Page 86 of How to Lose at Love

“Obviously when I was a little kid.”

I hold the card in the air. “That’s not what this means.”

Dallas considers the question. “No, I’ve never wet the bed or pissed myself being drunk or nothin’. But I have peed in the shower. Have you?”

Have I peed in the shower? “It’s not my turn, so I don’t have to answer.”

“Which means you’ve probably pissed in the shower.”

“That was not an admission of guilt!” I laugh. “God, all I said was it’s not my turn, so technically I don’t have to answer.”

“I thought we were tryin’ to get to know each other.” He nudges my knee with his big toe.

“Are we?” Is that what this is? We’re getting to know each other? “I thought we were up here hiding because your brother’s twins browbeat me into spending the night and I’m only here to save face.”

“That too.”

I pick up a truth card for myself since it’s my turn now and read it out loud to Dallas. “What’s one thing you miss about your partner when they’re not around?”

nineteen

dallas

“You know when your dick tingles the second someone is turning you on? That’s common sense leaving your body.”

– Duke Colter

“Oh, this one is easy.”Ryann puts the card at the bottom of the stack. “Nothing.”

Ouch.

That hurts.

Kind of.

“We’re not partners, but would it kill you to say something nice?” The words slip out of my mouth, making me sound needy and overeager for compliments.

Ryann surprises me by not teasing me just then. Instead, she studies me from her new spot on the bed. She’s farther away now, having plopped down on the end after she went to pee, out of reach but still fantastic to look at.

Those tits, though…

“All right, let me think about what I’d miss about you if you weren’t around.” She uses a wayward playing card to tap against her chin, drawing my attention to her full bottom lip.

Major DSL.

Dick. Sucking. Lips.

She would flay me alive if I said that shit out loud, but that’s what popped into my brain; it is what it is. The longer I know her, the more I’m learning.

“I think I would miss your ability to defuse tense situations.”

“What do you mean? Tense situations?”

“For example, I know you didn’t want to drive the neighbor girls back from the party and they were driving you nuts in the truck, so you were direct when they were asking those annoying questions in a way that—she pauses—“leaves little room for argument. Hence, defusing a situation.”

Huh. Never thought of it that way.

Most people—my teammates, my brothers, even my mom—accuse me of being an insensitive prick, not someone who gets to the point, who cuts the shit.

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