Match Point

Chapter 40: Encore

'Cause I'm only here playing up

so that I can come and fall at your feet

There's always something I can do

And trust me, when we get it right

We're tenfold, the same old plain routine from night to night

And trust me, it feels like

Over, and I call

You ask for me to walk the line

- "Encore," by Catfish and the Bottlemen

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Lettie

I wasn't going on this trip under the impression it would be relaxing; I was just happy to be with Alex. I knew it was going to be chaotic and involve a lot of traveling, but again, I was with Alex, so I would deal.

As soon as Arctic Monkeys left the stage in Lisbon, we were on the move. We were shuttled to the airport to catch a flight to Ireland, where they'd be playing tonight, where we would follow the same tight routine again. We would all be packed up and transported to get a flight to Scotland, where the Monkeys were headlining T in the Park. It was a lot of coordinated travel that I was only semi-versed in. Still, I was happy to be along for the ride, and hopefully, I'd get more than an hour or two of sleep a night.

Alex and I were both awake in bed, just cuddling and touching, which I had missed so much. I hadn't brought up to him my idea of using the suits in the grand scheme of also using myself as bait. I didn't want to draw it out and make things worse by holding out on him, but I also didn't want to do it before a show; that timing would never be ideal. I could just let it go, but there was something in me that couldn't. It felt like the right move—my gut was sure. Still, I wanted to ask him about it and see his reaction before just impulsively doing it without him, which I wanted to do but wouldn't. I had him to consider and didn't and to leave him in the dark. I had to stop operating like I was single; I had other people to consider.

"I need to... ask...you something." I finally got the nerve to say, which was not my strongest intro or setup for this conversation, but I was nervous. My idea was to use the suits in my plan to lure James into the open again and hopefully end this whole drama. Maybe he'd try to get them again after the auction was shut down. Even if he was the one that had returned them, I was just not sold on him doing that to be nice or that he had plans of going away anytime soon, but maybe I was paranoid.

"I hate when you start things like that..." Alex groaned as we lay next to each other. I was rubbing my fingertips up and down his arm closest to me, looking to my side at him.

"I know, and I hate starting a sentence like that, too, but I was thinking... now that we have the suits back, maybe we could display them and make a big deal of it to lure James out?" My heart was pounding as I waited for his response.

Alex rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed, his back to me. "Only like 24 hours ago did I learn I even have the chance to have them back, and now you want to do this?"

He was frustrated, which I should have anticipated more than I had.

"I would never do it if you really are opposed, my love..." I got up and circled his shoulders from behind.