Page 9 of Spar
Question 1. What is your favorite TV show?
Question 2. Who was your first kiss?
Question 3. What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Question 4. What’s your favorite time of day to have sex?
Question 5. What color underwear are you wearing?
Tori jotted down her answers without a lot of thought, no longer uncomfortable with the awkward information often exchanged at parties like this. While she had no interest in knowing about Ryan’s sex life, she’d learned to tune it out. She and Claire had been tagging along with her brother and his buddies since they were in high school, and it was the price they’d paid for sharing friends. It wasn’t the first time they’d had to divulge information that the other would rather not know, and it no doubt wouldn’t be the last, but being together was always worth it.
“Elle, you’re up first. Everyone else write down your answers for Elle as I re-read the questions.”
Claire posed each question to the group, and they tried to come up with the answer that Elle had written down. They handed their answer to Gretchen who compared them against Elle’s answers.
It was no surprise to anyone when Ryan guessed all the answers correctly. Elle smiled at him adoringly, and Tori refilled her empty wine glass.
The game turned out to be more fun than Tori’d expected, and as they took turns sitting in the hot seat, she laughed and smiled along with the rest of them.
“Last, but not least. Tori, it’s your turn.”
Chris’ hands werelike ice by the time he and Charlie walked from the truck to the front door of Ryan’s house. The snow was coming down in big, icy flakes now. They had made it just in time. In another hour, the roads would be too treacherous to venture far. He opened the door a crack while he and Charlie kicked the snow off their shoes. The group was crowded around Ryan’s dining room table laughing and drinking. Chris paused and listened as Claire asked the group questions about Tori. Tori sat in her seat, mindlessly twirling her wine glass in her hand. No Luke in sight.
“This can’t be right. No one got a single question right!” Claire whined.
“I thoughtSex and the Citywas your favorite TV show? And if Tom wasn’t your first kiss, who was?”
Tori shrugged and took a large drink from her wine glass.
“I was,” Chris answered from across the room as he and Charlie entered the house.
Tori whipped her head around and met Chris’ gaze. Her cheeks were flushed, and she glared at him as the rest of the room glanced between them.
“You guys made it!” Claire said, running over and hugging him and Charlie.
The others stood and came forward, and Chris introduced Charlie around the room. He watched Tori out of the corner of his eye. She looked magnificent in a red dress that hugged her skin tightly and made her toned legs look longer than ever.
“Yay, now that you guys are here, we can play more games,” Claire squealed as she hurried to the other room and came rushing back with an armful of party supplies.
“How are the roads?” Jake asked as they all shuffled around the dining room.
“Getting pretty slick out there, but they salted the roads earlier today, and the plows were already out clearing the main roads in town.”
Claire clapped her hands, getting everyone’s attention. She grinned mischievously and held up a blindfold.
“Everyone line up — boys on one side, girls on the other.”
Chris shrugged off his heavy jacket and fell into line with the guys. He’d prefer to sit and drink, but he knew there would be no dissuading Claire from the games she had planned.
“Boys, you are going to be blindfolded. Ladies, I’ll hand each of you a coin to hide on your person. Keep in mind the boys are going to go looking for it, so don’t put it anywhere you don’t want them to touch.”
Claire went through the girl’s line, moving ladies around until she seemed to have everyone paired up how she wanted them. Elle was across from Ryan, Gretchen was across from Charlie, and an empty space waited in front of Jake that was obviously meant for Claire.
Chris looked to a red-faced and unsmiling Tori.Aw, hell.
He wondered how much wine she had already consumed. Tori wasn’t a big drinker. Maybe she was upset that Luke hadn’t made it. The snow had probably kept him in Carroll. Chris was relieved he wouldn’t have to spend the night watching the two of them together, but he felt a tiny bit of remorse that Tori was spending Valentine’s Day alone.
Claire wrapped the black satin blindfold around his eyes, blocking out the room around him. He could hear the ladies shuffling around, presumably to hide their coins.
