Happy day today, you guys💛💛💛Finally, we've got chapter 2 upon us and it was truly a complete treat writing this with cassiahalley. She's fantastic and makes this story 10 times funner to write and brainstorm. We're at day 2 for our 4 Islanders and it's their first Love Island full day together. Just as they're getting to know their respective partners, our newest girl, Priya, is on the verge of stealing one of the boys. Click on each musical note to immerse yourself with our protagonists👀 I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as we enjoyed writing it🥺 -mrsgaryrennell💛

Dicky throws his head back and groans, “Don’t get soft on me, man.” Then, he makes a brief pause, pondering Gary’s words. “But yeah, I agree. It’s nice to have a mate in here.”

“Even if we get kicked out, like, next week, this Love Island thing would still have been a fun experience we can tell the rest of the lads back home, don’t you think? I’m glad to be here with you, if I’m honest,” he says sincerely to his older mate.

Chapter Text

Day 2

In the bedroom – Early morning.

An abrupt of bright lights illuminate the entire communal bedroom and all Islanders shift their duvets to avoid the morning’s greeting.

Chloe tiredly squints to first view an unfamiliar ceiling. For a minute, she’s forgotten she’s in Love Island but quickly blinks out her blurry sight and restores her vision. A heavy snore rumbles in Chloe’s ears and winces at some low muffled grunts. She angles her head to the side and sees an unconscious Dicky on his side facing her. His raven locks are disarranged, and paled lips are parted just as he sucks in oxygen for another snore. Dicky shifts his sleeping arrangement and now lies face down with his face shoved in his drooled pillow. His brunette partner arranges a displeased face and lightly shakes her head. I dunno how I’ll get used to this, Chloe thinks.

Her puffy eyes glance at each bed and notices the majority of people already awake. She scans the beds with most of the couples in them: Noah and Hope, Rocco and Lottie, Bobby and Hannah, Ibrahim and Marisol, and Priya, who’s sleeping alone because she’s single. In the bed at Chloe’s side, she sees Gary’s muscular frame wrapped around Minerva’s small figure in what looks like a cosy spoon, just like Dicky predicted yesterday. Even though the younger girl’s bright blue eyes are open and awake like if she hadn’t fallen asleep at all, it looks like none of them have intentions to separate from their embrace just yet.

Next, Chloe brings her attention back to her drowsy partner and tries to hide her growing smile; she really doesn’t want to laugh but it’s hard when Dicky keeps mumbling nonsense in his sleep. She can’t quite make out what he’s saying but it’s entertaining, nonetheless. Her hand hardly makes any contact with his bare shoulder and instantly hears Dicky groan. Chloe brings her face closer to him and quietly whispers, “Dicky.”

No response other than his snoring. Either the mechanic is a heavy sleeper or he’s just ignoring her. The dark-haired musician grows an impatient pout and heavily exhales through her nostrils. There’s got to be a way to get this bloke out of bed. Chloe tucks in a loose curled hair strand behind her ear and scoots closer to Dicky. Her hand lands on the same shoulder and lightly shakes him awake, “Come on, sleeping beauty. It’s morning already.”

The cranky Islander shrugs off her hand from his shoulder and lazily grumbles under his breath, “Go away.” Dicky carries an irritable look across his sluggish face and pulls the duvet over his head to block off his partner. Her cheery tone of voice is really hitting a nerve; he can only hope she really goes away.

Chloe purses her lips together into a thin line and shakes her head. Why does he have to be so difficult? It’s only been the first morning and he’s already making her life impossible. They’re in absolute silence for a moment until she hears a muffled bothered voice buried in his wrinkled pillow, “You’re still here?”

The tall Chatham native lifts his head and peeks under his dark lashes to see Chloe looking down at him with a petty grin; a grin that clearly says, ‘I’m not going anywhere’. He rolls his eyes and groans, “You’re not gonna leave me alone, are you?”

“Nope,” the petite Londoner softly giggles to his bad temper. Normally, she dislikes grumpy partners, but Dicky is just too entertaining and, must she confess, he’s slightly charming with ruffled morning hair and looking into those beady coloured eyes along with his raspy voice; it’s all too adorable. Chloe sits on her knees and scoots closer to Jason, “Come on... Tell you what? I can get us started with breakfast. What do you say?”

He throws her another scowl and he can’t believe Chloe’s mentioned what he’s most enthused about: food. Dicky heavily sighs in defeat and lazily rolls off the bed. He slumps next to his energised partner and roughly presses his larger fingers against his blurry vision, “Are you this bloody irritating in the morning?” He shifts his sight towards Chloe and can already sense a comeback ready to spill off her tongue.

“Only when I have to deal with man-child tantrums,” she replies. Then, she pushes her hands on her kneecaps and stands up as she chuckles at his unimpressed reaction.

“Stop being such a sloth!” Chloe’s small hands wrap around his forearm, too heavy for her to get him off the damn bed. Dicky eventually gives in and finds it too funny to see her physically struggle to get him to come with her.

Meanwhile, Minni lifts her head up from her squishy pillow to watch the comical scene. She chuckles lightly at the pair and follows them with her dazed gaze until they disappear through the bedroom’s door and head towards the kitchen, with Dicky’s steps being incredibly heavy and lazy, expelling grumpiness, as Chloe seems to glide out enthusiastically. The cellist is definitely a morning person, Minni reckons.

“Morning,” the blue-eyed girl hears behind her all of the sudden. Gary’s deep and raspy morning voice reverberates across his front, making her feel the vibrations on her narrow and mostly bare back, which is pressed against his strong chest.

Inevitably, a soft smile forms in her lips and she blushes with pink colour, his presence behind her being soothing and pacifying in some way. Last night, the young woman wasn’t able to fall asleep properly, her insomnia haunting her and making her mind process all of this Love Island thing over and over again. Plus, making her worry about the possibility of new girl Priya choosing Gary to couple up with today, so the calm atmosphere of this first morning at the Villa brings a sense of comfort to her. And having the crane operator’s warm and big arms around her helps a lot too, especially after remembering the kiss they shared in the daybeds before entering the bedroom. Her stomach flutters at the memory; even though she knows that it wouldn’t be good to get attached to someone this early in the competition, less catching feelings, Gary has quite a charm that inevitably pulls her towards him.

“Good morning,” she whispers, turning around to face him.

Now it’s time for Gary’s lips to upturn into a smile at the sight of her. He almost can’t believe that she looks practically the same as when she was all dolled up last night— except for all the glittery makeup that she removed from her eyelids and cheekbones before settling onto bed next to him. This girl’s natural beauty impresses the Chathamite and leaves him speechless for a moment, long curled eyelashes batting and deep cobalt blue eyes staring back at him, a little glazed by having just opened them. He could most definitely get used to this, he reckons.

“Alright? Slept well?” The blond manages to ask, his face still feeling numb from slumber. He’s not willing let go of their embrace just yet, preferring to enjoy this short moment with such a nice bird between his arms; he could’ve never imagined that his first night in this bloody show would’ve ended up like it did, with him kissing his partner and then sharing a cosy cuddle all night long. It’s not a bad start at all.

“Yeah. You’re a good cuddle-buddy,” Minni responds kindly, stretching a bit.

Just then, Gary takes the hint and unwraps his arms from around her. He shifts and holds his head up by using his elbow as Minni sits on the mattress, the freshly washed white bedsheets sliding down her torso. Her partner’s baby blues look at her with attention, scanning her up and down slowly; her messy wavy locks cascade down her shoulders and her movements are so effortless and soft that it gives the illusion that she’s light as a feather— and maybe she is. Somehow Gary can still feel her dainty waist between his arms and her smooth legs intertwined with his.

“I’m so glad to hear that,” the crane operator chuckles. “Cos I tend to toss and turn sometimes and…” He trails off.

Minni cuts him with an airy laugh. “Mate, you slept like a sack of potatoes,” she says, offering a kind smile. “If it wasn’t for your snoring, I would’ve thought you died right after you closed your eyes.” Next, she makes a pause, a playful smirk appearing in her tender features, “Plus, you hiccup a lot.”

Her statement makes Gary’s face go red in an instant, feeling embarrassed at the thought that he snored and hiccupped on this bird’s ear all night. He never expected that sleeping next to him would be as bad as sleeping next to Dicky or Noah. “Oh, mate,” he whines. “Really?”

“Yeah, but it’s alright. I think it’s cute,” she reassures, sincerely.

There’s a brief silence, in which the both pairs of different shaded blue irises get locked into one another. Gary bites his inner lip and, for a moment, he starts second guessing himself— it’s true that he wouldn’t mind at all if he had to stick with this gorgeous girl for the rest of the summer, but at the same time he reckons that getting to know the other girls in here would be good too, especially for the sake of staying in the game. He doesn’t know how to tell Minni yet that he’d like to get to know everyone before making a decision. But that doesn’t mean that he won’t enjoy the endless cheekiness she has to offer in the meantime.

After a few seconds, the muscular man leans forward with a confident smile. “Now I feel like I gotta make it up to you for all the snoring,” he murmurs, flirty.

Minni takes the opportunity to reciprocate and gets closer to him, “What’s on your mind?”

Unexpectedly, Gary’s cheeky smirk turns into a naïve beam, “How about a blazing cuppa? You like tea, don’t you?”

His innocent proposal makes the physics student giggle, “Great idea. See you in the kitchen, then.”







In the kitchen – Morning.

Chloe saunters over to the stove and feels the pans heating up already. She hears the fridge open and, looking over her shoulder, she spots Dicky staring at the inside for ages, “Where’s the bacon? I could've sworn I’ve seen some earlier. I wasn’t that knackered coming over here.”

She rolls her eyes at his impulsiveness. He’s most definitely not a morning person. “Steady on, Dicky. I’ve got it right here,” Chloe manages to multi-task and slides from one pan with the fried eggs and the other with the bacon. The tall raven-haired looms over from behind and he looks over at her preparation. He attempts to keep his cool but is stumped to see the musician put together his favourite type of breakfast. Dicky certainly doesn’t recall ever telling her about his meal preferences.

Chloe briefly glances up at the tall Kent Islander and can clearly see his confused pout with slightly raised eyebrows. She imitates a similar frown and gives him a concerned expression, “Is something the matter?”

A light groan escapes her mouth at the realisation that Dicky might not fancy what she’s making for them, “Oh no... Please tell me you’re okay with what I’m fixing up. Otherwise, you’re down your luck because I’m not—”

“Bacon better be crispy, mate.” Dicky throws her a knowing look and settles himself on one of the stools nearby. He rests his elbows against the surface of the table and catches himself intently observing the busied cellist. She has freshly washed brown locks all caught in a messy bun. Some soft curled hair strands draped near her ears. Even with her sloppy hairdo and no sign of makeup on her clear skin, she’s managed to remain gracefully beautiful with her colourful one-piece swimwear matching it with a transparent swimsuit cover up.

Chloe scrunches her full lips into a playful smile and lifts an eyebrow at Dicky. It’s quite evident the silent man wanted to be discreet while ogling the brunette beauty, but she instantly felt his wandering sight all over her, “You alright there, Jason?” She teases.

Dicky blinks out his internal bashfulness. He’s normally good at disguising his appreciation for the female physique but he can’t help but fully intake Chloe’s gentle curves. Both pairs of hazel eyes lock and there’s a flirtatious pause between the two. The young mechanic lets out a short chuckle and his partner is quick to join the laughter. He widens his charming smile and it crinkles the outer edges of his eyelids, “I’m alright, yeah...”

Next to the classy cellist, Bobby is displaying all of his professional cooking skills by trying to teach a clueless Minni how to make the fanciest and tastiest omelettes someone could craft with the few ingredients available. As the pastry chef arranges different sets of spices and herbs on a cutting board, the physics student is playing with the pan, trying to flip the omelette by using just one hand.

“Minerva, I swear that if you drop one of my masterpieces—” Bobby starts saying, until the girl cuts him with a gesture.

“Chill out, Bobs. I got this,” she states, smirking. Confidently, the young woman makes a motion with her wrist to flip the food inside the pan, with just half of it landing on the correct side and turning its flat shape into a taco. “Ow,” she mumbles, regretful.

Bobby gasps, the sight of the messed-up meal hurting him almost on a physical level. “You didn’t,” he says, exaggeratedly. He practically runs from where he is, a wooden spoon in hand to fix his friend’s mistake. Skilfully, he manages to save the omelette. “There you go,” the Scottish sighs, alleviated.

Being stubborn as she is, Minni grabs the handle of the pan with a strong grip, “Let me try again.”

“Oh, don’t you even think about it, young lady,” the Scottish scoffs, jokingly. Suddenly, he has an idea and soon adopts some kind of hunched stance, leaning forward on the counter. He stares at the petite girl in front of him intensely. “You’re a disgrace. My gran could do better! And she’s dead!”

“Are those Gordon Ramsay quotes?” Minni chuckles, not fazed by his words and getting his impersonation straight away. If there’s a reason why she and Bobby clicked on the friendship aspect straight away is because they share a similar humour.

Without breaking character, Bobby frowns and holds back a laugh, “Yes, you panini head! I’ve never, ever, ever, ever met someone I believe in… as little as you!”

Now fully laughing at his acting, Minni stays in her place next to the frying area. She hugs her side with one arm, covering her mouth with one of her small hands to stop herself from laughing more. Her sudden giggles catch Dicky’s attention, from the other side of the kitchen. The brunet man squints at the scene, first finding irritating to see people being this chipper in mornings and making impressions and dumb jokes already, but soon Minni’s contagious cackles have the sides of his lips curling upwards slightly, something that even surprises himself. Feeling kind of weird by his involuntary reaction, the man shakes his head to clear his thoughts and does his best to ignore the pair of Islanders, labelling them as plain annoying inside his head.

Minni’s laugh has just stopped when Bobby gets closer with a weird attempt of a menacing attitude. One of his slender fingers points at her, his entire expression transforming in full-on Ramsay mode.

“Now get out of my kitchen!” The pastry chef orders. He fakes getting more outraged after just getting laughter and giggles from her end as a response, “Did you not hear what I just said? This crab is so undercooked I can still hear it singing ‘Under the Sea’!”

“We’re not even making crab, Bobby!” The blue-eyed girl frowns, getting mildly pissed but still being entertained by his eccentric impersonation.

Still not breaking his performance, the man begins to push her away playfully, “Get out of my kitchen, you donkey!”

“Are you really kicking me out by using Gordon Ramsay phrases?” Minni whines, taking a few unwilling steps.

“Out! Out!” With that, he finally manages to get her away from his spot in the frying area. Reluctantly, the young woman walks to take a spot on the other end of the kitchen, while trying to disguise her smirk by faking a pout. She knows that Bobby will regret it and try to make her sous chef again later, and she’s planning on not giving him that privilege, or at least not until she sees him squirm a little.

Still in the frying area, Chloe quietly giggles as she tries not to let Bobby’s impressive Gordon Ramsay imitation distract her from burning the bacon and eggs. Otherwise, she’s not gonna hear the end of Dicky’s complaining.

Once she finishes her preparation, the cellist makes her way over to Dicky and sits on the stool beside him. After settling down his designated plate in front of her partner, he angles his head to the side and puts a skeptical face at the eggs and bacon. The London girl can’t start on her meal until she sees the cranky man’s first impressions on her cooking. She will make sure he’ll get a piece of her mind if he harshly critiques it.

Dicky turns to see Chloe’s anticipated look on him and stares back at her for a moment, “I’m curious. Has Gary told you this is my favourite breakfast?”

“Hah, that’s funny. I haven’t really spoken to your friend. Call it a coincidence?” Chloe effortlessly shrugs and picks up her fork. The girl is starving and can’t wait to dig in, “Might I have you know, this is my favourite breakfast.”

His eyebrow arches to the new information; she’s got to be joking. There’s no way an extremely attractive city girl would like fatty foods. All Londoners he’s met tend to be snobby, self-centred, and picky, “Really? You look more like the type to eat all that healthy shit. You know, like most city birds do.” His long fingers grip onto the glass of orange juice and gulps in the citrusy beverage.

The refined-looking woman leans back at Dicky’s comment and delivers an unsure look as she smiles, “Now I reckon that’s a bit prejudiced, wouldn’t you agree?” Chloe couldn’t tell if this bloke was flirting with her or not, but it was hilarious, nonetheless.

Dicky bites into the crunch of the salty bacon and smacks his mouth to each bite, completely ignoring her statement. He savours the lingering flavour of his food. There’s a breathy giggle coming from his side and it’s Chloe covering her mouth with her hand.

His jaw stops midway from his obnoxious chewing, “What?” He mumbles with his overfilled mouth.

Chloe puts her hands over her face as she can’t seem to control her laughter. She ultimately brings her face up to see Dicky utterly puzzled, “Are you really this crabby? First, your snoring almost competes with an opera singer I know back home. Second, you’re so difficult to wake up that it exhausts me. And lastly, your chewing is loud, mate.”

The Chatham native shoves more food into his mouth and purposely chews louder to annoy her. He playfully brings his face closer to the slim brunette and makes her cringe to the gruesome smacking sound of his lips. They share a quick chuckle at their banter until they sense Minni join their company.

“Woah, your flirting skills amaze me, Dicky.” Minni comments, sitting in front of him. The blue-eyed girl teases him by offering a sweet smile, that apparently is bound to be ironic. “Seriously, you’re such a gent.”

By responding with just a moody huff, the brunet man plans on focusing on wolfing down his recently made and still warm breakfast, but his hazel gaze inevitably goes back to the two girls, one in front of him and the other at his side. He already got to admire Chloe’s fresh morning appearance, so he just sneaks a small glance at his partner before his glare gets drawn towards Minerva, flicking a quick look a couple of times. The young woman is sweetly perched on a stool, looking oddly taller this way. Her freckled face catches his attention, followed by her glowy skin and permanent smile— it puzzles him to no end how she seems to be always in a good mood, this making him wonder if she has any hidden depths beneath her charming and light-hearted appearance. In any case, she seems to be the perfect partner for his mate: fit, beautiful, overly chill and good-natured, he reckons.

For a moment and while he looks at the pair of brunette girls one more time, Dicky questions himself how these birds manage to look so pretty in mornings, and where have they been during his entire dating life. Surely not fooling around late at night in his local at Chatham, because he doesn’t recall seeing this amount of natural beauty before. He almost feels unable to hide how baffled he is.

“Alright. Who else wants a cuppa?” Gary’s voice thunders across the kitchen. Instantly, the blond’s sight lands on his current partner, making him grin with enthusiasm. He doesn’t know how Minni got ready in such a short time; he swears down that she was dressed in her white, star-patterned pyjamas and fuzzy socks at the bedroom just a few minutes ago and now he sees her here at the kitchen sporting a deep blue swimming suit with matching sunglasses at the top of her head, all dressed for the day.

“Close your mouth, lad.” He hears his mate Dicky loudly whispering to him in a mocking manner and catching his attention straight away.

Mildly embarrassed, Gary turns to face him and decides to turn the tables on his teasing, directing the attention elsewhere other than him. “Oi, mate. It’s the first time I see you doing more than growling this early,” he comments, quirking an eyebrow, “What’s happened?”

“I think it’s because gorgeous Chloe made him brekkie,” Minni chants, tilting forward on the counter and wiggling her shoulders.

Chloe jokingly rolls her eyes and cocks her head at all three Islanders with a small smirk curls over her lips, “I wouldn’t call him ‘nice’. He was quick to order me around and tell me how to cook his bacon.”

Gary raises his eyebrows and blinks a couple of times, his smile widening, “Mate, believe me. This is nice Dicky. You wouldn’t like to see him in his usual bad early mood. He ain’t a morning person.”

“Are you sure he isn’t just a ‘morning person’?” Minni teases, batting her eyelashes as she pokes fun at him. “I’d say he isn’t, like, a ‘day person’. Or a ‘life person’, as in general.”

“Heh, very funny, Minerva,” Dicky responds, secretly hiding a smile caused by her witty comment.

Next to him, the musician’s eyebrows faintly twitch Gary’s comment and huffs out a compressed laughter, “Oh, I know Mr. Sunshine over here isn’t exactly welcoming to the sunrise.”

Being more entertained than he should by seeing the girls tease his mate, the crane operator purses his lips, knowing that bursting on laughter would only make Dicky angrier and probably will fade away the good side Chloe managed to bring out in him by making him some tasty food. The blond busies himself on making his usual morning cuppa, alongside the one he promised to Minni. Whilst his brunet friend fumes in silence and chews loudly on his last pieces of bacon, Gary turns to his current partner with a concealed smile.

“How do you like your cuppas, love?” He asks the blue-eyed girl, being a gent by asking before adding anything to her beverage, just like his nan taught him to. “With honey, sugar, sweetener?”

The girl beams at his thoughtfulness, her freckled cheekbones being more noticeable when she has that expression on her face. “Sugar, please. Four,” she simply replies.

“Oka— wait, what?” The blond man's eyes open wide in horror, “You mean four tablespoons?”

Minni answers with a nod, nonchalant and not making a big deal out of it. Gary can’t believe that this harmless-looking girl could commit such a big crime when preparing herself a cuppa.

“Now that’s where all her sweetness comes from,” Dicky comments grumpily from where he is sitting.

After hearing him speak, the brunette physics student directs her blue sight towards him, smirking devilishly, “Was that a compliment, Emsworth?”

“Well, I— I…” The man in question stutters, not really knowing what to say in that instant. His jaw clenches as he suddenly feels all looks on him, especially Chloe, who watches with amused curiosity, “Don’t get ahead on yourself. I was just pointing out the obvious,” he finishes saying, turning his head to look somewhere else. “Why are you three having a go at me anyway? Go entertain yourselves with something else and let me finish my bacon in peace.”

Then, Chloe hops off the stool and can sense the genuine irritation coming from her partner. She lands her hand on Dicky’s tense shoulder and hopes he understands that it’s just all banter, “Don’t worry, hun. I was about to leave either way. Enjoy your food!” Her big golden eyes shift to her occupied friend slurping her cup of tea and wincing at how tasteless it is without her usual dose of sugar. “You wanna leave these boys, Minni? We can have a chat at the daybeds, if you’d like,” she suggests with a smile gracing her cheeks.

“What a great idea, Chloe,” Minni responds with a light voice tone, easygoing as always. She’s quick to add four tablespoons of sugar on her recently made cuppa, stir it a little and, before standing up, sneaks a glance at Dicky to make sure he’s not truly pissed off.

“I can’t believe you just put four tablespoons in there,” Gary sighs at her, almost disappointed.

“Well, I like my things sweet.” The blue-eyed girl stands up for herself, looking up to meet his sight. She picks up her cuppa proudly and prepares to head to where Chloe has sauntered to. “That’s why I picked you in the first place,” she finishes with a playful wink, before exiting the kitchen.

Gary opens his mouth to shoot back a cheeky reply, but no words come out. Instead, he turns beetroot red, only to embarrass himself in front of her and in front of his mate. Next to him, Dicky grits his teeth so as to not to laugh straight away, waiting for the interaction to end before he can tease his mate about it. He already knew Minni has good banter and is overall flirty, but never expected her to be up to a level to match Gary’s cheekiness to the point of cutting him off.

Minni stifles a laugh when she notices her partner’s reaction, “See you later, boys!”

Her incredibly tall platforms hit the decking with chunky noises despite her steps being light, her petite frame getting further away as she walks towards the daybeds to meet her friend Chloe. They boys’ stares follow her attentively until she’s eventually out of sight.

“I guess birds don’t like it when you criticise their cuppa preferences,” Dicky tells Gary, tilting his head and mocking fake pity towards his mate.

The crane operator turns to give him a poisonous look, internally blaming him and his cranky attitude for scaring the girls away, “You’re saying it like if having them leave was my fault.”







In the daybeds – Morning.

Both brunettes crawl onto the bed. Chloe lets out a satisfying sigh as she leans her back against the headboard. She stretches her silky-looking legs and crosses her ankles. As much as the sun has an inviting warmth, she’s grateful for the shade the daybeds’ roof offers. The older dark-haired cellist turns her attention to Minni and gives her a curious grin.

“So… did my eyes deceive me, or did I see you snogging Gary last night?” She asks eagerly. There’s no way she could keep her question bottled up for too long. She’s already waited all morning to blurt it out.

“How did you—?” The younger Islander starts asking but shuts up when she notices the way Chloe is looking at her, and she realises that the cellist knows perfectly what happened. “Oh, nevermind.” The blue-eyed sighs, crossing her milky-white legs in front of her. “Yes, we snogged. We felt like it,” she confesses with a shrug, trying to downplay the situation.

Chloe’s grin gets bigger at the confirmed details and covers her mouth with a pillow to quietly squeal, “Ah, I knew it! You can’t just keep that to yourself, babes. Spill! How was he?”

“Oh, my days, Chloe, I’m not gonna…” Her friend starts saying, but then pauses. “Alright, I’ll spill just a little. And just this time,” she tells her.

The interested musician scoots closer and positions for a clearer hearing. Just as secretive, Minni leans forward and speaks in a quiet voice.

“He’s a great kisser. Seems like he has quite the experience, too,” the student whispers, not knowing how she manages not to blush at the thought of her kiss with Gary. “And he was an absolute gent. That’s all I’m gonna say for now.”

Damn. Chloe still has no idea how Minni’s managed to gain that amount of courage to kiss someone who’s practically a stranger. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with casual snogs here and there. Hell, even Chloe’s had them before but in a place like Love Island, she feels more comfortable taking things slow and getting to know the boys instead. There’s a certain approach she needs to take to make this game work and to protect herself from anything. After all, she’s here to try to find love and kissing Dicky isn’t exactly something she’s thinking about doing any time soon.

The older brunette leans back and gives Minerva a stunned expression, “Mate, it seems like you two get along quite well. I reckon you’ll stick with him?”

Contrary to what the cellist expected of her, the blue-eyed girl blinks in doubt. “I’m not sure yet, if I’m honest. I guess sticking to one person so early in this game thingy could be, like, dangerous? You know, I could get dumped if he changes his mind all of the sudden. Not that I don’t trust him, but I don’t know him that much either,” she explains. “Anyway, it’s just a snog. Those things barely mean anything sometimes, so maybe he felt nothing.”

The London girl silently nods in semi-agreement, “I dunno, Minni. A kiss can mean something to Gary. Something tells me he’s gone quite comfortable with you, hun. You’ll see, it will work out with him.” Her tone of voice softens with reassurance.

Pouting slightly, the Cantabrigian lets out a sigh and leaves her cuppa on the floor next to her. “You’re right. I reckon I should talk with him about it. I wanna know where’s his head at, cos he seems like a very open and honest bloke, but I have the feeling that he also wouldn’t want to get attached so soon. He looks like he goes along with the flow, just like me, and maybe that’s why we’re getting along so well in such a short time,” the girl responds, taking her dark blue sunglasses between her hands and fiddling with them. “As I said, I’m still not sure. I like him, but I wanna get to know everyone, too.”

Minni still doesn’t know how to tell her friend that she came here with no major expectations of finding the one. She’s surely not dreaming of finding Prince Charming on a reality TV show, unlike Hannah, for example. She sees the possibility of a long-term relationship coming out of this as a plus, something that could happen but that she knows it’s almost impossible; she likes to keep things down to earth most of the time.

The physics student applied to Love Island because she needed a distraction, some kind of escape from her life, who had started to become unexciting and unchanging. Between studying all day and partying all night, draining exams and paper reviews, needy one-night stands and drunken party hook-ups that did nothing but to satisfy her momentarily and up her body count, she felt that something was missing, and when she came to the conclusion that part of it was just meeting new people and experiencing unexpected things, she decided to do something about it. She’s an easy-going, happy-go-lucky girl, so she came here just hoping to have lots of fun, make new friends and, if she’s lucky, find a nice summer fling, a good-hearted lad who she can trust and spend her time with here; she’d be over the moon if she could make someone feel happy and loved even if it’s just during this summer. Despite this, she’s surely not planning on catching feelings this early in the game and now is starting to get worried that she could end up leading Gary on if he wants to stick with her too soon— the less she wants to do is to hurt anyone. Perhaps cutting the possibility of more kisses with him until she figures out if they’re on the same page could be a good idea.

Chloe’s fingers grip onto her personalised water bottle and rests her chin on top of the closed cap. She remains silent in thought of her situation with Dicky. Everything seems to be fine for now. Their banter is surely there, the casual flirting lingers, but she’s uncertain if he’ll be the guy to stick with or not. It’s only day two and she hates that she’s got to worry about Priya perhaps stealing him from her, even when there’s no established romance with Dicky.

This entire Love Island concept could be well annoying sometimes. She refuses to force any feelings on someone she’s just met; that’s just not how things work. Besides, she was never going to come over and join the cast in the first place. Her knobhead mates back home wouldn’t leave her alone until she’d accept the production team’s proposal. For weeks, Chloe deleted emails from the production team until one of her closest friends found out about the offer. She couldn’t have them shut up about it until she accepted and that’s when she knew she signed up for disaster. All she can expect from this place is just having a good time, making good friends like Minni, and just seeing how long she’ll last in this bloody place.

The theatrical performer lightly drums her small fingers over her cheek and looks over at the astrophysics student, “Have you fancied anyone else other than Gary?” She asks curiously.

“Oi, Minerva!” Bobby’s voice can be heard from near them. He appears at the corner of the daybeds area with a sheepish smile, “I didn’t really mean to kick you out permanently, you know…”

The blue-eyed girl grins internally. I knew it, she thinks, deciding to play with him a little bit. Faking being annoyed by his request, she raises an eyebrow, “Mind us, Bobs? We’re having a girls' chat here.”

“Fine. I’ll be in the kitchen in the meantime!” The Scottish announces, before walking away.

After the interruption, Minni takes a second to think about her answer. “What were we… oh, right. Well, all of the guys are really handsome,” she starts, putting on her expensive-looking sunglasses. “Maybe Rocco? I mean, I’m not sure if I fancy him because he seems to be extra flirty with me, because I feel truly attracted to him or if it’s just because I like making jokes about his one with the universe attitude.” The girl giggles at the thought, “But I’m not worrying about that for now, you know. I think I’ll figure out… hopefully.”

From across the lawn, Chloe spots Rocco swimming in the pool and laughing with some of the boys. Without losing sight of the young man, she nods to Minni’s confession, “He was giving you that smoulder look in the morning.” She lightly laughs and looks back at the freckled girl, “I just hope Lottie doesn’t throw a fit with him grafting on you, it’s still early days.”

“Oh, mate. She seems like the type of girl who would blame me for having him trying to graft me.” The younger girl sighs, a little worried because she hates confrontation and conflict in general. After that, she shakes her head to try and not think about it too much.

“You know, the omelettes are turning out real tasty!” Bobby sneaks on the daybeds again, with a grin on his face. “I bet you’re dying to be my sous chef, Minerva,” he chants.

The young woman can barely hold back a smile but decides to stick to her game. After a quick pause, she invokes her inner Dicky and puts on a poker face, “Oh, my days, Bobby. We’re talking important stuff here.”

“I bet it’s not that important, come on.” He insists with a smirk, trying to convince her, “The omelettes are ‘egg-squisite’ so far. I just need someone to help me.”

Then, Minni rolls her eyes. “Wait a minute, babes,” she says, a faint giggle almost betraying her façade. “Shoo!”

With a defeated groan, the pastry chef drags his feet towards the kitchen once more. The girls exchange a knowing look, Chloe having already figured out that Minni is just giving her Scottish friend a small lesson for having kicked her out of the frying area.

The student smooths her wavy hair before picking up their previous subject of conversation. “How about you, babes? Are you planning on sticking with Dicky?” She asks then, staring at her with attention and genuine interest in how things are going for her new friend.

Chloe sucks in a deep breath and roughly exhales through her nostrils, “Well, Dicky’s really fit, no doubt about that. Despite his crankiness, we do seem to get along but I dunno. I do think of myself as a patient person but dealing with Dicky’s grumpiness is not for me, hun.”

To her surprise, Minni giggles at her comment, “Oh my days, Chloe. That boy’s moodiness is the best part of him, in my opinion. I reckon messing with Dicky could become a hobby for me. Like solving math equations.”

The confused cellist shrinks a displeased look on her face and blinks at Minni’s response, “Mate, I don’t mess with math equations. Never liked them, never will.”

“Babes, you’re just saying that because you haven’t tried reverse triangle inequalities or Cantor’s Theorem yet. They’re lush.” The blue-eyed girl winks, stretching backwards on the daybed, her lean body apparently relaxing as she talks about math, which is strange to her friend, to say the least, “Maybe even some linear systems or Eigenvalue problems could do it for you."

Chloe stares at Minerva for a second and the grotesque visualisation of math and lightly shudders. She scrunches her upper lip and shakes her head, “Mmm, no thanks. I prefer reciting Mozart’s classic string quartet number 14 in G major— Or Schubert’s Schwanengesang number 4 in D minor. Now that’s what I call entertainment. Those men are geniuses.” The Londoner lets out a sigh of contentment. Until now she’s realised how much she’s missed playing music, “I’ll leave all that physics stuff to you.” Chloe lightly laughs out to see Minni’s equally confused look on her face with the music gibberish. She couldn’t blame the blue-eyed girl to feel dazed about it; twenty-one-year olds typically don’t voluntarily listen to classical music out of enjoyment.

“What about some Taylor Series, huh?” The Cantabrigian insists after a pause, with an enthusiastic beam and somehow hoping that the cellist will want to catch up on math with her, since she doesn’t have anyone to talk to about it in this place.

Despite how happy the younger girl looks talking about the subject, the Londoner just stares at her, clueless, “Like Taylor Swift?” She asks, thinking that they’re still speaking about music.

“No, Chloe,” Minni whines, a small pout in her face, “Taylor Series. The formula that shows how to express an analytic function in terms of its derivatives, you know. It’s well pretty and I could teach you sometime. I know you will like it.” She offers, kindly.

“I dunno what’s worse: hearing more about this Taylor Series or sparing my ears for Taylor Swift’s generic music.” She squints her eyes out of the distasteful options.

“Did someone say Taylor Swift?” Bobby interrupts yet again. He gets closer to the girls hurriedly, a huge hopeful smile plastered on his face, and speaks to Minni next, “Listen, Mins. I know I was a little rude by kicking you out of the kitchen like that, but it was just banter—”

“Aw, Bobby. I know,” the girl giggles, not being able to keep her front longer, less when he’s already beginning to apologise. “Of course I’ll keep cooking with you.”

The Scottish sighs in relief. “Great! Now would you like to be my sous chef again?”

Minni lets out a small chuckle. “Sure,” she says. Then, she stands up and adjusts her sunglasses in a quick motion, her big platforms making a small stomp sound on the floor, “Babes, I’ll finish those omelettes and we could catch up later, yeah?” The blue-eyed girl tells Chloe.

“Later, guys!” The cellist exclaims with a bright smile, as she watches the younger Islanders head to the frying area. From where she is sitting, she can faintly hear Bobby starting to enthusiastically sing a Taylor Swift song, and is thankful for not having followed them towards the kitchen.

At the lawn – Noon.

Under the radiant sunshine, the pair of Kent boys relax and stretch their muscular legs out over the sun loungers. Right about now, they’d be heading back home from their respective work routines but instead, they’re basically on holiday doing absolutely nothing and comfortably leaning down on comfortable loungers in front of an infinity pool.

Gary sighs out of remembrance of his nan’s distinguishable home cooked meals. He has just come to the realisation that he bloody misses her cooking, and they haven’t been apart for too long, “I could really go for one of nan’s dinner roasts right now.”

Dicky’s glare takes an instant glimmer to the sound of Gary’s nan’s food and he can almost taste the delicacy. He groans out of frustration, “Argh, it doesn’t help to remind ourselves that we’re in Spain.”

The blond and brunet men exchange a saddened glance and Dicky matches the same longing sigh that his friend has done earlier. They keep a disheartening silence and mentally torture themselves imagining the flavour of Gary’s nan food. It’s unbelievable that they’ll be missing out on those Sunday dinners for more than a whole month.

“Oi! But look at us, bruv. We’re literally living in paradise, huh? We chat up our birds, graft on them, party at night, and repeat.” Gary tries his best to wash away them feeling a little homesick and lays out the plenty of positives of being in the Villa, “Especially when we’re coupled up with the fittest girls in here.” Already with the thought of their current girls, he wonders about Dicky’s opinion, “Thoughts on Minni, mate? I bet she’s already a fan favourite on the telly,” Gary asks with an easy smile on his face. His tone of voice matches his enthused bright blue eyes at the new topic. He leans towards the taller man’s direction, interested to hear his opinion.

Dicky looks overall unamused. Without difficulty, his mysterious stare locates the younger woman as she’s engaged in a conversation with the newest girl, Priya. From this angle, he can distinguish the usual perkiness of Minni’s personality as she tries to make the new girl feel welcome, even when she’s competition and there’s the possibility she could recouple with Gary today. His hazel sight follows the brunette’s hands motioning amiably, while she apparently explains something confidently— she saw her making the same enthusiastic gestures and her orbs glowing even under today’s daylight when she was chatting to Gary about science stuff.

The mechanic tilts his head to mentally list his opposing traits and notices that this girl is almost the complete contrary of who he’s expecting to date, or the girls he’s been with in the past, yet he thinks she’s fun to be around and to hang out with. He could tell his mate what he really thinks of her, that she’s extremely attractive and very pleasing to the eye but immediately demolishes his admiration towards the freckled woman and replaces it with his wittiness. “She’s so sweet she could cause me diabetes,” he declares with his classic poker face.

“Isn’t that good? When a bird is sweet?” The crane operator questions. Gary can’t tell if he is complimenting Minni or not.

The brunet raises an eyebrow at him. Dicky wouldn’t hear the end of Minni if Gary tells her he’s said something nice about her. “You think having diabetes is good?” He snickers at another clever comeback.

His response just makes Gary shake his head and roll his eyes. It’s not new to see Jason so smug when talking about anyone; it’s almost hard to not be targeted by the mechanic, but he’s been exceptionally tough on Minerva and his blond mate can’t understand why. Sure, she teases him a lot and it causes Dicky to want the upper hand but so does Chloe and, on the contrary, he laughs it off. What a weird lad, Gary thinks.

“You’re just being prickly, lad. As always.” There’s a reassuring gesture in the crane operator’s voice while he can’t help but adore the bubbly characterization in Minni. “She’s lovely,” he adds, his gaze landing on her.

During today’s breakfast, he got to marvel at her explaining lots of things about celestial bodies, physics, math and biology. He reckons this bird seems to know about a bit of everything related to science— she’s so schooled he can’t imagine why or how she ended up in this place, but he’s also glad she’s here. The Chathamite couldn’t picture this Villa without Minerva in it, without her shiny outfits, enormous blue eyes and light voice always up to pick up a chat with whoever wants to have a word with her, even if it’s something random like what started her star-talk during breakfast. This girl appears to be carrying around the energy of the entire place within her petite figure, so no wonder she’s talked to pretty much everyone already. The crane operator would never tell his mate, but he’s sure Dicky’s younger sister has taken a liking of Minni after watching the first episode of the show.

Thinking of his options, the blond man is positive that he’d like to stick with someone like Minerva, but the idea that they’re immersed in a bloody contest makes him doubt and want to go safe, which is getting to know the rest of the girls first and get his graft on; he still has to pull the blue-eyed girl for a chat to let her know that he wants to keep his options open.

“Yeah, whatever,” Dicky shrugs at his infatuated response, although he finds it nice that his mate is happy and comfortable with his partner. “So you planning on sticking with her?”

The mechanic surely didn’t expect his muscular friend to look doubtful as he ponders his question. He knows Gary very well and is used to seeing him jumping to big commitments when he truly likes a bird. Hell, they even kissed last night, so it’s strange for him to see him unsure.

“I reckon I wanna get to know everyone first before deciding who I want to stick with,” the younger man responds. “This thing is a contest, after all. So, it’s likely lots of new lads will arrive before it ends and she could get her head turned.” A small portion of air escapes his nostrils in frustration at the uncertainty.

Always aiming to be a good mate and to watch out for Gary, Dicky leans forward to speak quietly in order to give him some advice. “I’ll tell you what, mate,” the brunet says secretly. “I’ve definitely seen Rocco having an eye on her,” he states, pointing out at the curly-haired Islander, who has just approached Minni and Priya. They watch him sit next to them and quickly give the younger girl a smoulder and a flirty look, that she doesn’t seem to notice. Next, Dicky points out at the edge of the pool at another group of people, “I reckon Bobby does too. Maybe Ibrahim.”

Gary doesn’t try to hide his heavy sigh, “You’re giving me a true pep talk here, lad.”

The crane operator has felt quite happy with Minni and he’s not the jealous type whatsoever. In fact, he admires how approachable the blue-eyed girl is and likes that others feel comfortable enough to chat her up; she’s the perfect mixture of social and chill he’s been looking for. And, honestly, he is glad that the rest of the Islanders also appreciate all those sweet qualities of hers so far. Just now, the blond notices that Bobby seems to have taken an immediate liking to the attractive student but, considering it’s early days, it’s understandable if the Scottish lad is trying to get to know her. Gary shakes off the overthinking and regains his confidence on his current status with Minni. He reckons their cheeky banter has been consistent along with their flirting, so there’s the chance all of this could keep strengthening.

Beside him, Jason nonchalantly shrugs his broad shoulders and can only keep reminding himself that they’re not safe from their couples, no matter how close they’re getting to their partners, “Just being realistic, Rennell,” he responds with accuracy to his words and exhales the upcoming stress of possibly being stolen by Priya. She seems like a lovely girl, but Dicky wants to continue staying with Chloe for now. “The competition is fierce.”

Both friends keep a brief silence as they observe the rest of the Islanders’ interactions from afar. In a composed motion, Dicky pulls his sunglasses near the tip of his nose to get a better view of the pool. He squints at the sunlight beams overcasting his face and catches sight of Chloe smiling out a laugh at whatever Bobby and Ibrahim are telling her.

Without losing sight of his current partner, he speaks out loud, “It’s weird to me, really. I haven’t seen any other lad try to graft on Chloe.” His head follows the sounds of Gary's instant laughter. The mechanic’s slitted dark eyebrow arches upwardly and still can’t see the humour in what he’s just mentioned, “What the fuck is so funny, bruv? It's proper weird that she’s not getting much attention considering how fit she is.”

Gary shakes his head at his close friend and resonates to a lingering chuckle, “Mate, you’re the one scaring those lads away. They can’t even throw an innocent pickup line at poor Chloe cos they think you’ll turn them into stone if you glare at them.”

After taking in his comment, Jason curls his mouth into a smug smirk and looks back at Chloe's direction. She’s swinging her legs in the pool's water and has remained entertained by the two younger men. He knows it’s not completely fair to his current partner but part of him likes that no one has dared to approach her yet.

“Heh, good.” His pleased green-hazel eyes direct towards Gary, adjusting his steel-coloured cap over his head full of dark locks and sinks more into his seat, “Suits them to stay away. She’s too woman for them, mate.”

The blond crane operator keeps his friend’s last sentence in his head and shifts his sight to Dicky’s gorgeous partner: now both Kent native men observing the musician. He sets his stare on her and views Chloe rearranging her side braid but she’s still attentive to what Bobby and Ibrahim are talking about. He shifts to the pair of younger men floating within the waves of water. Unconsciously, Gary winces at the thought of either of those two being fancied by Chloe and quite frankly, he can’t see it either. Dicky’s right; Bobby nor Ibrahim seem like they could handle someone like her. She carries an extraordinary aura and surely needs a man that elevates the same energy.

“Too right, bruv. I reckon Chloe’s is a bit posh for an ordinary lad’s taste. I dunno how you keep up with her. Even when I hear her speak, she sounds a little out of place next to the other birds here.” Gary scratches the side of his head and looks down at his navy-blue trunks.

Dicky turns to his friend and examines Gary’s odd silence after blurting out his opinion on her. His long fingers gently rub on his dark stubble as an attempt to hide his growing grin. Dicky can’t help but think, Is this bloke intimidated by Chloe?

The mechanic continues to linger his stare on the muscly spiky-haired man, “An ordinary lad like you?” Jason teases his younger friend and breathes out a faint chuckle after witnessing Gary’s thick eyebrows lower and rolls his annoyed blue eyes. The dark-haired mechanic cuts his amusement to see Gary not following along with the banter. Rather, the blond man crosses his arms over his bare chest and remains strangely quiet to the comment, “Mate, she’s actually really easy to talk to. I’ll admit, my first impression of her was the same. I thought we’d be in two different worlds when trying to keep up with a chat but she’s a very sincere and humble girl. I can even say she’s sort of odd— but like, the cute odd.”

Unconvincingly, Gary corners his frown to the side and shakes his head, “Nah, mate. I don’t believe you.” There’s a small smile creeping over his golden facial hair, not being able to imagine Dicky’s girl the way she’s being described; it almost seems impossible. “You’re throwing her a lot of compliments. I’m convinced you’re really liking her,” the younger man playfully wiggles his eyebrows and nudges his mate’s bare torso.

Dicky grumbles under his breath at the teasing but eventually gives in. Fine, he’ll admit it. Chloe is growing on him and he has no bloody clue why. Perhaps it’s because of their similar humour or because she easily challenges him on who can eat the fattiest foods. She’s definitely left quite the impression and wants to continue getting to know her.

His trail of thought gets interrupted by Hannah’s voice calling near them, at the lawn. “Guys! I got a text!” She exclaims. “My first missive from our Island Overlords!” the girl adds.

Gary’s sight goes instantly to look at his grumpy friend and, as expected, he sees him roll his eyes with annoyance.







In the kitchen – Afternoon. ♬

“Alright, let’s try again. And please don’t compare me to anything food related until we’re far in the conversation.” Minni’s soft and jokey tone can be heard in the kitchen, while she’s talking to Bobby. Right after finishing her quote, an easy chuckle gets caught in her throat. She reckons that some girls don’t actually feel initial attraction when someone says that their outfit is ´fan-toast-ic’ first thing in the chat; if he wants to make his food comments, he can do it when he’s more comfortable, rather than just spitting them out.

“Yeah, let me just—” He stutters, fumbling with the ends of his shirt. He opens his mouth to speak and then closes it, furrowing his brow instead of letting out words. Next, he scrunches his nose in frustration, “Oh, dammit. I forgot what I was going to say.”

With newfound curiosity, Dicky listens to their peculiar conversation as he enters the kitchen with his usual weighty steps. The entire place has a warm mood, and he can’t identify if it’s because of the excessively bright Spanish sunlight he still hasn’t gotten used to yet or the presence of the two friends, who are by far the happiest people in this place, or if it’s just because most of the tension on him has washed down after Priya didn’t pick him to couple up with.

His hazel sight scans the pair before turning his attention elsewhere, not really wanting to meddle. Minni is sitting cross-legged on top of the counter and Bobby is on a stool in front of her, a polite and friendly distance between them. The girl is wearing the same deep blue swimming suit as before, but with a see-through dress on top that accentuates her small curves, and Bobby is wearing a very exuberant purple patterned shirt, which contrasts with his darker skin. Without saying a word, Dicky opens the fridge and pulls out some leftovers from lunch; his features light up when looking at the huge bowl of pasta that he’s sure nobody will notice it’s gone later on— not that he cares too much if someone gets mad. Not so patiently and with his usual unquenchable appetite, he microwaves it.

“It’s fine, take your time.” He can hear Minni’s light voice over the sound of the microwave. “It’s better that you mess up practicing with me than with your actual partner,” the blue-eyed girl reassures the pastry chef, adjusting herself on top of the counter.

Her words make Dicky raise his thick eyebrow, not quite having a clue of what they could be talking about. As soon as the microwave beeps and his pasta is warm and ready to eat, he draws his attention to them. “What are you two up to?” The brunet man asks, bringing his bowl with him whilst he gets closer.

Before answering his question, Minni’s blue orbs go straight to Dicky’s copious food and finds it odd that he’s planning on eating that much at this time of the day, but since she saw him devouring nearly three normal-sized breakfasts this morning she guesses that it’s not weird of him. Next, she looks at Bobby, asking for permission to tell Dicky what they’re doing, because she’s not sure if the Scottish wants other people to know about his insecurity.

After Priya recoupled with Ibrahim, Bobby decided to give Hannah an opportunity, even though he’s not feeling any type of attraction towards her. Just then, the pastry chef found himself not knowing how to approach her and start flirting as he should do in said scenario. Later, he concluded that what always happens to him when he meets pretty girls, with this being starting to babble out words, jokes or phrases without thinking, could terminate in him messing up his chances of staying in the game and finding a partner in here. He doesn’t want to end up saying something that could be misinterpreted and scare girls away or have to use some weird tactic like when he pretended to lose his wallet so the girl would call him back— he’s ready to step up on his game. Because of this, he resorted on asking Minni for help.

Yesterday, after the Truth or Dare challenge, both shared a nice chat at the lawn and, not so surprisingly, clicked immediately on a friendship level. The light-hearted student inspired instant trust in Bobby; she’s one of the most reassuring people he’s ever met and she’s so easy to talk to, so receptive to other people’s feelings that he felt that he could tell her anything. This ended with him opening up about his struggles on talking to girls and how nervous he gets when trying to flirt with them. Seeing this, and taking note that it truly affected him, Minni kindly gave him some good advice and offered help in case he needed it in the future.

So, when Bobby found himself trapped in nervousness, he went straight to the blue-eyed brunette to ask for guidance. He reckons she’s very good at flirting and seems to have plenty of experience, plus he’s thankful that she actually has had to approach girls before, because she swings both ways. Noticing that Minni expects him to allow her to tell Dicky, Bobby simply gives her a nod.

Subsequently, Minni offers a smile and then turns to Dicky. “Bobby’s trying to make things work with Hannah, so I’m teaching him how to approach girls without getting too nervous,” she responds, maintaining the corners of her lips upturned.

“That sounds interesting,” Dicky smirks. Inquisitive, he sits next to them and eats a huge mouthful of pasta. While he chews and reflects about what the young woman just said, a bit of worrisome crosses his expression. He surely did not expect someone as noisy as Bobby to be timid grafting on a girl, “You really get nervous, lad?”

The Scottish nods, his shoulders slumped. He takes a moment to speak, “I could actually use your advice too, mate.”

Quite surprised by his request, Dicky’s hazel-emerald eyes open wide for a split second. As much as he would like to eat his food without anybody bothering him, he can’t deny help when a mate is asking, even if he’s competition. He feels like his empath side inevitably comes to surface whenever someone is struggling, and he can’t turn his back on them and mind his own business like he usually does. He is often a temperamental asshole, but he’s not heartless. “Mine? Oh, sure,” the Chathamite shrugs, being cool about it.

Still sitting on top of the counter in front of him, Minni blinks a couple of times, actually astounded by hearing Dicky being willing to give Bobby some advice. She gets somewhat concerned about what kind of advice he could give to her friend, since she recalls seeing the mechanic chewing loudly on purpose just to annoy Chloe this morning and yesterday’s dance with him didn’t end on a very pleasant note. Anyway, she can’t help but think that maybe Dicky does have sympathy under that frost attitude and cranky exterior, after all.

“So… how do you usually approach girls?” The pastry chef asks Dicky.

Confidently, the raven-haired mechanic leaves his food at one side and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. Straightening his back, he starts speaking. “Right. Picture this: local pub at Chatham, late at night. You are on a night out with your lads and see a group of fit birds next to the bar,” he narrates, gesturing with his large hands. His look directs to the other end of the kitchen, simulating that he’s genuinely looking at a bunch of girls far away at the bar. After a few seconds of intensely staring at the distance, he edges his seat towards Minni, who is at his same height because she’s sitting on the counter, his stare landing on her, “You get close and spot the one you fancy the most and you go…” Following that, he gives her a look that could boil anyone’s insides in a second; Dicky doesn’t even have to simulate a smoulder or put on a face, as his piercing eyes do all the work for him. The girl does her best not to look surprised and flustered while he makes a quick pause before continuing. “Alright?” he finishes, his already deep voice lowering a few decibels, and purposefully maintaining eye contact.

Right after that, there’s just silence for several seconds.

“And then?” Bobby asks, confused.

Just then Dicky breaks character and shrugs, looking uninterested and unamused as always, “That’s it.”

Satisfied by his demonstration and deeming it as enough, the Chathamite returns to his food. Meanwhile, Bobby gives him a puzzled look. Once she recovers from Dicky’s powerful stare, Minni sighs heavily and gives the brunet man a glare. She knew that lad wouldn’t give useful advice, or at least something Bobby could use.

“Of course that works for you, Dicky.” The physics student rolls her eyes, “You have this entire bad boy aura going on.” She adds, gesturing at his frame with her tiny hands. For a moment, she notices that he looks pleased that she addressed his characteristic image and demeanour, “Bobby would look weird if he tried to do that.”

The pastry chef frowns at her comment, “Hey, I could pull that off if I act like a bad boy.”

“I’m sure you could, babes, but you don’t have to act like someone else to get a girl,” Minni replies, sincerely. She’d feel torn if Bobby ended up with someone who didn’t see the sweet qualities he has in him. “That’s not how it should be. The connection you make with someone else has to come along with genuine and natural interaction, or else they wouldn’t be dating you.”

In front of her, Dicky stops munching to ponder her words. He never expected Minni to be so mature and sound about things, as he’s mostly seen her fooling around and being a social butterfly. These are the hidden depths he was wondering about this morning, and reckons Gary will be fine in the hands of a girl who is well grounded and thinks like this— his mate needs someone like that around. Dicky is sincerely glad that his mate also got to stay with his initial partner, instead of being pulled apart from her.

“Exactly. They must like you just the way you are.” Dicky decides to agree with her, maybe for the first time since they met, “If not, it’s their loss, bruv.”

Glad that the distant mechanic acknowledged that she’s in the right, Minni nods. She’s ready to continue helping Bobby and is determined to do whatever it takes to give him the tools to stay in the show and to make things work with whoever he wants.

“Okay, let’s try this. You could start the conversation with a compliment,” Minni suggests, her bright eyes focusing on her friend. Making compliments is dead easy for her, as she tends to see the best in people before anything else. They’re like a second language for her, after her family’s usual Romanian, of course. “I’ll help you come up with one. Name a thing you like about Hannah.”

Bobby starts thinking, his lips scrunched as he looks at the ceiling. A few seconds pass and his hand flies to stroke his chin, and then he begins to drum his large fingers on his cheek. The blue-eyed girl stares at him attentively, patiently waiting for an answer. The only sound heard in the kitchen are Dicky’s obnoxious chomps.

“Come on, Bobs. Anything?” Minni pouts after realizing that he’s taking too long to think.

Not knowing what to say, Bobby looks at Dicky for help. Feeling his urging gaze, the older man looks up from his plate and swallows a large amount of pasta.

“Don’t look at me, mate. I’m not good at compliments,” the green-eyed Chathamite shrugs.

A mischievous smirk forms in Minni’s glossy lips, remembering how douchey he acted last night and up to take every opportunity she has to rub it on his face. “Go figure,” the girl teases him, leaning forward.

The dark-haired man just responds by throwing her an icy look in an attempt to maintain his image; if he answered with a proper comeback, he knows that it’s inevitable that an equal smile will appear on his poker face, and he’s not willing to show Minni that he genuinely enjoys her constant poking and banter. Trying to get the idea out of his mind, he refuses to accept that he’s starting to have fun just by the expectation of what she’s going to tease with him next.

Unexpectedly, Bobby comes up with an idea, his facial expression lighting up, “I think I got it.” The honey-eyed Islander smiles, “Hannah smells nice. Like the vintage store where I buy the flower-shaped marzipan for my cakes.”

“That’s oddly specific,” Dicky comments, raising an eyebrow.

Still sitting before him, Minni beams, her cheekbones raising along with the corners of her mouth. Her long and curved eyelashes flutter. “We can work with that,” she says, contented. Next, she takes a while to think and then looks at Bobby once more. “Let’s act a scenario. Imagine that I’m you, and that you’re Hannah,” she begins.

The Scottish purses his lips. “Can Dicky be Hannah? So I can watch before having to do the entire thing,” he proposes, feeling a little insecure.

Despite Dicky’s ever dismissing attitude, Minni doesn’t have a problem working with him so Bobby can learn better. Her inviting gaze goes right to him, kindly waiting for an answer.

Although her gracious blue eyes being this persistent make Dicky’s heart do a somersault, he won’t give in to the girl’s wishes— not like last night. “Hell no, I don’t wanna be that Hannah chick,” he rejects, his mouth full of pasta and tomato sauce.

The Cantabrigian’s face falls. “But Dicky,” she whines. “Just pretend for a minute.”

“Nah, mate. I can’t be bothered,” the man quickly responds. He plans on avoiding her pleading look when he catches her sight for a mere second. She has already put that goddamn puppy face again and now he can’t look elsewhere. It confuses him to no end on how he’s not able to say no to her. A moment passes before he chooses to give in just a bit . “Can I be you instead?” he asks with a deep sigh.

Even when she already got him to cooperate, Minni maintains her requesting expression on him. “No, because it won’t work well that way,” she replies. “You said you weren’t good at compliments. I have to be Bobby so I can teach him how to compliment girls.”

“Wait, who is who again?” Bobby inquires, truly perplexed.

“I’m going to be you. Dicky is going to be Hannah,” the physics student states, resolute.

The dark-haired man knits his eyebrows together, “I thought I was gonna be you.” He puzzledly points at Minni.

“I thought I was Bobby,” the pastry chef says, even more confused now.

Realizing that everyone’s got their roles mixed now and that her flirting class will probably not be a success anymore, Minni lets out a long breath in defeat. Her blue eyes stare down and the edges of her lips fall a bit. Just then Dicky notices how hard she’s trying and how happy she would be if she could help her friend as much as she wants. After debating with himself internally, the older Islander decides to cooperate, just because he’s being a good mate and surely not because he’s beginning to thrive whenever he’s able to put a smile on Minni’s face.

“Alright, alright,” he breaks the silence with an annoyed groan. “I’ll be fairy-tale Hannah. Minni’s Bobby.”

The raven-haired Chathamite can’t quite describe what happens in his gut when he sees the younger girl’s face lighting up in less than a second.

“Great!” She beams, enthusiastic. She doesn’t know what made Dicky change his mind, but decides not to overthink it and get straight down to business before he becomes his grumpy self again. Rapidly, she uncrosses her legs and places them dangling by the edge of the counter at one of his sides, taking position to act a small scene so Bobby can watch and learn. “Three, two, one, scene,” she says, before her bubbly expression turns into a more serious one. Soon, she’s turning her flirting switch on, her focus going to the man in front of her. “Hannah, I couldn’t help but notice—”

Unluckily for her, Dicky’s collaborative side has already faded in the few seconds it took her to start acting. “What did you notice?” He answers in a squeaky and annoying voice, batting his eyelashes in a very ladylike manner.

“I…” Minni starts speaking, while fighting as not to break character. She knows she should be mad at him for trying to sabotage the scene on purpose, but having such a big and manly lad, who’s usually too serious, fake being a romantic and naïve girl like Hannah is so funny to her to be even mildly upset. The young student takes a deep breath, collects herself and continues, “I couldn’t help but notice that—”

“Oh my gosh! You’re my knight in shining armour,” Dicky sighs, now looking at her with fake dreamy eyes.

“Jason, come on,” Minni nags him, swats his strong arm and hisses a giggle. “I’m trying to teach Bobby here.”

Dicky chuckles at her reaction, pleased with the fact that he can mess with her the same way she does with him. Next to him, Bobby stifles a laugh.

“I can’t be Hannah, mate. Sorry,” the mechanic states with a shrug. He finds everything even more fun when he notices that Minni wants to keep trying. This bird is so bloody stubborn, he reckons. As she’s so determined on making this work, perhaps he’d be as resolute to mess with the situation, putting a stop to it just if he sees her openly upset, like a few minutes ago.

“Then you be you,” she suggests, persistent. “I’ll be Bobby.”

Her words confuse Bobby once again. “Who am I, then?” He asks, lost. “Will I be flirting with Dicky now?” He says, cringing at the intimidating idea. “I don’t feel ready for that, if I’m honest.”

“I—” Minni pinches the bridge of her nose, exasperated by the two men in front of her, with the green-eyed mechanic’s attitude bound to get to her nerves. Bobby pouts slightly, not knowing what to do about it.

With attention, Dicky’s stare roams her now slightly angry features. Cute, he simply thinks, deciding to keep pushing it, despite not knowing what the limit could be when the girl’s extensive patience and his irritating character, plus both stubbornness, combine in a scenario like this. He watches her struggle to not get more annoyed with a smirk on his lips.

“Let’s not be anyone,” the brunette Islander says in a calm tone. She straightens her see-through dress and adjusts the sunglasses on top of her head. “We’ll just be humans, alright? Humans interacting, like normal humans do.”

“Am I a boy or a girl though?” Dicky instigates one more time, smug.

Minni shoots him a poisonous glare. “A boy, because if I tell you to play a girl, you’ll try to do that squeaky voice again,” she orders, trying to look pissed off, but actually finding it funny that he’s still up to participate in her attempt of a class. “You’ll be a boy and I’ll be a girl. I guess it doesn’t matter who makes the compliment at this point,” the girl lets out a small sigh. Next, she turns to Bobby, who’s witnessing everything just as puzzled as before, “Just watch so you have a general idea.”

“Cool,” Bobby answers with a smile.

“Okay, great,” Minni beams, hopeful. Taking position again, her eyes turn to Dicky, who looks like he’s finally willing to be serious about this. “Three, two, one, scene.” The student repeats to indicate a start. Like before, her kind and delicate expression acquires something the mechanic can’t pinpoint— she has a sultry halo around her all of the sudden, without losing her cheeky charm and approachable appearance. “Hey, I couldn’t help but notice… do you wear perfume?”

Just because he wants to see where she’s planning on doing next, Dicky decides to stop joking about the situation and follow along. In his head, he convinces himself that she’s another bird at the pub, securing his intense stare on her, “Yeah. Why do you ask?”

Minni can’t decide if it’s the tone in his low voice, his darkened hazel-green eyes or just everything about him that makes her stomach flutter. She has thought he’s attractive ever since she saw him at the lawn, and has also told Chloe whenever she asks, but the mystery and not being able to read him kind of throws her off, unlike Gary, who is the whole package for her at first sight. This is why she feels strange when she realizes that Dicky can so easily make her breath hitch. But, also, this entire thing is a simple game after all, so she tries to keep her composure and reminds herself that she’s doing this for Bobby.

“It’s just…” She continues, her voice becoming breathy and quieter, something she always does and that knows makes men pay more attention to what she’s about to say. She keeps it cool and, while she speaks, brings a delicate finger to trail a teasing path down the tattooed forearm the man has placed on the counter next to her thigh, “You always smell so good.”

Dicky’s breathing turns a bit worked up as his gaze follows her single digit touching his inked skin, her glittery nail shining with the sunlight; it looks like she also adorns her fingers with the stars she always talks about so much. His jaw tenses and then relaxes, as he manages to maintain himself chill. “Thanks, sweetheart,” he responds smugly and resorts to reciprocating as a way to gain control but is fully immersed in her spell without even noticing. “I’m sorry I can’t say that I’ve noticed if you wear any. Maybe you just need to get a bit closer.”

Perched next to them, Bobby looks with attention and curiosity, mentally taking notes. For a moment, the pastry chef has doubts and doesn’t know if they’re hell of good flirters or if they secretly fancy each other, because he’s starting to feel like he could cut the tension with a knife. But then, he reminds himself how much it took Minni to convince Dicky to cooperate and how uninterested the man looks when she’s around. Bobby would totally feel like a third wheel if he didn’t know they’re pretending to flirt— he continues to try and learn, especially because, with no apparent attraction between the pair, they make hitting it off look dead easy.

“Why don’t you get closer?” Minni answers to Dicky, looking at him under her large eyelashes. “If you’re that interested anyway.”

Is that look what sends Dicky’s heart rate to the roof. He catches a groan in his throat before his vocal chords can make any sound, all of the muscles of his body tensing. He never, not in a billion years, thought this bubbly girl could turn out to be so good at this and become so attractive to him out of the blue. Surely he agrees with the rest of the lads that she’s fit and pretty, but now, much to his surprise, he’s seeing her in another light. He can’t believe Gary’s bird is making him feel this way, and it looks like she’s not even trying that hard; it’s just make-believe for a newbie like Bobby to learn a few modest tips.

With her own heart picking up pace too, Minni notices Dicky’s forearm tensing beneath her small touch and can’t identify what made him react that way. In that same instant she decides to cut the tension before something goes wrong.

“And that’s all,” the girl says, turning to face Bobby and shrugging off all the mixed sensations she has inside her belly. She makes a small bow, accompanied with a smile when she realizes that they finally made a decent demonstration. “Did you get the idea, Bobby?”

Seeing that it’s over and relieved because of how Minni was able to make the atmosphere disappear like if nothing had happened, Dicky’s body relaxes. After offering the pastry chef a small nod, he returns to his half-empty bowl of pasta and does his best to focus on that.

Bobby beams at the pair, proud. “You guys are good at this,” he compliments, and then bites his inner cheek, feeling insecure. “I feel like I’ll be crap.”

“Oh, no, don’t feel that, babes,” Minni rushes to reassure him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You just have to practice, you’ll see,” she says, nudging him encouragingly and making him smile.

Yet again, she catches Dicky’s attention when he’s trying to ignore her. Does she ever run out of kindness? he asks himself, analysing her body language. He reckons Gary will be well suited with her, as he is the same when it comes to approaching people. The mechanic doesn’t know how he does it, but the blond Chathamite is always reaching out and making sure everyone’s okay. This trait only makes Minni and Gary a better match if possible and causes the raven-haired man to feel ashamed and guilty for having his heart skip a beat at the blue-eyed girl’s fake flirtations. Forcing himself not to direct his hazel-green eyes to her, he hunches over his plate of food and keeps chewing and chewing.

In that same moment, Minni and Bobby notice Hannah and Lottie coming out of the Villa and parting ways. As the blonde girl saunters confidently towards the bean bags, her younger red-haired friend takes a seat on one of the daybeds, right in front of the kitchen.

Minni’s features light up. “Now it’s your time, Bobs,” she urges, patting his upper arm excitedly. “Go get her.”

The Scottish’s golden eyes flick between her and Hannah, indecisive. “I’ll— fine. I’ll try, but no promises,” He says.

His brunette friend nods enthusiastically. Next, he stands up and gathers all the confidence he has on himself and walks towards the daybeds, determined to put in practice what he just saw his friend and Dicky demonstrate. Minni waits for a moment as she watches him go, and then figures out that he wouldn’t want to feel watched or spied on, so she decides to hop off the counter and to get a snack in the meantime, while she waits for her friend to report back once he’s finished.

As she ponders her snack options, she can’t help thinking of Dicky, and not because he’s still munching loudly behind her. It’s because of how flustered he got her in a few seconds and how genuine his flirting looked even when he’s ignoring, avoiding her or rolling his eyes at her most of the time. Given that she evidently annoys him to a great extent, Minni knows that they could never work, that it's impossible that they could make a good match. In any case, he seems to be a nice lad on the inside, as she saw when he was quick to look worried when he noticed that Bobby was struggling with an insecurity, despite messing around and ending up not exactly helping; the younger girl only hopes that he’s not playing that same game with Chloe. If he was ever to offend her friend, Minni is sure the dark-haired mechanic would meet her bad side, something that rarely comes to surface.

While twirling the pasta around the fork, Dicky’s glare wonders absentmindedly across the Villa and land on Bobby and Hannah. He watches the conversation, without hearing anything because of how far they are, and puts the food inside his mouth. When he sees the Scottish trying to touch Hannah’s hair, making the girl pull back a bit and put a weirded-out face, Dicky sneers.

“He’s fucking up already,” the green-eyed Chathamite mumbles, speaking with his mouth half-full as always.

Minni turns around after hearing him talk. “Really?” she asks. She’s fast enough to catch Bobby smiling uncomfortably at a confused and shy Hannah. “Bloody hell,” the physics student murmurs in a monotone and defeated tone.

The girl’s reaction causes Dicky to laugh under his breath. She catches his sight before turning around to face the kitchen’s shelves. Just then, she decides to make herself a bowl of cereal and milk. Calmly, she takes a bowl and the milk out of the fridge, but once she spots where the boys left the cereal box, a deep frown forms in her delicate face. Why did they put it that high up? She growls internally, staring at the colourful box placed on the highest shelf.

“Hey, Dicky,” the girl says, facing him.

“Huh?” The moody mechanic responds, not turning around to pay her attention.

From where she is, Minni can see that he’s just in the middle of eating his dish, hungrily scraping the sauce with the fork. “Could you reach that for me, please?”

Curious, Dicky turns around and sees the blue-eyed Islander pointing at a cereal box that’s far up, on one of the top shelves. Of course she wouldn’t be able to reach it without the help of someone taller, as her height without those huge platforms she likes to wear so much is barely above 5ft. For a good second, Dicky's gaze goes to her, then at the box, and then back at her again. A mischievous glimmer appears on his expression.

“Sure.” The brunet man stands up and gets closer. Feeling Minni’s expecting look on him, he’s barely able to contain a malicious laugh when he grabs the box, takes a few steps to the side and puts it higher up, on top of the cupboard and near the ceiling. Next, he turns to grin at the girl, smug. Earning just a flaming angry look and a huff as a response makes Dicky let out a short laugh.

“You’re such an asshole, honestly.” The girl rolls her eyes at him. She shakes her head, making a mental note of not asking for his help ever again.

Dicky laughs again, seeing that she won’t be confrontational about it— this is just as fun as messing with Gary, the pair seeming to be more similar as he gets to know this girl more and more. For the fun of it, the Chathamite decides to let Minni squirm a little, so he takes his seat back on a stool and watches Bobby. The pastry chef seems to be getting along with Hannah a little better now.

It’s just when Dicky starts hearing a metallic noise behind him that he turns around to find that that petite Minni is dragging one of the stools to put in front of the cupboard, so she can stand up on it and reach the cereal box.

“What an imbecilic Everest-looking…” the older Islander hears her mumbling under her breath. “I just wanted to get my bloody cereal and he…”

Dicky has to grit his teeth in order not to smile on how adorable she looks when she’s fuming. He could get used to messing with her like this, he reckons, because it has been well fun so far, “You could get hurt if you do that.” He warns, pretending to be annoyed and raising his slitted eyebrow.

“Well, it’ll be your fault,” she shoots back, bitter. Being stubborn as she is, she finishes positioning the stool and prepares to step on top of it.

“It’s not my fault you’re vertically-challenged, sugar,” Dicky replies, mocking.

He’s not actually expecting for her to continue, so when he realizes that she’s lifting one of her slender legs to place her high platforms on top of her stool, the brunet springs to his feet. He convinces himself that this reaction is just given the possibility that Gary would totally freak out if something bad happened to his bird.

“Alright, fine. I’ll get it for you,” Dicky tells her, getting closer.

Minni frowns at him, now genuinely in a bad mood, “Nah, I don’t need your help. Fuck off.”

With his hazel-green eyes widening a little, the Chathamite opens his mouth in disbelief at her outburst. “Oi, you kiss my mate Gary with that mouth?” He teases, annoyingly.

Now it’s the brunette girl’s eyes to open slightly wider. “H-How…?” She starts asking but decides to stop when she notices that Dicky is being too smug already and that giving away her surprise has only made it worse. “Ugh.” The student is pondering a reply when she hears steps entering the kitchen. With her entire expression lighting up, she sees Noah quietly walking in, his water bottle between his hands. “Hey, Noah.”

“Yeah?” The librarian asks, kindly.

“Could you reach the cereal box for me?”

As he fights to contain a groan, Dicky rolls his eyes. He doesn’t know how, apparently, Minni always manages to get whatever she wants. Noticing his reaction, Noah figures that there’s something weird going on in here but decides to help sweet Minni anyway. Few men can resist her charm, especially if she’s asking them favours.

“Of course,” he says gently.

Without asking questions, the dark-skinned man reaches the cereal box and gives it to Minni. She beams and thanks him, holding it with both hands and saunters to the counter. After Noah finishes filling his water bottle and silently goes away, Dicky turns to the girl, who is happily making herself a bowl of cereal and milk next to him. This habit also reminds him of Gary— golden boy loves that stuff, especially at breakfast, with it being the only thing he can prepare without burning down the kitchen.

“Mate, you’re stubborn as hell,” the raven-haired mechanic hisses at Minni.

Still pissed off, the blue-eyed girl stops making her snack and lifts her sight to meet his. “Could say the same about you,” she responds, in an equally bitter tone.

Dicky can’t do much but to squint, menacingly. She squints back, mirroring his gesture. Her angry stance, her witty comebacks and cute pout become so funny to him, for some weird reason. His mad stare turns into a smirk at the realisation that she’s not even fazed by his deadly glare, one that makes backtrack lads twice her size.

“Why are you smiling?” Minni grumbles, trying to hold back her own laughter at his sudden change of expression. She’s used to have this level of banter amongst men, because she grew up as the younger sister of two brothers who love to pull pranks on each other, and attends a university career when the majority of students are men, but she doesn’t recall being this entertained by that push and pull of remarks, comments and messing around in general.

“You’re well funny, sugar. I feel like I’m being threatened by a cupcake,” Dicky simply says, returning to his usual poker face afterwards.

Minni quirks an eyebrow at him. “Are you sure you’re getting enough oxygen up there?” She says, pointing at his head.

When Dicky lets out a small grunt as a response and directs his attention to his food, the conversation ends. Feeling more at ease, Minni goes back to preparing her bowl with enthusiasm. Once she finishes, she takes a seat next to the moody Chathamite, who’s absentmindedly fidgeting with the last bit of pasta on his plate and his fork; it has gone cold, but he doesn’t really care— he has even eaten frozen pasta before. Then, the girl proceeds to watch Bobby as she eats the first spoonful of her sugary snack. After a few seconds, Minni sees that the pastry chef is leaning forward to smell Hannah in a not-subtle way. Not being able to contain a chuckle, the brunette covers her mouth and almost spits a bunch of milk. Instead of trying to play it cool this time, she giggles a bit more at herself, her stare glued to her plate, so Bobby doesn’t notice that she’s laughing at him and gets more nervous.

“Minerva, stop that,” Dicky mumbles, annoyed and with his mouth full.

“What now?” She whines, another involuntary giggle escaping her throat as he remembers Bobby getting closer to Hannah. “Stop what?”

“I don’t know,” Dicky growls, trying to hold back a smile. There it is again that contagious laughter of hers that makes the corners of his lips turn upwards without reason. He dislikes that the sound makes his body react this way. Grumpily, he swallows the food that he has in his mouth so as not to choke and stops eating altogether, “Whatever you’re doing.”

Amused, the girl figures out that it is her laugh that is making Dicky act in such a weird manner. She chuckles at him. “I’m just laughing, mate,” she says with a smirk.

“Then stop,” he replies with a frown, his jaw clenching to stop a smile. He hates that this sugar-coated girl is able to bring his walls down so easily. And the thought that he doesn’t know what could happen to him if she tried hard enough to reach out makes him feel vulnerable, “Stop it.”

Now, Minni giggles at his grumpiness, knowing that he won’t be able to keep that façade for too long. She never expected that she could make a cranky lad like Dicky laugh so easily, and she’s enjoying it so far. It takes a couple of seconds for Dicky to turn from containing just a smile to actually contain laughter, gritting his teeth as he tries hard not to give in. In an attempt to shut himself up, he lets out a small breath that ends up becoming a weird sounding snort. This causes Minni to erupt into laughter, with it being more contagious and louder now that she’s making fun of him.

“Stop it. Argh, you’re so annoying,” Dicky grunts, while chuckling but trying to frown at the same time. “Shut up.”

Usually, she’d get mad at having someone shutting her up, but she reckons it’s a useless self-defence mechanism on his end, which makes everything more hilarious. This time the blue-eyed girl tries to lower the volume of her laugh a bit, but she can’t. She covers her mouth with the palm of her hand, her bright stare not leaving the man next to her. It’s so fun to be around him, she thinks. Who would’ve thought? Feeling her eyes on him, the brunet mechanic turns his head to one side, to avoid her, a strained string of chuckles spilling from his lips. Soon, a strange warmth starts dangerously creeping to his cheeks.

Luckily, Bobby arrives to the kitchen just in time. The Scottish catches the pair laughing together, unanticipatedly. Between giggles, Minni turns her attention to him, expecting him to tell her how things went.

“How did it go?” She asks.

Now that her laughter has stopped, Dicky regains a bit of his composure, “Yeah, mate, what happened?”

Bobby’s face falls at their questions, discouraged, “I need serious practice, you guys.”







At the rooftop terrace – Evening. ♬

From this angle, Chloe’s able to see almost everyone. Bobby is standing in front of Marisol and Lottie and they all instantly laugh at what she assumes is another of his goofy impersonations. The dark-haired girl leans against the edge of the cushioned seat and lets out a short giggle at the Scottish young man’s animated body language. She must confess that she’s grown a soft spot for Bobby and instantly adopted him as the little brother she’s never had.

The serenity of just her at the rooftop terrace is exactly what she is looking for. It’s not that she doesn’t enjoy the rest of the Islanders, they’re all fascinating and friendly; but there are occasions when she just needs some quality time for herself.

A sudden click of the door is heard. Chloe’s quick to turn her head and spots a familiar brawny blond with startled bright blue eyes. She discreetly scans him up and down. He’s wearing heavy-looking brown boots with fitted blue jeans along with a plain grey t-shirt hugging his toned biceps and those impressive pecs. She can easily see his dark red flannel shirt tied around his waist, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you were here.” He sheepishly smiles.

Her gaze is stilled on the crane operator and offers him a small smile, “No, it’s fine. I only came here for a bit of alone time.”

Gary quietly nods and briefly scratches his neck. There’s a peculiar modesty to Gary right now and Chloe’s not used to see it when he’s with the others. Typically, he comes off as a confident and cheeky man yet with her, Gary attempts to avoid her look and stands there awkwardly. Funnily enough, he’s also looking for a bit of headspace from the others and the rooftop terrace seemed like a great idea, “Sorry, love. I’ll leave you to it.”

Before he tries to leave, Gary hears Chloe’s gentle voice call out to him, “Wait. Don’t worry about it, mate. It’s nice to have a bit of company.”

The blond looks over at the classical cellist and blinks at the offer but isn’t against the idea. It could be his opportunity to get to know her and see how true Dicky’s words were earlier. The more Gary looked at the radiant Londoner, the more he’s convinced that she’s too posh for any of the blokes in the Villa.

He beams at Chloe and sits near her. There’s still space between the two, enough for another person to occupy that seat. Until now, he’s realised this is the first time him and Chloe have been alone. Their interactions have always been with groups or whenever she’s around Dicky. And even like that, he’s never been able to fully grasp her personality.

The handsome blond man and the brunette beauty both look down to have a decent view of Ibrahim making a complete fool of himself in front of Priya, both being in a new couple after she chose the golfer this afternoon. They can’t quite make out what he’s said but they know his flirting skills lack. The newest Islander laughs at the golf player but tries to ease him after the awkward interaction.

Gary and Chloe share a light chuckle at the cringeworthy scenery. The Chatham native turns his attention to the Londoner as she faints her laughter. “Rahim isn’t the best when grafting on a bird. Tried giving the bloke a few pointers but...” He shakes his head and smiles at the early memory of Ibrahim utterly failing at grasping the skills. “He’s just so...”

Chloe extends her smile over her lips just imagining Ibrahim stuttering the pickup line backwards. She notices the spiky-haired man is trying to remain polite with his word choice and can’t seem to finish the sentence. “He’s just so stiff and dense?” She tries to conclude his sentence.

The muscled Islander nods in agreement and huffs out a snicker. “Spot on, Chloe. I reckon Priya fancies him either way; she did steal him from Marisol, after all. She’d just have to deal with his rubbish flirting.”

The brunette girl shifts her vivid honey-coloured eyes to Gary and corners a small grin. “Priya does seem like she does great with her grafting. Men don’t always have to be the experts when it comes to flirting, you know?”

His lips curve into a smirk and breathes out an easy-going laugh. “Am I sitting next to an expert?” Gary asks curiously. He overheard Chloe tell some of the girls during the challenge that she’s French which didn’t quite surprise him. Chloe carries herself as a very sophisticated woman; almost intimidating for a common man but with an exceptional beauty to admire for ages. He’s always heard the French are naturally seductive and the musician easily gives off the vibe.

Her shoulders effortlessly shrug and tilts her head while keeping her sight on Gary. “Maybe, when I want to be.” She subtly squints the outer corner of her eyes in a playful manner.

Gary slightly adjusts his seating position and finds her truly a mystery of a character. He’s never met a woman like her, and he can’t lie to himself, she is easy to talk to; Dicky was not bantering whatsoever. “Mate, I reckon you charm a lot of lads with your French, eh?”

Chloe slightly raises her perfectly shaped brown eyebrows at him and faintly twitches a smile as she thinks of the crane operator’s opinion. She scoots a little closer towards the tattooed man and her seductive hazel stare is now solely on him. “Votre fermeture éclair est défaite…” Her voice enriches Gary’s ears at the tender rumble in her velvet vocals; almost like an arousing purr caressing along those marvellous foreign words.

Gary can feel his face growing red at how beautiful Chloe’s authentic accent rolled off her tongue. He has no bloody idea what she’s told him, but he must admit that it sounds proper sexy. His stare is set on her big bright golden orbs, almost like she’s practising hypnotism on him; there’s no possibility to escape the cellist now. The blond bearded man never notices his mouth slightly opened until he gulps in the intensity of such a voluptuous French stare.

“Woah…” Gary’s voice cracks and tries to cover it with a short laugh. “I, um— what did you just say?”

Chloe leans back and sucks in her lips into her mouth to suppress her laughter. Skimming through her experience with men, they all react like this and it was too hilarious to witness. She crosses her arms and gives him a playful smug smirk. “I said, ‘your zipper is undone’.”

Gary’s flushed face immediately pales and switches his grin for a panicked frown within seconds. He looks down at his jeans to check on the zipper and breathes out a sigh of relief. For a moment there, he really thought his business was out in the open this entire time. Wait a second, he thinks at the proper joke Chloe’s just pulled.

He looks up to see an amused brown-haired musician pressing her lips into a thin line and he can easily distinguish cute dimples on her blushed cheeks. Gary breaks into a gentle chuckle and stretches an entertained smile for Dicky’s current partner. “It’s not the first time you’ve fooled me.” A small grin shifts his lips just astonished at the impression she’s leaving on him. He’s come to the conclusion that Chloe is generally a playful girl and he’s starting to find her more fascinating. Just last night, she managed to trick him, too.

Keeping the same grin in place, the bulky Chatham native gently squints his crystal blue eyes at Chloe with interest. He can see her respond to his facial gesture with her genuine smile, “You know, you’re not exactly what I have expected. You’re quite the cheeky girl.”

Chloe squirms her face into a questionable look, “Cheeky? Nooo…” She giggles at Gary’s opinion on her. “Perhaps I’m a bit of a humourist at times but not cheeky. I’ve got to say I never expected you to be the glasses type.”

Gary becomes perplexed and pouts at what she’s meant. Chloe points at her own face, gesturing at how he’s got his black frames on. “Oh... I forget I have them on sometimes. Mate, I’ve worn glasses since I was a little lad.”

The hazel-eyed young woman sweetly smiles at the small revelation of his childhood. She’s grown a bit curious now to hear more at how endearing Gary sounds regarding the subject. There’s this glimpse of innocence that travels through his pupils and makes his look carry a gorgeous sparkle evident through the natural moonlight. She can already imagine a cute little blond blue-eyed boy trying to get used to his new frames.

She exhales a cheery laugh and rests her small knuckles against her cheek as she’s observing the light-haired Islander. “I hope you remember to not sleep with them on.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, love. I’ve learned my lesson.” He returns an enthused chuckle as he recalls his childhood memory. “My nan was the first to notice I needed glasses when I was little. Apparently, I was squinting a lot while watching the telly and I kept telling her I was fine to avoid the doc. She basically shoved me out the door to take me to the examination room cos I didn’t wanna go.”

Chloe hums out a faint sigh and tilts her head at the fascinating lady in Gary’s life. The details about his nan are minimal and quite vague but she remains with curiosity of his relative. She notices how he pauses after the little storytelling and assumes he won’t be sharing more about his life. Perhaps he will another time. “Mind if I try them out?” She asks eagerly matching her round eyes, that remind Gary of the sun.

Gary blinks at the request and slightly lifts his darkened t