My high makes the tangy barbecue sauce skip across my taste buds, then makes me blurt, “She wasn’t there,” in that pussified way Slim likes.
“Hm.” She hums, reaching over and grabbing the piece of chicken I bit.
“Oh yeah? Where was she?” she asks, taking a bite out of it.
“Out. Gone. Away from me. So don’t ask about her no more today,” I reply evenly, making her pupils dilate and her lids sink.
I roll my heavy eyes toward Donovan. “You brought any cards, D?”
He eyes us awkwardly and pats his pocket, pulling out a ziplock bag full of bright cards. “Uh…I’ve got UNO.”
“UNO?”
He laughs. “The rules are easy—like way easier than Spades. Uh…you wanna teach him how to play, Lovie?”
“Play these,” Slim murmurs, plucking a handful of cards from my hand and slapping them onto the deck between me and Donovan.
Afterward, she picks up my cup and takes a sip even though she hates brown liquor.
I don’t think she’s drunk, but she definitely feels good. We ate together, drank together, and now we’re playing UNO together even though she has her own hand to play. She hangs over my back with her chin on my shoulder.
“Ba—Slim,” I murmur out sloppily. “You can’t keep looking in my hand. That’s cheating.”
She sets the cup back down beside me. “I’m just teaching you how to play.”
“Nah, you playing for me. Stop that. What’d you say about that stacking shit, D?”
He glances up at me and I see all the “lying motherfuckas” he wants to call me written on his face because Slim isn’t following the lie I told him. I can’t blame her, though. I think I did this all wrong. I should’ve tried pushing them together sooner—back before I tasted her and she tasted me.
He lets out a deep sigh. “We’re not stacking. We’re just playing the regular way, Lovie.”
He picks up the cards Slim put down, leaving one. “Here.”
He pushes them toward me, and she takes them, stuffing them back into my hand with the rest of my cards.
“Sorry, D,” she mutters sweetly. “I thought you said we could.”
“I didn’t, but it’s okay.”
She slaps a green nine on the deck, letting her head rest against mine while Donovan tosses down his green card.
“Play this one,” she whispers, pulling a draw four from my hand and slamming it on the deck for me. “Now I have to draw four.”
She leans over me with her chest smashed against my neck and pulls four cards from the deck that Donovan calls the “draw pile.” She sticks them in her hand, adjusting them right in front of my face.
Her soft curls tickle my cheek while she takes her time, grouping her cards by color. Her hair smells just like the skirt she left in my drawer. The fresh lavender scent makes my dick twitch because I finally have her in the flesh instead of in my head.
Donovan takes a deep breath, puffing his cheeks out. “I’m gonna go grab a few sodas from the cooler. Y’all want anything back?”
She nods. “Can you bring us back some water?”
“Yeah, for sure.” He flips his cards over. “No peeking while I’m gone. You’ve wreaked havoc on this game, girl.”
She lets out a fake giggle and watches him with a smile that’s just as fake while he slides off the truck and dusts the back of his cargos.
As soon as he walks toward the pavilion, she reaches out and flips his cards over. “He sucks at UNO.”
“Stop looking at that boy’s shit.” I reach over, flipping his cards back. “And stop being rude.”
