“I haven’t played Guess Who in a while,” Eri replied. “We should play while we wait for the others.”
Elias and Marco returned, and Eri thanked him for her drink before she and Avian ventured over to Guess Who. They played a couple of games, Nesiah and Javier arriving during their first one. Once they finished, Avian headed to Marco, who was by the food table, and Eri went over to where Elias was talking to Nesiah and Ricardo.
“Oh, Eri can play with us,” Nesiah said.
“Play what with you?” Eri asked.
“Jenga,” the other woman supplied. “Javier and Marco didn’t want to play. We could play with three people, but four would be more fun.”
“Sure, I’m down to play,” she responded, and the four went over to where the game was set up.
Several of the other people in attendance were playing separate games of Uno, while others were eating or swaying to the music that filtered over the sound bar mounted under the television. They played for a while until Ricardo ultimately caused the tower to fall. They re-stacked the blocks, and Eri went to the food table to make a plate to share with Elias.
Her boyfriend was sitting by the sliding doors, where one of the dining room chairs had been moved to. She sat on his lap asshe ate and fed him. Javier and Nesiah joined them after a few minutes.
Fifteen minutes passed, and Romi called for all their attention to inform them she had a game for them to play. Room Memory. She explained the rules and that she would take a few of them at a time into her office, and give them sixty seconds. When they’d all gotten a chance to look, she would remove an item, then allow them to look again to guess what was missing.
She took the different groups — Eri, Elias, Nesiah, and Javier going last. Eri looked around the office, attempting to memorize as much of it as she could before the sixty seconds ran out.
Once everyone had gone, Romi went into the office and closed the door. She was gone for a couple of minutes before she reemerged, giving them all a slip of paper and a pen. She allowed them back into the office in groups, and they wrote what they thought was missing or had changed.
After everyone was back in the living room, Romi looked at everyone’s answers. Marco, Elias, and one of the other women who’d arrived after they’d gotten there were the only ones who’d gotten it correct.
They played three rounds of the game, and Eri got the answer correct in the last round. Each of the winners received a prize, and the party continued on.
At eleven fifty-nine, Romi turned off all the lights in the house and started a countdown to midnight on her ceiling with a projector. Fireworks played after the countdown as they brought in the new year with a toast.
“If you wish on fireworks, it’ll come true,” Romi informed the room as the projection continued to play.
Eri didn’t feel the need to make a wish because she had everything she could ever want. She leaned back into Elias’ chest as she once again sat on his lap.
“What did you wish for?” she inquired.
“The same thing you did,” he replied.
She furrowed her brow before looking over her shoulder at him. “But I didn’t wish for anything. I already have everything I could dream of.”
Elias gave her a soft kiss. “Exactly.”
Eri’s heart melted, and she leaned in for another kiss before they turned their attention back to the ceiling to finish watching the fireworks.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Elias ended the call and released a deep breath as he set the phone aside. The conversation had gone the way he thought it would, but you could never be too sure. He put his phone away and returned to working on the tattoo for tomorrow’s client. During the consultation, he’d told Elias what he wanted, but given him free rein as to execution.
Since he had quite a few clients the following day, he’d kept the design minimalistic, making sure what the client wanted stuck out, but still gave the overall look depth.
His phone vibrated, and he glanced at the screen as the text message from Marco popped up, letting him know they’d made it. He’d taken Avian away for their first wedding anniversary, and they would be gone for a few days.
When he finished the design, he put his tablet aside and headed into his kitchen. He’d skipped breakfast that morning and figured it was time to eat. He grabbed ingredients from the fridge, looked at them, realized he’d pulled out too much, and then put some back. Elias had gotten used to cooking for him and Eri. They seldom spent days apart, splitting their time between their homes.
Once he’d finished making lunch, he took it into the living room, and grabbed his laptop. As he ate, he did some online shopping, but he knew it would take him a while to find what he was looking for.
When he was done eating, he took his plate into the kitchen and washed the dishes before returning to the living room and going back to his shopping. He spent the next couple of hours searching until he found what he was looking for.
With the rest of his Sunday free, he turned on the television and chose a movie to watch while he lounged on the couch.
A few hours later, there was a knock on his door, and Elias looked through the peephole before opening it.
