Page 47 of For You & No One Else (Say Everything 3)

“He’s right,” Beckham said to Eliza. “You haven’t really lived until you’ve seen an award-winning chef drunkenly sing ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ complete with dance moves.”

“Times when I’m sad these are no-phone parties,” Trinity chimed in wistfully. “The blackmail I could’ve set up…”

“Jealous. All of you. Now stop distracting me.” Khuyen smirked and cupped his hands around the candy and shook them up. Then, he held out his hands, still covering the candy, toward Eliza. “Newbie’s choice. Close your eyes.”

She closed her eyes and reached out, Alice in Wonderland vibes moving through her.Which one makes you bigger? Which one makes you smaller?She found his hand, selected a Skittle, and then opened her eyes.

“Red,” Khuyen said, taking the candy from her and dumping it with the other two Skittles into an abandoned cup on the table. “Room one it is.”

Will set his drink down and stood. He put his hand out to Eliza to help her up. “Let’s see what fate awaits us.”

Eliza took his hand, but found herself turning to Beckham. He was looking at her and Will’s clasped hands.

“What’s in room one?” she asked.

Beckham’s attention flicked up to her face. He cleared his throat. “I have no idea.”

“I do.” Trinity groaned as she stood and then reached down to snag a few Skittles. “We all might want to grab some extra candy.”

Eliza was going to ask what she meant by that, but Trinity and Khuyen had already passed her and Will was tugging her gently toward the hallway to follow. She let herself be led for a second but then allowed her hand to slip from Will’s when she saw Beckham had hesitated and was still a few steps behind. Will released her hand easily, and she slowed her pace. Beckham caught up to her, a wary set to his jaw.

“What’s in room one?” she asked. “You look like you know and aren’t happy about it.”

“I don’t know, but I have a theory now,” he said as he walked beside her. When they caught up to the group, he pointed toward the bowl of candy sitting on a little table outside of room one. “Yep. Mints.”

She frowned. “I don’t get it. What slumber-party game has mints?”

He gave her a brace-yourself look. “Apparently, there aren’t just slumber-party games. There are boy-girl party games.”

Her lips parted and she glanced at the door again. The little paper sign on door number one had lipstick kisses on it. “Oh shit. Are we about to play Seven Minutes in Heaven?”

“Nope,” Will announced from in front of them. He turned and smiled, looking enormously pleased. “Spin the Bottle!”

“Spin the Bottle?” She turned back to Beckham in mild horror.

Beckham tipped his head back and looked to the ceiling, squinting. “Sure, Beckham, invite your coworker to a party to introduce her to people. That will be great. She won’t mind you setting her up tomake out with complete strangers. That’s totally appropriate. Solid move.”

Beckham’s dramatic regret over the party’s theme made a laugh bubble out of Eliza’s throat, which chased away some of her initial dismay. She genuinely felt bad for him. “You didn’t know this was the theme.”

He lowered his head and stared at her. “You don’t have to do this. Seriously.”

Her initial instinct was to bail. This wouldn’t be the first time she’d been surprised by the appearance of this game. And the last time hadn’t gone well at all. But…last time she’d been twelve. And had been at a party where she shouldn’t have been with kids she couldn’t trust.

She glanced toward the door. Will, Khuyen, and Trinity were all looking their way expectantly. These people weren’t those kids. They weren’t out to tease her or embarrass her. They wouldn’t call outEwww!if the bottle landed on her. This was just a silly party game. Pecking a stranger on the lips and laughing about it. All in good fun.

The therapist part of her knew that the butterflies in her stomach were just old childhood scars fluttering up, that this posed no real danger. She didn’t want to back out and ruin the fun she’d been having. Plus, this might make for an interesting story in the book. She turned back to Beckham, resolve filling her. “It’s fine. It’s just a silly game. We agreed to bow to the gods of randomness. Far be it from me to go against that.”

Beckham’s eyes narrowed. “You sure?”

“Yes. I’m embracing the spirit of the party,” she said, hooking her arm with his. “Let’s take a spin.”

“Yes,” Will enthused. “Stop being a party pooper, Carter.”

Beckham snorted but let Eliza lead him fully into the hallway. She unhooked her arm from his, and everybody grabbed a mint while they waited for the current group to exit. Will came to stand next to her, leaning his shoulder against the wall, his breath minty fresh. “So how did Beckham sell you on this party? Most people think we’re pretentious assholes for acting like we’re above phone culture.”

“No, I didn’t think—”

Beckham sniffed from where he was standing on her other side. “I do recall her callingmea pretentious asshole.”

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