“Do tell!” Dean’s fingers drum the wood as he leans in like a predator spotting fresh prey.
“That’s not a part of the game,” I shoot back.
“Indulge me, please!” Dean pushes further.
“I did. With lasagna and pastries. You missed the salad.”
His mouth curves slightly, like he is trying not to smile.
“Never have I ever set a place on fire,” Link interrupts the whoever-blinks-first-is-the-donkey staring contest between Dean and me, pouring whiskey again.
Once more, all glasses shoot in the air. Mine stays rooted to the table when Atlas pokes my ribs.
“The theater,” he says, smirking.
“It was a small fire intended to set off the alarms. I didn’t,factually,set the place on fire, so it doesn’t count,” I counter.
“Wait, what?” Link chimes in with curiosity.
“I showed up uninvited to a movie date, and she triggered the alarms to get away from me, keeping her promise that she’d only miss my company if the place caught fire,” Atlas says on a laughing note.
“It counts,” Carter says through his laughter, pushing the shot my way, urging me to take it.
I grunt, raising the glass in surrender.
“Never have I ever had a threesome,” Connor shoots another inappropriate question, cementing this as his trademark.
“It wasn’t your turn,” Carter protests.
“Raise your glass, and you’re swallowing it.” I turn to Atlas with a fair warning, while Connor snorts out a laugh.
“You have an intriguing way of handling men,” Dean notes, ridicule seeping through each syllable.
“Do I? How so?”
“You didn’t learn how to be a good girl and take it.”
“Dean!” Atlas roars, slamming a fist against the wooden surface.
“What? For what it’s worth, that’s actually a compliment.”
“You suck at compliments,” I say, placating Atlas’s anger with my hand over his fist, forcing him to relax his corded muscles.
“Well, I don’t offer any, so it figures.” Dean takes a bite from his cake, as if the room doesn’t reek of tension. “Compliments are a waste of breath. Someone is either beautiful, or smart, or whatever, and knows it, so no need to compliment them, or they aren’t, and the praise would be a lie, a vain confidence booster.”
“What solid logic.”
Why the hell can’t I keep my mouth shut and not engage further?
“Enlighten me then.” He sets the fork down, folds his arms, and leans forward.
“We’re allowed to hold different opinions. I’m not gonna try to persuade you of my point of view.”
“But I wanna hear it anyway.”
I huff a sigh, bracing for impact.
“You don’t have to.” I glance at Atlas, whose hand glides down my leg in a soothing gesture.
