thirty-one | play a supercut of us

NOTIFICATION CENTRE

2:45AM • JORDAN RIKI: Where'd you disappear to?
2:50AM • JORDAN RIKI: [3 Missed Calls]
2:52AM • JORDAN RIKI: I wanna go home, where are you? ?
2:53AM • JORDAN RIKI: Spare key will be the pot plant near my stairs

2:49AM • JESSE ARTHURS: Jordan asked me to ask you where you went cuz he's a little bitch and wants to go to bed
2:50AM • JESSE ARTHURS: [1 Missed Call]

[MILF HUNTERS] 2:51AM • JORDAN RIKI: oi has anyone seen where pat disappeared to? He's supposed to be crashing at mine tonight and I can't find him.

[MILF HUNTERS] 2:54AM • JESSE ARTHURS: Haven't seen him since he went off with some girl

[MILF HUNTERS] 2:57AM • REECE WALSH: Just ran into a girl I ghosted, that was awkward as fuck. . .

[MILF HUNTERS] 2:58AM • EZRA MAM: Which one? 💀

[MILF HUNTERS] 2:59AM • JESSE ARTHURS: Bro has ran through half of South East Queensland at this point lmfao

[MILF HUNTERS] 3:04AM • JORDAN RIKI: Don't slut shame him guys

[MILF HUNTERS] 3:05AM • KOTONI STAGGS: That's rich coming from you Riki

[MILF HUNTERS] 3:06AM • JORDAN RIKI: Hey I'm locked in now. Ali 4 life

[MILF HUNTERS] 3:07AM • JESSE ARTHURS: Yeah til she dumps you again lol

[tap to load 107 more messages]

IT HAD HAPPENED ENOUGH TIMES NOW THAT THE FEELING WAS FAMILIAR. Her warm body was pressed against his chest, their skin melting together as the morning sun glistened in through the cracks in the curtain. Her dark hair fanned out across his chest, his fingers tangled amongst the tendrils as he watched her her peaceful face. His eyes landed on the alarm clock resting on her side table, the time it read made him want to groan. The thought of disturbing her and leaving this position made him want to retire from the NRL entirely. He'd give it all up if it meant they could stay like this forever (call him a simp for all he cared).

The memories of how they'd ended up like this again replayed in his mind and he tucked them away for later, when she'd inevitably run away from him again (not that he was trying to manifest it). His heart ached for her to tell him what happened, why she'd been so ready to jump into trying him on only to go cold turkey in the evening? She'd deflected when he'd asked, distracting him with a kiss and mind blowing sex (not that he was complaining, he could distract her like that forever).

After another long moment, the black box that kept the time started beeping loudly and she began to stir against him. "Ugh," she groaned, burying her head into his beck. "Don't make me get up."

Still holding onto her, he reached over to turn the annoying thing off before wrapping his arms fully around her. Her skin burned against him, something he'd grown to enjoy about her; she was basically his own personal heater. "I don't wanna go to training," he muttered, placing a kiss on the side of her face. "I'll go to work for you if you train for me."

"Timothee would spontaneously combust if you walked into the office," she mumbled, playing with a strand of his hair. "He hates you."

"Good. He's not someone I want to like me," Patty replied, staring through her window out at the city skyline as the sun slowly rose above.

Dionne doesn't say anything as she rolls out of his arms, sitting up on the edge of the bed and faced away from him. He reaches over to trace her bare back, fingers dancing up and down her spinal cord which makes her smile to herself. "I'm gonna have a shower," she tells him, looking over her shoulder and shaking her head at the hopeful look he sent her way. "Just me, this time."

"Boo," he jokes, laying flat on his back as she circles the bed and disappeared into the ensuite. As soon as he heard the shower turn on, he threw the covers off and threw his legs into his boxers. It was a bit embarrassing that he was going to have to show up to Red Hill in last nights clothes but he had a second wardrobe stuff inside his locker, at least.

Venturing out in his boxers, he rummaged around her kitchen for various cooking utensils and ingredients. Finding a pancake mixed shoved right at the back of her pantry, he opted to make a batch. Feeling like a bit of a cliche, he got to work mixing water with the powder and counting the aggressiveness he shook the bottle with as his morning stretches (their fitness instructor had advised everyone stretch in the mornings when they woke up but Patty rarely remembered).

Dionne emerged twenty minutes later, her blouse half done up and her hair still soaking wet and dripping on the floor behind her. A content smile found its way to her lips as she soaked in the aroma of freshly cooked pancakes—she'd not had someone cook breakfast for her in years, she thought. "God, why can't I have this every morning," she hummed, arms wrapping around his waist as she placed a kiss on the back of his shoulder (she wasn't quite tall enough to see over them).

Flipping the final pancake, Patty exhaled loudly. "And why exactly can't it?"

Dionne let go, opting to snatch a pancake from the stack and sit at the stool in front of kitchen island. "It just. . . can't, it's complicated," she said through a mouthful of food, unable to look at him.

Switching the stove off, he turned to look at her. He leant on the bench, muscular chest still exposed and it took everything in her not to stare at him. "Then un-complicate it or, at the very least, tell me why."

"It's my job," she said softly, placing her half eaten pancake down in front of her.

When she didn't offer more information, Patty pulled up the chair next to her as he gently placed the stack between them. "What about your job?" He prompted.

Dionne heaved a sigh. "Timothee—"

"This fucking guy," Patty scoffed, biting into a slightly burnt pancake.

"—he basically. . . um, threatened—no, suggested—? . . . That he'd fire me if we kept our 'inappropriate relationship' up," she rambled, still not meeting the intense stare she could feel.

Patty almost choked on his food. "He what—! Isn't that illegal? Cohesion?"

Dionne shrugged. "It was in my contract, apparently I just failed to read it very thoroughly. Too excited about the raise." It really should've been something she'd paid more attention too and normally she would, it was just all so sudden.

"That's still weird as fuck," Patty replied. "Especially when he tried to kiss you at dinner that time—did you tell HR about that?"

"It wouldn't have gone anything," she told him, feeling dejected. "His dad owns the company, if anything they would've fired me for putting in a complaint about him."

Feeling outraged by the information she was giving him, Patty had almost lost his appetite (almost, the nutritionist would kill him if he showed up to training on an empty stomach). "Fuck this. You can't keep working from some controlling, jealous freak that's clearly obsessed with you," he told her, furrowing his brows.

"What else am I supposed to do? I've been looking for other jobs but nothing available will pay me enough to even dream of keeping me apartment," she bit back, feeling a little defensive over the judgement hidden in his tone. Not everyone had six figure contracts to fall back onto.

Patty gave himself a moment to absorb her words as he swallowed his giant bite. "Leave it to me," he told her, standing up and planting a kiss on her temple.

Dionne frowned as she sent him a confused look. "What does that mean?" She called out as he ventured back into her room to fetch his clothes.

"Don't worry about it!" He called back.

💌

(@dionnestanley via instagram stories)

PATTYCARRIGAN LIKED YOUR STORY!

PATTYCARRIGAN REPLIED TO YOUR STORY!
Top looked better undone

DIONNESTANLEY
Shh stop distracting me

💌 KARLA YAPS !

the end of book motivational killer is upon us, writers block has me captive but i'm trying my best to escape it. if i grinded really hard, i could have all the chapters of this written by the end of the week (no promises).

winter wants me to write a kotoni fic so that or a herbie fic will potentially be my next endeavour (once i finish this & smash out a bunch of my other works). i know i said there was potentially going to be a reece fic but he really pissed me off on saturdays game. how are you going to throw a pass at corey (the goat) oates' literal ankles & then yell at him for it??? reece, please sit down & have some respect for those who came before you.

i think our season being doomed has also contributed to my motivation disappearing because when we were winning, i was writing like crazy.

anyways, rant over & i'll see you in the next (hopefully better) chapter <33