Trying to ignore him, I grabbed $40,000 dollars in play money, and deposited it next to my drink. God,if only it were that easy.
A few minutes later, Sebastian was handing me three career cards to choose from.
“Yes!” I yelled, showing him the doctor card.
Sebastian leaned back against the yellowwallpaper.“Why did you want to go to medical school?”
I shrugged, debating if I should tell him. Eh, when his men found me, I was dead either way. At this point,therewasnorisk inrevealingtoo much information.
“You were right before when you guessed that those medical shows influenced my decision. The characters’ lives justseemed so normal to me.It was thecomplete opposite of my own life,” I said.
I took a long sip of my drink,wishing it contained tequila so I couldkill the nagging thoughts of what my future might have looked like if I had gotten into medical school.
“You know thosetvshowsare about as realistic as the shows they make about gangsters. Unfortunately, in real life most doctors don’t spend their entire shift banging in the closet,” he said.
“How would you know?” I shot back and immediately regretted it when his eyes lit up.
Before he could respond, I changed the subject, “What about you? If you hadn’t become a gangster, what would you have done?”
His smile turned pained.“I was finishing up my MBA program when my brother… called.”
“At least you made itinto gradschool,” I offeredwhilespinning the plastic game wheel.
I squeezed the car with my gloved hand and inched it towards the ‘Get Hitched’ square.
“Think you’d ever get married?” I mused as I moved my car.
Sebastianbrushed his fingers along my thighand whispered into my ear,“Are you propositioning me?”
I should be more concerned with him reaching for the gun in my waistband, but all I could focus on was the scorching heat his hand had left. And how I wanted to grab his hand, and place it higher on my leg.I couldn’t even blame my reaction on alcohol since I was completely sobernow.
Eventually, we grew tired of board games and moved onto more typical drinking games. Although, I felt a little silly suggesting it since there was no alcohol in my drink.
When I was in high school, I’d listen with rapt attention to the stories of Piper snatching vintagecabernetsfrom her parent’s wine cellar. She’d tell me about how theywouldgiggle as they snuck up to their rooftop, and chugged the wine down while playing drinking games like Never Have I Ever. I’d rarely been able to join them since my nights were more likely to be filled with checking on our money laundering business, or threatening people who dared put a hold on our realestatepermits.
I leaned back against the wall, only a few inches betweenSebastian and I.
“What about two truths and a lie? And with youralmostMBA, I’m sure you can guess the rules,” I said.I brushed my hand against my neck, and slick sweat clung to my gloves. I didn’t want to turn up the A/C in the off chance my father was monitoring it. But my winter clothing wasn’t exactly helping the situation.
“I’ve played before. If I guess the lie, you drink. If I’m wrong, I drink,” he saidwith an amused smile.
“Bingo! I’ll start.” Then I paused beforesaying, “Actually,let’s make it high school themed.”
Sebastianraised an eyebrow. But he didn’t have to communicate for me to know what he was thinking:he was convinced that I was obsessed with his experience at boarding school. I wasn’tobsessed, but I’ll admit I was a little curious. The idea of boarding school was so foreign to me. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to go backto a dorm after classes instead having to deal with dealers skimming off the top.To focus on homework, instead ofdoing research on the person I needed to kill that night.
He tapped his fingers on the shag carpet. I tried to keep my leg still when I noticed how close his long fingers were to my leg.
Instead, I held up a finger to emphasize this would bemy firststatementin our game, “First fact: I was an honor roll student throughout high school.” That was a fact.
“Second fact: I was the homecoming queen my senior year,” Isaid.That was the lie.
“Third fact: Every year the track team tried to convince me to join, but I never had the time,” I said. That was another truth. There was no way I would have been able to participate in any extracurricular activities on top of mycommitments to the Regan family.
“It’s the second one, you little brainiac,” he said.His hand inched closer to my leg. Some perverse part of me wanted to shift my leg closer.
“How’d you know?” Iasked instead of acting on that impulse.
Sebastianshrugged.“I did my research. If it makes you feel better, I would have voted for you to be homecoming queen.”
