Page 99 of Girls Will Be Girls
I let out a small laugh. “You’re being a selfish prick.”
He laughs. “I see that now.”
“That’s twice,” I say, taking his hand in mine fully. “One more and you leave me no choice. It’s the rule of strikes.”
“My girl does love a ballgame.” He smirks.
I let out another laugh. “I get it,” I say gently. “I understand why you’d be worried. What he did is completely horrific, and anyone would be worried after that. I don’t blame you, but I need you to believe me now when I tell you that as long as this,” I point between us with my free hand, “whatever this is, is going on, I’m here. I’m not looking at anyone else. I’ll choose you every time.”
I let myself be unsure for a second before adding on. “Would you?”
His smile spreads wide. “Yeah, I would, baby girl.” He crowds me against the bar with his body, his hand finding my waist. “Every time.”
Before letting his face distract me, I push his chest lightly.
“I can’t believe you thought I was cozying up to Otto!”
He smiles coyly, lifting his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry.”
“You know, I believe my exact last words to him today were‘Go eat shit, shit dick’.”
He lets out a shocked chuckle. “You said that?”
“I did.” I nod smugly.
He links his fingers in my belt loop and pulls me up against him. My hands land on his chest as his trail lightly over my hips.
“I’m so proud of you.” He grins down at me.
“I know. It was a big moment for me.” I laugh.
His smile drops for just a second. “Does that mean he did something?”
I wince. “He may have tried to hit on me.”
His fingers tighten against me as he looks up at the ceiling, shaking his head “Asshole.” He mutters. “You okay?” He asks genuinely.
“Yeah,” I say. “I’m fine.”
“Good.” He smiles down at me. “Question game?” He asks.
“Hit me.”
“Can I kiss you?”
I smile and lean into him, and his hand comes up to cup my face, his thumb stroking gently down my jaw. I rise on my toes to meet him, and right as I think we’re finally going to do this, a loud bell rings above the bar, startling us apart.
“I’m calling it,” Willie yells. “Nine days is the winner.”
A small chorus of both“awws”and“yays”sounds through the room, and I notice that a large number of people are watching us now.
I turn to Lou. “Why are they looking at us?” I stage whisper.
He studies the crowd. “You mentioned a betting pool.”
I look over at the crowd again, and now there are a handful of people up at the bar collecting cash from Willie.
“There really is a betting pool? And you’re running it?” I shout at Willie.
