Page 84 of Flirty Dancing

“Yeah. ‘Oh.’” Archer flopped back onto his pillow.

“Look, he was really upset. It’s hard getting dumped, especially when you can’t escape the other person at all. Maybe he needs a bit more time.”

“God, I hope so.”

“And, worst case, we’re only here for another five weeks.”

“Right.” Archer rubbed his eyes. That sounded like a really long fucking time to him.

A blond head poked into the room. “Archer!” Betty sang.

“Oh, there is no way inhellI’m going to Game Night.” He pulled his pillow over his head.

She laughed and yanked the pillow away. “Come on! What are you going to do, hide in your room the rest of the summer? If you can dance with him, you can play a game with him.”

“Hekickedme!”

“I saw,” she admitted.

“So in what world is Caleb going to sit there and happily play a game with me?”

She shrugged and tugged at Archer’s hand. “That’s his problem, then.”

“No, it will undoubtedly be mine.”

Betty gave him her best puppy dog eyes.

Archer groaned. “What’s the game?”

“It’s the Jenga tournament.”

He sat up. “Sorry, the Jenga… tournament?”

“Yeah, it’s super fun! You have to come! Everyone will be there.”

“Fine,” he moaned. “But I’m only going for you.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “That’ll do.”

“Listen up!” Dominik waved his arms at the four waiting Jenga towers. “Standard Jenga rules apply. You may use only one hand at a time to remove the blocks, and if you were the last one to touch the tower before it falls, you lose. We start in four random pools of four players. You knock the tower over, you get a point. After an hour, the pools are reshuffled into top four, next four, et cetera, based on points. Then you play again in your new group, same rules, then each pool has a winner. Any questions? Didn’t think so. Play nice, children.”

Dominik had everyone’s names ready in a hat to make the groups, and Archer was somehow not surprised in the least when he ended up in a pool with Mateo and Caleb. He glared at Betty when their group was called.

Sorry, she mouthed.

Archer sighed and sat next to their assigned tower.

Dominik was their fourth and was chuckling and shaking his head as he joined them. “Well, well. What a group. Can you guys handle this?”

Archer, Mateo, and Caleb all glared at Dominik.

“Perfect,” he smiled. “I’ll go first.”

Dominik kept up most of the easy chatter at first, and, despite himself, Archer started to enjoy the game. Jenga was simple yet fun, and smiles slowly started to crack through the cranky facades each time the tower fell. EvenMateo seemed to be enjoying himself, chuckles escaping at Dominik’s antics, and he even winked at Archer when Caleb knocked the tower down.

They had been playing for almost an hour and the Jenga intensity had ramped up. Each person had three or four points, so everything was hinging on the last game.

Caleb was taking his turn, tongue poking out as he removed a piece from near the very bottom with great precision.

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