Read After Ariel: It started as a game for Free Online Page A

most amazing thing to tell you. Ring me back.’ She was so excited that she didn’t notice that the battery level was almost non-existent.
    She tore sheets and towels out of the linen press and raced to her room to change the bed. Just in case. Then she gathered up piles of clothes and stuffed them into the wardrobe, kicked shoes under the bed and threw books and papers into a basket in the corner of the room before making the bed up.
    Finally, she showered, slithered into a black lace thong and donned a matching black bra. A miniscule black skirt and a pair of black tights teamed with a gold cammie and black boots completed her ensemble. The pretty face, with hair piled artlessly on top of her head, glowed with excitement. She pressed her gleaming red lips together to set the lipstick and turned sideways, looking at herself from the corners of her eyes, all the better to gauge the length of her lashes. Her nose ring glittered in the light.
    ‘ Coooool! Like, amazing.’ She pursed her lips and took tiny dabs at her pencilled eyebrows pausing to look between each stroke of the pencil until she was satisfied. Good one.
    A faux fur coat around her shoulders, Ariel threw the front door key into her bag and swung out of the house.
    *
    During his two-week break, Dingo had found few normal, everyday girls he felt like asking for a serious date. Pickups in hotels and bars didn’t count. He only wanted to play with them , but then, remembered Ariel’s lithe body...after years of performing, the high-flyers bored him and nine times out of ten, sometimes even their games gave him pause for thought.
    He smoothed aftershave over his cheeks, examining his reflection in the bathroom mirror; white shirt, black leather jacket, jeans and boots, casual...not a slob but not too rich, a good disguise.  He went to the window and gazed on the cars parked below, knowing he should take his medication, and that he hadn’t taken it for a month. No way. I don’t need it anymore.
    ‘Two blue, two red, a green...oh no, where is the other green...ah, there’s one, but it’s not stopping...yes it is!’ Relief flooded him. Thank God, it was going to be a good night; the numbers were even for every colour! If one car didn’t fit, something awful would happen. Reassured, he left the room, unaware of a white car slipping into the space at end of the line. At the last moment, he turned back and picked up his medication, hesitated, then plonked it back onto the shelf.
    Spurning the lift, he edged his way down the staff stairs which creaked under his feet, and down the hallway. He tried to tread lightly and almost furtively stepped into the beer garden at the bottom. He didn’t want anyone to stop and talk to him though several people looked up. 
    ‘More creaks in them stairs than a monkeys got tits!’ joked a man, sitting with his companion at the table nearest the bottom of the stairway. His companion giggled. Trying to appear smaller, Dingo wended his way through the empty tables to the outside door, glad he was getting out before the evening rush. He wanted to take Ariel somewhere quiet for dinner. Put her in the mood.
    The evening air had turned nippy and despite the lingering light, a breeze had sprung up. He hovered close to the door, not wanting to look too eager or like a right wanker if she didn’t come. Music danced through his head; calm settled over him.
     The trees in the park opposite the pub swayed gently. A low branch, just begging for someone to swing from it, caught his attention. He crossed the street, hurried to the tree and dropped his backpack on the park bench nearby. Glad there were no other people around to distract him or to stare, he sat down and opened it to check his possessions.
    Firstly, he laid his notebook on the bench and placed a pen alongside it, then his wallet against that to form a T-junction, keeping exactly 3.2cms between each item before counting them twice. Having satisfied himself that all the items