‘Or maybe I wasn’t as gay as either of you,’ Noah said, then looked at Alice. ‘Sorry, am I allowed to call you gay? I know Briar is okay with the umbrella term—’
‘Yes,’ she cut him off before he could work himself up. ‘I’m very gay, thanks.’
‘Babe, you can’t just ask someone if they’re gay,’ Harper said, settling onto the floor and looking around. ‘This place looks nice.’
Briar and Alice had pushed the desk to the side of the room and laid blankets and pillows on the floor for people to sit on, trying to make the space cozy for their guests.
‘I hope you lot are ready to get smoked,’ Freddie sang as he and Sierra entered. ‘Mama needs a new leather jacket.’
‘Sorry,’ Sierra said, as they settled on the floor. ‘We did tequila shots, and you know what they do to him.’
‘Yeah, they make me awesome.’ Freddie grabbed the cards and started shuffling.
‘Pretending I didn’t hear that,’ Alice said, sitting between Briar and Freddie. Her thigh rested against Briar’s in the cramped space, and she tried to ignore the heat between them.
‘It’s our night off, let us live,’ Sierra said. ‘What are we betting? Chips or clothes?’
‘Chips,’ Alice and Briar said in unison, trading a glance. A half-naked Briar wouldn’t help Alice’s barely existent self-control. Noticing Briar’s flushed face, she wondered in a way that felt strangely like hope if Briar was facing a similar dilemma.
Sierra and Freddie both booed.
‘I’m game,’ Harper said, surprising Alice. If someone had suggested this in high school, Harper would have been the first to protest. ‘I’m totally comfortable with my body.’
‘You’ve got a great body, sweetheart,’ Noah said, squeezing her arm.
‘Okay, gross,’ Briar said.
‘You’re outnumbered, darlin’,’ Freddie said, imitating a Southern drawl as he dealt the cards out. Alice chanced a glance at Briar and prepared herself for a very long night.
An hour later, Sierra had swept them all out of their pocket money and most of their clothes. Alice had been the first out of the game, having refused to take off her bra and underwear even when heckled. She was now nursing her hot chocolate, watching Briar and Noah put up a valiant effort to win back some dignity.
‘I’ll cover your kitchen shift,’ Noah said to Sierra, thumbing his cards. He’d just lost his pants and was resorting to more creative betting.
‘What about your boxers?’ Sierra asked, waggling her eyebrows.
‘Stop trying to get us to take off our underwear,’ Alice admonished. ‘That was a ground rule!’
Freddie sighed, leaning heavily against Alice. The tequila had hit him hard in the second hand and he’d been completely useless ever since. His weight shifted Alice even closer to Briar, and she struggled to resist the gravity that was pushing her practically into Briar’s lap. Alice silently thanked the universe that Briar hadn’t lost her shirt yet, because she wasn’t sure she could stand the sight of Briar in just a bra. It had been hard enough when she’d lost her shorts in the last hand.
‘Kitchen duty it is,’ Sierra said, not skipping a beat. She turned to Briar. ‘You calling?’
Briar frowned at her cards, then shook her head. ‘I fold.’
Sierra whooped, momentarily waking Freddie, who gave a sleepy pump of his fist in celebration. ‘Take it off!’
Briar rolled her eyes, grabbing the hem of her oversized T-shirt and pulling it over her head. Alice had mentally prepared herself to see Briar in a bra, but she hadn’t expected the plunging black mesh –thatseemed engineered specifically to make Alice crazy. Briar’s nipples were just barely visible through the thin fabric, and Alice’s face felt very hot all of sudden.
Harper whistled. ‘Since when do you own lingerie?’
Briar stuck out her tongue. ‘Bite me.’
‘Yeah, yeah, Briar has tits,’ Sierra said. ‘Let’s get back to me winning.’
She splayed her hand on the blanket, revealing two kings and an ace. Noah’s face lit up.
‘Three jacks! Take that!’ Noah said, throwing down his cards and raking in the pile of cash. ‘We’re rich!’
‘That’s like two hundred dollars,’ Briar pointed out, laughing.
