Page 28 of Fun Together
“Thank you. Most of them are a few years old. This one is my oldest.” He points to a heart on his bicep. “Got this right after I moved.”
“Do they mean anything?”
“Most were spur-of-the-moment, no huge meaning behind them other than I just felt like getting one.” I like this about him. He felt like doing a thing, so he did it.
“Did you know I have a tattoo?” It’s a tiny daisy just below my left hip bone. I got it in a brief moment of rebellion when I was seventeen.
He raises his eyebrows. “Oh yeah? What is it?”
“A daisy.”
“Whereis it?”
I put on my best sassy flirty voice. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
He barks out a laugh. “Now she’s pulling her weight, ladies and gentlemen.”
He makes it so easy. I think I could pretend to flirt with him all night and it wouldn’t even feel taxing at all. He looks at me for a second that stretches like molasses.
I look away first, and take my next shot. It’s not long before I win the game.
“Look at you, hustling me.”
“Not true. You knew I could play.”
“I thought we were playing pretend.”
It felt real.I’ve been having genuine fun with him and that sends a crashing realization through me. This can’t be real.
I glance over to Rett and she’s watching us like a hawk. She gives me a look that asks if I’m okay. I smile and give her a littleOkhand sign. She mouths the wordkissto me and I shake my head and look away.
Eli looks down at me with a quirk of his brow. “What was that about?”
Maybe it’s the tequila, or the burst of confidence I feel from the pool game, but I suddenly don’t want the night to end. “I may not have mentioned everything I need to accomplish tonight before I can go home.”
“Something else I can help with?”
What could it hurt if it’s just pretend? The flirting went well, so might as well finish what I’ve started. “Any chance you’d be down to pretend to kiss me, too?”
10
Eli
It takesme a couple of long, but pulse-quickening seconds to register that she didn’t just say the words “kiss me,” but “pretend to kiss me.”
Which is somehow even more interesting. “What does pretend kissing involve?”
She looks anywhere but at me and crosses her arms over her chest. The motion draws my eyes to her cleavage, and I force my eyes up. “We would just need to make it look like we’re kissing when we’re really not.”
This sends my brain into overdrive, thinking of all the ways I can pretend to kiss her. Pretend to kiss her on top of the pool table. Pretend to kiss her against the wall. Pretend to kiss her while she’s hoisted up on the bar, trapping me between her thighs.
She continues, “Forget it. Pretend kissing. So dumb.”
She’s embarrassed that she’s asked me to do this, and I don’t want that. “Not dumb at all. I have an idea.”
“Eli—”
I point to the corner next to the TouchTunes. “We can go over there, and I’ll block you so all anyone will be able to see is my back. What do you think?”
