Page 10 of Love or Leave (Mapleton #4)

She also really enjoyed hanging out with him, and she was determined to fix her impression of him and make her brain see him as a friend.

"Do you play euchre?"

Antonio lips curved. "I've played before. Why?"

"There's a tournament tonight at a gaming cafe close to here. They run card tournaments every Sunday night. Do you wanna play with me?"

He smirked before a range of emotions played across his face. "I'm not sure—"

Cara cut him off. "It's just cards, Antonio," she said. "Don't you think we should try to be friends?"

He narrowed his eyes, struggling with the invitation. He reached a hand to the back of his neck before shrugging and giving her a smile. "Okay," he said. "Why not?"

Cara walked into the gaming cafe and took off her coat. She hadn't been there in a while, but nothing had changed.

The Dungeons and Dragons tables were still in the corner, the artist who painted Warhammer miniatures was still at a table by the washrooms, and the endless shelves of board games still filled the far wall.

She walked between the tables toward the counter in the back and smiled at the bartender.

"We'd like to join the euchre tournament," she said.

The guy behind the counter nodded.

She turned to Antonio to ask him if he wanted a beer, but the look on his face stopped her. "What?"

"Are you a regular here?" he asked.

She glanced around the room and realized she'd revealed a lot about herself in the last ninety seconds.

He knew she was a nerd, but maybe he hadn't realized just how nerdy she was?

That room had probably been the largest gathering of nerds he'd ever been a part of—what with his triple A hockey and general hotness.

He'd probably been popular in high school.

And had friends. And went to parties where he hooked up with slutty girls.

She'd been so painfully shy it was as if she hadn't existed. It wasn't until she'd put in a great deal of effort, and countless hours of YouTube makeup and hair tutorials, before she garnered any attention from a classically attractive man, and that turned out to be a nightmare.

Cooper taught her a few things, though. Most notably that men like him didn't like nerdy gaming cafes.

"Are you really that surprised?" she asked.

His brows rose and his jaw dropped open as his gaze raked down her body and back up. "You're kidding, right?"

She looked down, trying desperately not to read into what he was possibly implying. Despite her efforts, her cheeks flamed and didn't know where to look.

Antonio shook his head, a move she was realizing he did often when talking to her and turned toward the guy behind the bar.

"Two cream ales," Antonio said to the guy as he pulled his wallet from his pocket.

"I'll get it," she said, but he waved her off and handed over his card.

While the guy was getting their beers and snacks, she decided to ignore Antonio’s flattery and check out the tournament situation. She leaned over to look through the door into the back room, where all the tables were set up for the tournament.

"It's been a while since I played. How mad are you going to be if I suck?" Antonio asked.

She turned to him and smiled. "It won't matter. I'll win."

He laughed. "Are you always this confident?"

"With card games? Yes. Other things, not so much."

Antonio narrowed his eyes at her as if she was a puzzle to solve. "What other things?"

She stared at him for a moment, wondering how much she wanted to reveal, then realized that it didn't matter what he thought of her. He'd already seen her yell at her ex in the street while acting shamelessly spiteful, then brought him to the nerdiest place on earth.

She had nothing to lose by being fully honest with him.

"Relationships," she said in a near whisper. "Guys in general, sex… I don't really have a clue."

Antonio's eyes bulged, and he reared back.

She immediately regretted saying anything and shook her head, looking down at her feet. "I'm never telling you anything ever again."

He huffed a laugh. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting you to be so… forthright."

"Forthright?" she asked with a smile.

He nodded. "I'll use that one next time I play Scrabble."

Their eyes connected when she looked up, but he quickly looked away.

"I'm surprised by you," he said. "Your insides don't match your outsides."

"Huh?"

He stared back at her, his gaze flicking between her eyes then dropped to her lips. "You're beautiful," he said.

She stopped breathing and her eyes widened so much they felt dry.

"And obviously brilliant," he continued. "You have every reason to be confident, but then you say things like that, and it surprises me."

She stared at him in shock for a moment before the bartender broke the silence.

"Here's your beer," he said, placing two frosty glasses on the bar.

"Thank you," she said, picking up a glass and taking a sip, hoping the cold drink would calm her hot face.

"I shouldn't have said that," Antonio said, shaking his head. "I can just imagine what Max would do to me if he knew I was here with you, let alone telling you how beautiful you are."

She forced herself to take a breath but couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm glad you said it."

He huffed out a long breath and grabbed his beer, then tilted his head toward the doors. "Should we go in?"

She nodded and walked to the door, but stopped before going and whispered to him, "If I blink twice, go alone."

A slow smile spread across his face. "Okay."

They walked in and sat across from each other at a table with another team already set up, and one of their opponents dealt.

It only took a few rounds for her to read the cards and their opponents.

Once she figured them out, they handily won round after round until they'd eliminated their first team.

After the easy defeat, their opponents stood and left, and Antonio leaned across the table.

"You can count cards?"

She nodded. "It's only half a deck."

He sat back with a smile as the next team arrived. On the second-to-last round she knew his hand was absolute shit, but he was forced to make trump clubs. Still, it was better than hers and the other teams, so she blinked twice at him.

"I'll go alone," he said with zero hesitation.

She smiled and set her cards down, then sat back and watched as he took each hand to win the game. The other team stood immediately, angry over him winning with such a shitty hand. Once they were gone, they both burst into laughter.

"That was amazing," she said.

He shook his head with a laugh. "I thought you'd lost your mind when you blinked twice. I had the left bauer, a nine, a ten, and a queen off suit."

She laughed and stood. "I know."

He stood and shook his head. "You gotta teach me."

"I will," she said. "But we have one more round before—"

A loud double ping went off, stopping her train of thought. What the hell?

"Was that both of our phones? At the same time?"

What were the odds?

She pulled her phone from her purse as Antonio took his from his pocket, and they realized what had happened.

"Adam started a group chat," Antonio said, looking up at her with wide eyes.

She winced and accepted the invitation, then read the message.

Adam: Where is everyone? Can you come to Chelsea's? We've got news. Also, how do we not have a group chat yet?

Shit.

She glanced at Antonio, who'd paled to a shade whiter than the cards.

"It's okay," she said. "We can play cards together, can't we?"

Antonio shook his head. "I promised your brother I wouldn't go anywhere near you."

She narrowed her eyes. "I want to know why he doesn't trust you."

He ignored her demand and started walking toward the doors. But she stayed firm.

When he realized he'd been walking alone, he turned and came back with his shoulders drawn. He looked around, then leaned closer.

"He thinks I'm a douchebag for cheating on Sara."

She pulled back from him as her eyes doubled. "Sara? Your neighbour?"

Antonio nodded, regret marring all of his features. "For the record, I also think I'm a douchebag."

Cara folded in on herself a little. "You cheated on her?"

Antonio gave another solemn nod.

"Why did you do it?"

He winced and gave a hard, obvious swallow. "Fran showed up at my place one night and told me she was having second thoughts, and I…"

He trailed off, but she got the gist.

She stared at him for a long moment and put herself in his shoes. She didn't think he was a bad guy, but obviously she agreed with the consensus. It was a douchebag move.

It now made more sense why Sara warned her away from Antonio in the hallway. But she didn't need a warning. She and Antonio were only friends.

Barely even that.

"You think I'm awful now, don't you?"

Cara shrugged. "Why didn't you just break up with her?"

"I did after, and I told her the truth. But to be honest…"

Cara grew impatient. "What?"

He let out a sigh. "It was the other way around, to me. Being with Sara made me feel like I was cheating on my wife."

Okay… That was…

Super fucked up.

But she couldn't really judge. She'd never been told on Valentine's Day by her husband that he wanted a divorce only to have him show back up later and want to be with her.

It was kinda hard to wrap her mind around it.

"I never wanted any of this," he said. "The divorce, the cheating. I'm just… fucked."

Before she could respond, their phones pinged again with a response from Max in the group chat, saying he was on his way to Chelsea's.

Antonio’s eyelids dropped and he squeezed his eyes shut.

"We'll lie," she said, already planning an excuse as she stepped toward the door.

She appreciated his honesty—with her, at least. And no one was perfect. He told her the truth and was clearly remorseful, so she decided not to hate him forever. But she could see why Max didn't trust him.

It would be nearly impossible to trust him after something like that.

Antonio finally looked up and followed her. "I'm sorry I'm asking you to do this, but Max is—"

"It's fine," she said, cutting him off as she typed in the group chat. "I'm going to hold up my end of the bargain."