Page 24 of Playing to Win
Chapter 9
“All right, spill.” Callie walked in her apartment to see Cassie and Aria sitting on the couch, blankets over their legs, pillows in their laps balancing bowls of popcorn, and their feet on the coffee table in front of them. Cassie pressed paused on the TV, which was currently on a station airing her favorite movie, The Princess Bride.
“Spill what?”
“Don’t play coy with me, missy. The beans. About your date. Did you kiss him?”
“What? No! For one, it wasn’t a date. For another, if it’s not a date, there can’t be kissing. But it went really well. He and Dad loved each other. It was kinda weird how much they liked each other actually, now that I think about it.”
“Pay up!” Cassie said, holding her hand out toward Aria, a smirk on her face.
“You guys bet on me?”
“Yep. She said you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off him. That you would be playing tonsil hockey with him by the end of the night.”
“Aria!”
“What? He’s a fine specimen of a human being. Lord knows I wouldn’t be able to resist him.”
“You aren’t able to resist kissing a lot of men,” Callie said in a huff.
“That was mean,” Aria pouted.
“But true nonetheless, and you know it. He wouldn’t go out with you, anyway,” she added.
“What? Why not?” Aria asked.
“I’m not supposed to say.”
“That’s never stopped you before,” Aria said with a smirk.
“Well, according to Kyle, the entire basketball team is scared of you. They say you’re mean.”
Aria threw her head back and laughed. “That’s totally fair. And smart. They should stay far, far away from me. What’s that song by Hall and Oates? I’m a man eater.”
Callie laughed. “That you are. But I have faith one day you’ll find a man confident enough in himself to put up with all your shit.”
“Hey!” Aria said, throwing a pillow Callie’s way. “But also fair.”
“And you,” Callie said, pointing a finger Cassie’s way. “You’re sharing that money with me.”
“Why should I do that?” Cassie asked, eyeing the fifty dollars she held in her hand and conspicuously trying to put it under her pj-clad butt.
“Because you bet on me! And it’s fifty dollars! I figure if you have the funds to bet on me, you can give me half of it.”
“Fine,” Cassie grumbled, pulling out a twenty and handing it to her.
“You still owe me five.”
“Seriously?”
“As a heart attack.”
“Okay, okay. So you didn’t kiss him,” Aria interrupted. “But you have to give us something. We know there’s more that you’re not telling. Please, Callie. My love life is dead. I have to live vicariously through yours.”
“I have no love life!”
“Fine, fine. Your ‘hang out’ life,” Aria air-quoted. Callie didn’t know how a person could express sarcasm in a gesture, but Aria had nailed it.
