24. A New Game #2
“Does that sound like me?”
Kodi raised an eyebrow at me and set her drink down. “No. It doesn’t. But neither does getting Brooker to act as your wingman.”
She turned to face me, folding her legs crisscrossed.
“I didn’t ask Brooker to do that.” I huffed, looking at Brooker over her shoulder. He gave me a cringey smile before slipping away. “In fact, I specifically asked him to leave it alone.”
“Leave what alone?” she asked quickly, reaching out to grab her drink again, taking a small sip this time. I shrugged and she immediately said, “Uh-huh. You initiated this. You gotta give me more than a shrug.”
I fought the impulse to shrug and instead said the first thing that came to mind that was true but not a full confession. “I want to get to know you better. That’s it.”
“Oh.” Her body relaxed. “Well, what do you wanna know?”
Oh, this was my worst fucking nightmare. I’ve somehow created a situation where I could get nearly everything I wanted if I just used my worst skill and least favorite thing to do, talking.
“Um …” I chewed my tongue, at a loss. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Come on, Kean,” she said with a little laugh, sliding one foot out from under her to kick me. “You can do better than that.”
The sad thing was, I really couldn’t.
“Okay, Mister Socially Awkward.” She patted my arm before turning to sit properly, looking at the few guys who stuck around. She waved them over and said, “All right, folks, let’s play a game.”
“What kinda game?” Sosa asked, him and Fuller joining us at the coffee table.
“Never have I ever?”
“I’m down. How many fingers are we doing?” Fuller asked, before leaning over to tap Taylor on the arm and nodding for him to join us.
“We’ll just go until we’re tired.”
“What’s going on?”
“Have you seriously never played this game?” Kodi asked.
“Does that really surprise you?” Sosa asked. “‘Cause I sure as hell can’t picture Kean play any drinking games.”
“We go around and say something we’ve not done, whoever has done it drinks. It’s a good way to get to know people. And a hell of a lot more fun than two truths and a lie,” Kodi said and I didn’t have the heart to tell her I hadn’t played that one, either.
“Who’s going first?” Taylor asked as he settled in next to me.
“I’ll go,” Kodi said, shuffling to sit on the edge of the couch, fingers fiddling with her glass. “Never have I ever — oh, sex stuff is off the table. We’re still coworkers.”
“Who do you think we are?” Taylor scoffed, but the younger two nodded with tight grimaces, like they were guilty of considering those things.
“Good. Now … never have I ever dated a woman.”
“Oh, that’s cheap,” Fuller cried before all the guys took a sip of their drinks. Their eyes all fell on me and I looked to Kodi.
“Have you ever dated a woman?” she asked, clearly fighting a smile.
“Yes.” I could feel heat creeping up the back of my neck.
“Then you drink.”
I reached out for my drink and took a long chug, trying to drown out the embarrassment.
“Don’t drink too much at once, dude,” Taylor said, elbowing me gently. “Only college kids trying to get drunk do that.”
“Oh, thanks,” I said, resting my drink on my knee.
“You go now,” Kodi said, nudging me.
“Oh.” I spun my drink around, nerves fried. “Never have I ever played this game.”
“Kodi, you taught him how to be a bitch,” Fuller complained as he and everyone else took a sip of their drinks.
“Did I do it wrong?” I asked.
“No, it’s just considered a cheap shot to say something you know everyone else has done,” Kodi explained.
“I’ll show you a better example,” Taylor said. “Never have I ever lived on a base."
“So targeting the whole group is wrong, but targeting one person is fine?” I grumbled before taking a sip.
“It’s amusing for everybody else,” Taylor said, shrugging.
“All right, my turn.” Fuller dramatically threw his head back. “Never have I ever … parallel parked.”
Kodi, Taylor, and I drank.
“Fucking babies,” Taylor muttered.
“It’s just never come up,” Fuller said, shrugging.
“Seriously?” Kodi asked. “Did you not grow up somewhere with a downtown area?”
“I grew up in New York, I didn’t really drive until I got in the league,” Fuller said.
“My ma never trusted me, so she drove me around,” Sosa said.
“Reasonable woman,” I muttered.
“Oh, shut up. I bet your mom didn’t trust you driving, either. That’s a mom thing.”
“As soon as I could drive, my mom had me driving her everywhere,” Taylor said.
“Mhmm. If my dad wasn’t around, my mom would have me drive,” I said.
“Fine. Never have I ever driven for my mom, then.”
Everyone else took a drink.
“Shit, seriously? Am I a bad son?”
I made a noncommittal noise and Kodi nudged me.
“You’re not,” she assured him. “Different families work differently.”
“I dunno, sounds disrespectful to make your mom drive you around,” Taylor mumbled and I nodded at him so he knew I was on his side.
“Anyway,” Kodi said before anyone else could shit on Sosa. “Never have I ever traveled outside the United States.”
Everyone but Fuller drank.
“Oh wait, does Canada count?” he asked and Sosa elbowed him.
“Of course Canada counts.”
“Have you seriously not gone anywhere else?” I asked Kodi.
“No,” she said with a sigh. “I’ve always wanted to go to Greece, but never had the opportunity.”
“Why Greece?”
“Oh.” She looked down with a small smile and light blush. “Because of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
“What’s that?”
“Dude, you don’t know about The Traveling Pants?” Taylor gasped.
“It’s a book series about four best friends who found this pair of jeans that fit them all.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You clearly didn’t have sisters,” Taylor said, clicking his tongue. “My older sisters were obsessed with that series.”
“It was sooooo good,” Kodi whined. And something about the way she spoke, the casualness of it, warmed my heart. It was a new type of behavior from her, relaxed, open. Or I guess it was more accurate to say this was new behavior she was comfortable showing me now.
And I wanted more.
And if playing this drinking game was how I got it, then I was going to all in.
“All right, never have I ever had a relationship last more than five months.”