Page 82 of All at Once

“Stop.”

“Stop?”

“You know. Like a stop sign,” he exaggerates with his hands.

I don’t know why I laugh, but I do. Andloudly. “That was one of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard in my entire life.”

He scoffs. “I don’t have time to listen to your poor taste in humor.”

I look into his eyes and tease, “Come to think of it, it’s actually theworstone.”

He bites down on his smile, and walks around the table before picking up a paddle. Without thought, I walk toward the opposite end of the table. I pick up my paddle, while trying not to glare at how firm his grip is now wrapped around the handle.

Luca’s voice reminds me to look back up at him. “I don’t know if I should be playing you.”

Trying to blink through my still fuzzy vision, I push my hair back. “I mean, you’ve done a pretty good job at that so far,” I taunt, wondering where my daring words are coming from without having anactualbeer.

He straightens his back. “What?”

“What?” I try to play it off, adding, “Can’t handle a bit of trash talk?”

He smirks, before throwing the first serve, andstrongly, as I almost flinch. I surprise myself and successfully throw it back, scoring my first point.

“I think the better question would be, areyousure you want to playme?” I gloat.

“So now you’re just rephrasing my questions back to me, huh?” he teases.

Feeling warmer, but also wondering if maybe Ididjust repeat the same question, I throw the ball in the air, but when I go to hit it with my paddle, the ball just falls down.

To be fair, Luca just fucked up my momentum. Of course he then bursts into laugher, looking at me like this is too simple for him.

“Laugh all you want,” I say. “I may not be the best at something the first few, maybe at least 10 times, but when I get good at something,watch out.”

He rests his weight onto the table, and I just know if his sleeves were rolled up a bit more, that his defined veins would probably have made my aim somehow evenmoreatrocious.

Then his eyes grow darker. “I’m already scared.”

There is no reason for him to have said those words that seductively, buthere we are.

Cutting our game short, another woman approaches Luca with such a wide grin, and he looks just as excited to see her as well. He glances back at me first and politely says, “Excuse me.”

He justhadto have manners on top of everything else. It’s hard not to watch as she cups his face before they enthusiastically exchange kisses on each other’s cheeks. And I swear it feels like they’ve been talking to each other for at least an hour. When it’s probably just been two minutes.

As they say goodbye, I notice a group of people heading toward the front door. I go up to Luca and ask, “Where’s everyone going?”

He asks one of his friends, who I recognize from when we first went surfing together, before he explains to me, “They’re going to this waterfall nearby.”

After giving him a few moments to initiate with no luck, I ask, “Well?Aren’t we gonna go?”

“Youwantto go?” he asks with brows slightly raised.

“Yes,” I say casually.

His chest relaxes a little. “Okay,” he agrees skeptically. “Let’s go.”

I glance over at Enrique, who’s beaming with his friends and noticeably drunk now. If his friends come in Luca’s car with us, I wonder if Enrique will sit with me in the back. Maybe I sound irrational, but the idea of being pressed closely against him like this is making me squirm a little.

So I suggest, “Maybe we should just go together then?”

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