Page 85 of How He Got the Girl
I stick my tongue out at him. “Maybe you wouldn’t think it was gross if you ever decided totalkto a woman.”
“So, I guess you haven’t been on any dates lately, man?” Griffin asks with a casual laugh, completely unaware of Connor’s nonexistent dating history. He never even took a girl to prom or homecoming. I honestly don’t know if he talks to females aside from the ones in our family.
“No.” Connor’s answer is short and gruff.
Griffin purses his lips, looking at me with confused eyes. I decide to step in and save him, but Shayna beats me to it.
“There’s no shame in that.” Shayna glances briefly at Connor before readjusting her headband and dropping her gaze. “I haven’t been on any dates in a while either. The dating apps are awful, and the only guys I meet when I’m working at the flower shop are there to buy flowers for their significant other.”
“Yeah, it’s rough out there,” Alyssa agrees. “You’re saving yourself a lot of heartache, Connor.”
Austin laughs and nudges Alyssa with his elbow. “This girl has enough disastrous first date stories for all of us.”
“Says the guy who could get anyone he wanted with the snap of a finger,” she shoots back at him.
He shakes his head. “I have to be extra careful.” Austin turns to look at Griffin. “I’m sure you understand, dude. Most of the women looking to date us are looking for the fame associated with our name, not because they actually like us.”
“Right on, man.” Griffin nods. “That’s why you have to meet someone before you’re famous or someone who actually doesn’t give a rip about it.” He squeezes my middle.
“Exactly.”
Tess clears her throat. “Sorry to be a buzzkill, but I need to leave in ten minutes to relieve my babysitter.”
“Right, sorry.” Kelsey turns the whiteboard with our scores around. “Going into the final round, in last place, we have Shayna and Tess with seven points.”
Both girls smile good-naturedly.
“Maybe I should just go home now,” Tess teases.
“In fourth place, we have Emmy and Connor with ten points. Tyler and I are currently rounding out third place with eleven points. Mallory and Griffin are in secondplace with thirteen points. And, with a whopping fourteen points, our current leaders are Alyssa and Austin.”
Alyssa switches the slide on the TV. “For the final theme, can I get a drumroll, please?” We all pat our legs as she clicks to the next slide. “Winter movies.”
“Boo.” Emmy throws a piece of popcorn at the television.
“We know which team is winning now,” Kelsey says.
The whole room looks at me and Griffin. He holds up his hands, and I immediately miss his grounding touch. “Hey, I haven’t been in any Christmas movies. You all still have a chance.”
“Yeah, like we ever had a shot.” Tess leans back into the couch, laughing with Shayna. At least they’re in good spirits about being in last place.
Despite Griffin saying everyone else had a chance, we don’t miss a single question in the round. He answers the ones correctly aboutThe Santa ClauseandIt’s a Wonderful Life, while I get the responses related toThe HolidayandLove Hard.
“All right, that was the final question.” Kelsey looks at the scoreboard. “And we have a tie between Alyssa and Austin and Mallory and Griffin.” She pulls out her phone. “That means we need a tiebreaker question.” She takes a minute, tapping on her screen and scrolling. “Okay, for the win, what was the highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time?”
Griffin and I look at each other with a knowing smile. It has to be the greatest one of all time—the very one we watched together last night. I write downHome Aloneand hold the whiteboard to my chest, ready to win this thing.
When the minute is up, we flip over our whiteboard at the same time as Alyssa and Austin. They wrote downElf.
“We’ve got this in the bag, beautiful.” Griffin hugs me.
Kelsey looks between our whiteboards and smiles. “The correct answer is…Home Alone. That makes our winners Mallory and Griffin.”
I hop up from his lap, jumping like we just won a real award rather than the trivia champions of our friend group. But Griffin matches my energy. He pops up from the couch and lifts me into the air, placing my butt on his left shoulder. I duck to avoid hitting my head on the ceiling as everyone congratulates us. He carefully puts me back on my feet.
I’m in a daze, overflowing with the adrenaline of his closeness all night.
Everyone says good night and heads out, but my steps are slow toward the front door as I walk Griffin to his car.
