Page 31 of Accidentally Amy

“Ditto.”

“Time’s up,” Kyle said.

The entire party left the apartment, leaving the door wide open, and stood on the landing to watch the event.

“It’s only one point,” Josh said to us, looking serious for a second. “You sure it’s worth it?”

“Every point counts,” I said, focused and ready. I couldn’t let Blake end up on the billboard, even if he deserved it for being overly ambitious.

“Agreed,” said Blake, giving another quick nod.

We looked at each other, and I wanted to laugh because it was obvious that he was just as stupidly competitive as I was. For someone wildly unathletic, I had a hard time ever saying no to a challenge.

Hence the herpes billboard.

We sat down at the top of the stairs.

“The challenge starts…NOW!” Kyle yelled.

“I heard,” I sang, looking at Blake. He gave the nod, and we each propped ourselves into position before moving our hands down to the first step. “That you’re settled down.”

He gave another nod, and we both slowly moved our hands down yet another step. I felt like I was going to topple ass over feet down the stairs, but I kept my eyes on Blake’s and focused on our synchronized movements.

He was so much bigger than me that I barely had any room on the step. I had like an eighth of the space, and my entire right side was glued to his left side.

I continued singing, and the group at the top of the stairs started singing along with me, which wasn’t surprising because Josh and his friends went to karaoke nearly every weekend.

Blake nodded again, and we slowly moved our backsides to rest on the next step. Another nod, and we slowly moved our feet.

“Old friend,” I belted out, “why are you so shy?”

I looked at Blake, but instead of nodding, he grinned at my song, a full-on smile that showed all of his teeth and those gorgeous dimples.

Dimples so gorgeous, in fact, that my cheeks warmed and I laughed, which made my hand slip, and then in a split second, I was falling rapidly backward down the stairs.

“Izzy!” I heard Blake yell my name—has he ever said my actual name before?—just as I fell to a stop against the door at the building’s entrance.

•••

Thankfully, Blake wasgoodat trivia. After losing that point—and stopping the game for ten minutes so the entire group could tend to the cut by my eyebrow—we got back into it. Blake sat next to me at the kitchen table, and we proceeded to win the next eight points.

Team Bliz—my brilliant name choice—was surprisingly in sync. Every time we got a question, we put our heads together and quietly conferred for our full fifteen seconds. Of course, the more I drank, the more aware I became of the size of him, the smell of him, and the deep, rumbly sound of his voice.

And more of that shockingly playful side.

I was havingfunwith my sort of boss—who I didn’treallyknow, like,at all, and it felt like we were actual friends.

Weird, right?

When we landed on Ted & Wally’s ice-cream flavors as a topic, I told Blake, “I’ve got this one—step off.”

To which he replied, “Your knowledge of junk food is truly staggering. I defer to your genius.”

I flipped him off, he reached out and lowered my finger, and then I dissolved into laughter.

We weren’t friends, right?

Yeah, no. Far from it, actually.

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