Maggie laughed when she saw what I was doing, the effort I was putting into it.

“Hey, Lieb! You don’t want to…do yourself an injury OK? Steady on!”

She let go of her ball and sat back, smiling at me.

I let go of his ball, grinning, a bit sort of embarrassed. Shook my arms out. My muscles were getting a bit cramped, to be honest, now she’d mentioned it.

“Hey! Look at him Lieb! Look at that wet face. He’s crying! Look what you’ve done to him, you cruel thing! Is she being too…horrible to you, Kevin, you poor thing?”

He couldn’t speak. It was just groans by now. Raspy groans. From the screaming.

OK. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was time we finished. For now. Let him go before we went too far. Had to stop somewhere. Didn’t want to injure him. Not really. Hurt him and torture him, yes. But we had to draw the line somewhere. Had to be reasonable and everything.

And we just had to do this again!

“OK Maggie, I guess you’re right”

“Really, Lieb? OK. But…I still bet I can squeeze harder than you! Just watch!”

She grinned, mischievously. Sat upright. Gave her own solid arms a quick shake, making her muscles ripple, flexed her hands and forearms and grabbed his ball again.

I watched. Mesmerised. Panting. Getting hotter and hotter as she squeezed harder and harder.