Page 89 of Lovers Like Us

I lick my lips. “I’mgood.”

He chews slowly. “Even if I leave cashbehind?”

“I can getit—”

“I’m already here.” He’s behind the bar and opens the fridge below the counter. “Water?” he asksme.

I take out my wallet. “Yeah.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He’s buying me a drink. A bottled water since I don’t drink alcohol, but still, my boyfriend is buying me a drink. I thought I’d make that move first and buy himone.

I’m kind of shocked, and I wonder if the bodyguards can tell this is new for me or a first or the fact that it means something. Because it does. These little things mean more to me than I ever thoughtpossible.

I never even dreamed about falling in love until I fell in love withhim.

As I face the table, Quinn asks Akara, “Why can’t Farrow drink? I thought we’re off-duty…oh, damn, right.” He glances atme.

I get it. Since I’m notsafelytucked into bed, Farrow is at work. On-duty. But if he wanted to drink, he wouldn’t have invited mehere.

I unzip my jacket, gettinghot.

Oscar leans back on the stool and calls out, “I’ll take a Corona,Redford.”

“Nice choice, get ityourself.”

Donnelly joins in, “Make me a bloodyone.”

Oscar says, “Changed my mind, I’ll take a Blue Moon with an orangeslice.”

“Still don’t care.” Farrow shuts the fridge and raises his brows at me likewhat’d I tell you about them?Truthfully, it seems like they’re his closestfriends.

He returns with a bottled water and Lightning Bolt! energy drink. “What are we playing?” Farrow positions his stool nearer to mine before he sits down. His thigh right up against mythigh.

My hand slides on his knee, and I grab my water with theother.

Our eyes lock for a second. I wish I could sling my arm around his shoulders. But Ican’t.

Wecan’t.

We’re in a public setting, and a stranger isn’t catching us at 3-something-a.m. inChicago.

“Liar’s dice,” Thatcher says and gently sips hiswhiskey.

“How do you play?” Iask.

Oscar explains the rules. It sounds simple. Every round 1 person loses a dice, and you’re out of the game when you have no dice in yourhand.

The crux of the game: when you lose a dice, you have to choose a truth or dare. They already wrote a bunch of truths and dares on shreds of napkins. All of which are randomly mixed together in Akara’s baseballhat.

Stakes seem higher for me than for them, but I trust SFO. So I’mgame.

“Hey, everyone.” Akara drums his fingers on his whiskey glass. “Maximoff should be able to skip any dares or truths that hewants—”

“No,” I cut in. I was afraid of being too domineering again, too stiff and stringent and they’d treat me more like their employer, but I can’t be passive here. “I can play the game like youguys.”

Akara shifts on his stool. “You sure? You can skip anything I wrote down. You should, really. I didn’t think you’d behere.”

Oscar hooks an arm around the co-Omega lead’s shoulders. “Akara strongly suggests and recommendsit.”