Page 46 of It's a Brewtiful Day
He braced me between his arms and slowly, tipped his head. There was a slight moment of hesitation before his lips touched mine, kissing me and warming me up from the inside out.
“Is that weird?” He pulled back with a knowing and smug smirk on his face. “We just shared some lip balm.”
Fine, two can play his game.
I licked my lips and ran a finger underneath to wipe away the dampness. The taste was pretty bang on to a Dr. Pepper flavour. “Point made and one point to you, Chapstick Boy.”
“Is that the nickname you’re giving me?” He dragged his stool closer to mine and sat upon it.
“No, ‘cuz it sucks.” I hung my head. After the name rolled off my tongue, it didn’t sound like the perfect moniker. “But one will come to me.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Tenderly, he twisted the tube of lip balm out of my fingers and put it in its place as the first pawn. “Game on?”
“Oh, it’s on like Donkey Kong.” I laughed.
“Okay, Princess Peach.” Absentmindedly, he rubbed my leg with his left hand and my brain went foggy with the sweet caress. “White goes first, and that’s you.”
I snapped back to the present moment. “Uh, yeah. Right.”
Fifteen moves later, Elliot hadeffectively removed six of my pieces – three pawns, the horse, and the castle. Sadly, I had only managed to take out one of his, and that was because he told me to change one of my moves.
“See, told you I sucked.”
“Do you even know how to play?”
I stared at the board, his team of black was scattered all over, whereas mine were huddled together like junior high girls at a dance. “Of course.”
“Without actually moving your piece, what would your next move be?”
The pieces all stood there, almost waving their hands as if they were sayingpick me, pick me. Honestly, I had no idea which piece to move that would be considered a good, killing move. I just liked them to go places; here, there, anywhere.
I touched the seal—the one with a rounded head and a ball upon the nose. “This one. He goes diagonal, so I’d move him all the way across the board to this spot, but then again, I like the horse one because he jumps.”
“Which one will you move?” Elliot’s forehead creased adorably.
“Hmm…” My group of whites was about to lose their centreman. “Ugh. Fine. I’ll move the seal.”
“The seal?” He chuckled lightly. “It’s called the bishop.”
“It doesn’tlooklike a bishop.” At least the horse looked like its proper name. A knight, was it?
“Why that one though?”
“Because I can?”
Elliot laughed at my sassy response, filling our space with his genuine warmth. “Please,please,play Bryan someday. I’d love to watch the look on his face when you make a move like that.”
“Because it’s that bad?”
“No.” His hand rubbed my thigh like it was the most natural thing in the world, and in this moment it was. I could get used to innocent slivers of time like this. “Because it’s that funny and unpredictable. He’d never guess where you’d go, and it would so throw him off, and the names you’ve given them are the best.”
I rested my hand on top of the one on my thigh. “Well, what can I say? I’m unpredictable when it comes to games.”
He moved in closer. “That’s not a bad thing, so don’t say it like it is.”
“I wasn’t.” I stared into his eyes and ran my finger over his forehead and above his eyebrow. There was no mark, no indication of having ever connected with a door. Lucky guy.
He leaned in and sweetly brushed his lips over mine, and there were zero complaints coming from me. I didn’t know whatthiswas—aside from two people caught in the moment—and for now I was going to revel in all the unexpected sweetness. Tomorrow’s Sage could deal with the emotional fallout of reality.