Chapter 5: Amazing Grace

Mo rode in a fury through the car park after Grace. It was just typical of that brazen Italian bitch hoe that she’d tricked him into saying he already had a bike, so that he’d be the only one on a mountain bike, with its huge, slow knobbly tyres, while everyone else had a road-racing bike.

He didn’t even have cleats on his shoes, so he could only push the pedals on the downstroke while the girls could power the upstroke too. They’d pulled that trick on Paul as well, he could see. Well ... perhaps it was Grace who’d asked about him having a bike? But he bet it was Mia who’d put her up to it. On top of winding him up with all that skin.

He made a huge effort and got past Grace as she braked at the University exit onto the dual carriageway. The car and Paul had turned left. He chased after them. He was stronger than stickboy, so that ought to outweigh his bike disadvantage.

Mia watched Mohammad going berserk along the edge of the road, with his bike waggling from side to side. He wasn’t going to last. But luckily for him the cars were all queueing at the roundabout, in the rush hour traffic, so after a couple of hundred metres Paul stopped behind Dr Simon’s car and they all caught up. Mia looked away, as though admiring the trees in the central reservation, so that the puffing Mohammad couldn’t see the grin on her face. She shouldn’t be so mean, but honestly he made it too tempting.

Grace ended the open call to Mia, unclipped her phone and surreptitiously took a photo of the car’s number plate. The driver wasn’t paying any attention to his mirrors, just tapping his fingers to the music that they could hear the beat of. She put the phone back in her mount and while the traffic inched forwards she got Google Maps loaded. “We could get ahead?” she suggested to the gang. “It’s a bit suspicious why we’re waiting for the cars instead of just going up the side. And there are really only two roads off the roundabout so we could split up and get two junctions up, both ways, before he gets to the roundabout?”

“Great idea,” said Mohammad before Mia could say anything, “I’ll go with you.”

“Okay cool,” smiled Grace. She understood it was important to him not to ‘lose’ to a girl, and she suspected if he went with Mia then Mia would deliberately let him lead, as he was obviously desperate to do, sit in his draught until he was exhausted, and then totally humiliate him. Mia was jolly athletic and had been super fast on her mega racing bike on Saturday. And she did seriously seem to have it in for Mohammad. Oh, she and Paul were looking searchingly at her.

“Shall we meet at that café afterwards?” Grace pointed. “Or we can phone.” She said it definitely enough that they had to either accept it or outright call Mohammad some kind of dangerous pervert. Which he wasn’t, obviously.

“Okay,” said Mia reluctantly, while Paul nodded agreeably.

Mo set off, leaving Grace to follow behind him. He pedalled hard, to show he wasn’t tired. He’d stop and wait for Grace in a bit. He turned left at the roundabout and pressed on. There was a road off on the right, straight away.

“Okay I’ve got this one!” he heard Grace call to him from behind, so he kept going. In about three hundred metres there was another turning on the right, so he stopped at the side of the road and watched the cars coming.

In a minute the grey hatchback with Dr Simon inside drove past him, fairly slowly in the traffic ... closely followed by Grace! Her slim little figure was hunched down on her racing handlebars, pedalling fast but kind of smoothly, in the car’s slipstream. Her hair was blowing in the wind and her cute ass was looking amazing, bent over in her pink and black Lycra...

Oh! Her ass that meant she was in front!

Mo got his head together and set off after them. They were fifty metres up the road already. He strained to accelerate his fancy but slightly awkward mountain bike. It had an awesome number of gears, like twenty-seven. By hauling on the handlebars he finally got it up into top and tucked in behind a 4x4. Ideal.

The car behind hooted him. Shit. The guy wouldn’t have hooted Grace, he’d have sat there admiring the view! The guy hooted again. The driver he was tailgating looked in the mirror and gesticulated. Shit. Mo moved over, lost the draught and lost speed. His body wasn’t at all aerodynamic on this bike, that made it even worse. He could just see Grace going round a right-hand bend up ahead. He kept going, though he could feel his legs starting to die already.

He went round the bend and came to a road off on the left. He’d better check. He stopped and pulled out his phone to call Grace. After a few rings there was the sound of rushing air and a faint “Hi” - her phone in the fancy handlebar mount that both the girls had, but not him or Paul which was why he’d had to stop to phone, and fall completely behind.

“WHERE ARE YOU?” he shouted into his phone, so she’d hear above the racket.

“Straight! Straight!” he could just make out her shout amidst the hurricane noise.

“OKAY!” He ended the call.

Mo pedalled slowly on, not in a rush any more, past several turnings and then out into the tree-lined countryside. After about a mile he saw Grace cycling towards him, coming back. She saw him and pulled off into a gravelly area at the side of the road. He pulled up next to her.

She had a big grin on, all exhilarated: “I lost him when he speeded up, but there’s a main junction up ahead where he must’ve gone left or right, we can start there tomorrow.” She was glowing, beautiful, intensely alive. A tiny jewel. She took off her sunglasses to talk to him, revealing those shining, electric eyes.

Mo was smitten. His emotions swirled. She was so small and young and possessible. Images of masterful film stars flitted through his tormented mind. The excitement of the chase boiled and melded with his desire and wounded pride.

He had to have her for his girlfriend. HAD to. And she had to know it was merely lucky that she’d beaten him, and that he was in control. In charge! She had to be his and he wasn’t going to be humiliated any more. She wouldn’t be Mia’s, she was going to be HIS. She’d be his, and Mia and his brothers and everyone would respect him. Grace would respect him, for being strong.