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I hope this is the Joel I get to keep when we go back to normal. I think that’s why I’ve demanded another week. I don’t want to leap before I see that he means it. Not just the liking me — that’s not in question anymore. It’s the personality I want to keep. It’s not that I need him to change radically. I wouldn’t want to stop him being dumb, lovable Joel. But the kindness, the thoughtfulness, the openness — if he really can be like that, then I wouldn’t want to change a thing.
“And, voilà!” I say as I flip the omelet out onto the plate. He applauds vigorously, like he’s just watched a master craftsman at work. “Go on, this one’s yours.”
“You sure?” he asks but picks up the plate anyway.
“Yes, but breakfast is on you tomorrow.”
“Deal,” he says. He doesn’t even wait to sit down before he starts eating, his mouth full as he tells me how good it is.
I smile as I turn back to the stove. My billionaire boyfriend. It’s not an awful thing to imagine at all.
CHAPTER25
JOEL
Ipick up one of the brightly colored boxes and read it suspiciously. “Don’t Blink Twice. The game of strategy and tactics. Can you double cross your opponent before they stab you in the back?” I put the box down and give Anna the most dubious look I can summon up. “This sounds stupid.”
We’re sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by games. Anna sits with her legs crossed neatly, her hair tied back like she’s about to start doing some hard thinking. I’m not sure about this plan at all. She’s going to win.
“Trust me,” she says, opening the box. “Me and Ben used to play this all the time as kids. It’s fun.”
“Why can’t we just play video games?”
“Because Ben doesn’t have any, and you told me you’ve never played a board game in your life. So we’re going to change that.”
“You’re lucky I like you,” I say, folding my arms like a sulking child. This seems like it’s going to involve some heavy thinking. I’m not good at thinking, and I’m worse at losing. I don’t see how this can remotely be called fun.
“Stop complaining,” she chides, tipping out a huge bag of plastic pieces, squares and triangles and whatever you call a five-sided shape. She sorts them into piles by color and shape and I refuse to help, watching closely as she lays out some cards and hands me a pile of pieces. “It looks complicated, but the rules are actually easy, okay?”
She starts explaining them and I swear I’m trying to listen, but she says so many words and every single direction has some weird exception and I can’t keep track of it all. The pawns can only land on the same colored squares, and if you roll a six you draw a card, and you win by getting three blue pentagons, and if you lie well enough to your opponent you can trick them into giving you all their yellow triangles which are like currency or something because on top of just being a game, you have to know the story too, which is that you’re an assassin trying to stay alive and keep your job while the king is having you hunted down or something.
I don’t tell her that I didn’t know the word for pentagon.
“Got it?” she asks, beaming. That look is the only thing that’s worth doing this for, the way her eyes crease and her cheeks get cute little dimples.
“No,” I say grumpily.
“Good,” she grins. “You can go first.”
She hands me two dice, one with numbers and one with colors. I release them onto the board and watch as they tumble forward, clattering against each other when they bounce. Anna stares at me, waiting for me to make a move. I’ve rolled a six and a yellow, so I pick up a yellow pawn and slide it six squares away from my home.
I look at her for approval, and she nods.
It takes me a little while to get into it, but when I finally can remember the basic rules without her telling me what to do every time I roll, I actually start enjoying it. I didn’t even realize people still played board games. I thought this kind of thing died out with cellphones.
Anna’s really into it, though. It’s obvious that she’s played this a million times because every time I make a move I think is good, she undermines me straight away.
“Aha!” she says, grinning. “I’ll have all your yellow triangles now, please.”
“Wait, what?”
She points at the board. “See, you’re in the alley which is usually safe, but I’ve got lucky and escaped the castle by the secret passage.”
“Oh man, you were just about to get got by the guards.”
“Yup, but I rolled a three and, combined with giving up a crystal — the blue pentagons — I came through the passage and ended in the alley. And I’m going to use the blackmail card I drew earlier to make you give me your gold.”
To make her point, she holds up the card with a flourish. There’s a drawing of two men in an alley, one holding a knife like a threat, the other wincing away.You have dirt on your opponent that you swear to reveal if they don’t give up their wealth, it reads.
