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“When do we get to have drinks?” Sammi whispered to us.
“Probably after the first round,” I said. I glanced at the bartender who was messing with his phone in boredom.
The four of us chose Go Fish since it was easy and we didn’t have to think too much.
“Now, if we made this a drinking game, then that would be a party,” I said, arranging my cards in my hand. I liked to fan them out perfectly.
“I don't think that will go over well,” Emma said, staring at her own cards. She was concentrating and it was really cute. She wasn’t as competitive as I was, but she was clever and she was sneaky. I never underestimated her when it came to games, or to anything, really.
“You’re going down,” she said casually, not looking up at me.
“Excuse me?” I said, looking at Nova and Sammi to see if they’d heard her.
“You’re going down, Callyn,” she said, smirking and then asking, “do you have any sevens?”
“Go fucking fish,” I said through gritted teeth. “It’s on.”
She won the first game.
––––––––
IWON THE SECOND WHENwe played Lara and Lilly at Sorry. Neither of us won the third game, Operation. In between games, we stuffed our faces with more food and I sucked down a rum and Coke.
We were going a total of five rounds and I was determined to win.
Emma had a gleam in her eyes that was so adorable that I couldn’t help but smile. She was just so fucking cute sometimes I couldn’t deal with it.
“You’re not going to intimidate me by staring at me, Callyn,” she said, when we were on our fourth game (Exploding Kittens). I hadn’t realized I had been staring at her, but then I looked at my cards in my hand and realized I had. I needed to concentrate if I was going to beat her.
“I don’t need to intimidate you. I’m above such things,” I said. We were with two of Lara’s coworkers and they’d been pretty quiet. It was pretty awkward, but we were making the best of it.
“Yeah, sure. I’m still going to crush you.”
“Nope,” I said.
She won the fourth game.
“If you don’t win this next one, I have some bad news for you,” she said in a sing-song voice. She’d had a few drinks and I was enjoying being with tipsy Emma. Alcohol made her more affectionate and silly. She kept touching my hair and leaning on my shoulder and making little goofy noises.
“You’re on your way to being a drunky skunky, Em,” I said, brushing her hair out of her face. I didn’t know if she was even going to get through the fifth game, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try and crush her while we played Candyland with two of Lara’s great aunts. They were already a few drinks in and a total riot. I couldn’t wait to see them at the wedding.
“King me!” one of them said, as she moved her piece on the board.
“That’s checkers,” the other aunt said. I could not for the life of me remember their names. I’d met too many people today and I was the worst with names. I should have requested that Lara have everyone wear nametags.
“This game would be so much better if it had actual candy involved,” I said, picking a card. “Score.” I landed on a shortcut and got to move even closer to the Candy Castle.
“Now I want candy,” Emma said, pulling a card. “Boo.” She landed on the square that meant she lost a turn. I was closer than she was, but one of the great aunts was the first one to reach the Candy Castle. She did a little dance in her chair and the other one pouted.
“This means you have to get me a cupcake.” They both got up and left us there, not caring who came in second and third. I picked up another card because I was determined to win.
“Yes!” I got the right color card and made it all the way to the Candy Castle.
“I win,” I said, poking Emma. She rested both arms on the table and leaned on them.
“Good for you, Callyn,” she said. She didn’t seem to care. “Can we take a nap now?” Sometimes when Emma drank she got super sleepy and cuddly. Guess this was one of those times.
“I know, Em. We’ll go soon.” This whole day was designed to end before dinner so we wouldn’t be out too late. Given how tired Emma was, I was grateful.
