out of her room.
She had to say, she was enjoying all this attention from him, and the fact that he was providing her with a convenient and fun way to get back at Mark made things all the more enjoyable. Ohhh she wished Mark had been in the room for the last hour, purely for the look on his face when he saw her take her top off in front of Paul. Revenge would have been soooo sweet.
Rose quickly slipped on a different, more revealing top, re-did her hair and slicked a bit more lip-gloss onto her lips before heading off to meet Paul in the hotel bar. She had a feeling this holiday was going to be rather productive…