Page 279 of The Hopelessly Bromantic Duet

“See you,” she says, then takes a beat. “Also, have fun.”

“Goodbye, Nisha.”

I hang up and text her the address of the cabin.

Then, I join River in the kitchen as he swings open the cupboards and grabs two mugs.

Thank God.

If he got out champagne flutes, it’d be far too romantic for me.

Mugs are what friends drink champagne from.

He pops open the bottle, pours some for me in aFor Fox Sakemug, and some for himself in one with the wordsGopher Itunder a drawing of that animal.

He lifts his mug to toast.

I step closer, clink the ceramic to his.

River clears his throat. “To our first fight ending,” he says.

“I’ll drink to that.” And I do, taking a big, thirsty sip, then sigh happily. “I fucking love champagne.”

“Of course you do.”

“Why do you say it like that?”

“Because you have good taste, Owen, and champagne is delish. So of course you like it,” he says, then grabs a bag of popcorn. “Let’s snack and drink and play...” He stops, screws up his brow. “Monopoly?”

“I slaughter you every time. It’s not challenging.”

River snarls. “So cruel. But so true. We’ll find another.”

In the living room, we sink down onto the plush carpet, tugging games from the drawer in the coffee table.

Uno.

I pretend to fall asleep.

He grabs Catan.

I shake my head. “We’ll be up all night.”

River points to the window. “Got somewhere to go?”

I knock back some champagne. “Nope. But I am not playing a game that requires me to pull an all-nighter. My commitment level to a board game is about an hour.”

“A man who knows his mind. Gotta love it,” River says, taking another drink, then opening the popcorn.

We root around for more games, while munching on the salty snack.

“Exploding Kittens?” He waggles the Russian-roulette style game in front of me.

“Possibly. We’ll consider it a front-runner,” I say, grabbing another box, then moaning in mock pain as I set it on the table.

“Risk.” I cringe. “Pretty sure you have to be intoGame of Thronesto like Risk.”

His jaw comes unhinged. “You don’t likeGame of Thrones? How did I not know this juicy tidbit?”

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