Page 41 of How We Play the Game
“Did anyone here have plans for tonight?” Kavi interrupts again. Trieu looks up from his phone long enough to shrug. Cass doesn’t even bother going that far, just shaking his head as he returns his attention to power-washing a jungle gym on his OLED screen. I didn’t have anything going on today, I literally just want a hot dog. And even though Ivan was the one who protested in the first place, he doesn’t have a rebuttal. Or plans, apparently.
Kavi grins victoriously before settling back down on the couch and picking the controller back up. “I rest my case.”
“If we’re playingOvercooked!by ourselves, what are you guys going to do all day?”
Kavi walks over to the kitchen table, where Trieu has set up three gaming laptops. She reaches down and yanks a headphone cord out of its jack. The bass notes of theGLRtheme buzz loudly against the tinny speakers. “Take a wild fucking guess.”
I prepare my final argument. “Shouldn’t we be … I don’t know … playingThe Newlywed Game, or something?Asking about each other’s favorite colors and social security numbers?”
“More relevant references, Zora!” Cass calls from the couch.
“Fine. Never Have I Ever?”
“Accepted.”
“I’m not giving you my social security number,” Ivan whispers out of the corner of his mouth.
“I’ve had it formonths,” I whisper venomously, clocking the slight tugging at the edge of Ivan’s lips that means he’s trying to smother a laugh. Well, I’m glad at least one of us thinks this is funny.
“Wait a minute—Cass.” I’ve just realized something doesn’t add up. “I asked you point-blank if the plan was for me and Ivan to playOvercooked!and you said no.”
“Mm, not exactly,” Cass answers.
“What do you mean ‘not exactly’?”
“That’s what I said, ‘not exactly.’ I didn’t say no. Because what you actually asked was ‘Is this Kavi’s plan, to make me and Ivan playOvercooked!’ And that’s not true.”
I groan. “Are you really going toUm, Actuallyme because we’re technically playingOvercooked! 2?”
“Um, actually,” Kavi pushes an invisible set of glasses up her nose. “He’s going toUm, Actuallyyou because this was notmyplan. It’s Cass’s.”
“It was?” I whip around to face Cass. I’m not surprised that he thought playing a video game would be the cure to all wounds, but I am thrown off by the fact he came to Kavi with a suggestion without talking to me about it first.
Cass shrugs, finally turning his Deck off to look up at me with an unreadable expression and a tone that feels bothplayful and chilly. Like a snowman. “Had to pull my weight in the party somehow.”
“I was lobbying to send you skydiving,” Trieu interjects from the kitchen. “Because I think neither of you will live a happy life unless you get to kick each other out of a real plane at least once.”
“But that shit’s expensive.” Kavi hands us both our controllers. Ivan’s is watermelon green and pink, mine is classic Switch gray. A peacock and a goat. “Now go make me some digital sushi.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“DID YOU PREP the rice?” I ask as my chubby alligator avatar dashes across the screen to chop the fish for our sushi roll before time runs out on our latest order—the last shot we have of earning enough in tips to make it past this level.
That level being Level 1. Which we’ve played through four times already.
“I thought you were on the rice?” Ivan asks as his (raccoon? Wolf? Other gray mammal?) avatar washes the same dish I swear he’s been washing for the past ten minutes.
I bite down on my tongue until I’ve calmed down enough to not breathe fire the second I open my mouth. “Yousaid you’d be on the rice if I handled the fish and the seaweed.”
“I meant just for that last order.”
“Then you should’ve said that.”
“I did,” Ivan says through gritted teeth as a gratingding-ding-dingannounces the end of yet another unsuccessful round.
“Great,” I say with what I already know is too much bite as I toss my controller onto the couch beside me. “We were only a hundred dollars short this time.”
“Better than two hundred,” Ivan mumbles, every word dripping with sarcasm.
