Page 15 of Neighbors With Benefits

“Ah, lame. What went wrong?”

“Nothing was wrong. That’s just how long most of my relationships last.”

He raised a brow at me. “Is that by choice, or coincidence?”

“Eh. I don’t know,” I said. “Every guy I’ve ever dated lasts about a month, and then I kind of get sick of them. I realize that I don’t want anything long-term with them, so I end it. I’m a pragmatic woman.”

“Respect,” Aiden said. “Better to end it rather than letting it drag on.”

“Exactly!” I exclaimed. “You’re the first person who understands. All my friends, like Cat, ridicule me for not staying in relationships longer.”

“She’s the one with the nose ring at the party?” Aiden asked.

“Yup.”

“I think she was trying to be your wingman,” he said. “Or wingwoman, I guess. She was talking you up a lot.”

“Hah, that’s Cat all right,” I said with a nervous laugh. I was going to kill Cat the next time I saw her.

“Bananas!” Aiden said, holding up his hands.

I blinked. “You won already?”

He leaned toward me and grinned. “I didn’t want to brag, but I like word games.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding appreciatively. “Well done. Now we can play for real.”

Aiden leaned back and examined me. “Wait a minute. Did you justletme win?”

“I was unfamiliar with your game,” I said, shuffling all the letter tiles together. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Good,” he said, downing the rest of his wine and giving me a wicked smile. “Because I wasn’t trying my hardest last game.”

I cracked my knuckles. “Bring it on.”

We started the next game, both of us bent over our tiles on the floor of the living room. For the first minute, we were too focused on the game to say anything. But once we started playing words, the trash talking began.

“That’sthe word you’re going with?” Aiden asked.

“What’s wrong with the wordsnooze?”

“Nothing, if you want to lose,” he replied without looking up.

“Snooze is a fine word.”

“You should save the S to tack onto the end of other words,” he said.

“Thanks for mansplaining the game to me, but I don’t need rookie tactics like that to win,” I replied.

“If you say so… BANANAS!” he blurted out.

I gasped and looked at his words. “No way you finished that fast.”

He leaned back on his palms. “Check my work. And then tell me how great I am.”

Unfortunately, every word he used was valid. I gritted my teeth. “I was still holding back.”

“Of course.”

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