Page 30 of Tamed By You

"Play dumb games with me, Harry Walker, and you will win dumb prizes.” I felt bad, but now he’s rattled me, and I’m pissed.

“You've turned me into a human Twister mat,” he yells.

“And you gave me diarrhea, you asshole,” I yell back.

“Oh, so this is what this is all about you—”

“He gave you what?” Jack interrupts obviously completely perplexed.

“He’s been fucking me over since you guys got here.”

“What you’ve just done to me is way worse than what I did to you,” Harry shouts.

“You’re lucky I didn’t sign you up for a colonic because lord knows you’re full of shit,” I bite back. “Besides, this is on you. I just made a suggestion. I didn’t think you were dumb enough to follow through with it.”

“Right, whatever this is between you two, stop and figure it out. You need to find a way to be around each other before we go out tonight. You two can go for a drink, hash this out, and end it,” Jack shouts.

“Nah, come on, Jack, where's the fun in that? I’m quite enjoying this. I want to see what happens next.” Brad grins, propping his feet up on the table and folding his arms across his broad chest.

Harry and I go back, glaring at one another, not saying a word.

“Have I made myself clear? This ends now. If I wanted to parent on this vacation, I’d have brought my girls.” Jack clearshis throat and continues scolding us. “Now, Harry, I'd maybe wear a shirt for the rest of the trip. You wouldn't want to scare anyone. And for the love of God, read before you sign anything, you should know better.”

I snort.

“And Ali, lighten up on him, alright,” Jack pleads.

I tut . “Sure.”

“Right, before you go, I want you both to say something nice about each other,” Jack demands.

“Excuse me,” Harry and I blurt out in unison.

“Say one nice thing about each other,” he repeats.

“You can’t be serious,” Harry whines.

“Deadly. We do this with the girls when they are fighting, and since you two are behaving like children, you can do this exercise.”

“Daddy Jack has spoken,” Brad chuckles.

“Usually when there’s a conflict, it’s because you aren’t communicating properly. You need to open up and speak to one another,” Jack says.

Harry eyes Ria. “Ri, have you been letting him watch Dr. Phil again? What was that bullshit that just came out of his mouth?” She holds her hands up, giving a look of ‘not my doing’.

Jack taps Harry on the shoulder. “Hey, he’s a very insightful man. Now Harry, say something nice about Ali.” Jack gestures to me.

He huffs. “You have a nice ass and—”

“Harry,” Jack scolds, flicking Harry’s chest with the back of his hand.

“You have pretty eyes, and I like it when you laugh,” he says sounding begrudging, folding his arms over his still-exposed chest like a petulant child.

“Nice. Now Ali” he says, gesturing to Harry, “say something nice about Harry.”

What the heck do I say?

“Ali…” Jack says.

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