"Yeah, Rush," Slate's voice floated over to me. "Don’t you know how to go harder?"
"Oh, shut up," I called back. "I haven't heard a balloon pop from you, so you must not know how to push just right either."
"I have plenty of women who can attest that I know exactly how to push," he said.
"Not something to brag about, Slate," Olivia chimed in.
Pop!
Olivia and Wilder's balloon had popped.
"Not that there was any confusion, boys, but we all know that I'm the one who is the best at pushing," bragged Wilder.
"Put your words where your mouth is and grab another balloon," Olivia said to Wilder.
"Ooh, I love it when you talk dirty," Wilder mused, picking up another balloon.
Olivia rolled her eyes at him and gave him a playful shove.
Pop! Pop!
The other two couples' balloons popped, and now it was only Scarlet and me that hadn't been able to pop ours yet.
"I'm going to push harder, so be ready," I said over my shoulder.
"I'm ready. Let's do this," she replied.
Pop!
"Woohoo! We did it!" Scarlet exclaimed, her loud voice ringing off the walls.
I laughed at her enthusiasm and grabbed another balloon.
"It's about time," Slate commented.
I was about to say something to him, but Scarlet beat me to it.
"Not all of us get off on broadcasting our exhibitions," she said. "Some of us have class."
"And some of us have a lot more fun than others," he replied.
"Ignore him," I said to her. "Let's just beat him at this game."
We found a rhythm, figuring out exactly where we needed to put the balloon between us to get it to pop, and then we were flying through the balloons.
"Thirty seconds left," a voice said from the couch.
The other four couples on the couch watching us were laughing, and I was sure we were all a sight to see, rubbing and pushing up against each other as we tried to get our balloons to pop.
Once our time was up and the other groups had had their turn, Olivia added up the points.
"In first place is me and Wilder," she paused, giving him a kiss on the cheek, and then proceeded to go through everyone's score, but I stopped listening after she said that Scarlet and I came in third.
"Not too bad," I said, nudging her arm with my elbow.
She gave me a small smile. "We did better than I thought we would."
I placed one hand on my chest and pretended to be offended. "You didn't think I'd be a good partner?"
