Page 10 of Roman and Jules
“No, you don’t. Put something up like…” He scooted the fries closer to them. “I want one of your fries.”
She pushed the whole platter at him. “They’re yours.”
“No, no, that’s not any fun. You’ve got to play it right. The wager is that I get one of your fries and we all know that you cannot bear to lose even one to me.”
Jules perked up at the joke. She totally got that making the food forbidden made it much more desirable. “Okay, deal. What’s the bet?”
He rolled the dice through his fingers. “I can’t roll a seven.” She agreed and he rolled a four and stole a handful of fries. “Your turn.”
Jules picked up the dice. “Okay, for a piece of your pizza… I can’t roll a five.”
She proceeded to roll a five. He groaned out, “You are officially the unluckiest person I know.”
“That’s why I make my own luck,” Jules said and snatched at the pizza.
He blocked her and plucked out the biggest piece from the pan, and holding it backwards, he took a bite out of the crust. She was fascinated. He did everything differently. He gave her the rest of his pizza, taking the dice again. “My turn. Are you germophobic?”
She nodded, setting his pizza aside to tease him. “Yeah, a lot.”
“Good. I’m taking a drink of your lemonade if I win. Whatdo Ihaveto roll?”
So he was switching up the game, was he? She’d make it work in her favor. “A five.” She didn’t have much luck with that.
He rolled a five and appropriated her drink, taking a long swig before pushing it back at her. It left her blinking. “How did you…?” she sputtered. “Are you cheating?”
“You just gotta know how to roll the winning number, babe.”
Jules held the dice with more purpose this time. She was going to figure this out and get him where it hurt most. “Oh yeah? I want your ring,babe.”
“That’s bold. How many carats?”
She laughed and pointed to the one on his pinky. “That one.”
“Fine,” he said. “You have to roll a five this time.”
That was officially her unlucky number. She rolled her eyes and tossed the dice anyway and got a two.
He grinned then bit his lip; he was horrible at keeping back his amusement. “Bad night.”
“Oh, no, no,” she said. “I get to keep rolling until I get it.”
“How’s that even fair?”
“I don’t care.” She snickered and shook the dice.
Before she could let them go, he upped the stakes. “If you do that then every time you lose, you have to give something up to me. So I get another fry from the last roll.” He stole it and chewed it while he gestured for her to play. “Go for it.”
She did and lost.
His arm brushed against hers as he stole her charm bracelet. “Hey!” she sputtered. “Don’t get too attached to that. I’m winning that back.” She rolled again and he took her earring next and hooked the long wire loop over his ear. “Roman!” she shouted and rolled and lost again.
He looked her over to see what else he could take.
“You might as well take the other earring,” she suggested.
“Mmm, no, I’ll take some of that hair.”
“You can’t!”
