Page 122 of Sour Notes

“Three.”

Oh god.

“Two,”

Fuck it. It’s a fifty-fifty shot.

“One,”

“Swayze.”

“Me.” He grins at me ruefully, the smile not quite reaching his eyes.

“Ding ding ding, another winner! Kiss, you lovesick fools.”

I lean over, kissing him this time, but it stays brief. He doesn’t try any funny business, his tongue staying firmly in his mouth.

Is he annoyed with me?

Surely he knows I don’t really expect him to fall in love with me, if that’s what he’s worrying about. I’m not that stupid.

I’m so lost in my own thoughts, I barely register the other two teams’ responses.

Apparently, avoidance runs in my family. Layla was the one to say it first to Nick. What a dumbass.

“Okay, good job. Now what’s your amore’s biggest tell? Let us into those little dark secrets…” Maz wiggles his brows.

“My girl deflects everything with humor.” Swayze rumbles out beside me.

Wow, way to put me on blast dude. Besides, what’s wrong with that? Laughing is far preferable to crying, thank you very much.

“Mia, what about your man’s?”

Glancing over at him, his handsome face splits into a wide grin when he catches me staring.

He actually has a few tells, depending on the situation, but I’ll go with the most obvious. The one I know best, considering how many times I piss him off on any given day.

“His jaw ticks. It happens when he’s furious or horny, or both together when he’s in the mood to hate fuck.” I can’t stop the smile creeping in when I watch him arch a brow.

He chuckles, turning to Mario and tilting his head my way. “See? Classic deflection.”

“Hmmmmm.” Mario twiddles an imaginary mustache while he stands there, loving the MC spotlight like the attention whore he is.

“Well, that leads us perfectly onto our next and final question. What’s your partner’s biggest fear? Spiders? Sharks? The eternal emptiness of a superficial life? Let’s go.” The smile slips from Mario’s face for the briefest moment before he turns it up to eleven.

Well, that took a turn. Did he just confess to the class that he’s lonely? But he’s the party personified. Always has been.

What the…?

Nick interrupts my train of thought by announcing Layla’s biggest fear is a sock outside the hamper, spurring a mini lovers’ spat. She retorts that Nick’s is a sex ban that he might face real soon—which, fair.

Mom’s biggest fear is anything happening to her family. Dad’s is anything happening to Mom because we’re apparently chopped liver to him.

Swayze coughs, dragging my attention back to him.

“You wanna go first, Angel?”

Not really. Nope.