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“Well, then I wouldn’t be talking to you.” I slipped all three bags over the wrist that didn’t have the phone. “Do you think I need to lock the door?”
“If you don’t want your stuff to get stolen, that would help.” Her tone was teasing.
“It’s only for a minute!”
“And it only takes a minute, baby. You are adorable. How did you ever get by without me?”
“I have no idea.”
We stayed on the phone as I headed downstairs. After a few minutes of hunting with her talking me through it, I managed to locate the garbage bins.
“Do you think I have to bring the recycling down here, too?”
“Chelsea!” she yelped.
“Just kidding.”
I wished I could’ve seen her tonight. She was usually tired after work, especially on the weekends, so I’d made plans with my friends instead. Deanne and Lora were good about still hanging out while they had boyfriends, and I didn’t want to be the first to start ditching the group for my partner.
I smiled to myself as I cleaned my apartment.Mypartner.Myapartment. My life had changed so drastically in such a short time. It hadn’t even been hard—things had fallen so beautifully into place. Maybe I’d just needed to meet the right person. Tara and I had none of the drama that plagued Deanne and Lora’s relationships. Really, I couldn’t see any reason that we would ever break up.
I hugged each of my friends as they came in. They’d already visited a few times, and while I was sure we’d return to primarily hanging out at Ivy’s house, they liked coming here to celebrate me having my own place.
“You put up new curtains! They look amazing,” Ivy said.
“They were half-price.” I beamed. “Oh, you brought Goldenpour! That’s perfect.”
“I know, I’m hooked on it.” Lora set the case down on my table. “Are we playing your new game again?”
“Yeah! I’ve been thinking of new rules for it. I can’t wait to try them out.”
“Sweet.” She dropped into a chair. “This might be your best game yet.”
“I think so, too.” I dug the red cups out of the cupboard. “I was thinking about some more twists to put on it.”
“How many more twists can there be?” Deanne laughed.
“You’ll find out.” I smirked. “Tara was telling me I should try to make one of my games into something I could sell.”
“That’s a great idea,” Deanne said thoughtfully. “The people who made Cards Against Humanity must be millionaires by now. There are a million drinking games just like that. And you’re good at this stuff.”
“Not really.” I set the cups out on the table. “And how would I even go about it? I don’t know anything about how to sell a game.”
“There’s something called Google.” Lora cracked open a beer. “Use it.”
I set the thought aside as I launched into the game with my friends. Still, it stayed at the back of my mind. Maybe I could try this out—develop my ideas into a deck of cards. If worst came to worst, I wouldn’t lose anything, and I’d still be able to play the game with my friends.
Lora grabbed my phone, where I’d made a list of all the game questions. “Deanne, would you rather lose every rock, paper, and scissors for the rest of your life, or play rock-paper-scissors with an alligator?”
Deanne thought about it. “I’m going with option B. He’s not guaranteed to bite my hand off, whereas option A would definitely suck.”
“Option A is nothing,” Ivy cried. “How many papers and scissors do you use in your daily life? I’m not even going to ask how many rocks.”
Deanne shrugged. “Who knows? Someday I might want to landscape my house.”
“You can do it without rocks,” Ivy told her.
“So you all disagree with Deanne’s answer?” I asked. We all knew what that meant for Deanne. “Drink!”
