Page 35 of Agency

“Playing with yourself, though.”

“Some of my best experiences have been playing with myself,” she replied with a waggle of her eyebrows before immediately taking, and sinking, her next shot.

“But how do you know it’d be better than playing with me?”

“Well, because you wouldn’t be much competition, now would you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Don’t get me wrong, you look like you can handle yourself…” She trailed off as she looked back to the table, lined up her next shot. “Just not when it comes to pool.”

“We’re still talking about pool?”

She smirked at that one, nodded. “Well, we’re still talking about something. Might as well be pool.” Her eyes went past me for a moment, and I couldn’t help but follow her gaze.

At first, I’d thought she was looking to Andrew. But, instead, she was looking to the front entrance, as if she were half-expecting someone else to come walking through those doors. A cloud seemed to pass over her face, though, and she let out a sigh before shifting her look to Andrew.

“He play at all?”

“Pool?”

“What else? He any good?”

“I suppose so.”

“Hey Andrew,” she called.

Andrew, now sitting at the bar as he continued to nurse his beer, leaned back on his bar stool to better look at us.

“Hey what?”

“Jericho here says you play pool.”

“Yeah, but only on that table.”

“He just keeping you around till your good looks rub off on him,” she began, “or are you any good?”

“Well, I’m better than Jericho. Put him on your team and I’ll play you both.”

“Well, that doesn’t seem entirely fair.”

“And how is it anymore fair if I’m stuck with him?”

“True.” Candice’s eyes flickered to mine. “You’re not really that bad, are you?”

“No, I’m not really that bad…” I said, rolling my eyes as I trailed off.

“Fine,” she said, not taking her eyes from mine. “I’ll take him.”

I leaned in a little, dropping my voice to a near whisper: “I’m worse.”

Chapter Ten

Andrew

This game was going in my favor, even with my second beer in me. Five solids already sunk for me, versus only three stripes for them. The last one had, too, leading Candice to call for best two-out-of-three.

“Same teams?” I’d asked with a grin, already pulling the balls from the pockets so Jericho could start racking them. I couldn’t tell if she had a competitive streak in her, or if she simply enjoyed our company. My money was on the situation being a little of both.