Page 62 of Make the Play

I stab a finger at Chase. “You should’ve fought harder.”

“I did fight hard,” he exclaims, gesturing back at Logan and Jake. “They don’t care!”

Logan raises a hand solemnly. “For the record, I care a lot.”

Lulu looks at me with a grin, like she’s about to say something I won’t like. “I think it’s cute.”

I slam my hands down on the tabletop. “I am leaving this booth.”

A warm hand is suddenly on my thigh, squeezing gently, grounding me. Chase doesn’t acknowledge it, doesn’t even look at me, just keeps it there to anchor me.

Taking a deep breath, I choose to let Chase remain with his hand intact, and instead pin Logan with a look. “Maybe don’t use your brain creatively,Pookie. You’re not cut out for this shit.”

“Too late,” Logan says, sipping his beer nonchalantly. “It’s done.”

“No, it’s not,” Chase argues.

Charlie, still wiping tears of laughter from her cheek, turns to Jake. “So, what’sourcouple name?”

“We don’t have one,” Jake replies flatly at the same time that Logan declares, “Jarlie!”

Charlie makes the most disgusted face I’ve ever seen, contorting into a shape that makes Jake look personally victimized.

Jake looks to Chase. “This is on you, bud.”

Chase leans back with a shrug, one hand still resting on my thigh, his fingers flexing ever so slightly. “Sorry, man. You can’t fight fate.”

“Fate can eat my ass,” Jake mutters.

Satisfied as all hell, Logan claps his hands together. “Alright, that’s two down. Next up: Eli and Tamara.”

Eli, mid-sip of his beer, sputters like someone’s just punched him in the throat.

Jake grins like the devil himself. “E.T.”

Tamara pales, her mouth dropping open as she slowly turns to Eli, who looks like he’d like nothing more than to throw himself into traffic. “Jesus Christ.”

“Would be a shame if people latched ontothat,” Reid muses, full of fake sympathy.

“E.T.,” I repeat, tasting the power on my tongue as I slowly turn to Tamara. “You gave me a lot of shit earlier.”

A crease appears between her eyes. “So?”

“SoI work in PR, Tamara. I could have so much fun with this.”

“Oh, come on—”

“I mean, think of the headlines,” I interrupt, picking up my phone like I might actually pitch it. “The presslovesa nickname.”

Tamara lunges for me. “No!”

Laughing, I shift just out of reach and in the process, lean right into Chase. His arm tightens around me as if we’re in sync “Hmm, I don’t know, something about E.T. and a phone…”

“You’re evil!” she mutters, slumping back in her chair.

“You should’ve thought about that before interrogating me.”

Logan wipes a fake tear. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been.”

---