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CHAPTER ONE
Emery
“SOUNDSLIKE...PENIS?”
I snort as my friend Ava blushes and shakes her head. She’s standing at the front of my lounge room, motioning with her finger in a way that lookssuspiciouslyphallic. Also, we’re playing naughty charades, so there’s that.
Penisis possibly the least dirty thing we’ve shouted tonight.
I glance at my teammate, Hannah. Despite the fact that we have three people on our team, the other two women in the room are beating us by a country mile. That’s what we get for playing against twins.
“Dick? Doodle? Trouser snake? Firehose? Fuck pole?”
“Fuck pole, really?” Hannah looks at me and bursts out laughing. “That’s a new one.”
“You’re welcome.” I wink. “You can use that with Owen next time you want to spice things up.”
Ava waves her hands, frowning. Okay, scratch all that. She makes the motion for “sounds like” again and waits to make sure we’re watching. Then she does something...weird.
“Is she...tap dancing?” Hannah cocks her head.
Ava nods enthusiastically. Then she starts doing the dick thing with her hands again. I’m lost. Hannah and I look at each other and shrug. The time is rapidly running out and the twins are going to claim their victory.
“Tap dancing...sounds like tap...” I wrinkle my nose and then, like a bolt of lightning strikes me with genius, I get it. “Strap-on!”
“ThankGod,” Ava says from the front of the room. “That was actually mortifying. If any of you dare put that on social media I will unfriend you for life.”
I love playing these games with Ava. Despite being engaged to one of the sexiest men to walk on planet Earth, she blushes at the drop of a hat. Seriously, one time she told me that I was no longer allowed to eat bananas in her presence unless I cut them into pieces first.
Although to be fair, I did ham it up on purpose.
“Should we call it a night?” Drew stretches her arms above her head and yawns, causing the hem of her T-shirt to rise above the waistband of her shredded jeans. “I have to make the arduous trek home.”
The arduous trek is a whole one floor down. Hannahalsolives in this building, and both Presley and Ava are within a five-minute tram ride. Given I don’t have family in Melbourne, I’m grateful to have one of my own creation in such close proximity. It makes our weekly catch-ups easier and I have more than enough ears to bend if I need to talk to someone.
I think of these ladies as my posse. My girl squad. Sisters from other misters.
“You just want to quit while you’re in the winning position,” I tease.
“Read the numbers and weep, Em. Twelve to three.” Drew turns to her sister, Presley, and they high-five. It freaks me out how alike they are, total mirror images right down to the identical tattoos on their hips. Thank God, they dress differently, otherwise I’d never tell them apart. “I’d call that a colossal defeat.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble. I start stacking the bowls and glasses from our evening in, trying to act like I don’t care about a silly game even though I have a competitive streak a mile wide. Call it a product of having four older brothers—I like to win. “Who’s hosting next week?”
“I can,” Hannah volunteers. “Owen is heading to New York because his old boss is getting married and they’re doing some big bucks party thing. Sorry,bachelorparty as he keeps correcting me.”
“Fancy.” Presley tries to help out with cleaning up, but I wave her away.
“On one hand, I’m jealous that he’s going to New York, but on the other hand... I get the apartment to myself!” She shimmies and I laugh. I know she’ll miss him like crazy, because they’re totally one of those so-adorable-you-want-to-puke couples. “In fact, if you ladies want to come over early, I’m happy to cook dinner instead of doing nibbles.”
“Done. Free meals are my favourite kind.” Drew grins. “On that note, thanks for hosting tonight, Em.”
There’s a chorus of agreement and it makes my heart very full. I love these women to bits. They all file out, with the exception of Ava, who stays behind.
“How’s work?” she asks, carrying a stack of bowls into the kitchen.
“Ugh.” I sigh, feeling more than a little guilty at my less-than-enthusiastic response. I have my dream job—designing cool and innovative board games—and yet, like with any other job, it has its good days and its bad days. “We’re supposed to run live playtesting at GameCon this weekend, but the prototype components are not atallwhat I thought they’d be. Really poor quality. I need to find a new supplier and see how quickly they can turn an order around. On top of that, my illustrator quit.”
“Eric?” Ava frowns. She knows him because the team works out of my apartment from time to time, and until recently she lived across the hall. I’ve only started investing in a shared workspace recently. “He just...quit? That doesn’t sound like him.”
