They played a few rounds of the game. Everyone took three turns before they all came to the same consensus. While it would probably have been something their parents enjoyed playing, it wasn’t their cup of tea and was boring. So when Nesiah told them she had borrowed it from her mom, it made sense. They moved on to a trivia game, deciding to play men versus women.
“The four of you are outnumbered,” Cade pointed out.
Eri shrugged. “You’ll need an advantage if you want a chance at winning.”
“So confident, Amate.”
“I really am,” she responded. “Christa, you pull first.”
The mentioned woman pulled the top card. “Question for the men. Why do flamingos stand on one leg?”
“To stay cool,” Ricardo answered.
“That’s correct,” Christa stated, placing the card face up to the side. Face-up cards were ones they’d gotten correct; face-down cards meant the answer was wrong. Cade pulled the next card.
“What’s a flock of crows called?”
“A murder,” Eri and Avian answered at the same time. Both did a little happy dance because they knew they were correct.
They both enjoyed watching Animal Planet or any crime show, and Eri knew they’d have the answers to questions like that in the bag. Hands squeezing her waist made her halt her dance as Cade placed the card aside face up.
“Careful, Amate,” Elias whispered in her ear, and she couldn’t help but shift on his lap at the tone of his voice. “Don’t start something we can’t finish.” He placed a kiss on her neck, one of his hands dropping to her thigh, and those small actions shouldn’t have turned her on.
She tried to focus on the rest of the game, but the subtle brush of his thumb against her thigh continuously distracted her, and Eri couldn’t say she was mad about it.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Elias listened to the off-key rendition of a Whitney Houston song and knew the artist was rolling over in her grave. It was not a duet, but Christa and Nesiah had turned it into one, and neither of them seemed able to find the key. Christa, because she was tone deaf, and Nesiah, because she got a kick out of annoying people by singing it badly, even though she had a decent voice.
After playing several games, Elias opened his presents, even though he’d told everyone not to get him anything, a request all but one of them had ignored. Then they’d moved on to karaoke. It was after midnight, and he knew things would wind down soon. He glanced toward the kitchen, where Eri had headed several minutes ago before getting up to see what she was doing. He found her throwing away used cups and plates.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said. “I’ll take care of it when everyone leaves.”
“I know I don’t have to, but it’s your birthday. I won’t leave you to clean up.”
“Technically, it’s no longer my birthday.”
“True,” she responded, going over to the backpack she’d come with earlier to help him set up. He watched her pull out three wrapped boxes. “Here you go.”
“And here I thought you’d listened when I told you I had what I wanted.”
Eri raised a brow at him. “You said it yourself. It’s technically no longer your birthday. So these are technically not birthday gifts.” She passed him the boxes.
“Touché,” he chuckled.
He opened the first box, chuckling at the image on the package inside.
“Since you said you like to make your own pizza. I thought you’d like this,” Eri said, gesturing to the motorcycle pizza cutter.
“I’ll have to make you pizza next weekend, and we can break it in.”
She took the box from him, placed it aside, and gestured for him to open the next one. Inside, he found a camera.
“It’s a dashcam for your bike or your car, whichever you want to use it in.”
Elias flipped the box over and knew it would fit his bike perfectly. While she said he could put it in his car, he knew she’d bought it with his bike in mind. His last one had randomly stopped working, and he hadn’t gotten a new one yet. It was perfect.
“Okay, last one,” Eri announced.
