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My friends looked at each other and shrugged. “Okay.”
“It’s your turn,” Ivy told me.
It was still the practice round, but I wanted to get this buzz going for real. I drained my cup and poured another before taking my spot at the table.
“Chel-sea! Chel-sea!” my friends cheered.
I gulped the beer down, and the bitterness slid down my throat. I shuddered with the sudden chill as I set the cup on the table. I took a deep breath—I couldn’t miss this. I brought my hand up, carefully yet confidently. My fingers touched the plastic. I flipped upwards and threw my arms up in victory.
The cup arced upward—and then, as if in slow motion, stumbled in its path. The cheers around me died out as we all watched the cup descend—on its side. It landed on the table with a quiet thud.
“Well…” Ivy said. “You win some, you lose some.”
“Chelsea doesn’t,” Deanne said.
“It’s just a practice round.” I wasn’t going to let my friends get in my head about this. “It doesn’t matter.”
“That means you’re barely even buzzed yet,” Lora said. “I know what happened, though.”
So help me God, if this was some joke about me loving dick…
“She’s missing her secret power.” Lora grinned. “Or secret sauce, shall we say.”
With a sigh, I set the cup back on the table. I should’ve known better than to expect anything else from Lora. “Just watch me.” I flipped again, and this time the cup landed exactly how it was supposed to. Secret sauce, my ass.
We launched into the actual game—two of us on either side of the table, racing to each drink the beer and flip the cup faster than the other team. Ideally we would’ve had more than four people, but as Ivy had said, it did the trick. Within half an hour, we were all obnoxiously drunk.
“Girls, I’m so sorry,” Deanne said as she checked her phone. “Nolan wants to see me tonight, after all. He’s on his way to pick me up.”
I bit my lip. Did she know how lucky she was to have a man who wanted to see her tonight? One who was willing to pick her up?
“You hoe,” Lora slurred. “Abandoning your girlfriends for dick.”
Seriously? She was the one who was obsessed with dick, not me.
“I’ll see you guys later.” Deanne gave us long, tight hugs. She was an affectionate drunk, so when she’d hugged each of us, she started over from the beginning. “I’ll see you soon, okay? So soon.”
“I think we get what ‘see you later’ means,” I mumbled to myself.
When Nolan pulled up in his truck, his eyes lit up when he saw Deanne. He honked quickly and waved to the rest of us, but even as he did, his gaze stayed fixed solely on Deanne.
A hard knot formed in my gut. I wanted that. Why was it so hard to find?
Lora grabbed me by the arm. “Look, honey, real talk.” Her face was flushed with the alcohol.
I couldn’t handle any more of her “real talk.” I headed over to the table and started to stack the plastic cups together. The game couldn’t continue with only three people, plus it was getting so nippy out here that I wanted to go inside.
“You’ll never believe what happened,” I said, desperate to change the subject. “A girl’s been hitting on me.”
“What girl?” Ivy asked.
I folded up the table, and Ivy helped me bring it inside. “A girl I see through work. She’s been flirting with me constantly.”
“Is it that weird for you?” Lora asked. “Guys hit on you all the time.”
“No girls have ever hit on me,” Ivy said melodramatically. “Guess I’m going to die alone.”
“Oh, shush.” I swatted her on the arm. “But yes, it’s weird. I mean, she has a major thing for me, and she makes it so obvious. It’s really pretty awkward.” Even if a tiny part of me glowed at the attention.
