Page 21 of The Consequence of Loving Me

Plus, if she takes a few things it gives me the excuse to go shopping for new clothes to replace them.

“Whatever.” I grab my hairbrush from the dresser and run it through my hair.

I can see Lily and Aspen in the mirror. Because of that, I don’t miss it when she sticks her tongue out at him. A few seconds later, he flips her the bird.

“What are you doing down here, Aspen?” I ask, trying to undo a tangle in my hair.

“I’m bored,” he whines. “Let’s have a game night!” His eyes light up at the idea.

My nose scrunches. I already planned my night around drinking the wine I bought after flirting with the guy at the liquor store. A game night with people is the last thing I want to do.

“There’s only three of us,” Lily points out, taking a seat next to him on my bed. She pulls her phone out of her jacket pocket and glances at it for a moment.

“Is that Bumble?” Aspen inquires, trying to peer over her shoulder.

Lily is too quick for him, her phone already shoved back into her pocket before he can sneak another glimpse. “Mind your own business!” She scoots as far away from him on the bed as her body will allow.

He rolls his eyes at her, stepping off the bed and going out into the main area.

We both watch curiously as he pulls blanket after blanket off the blanket ladder.

Just when I’m about to ask him what in the hell he’s doing, he grabs the ladder on both sides and starts knocking the ceiling with it. “Maverick! Selma! Stop making out for two seconds and come have game night with us.” He continues to obnoxiously pound the ceiling with the ladder, and little specks of white start to rain down on him.

Lily and I remain in my doorway. This goes on for two more minutes before we finally hear an echo of footsteps above us.

Aspen snickers, putting the blanket ladder back up against the wall. “Always does the trick,” he mutters as both Selma and Maverick come into view.

12

Maverick

Selma was asleep next to me in bed as I worked on a research paper when I heard the first thud. At first, I didn’t pay it much attention. I figured Veronica was moving something around in her room, or maybe Aspen had a guest over, but after the thudding continued and woke Selma up, we decided to go check out what was going on. We were both climbing out of the gray cotton bed sheets when we heard Aspen shout at us about a game night.

“What do you think?” Selma had asked, stretching her arms to the ceiling. She rifled through our clean laundry basket and pulled on a pair of black leggings.

“I think if we don’t go down there, he’ll never stop yelling for us, which might aggravate Veronica enough to impale him with another one of her high heels,” I said.

Selma laughed, then picked up her glasses from the nightstand and perched them on her nose.

Now, thirty minutes later, we’re caught up in an Aspen game night. What I thought would just be the four of us that live here has turned into a gathering of eight people.

Lily was already here, which I was too holed up in my room to even realize, and then Aspen invited three more of his friends—Derrick, Tristan, and Beau. All of which play on our college baseball team, including Aspen.

We’re crammed around our old card table, playing a game of Cards Against Humanity. In each round of the game, a winner is chosen, who becomes the next person to choose between all the cards.

The loser, so far, is Aspen’s friend Derrick. The winner, by far, is Veronica. Turns out the ice queen has a sense of humor, because her cards keep getting picked as the funniest.

Lily is busy looking through the cards she’s been given, trying to pick her favorite and her least favorite.

“Oh, hurry up, could you?” Aspen taunts from across the table.

“Shut up, Aspen,” Lily responds, rifling through the cards even slower now that Aspen has commented on it.

“Take your time,” Tristan says next to Veronica, earning himself a glare from Aspen.

Tristan just smirks at him and goes back to his conversation with Veronica. The two of them have their heads bent close together, and I observe them as she makes a show of flirting with him. My eyes flick to Aspen, who’s still blatantly glaring at them.

“This one!” Lily says, slapping a card down on the table, the sound loud enough to cause Aspen’s eyes to snap to her.

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