“That’s irrelevant!”
He pulls the chair back and starts pacing.
“You changed it to blue.” He throws his hands up.
“You changed it to blue when I needed red!”
“What would you have done?”
He spins toward me, curls wild, eyes blazing.
“I would have chosen mercy!”
“Was it mercy that led you to stack all those Draw Twos last round?”
He pauses.
“Self-mercy is important too.”
I laugh. He’s absurd.
“Sit down, baby. It’s just a card game.”
He stops pacing only to glare at me.
“It’s not just a card game if you attack me when I’m at—at my most vulnerable.”
“Why are you feeling vulnerable?”
His shoulders sag in self-pity.
“It cannot be explained.”
“Really? How surprising.”
He crosses his arms.
“You’re an evil Uno shark.”
“You promised to behave, remember?”
“And you promised to love me, but obviously you don’t!”
“Antonio.”
It comes out sharper than I intended, but this is Uno. A card game.
Antonio stands still.
“Come here.”
He hesitates.
“I’m not mad,” I say softly. “I promise.”
He comes instantly then, folding into my lap and hiding his face against my shoulder.
“I know what I did,” he mutters.
