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“We’re going to blow everyone’s minds arriving together,” Luca says as we walk up to Rosa’s door.
“I think making out in the boxing ring did that already,” I mutter, shoving my hands in my pockets.
“Huh.” Luca stops in front of the door, nodding thoughtfully. “Yeah, probably.”
Luca knocks, and I back up a step. He immediately reaches out, pulling me forward again. As I jerk my arm out of his grasp with a scathing look sent his way, he just smirks at me.
And as much as that smirk pisses me off, I am somewhat thankful that we did come here together. Because I would have left by now.
The door opens, and Rosa looks between us with a mix of shock and excitement. “Hi!”
“Hey, girl.” Luca enters her apartment with ease, like he’s been here a thousand times.
I follow, hands still in my pockets and nod a greeting to her.
Seb is standing near the entryway, holding a mug, and squinting his eyes at us. “Ok, what?”
“What?” Luca asks him, shrugging his jacket off.
“I mean,” he gestures between me and Luca, “what?”
Luca looks at me, back to Seb, and then to everyone else in the living room as they watch. “We told you,” he shrugs, “we figured our shit out.”
Seb slides his gaze to me, and I just shrug as well.
Rosa appears before us with two mugs. “Here. Hot apple cider.” She smiles, shoving the cider into our hands.
Her place is all decorated for Christmas, with a little tree in the living room and Christmas music playing. Everyone is settled on the couch and the floor around the coffee table playing cards.
“We have a bunch of board games,” Rosa says, leading us into the room. “We just got the cards out. I wanted to play rummy but apparently we’re playing poker.” She rolls her eyes and sits on the couch between Noah and Elijah.
Luca and I sit, as he looks over the games on a shelf beside the couch.
“Oh, chess,” he says and shoots me a sly smile.
“You like chess, Ty?” Adão asks as he shuffles cards.
“Oh, he does.” Luca nods seriously before I can even answer. “More so as a warmup for the main event, though.”
I could fucking kill him.
I’m one second away from smacking that smug smile off his face, when Adão tosses cards in front of me as he deals them out.
“Well, I don’t know how to play chess, but maybe you could teach me,” he says to me with a smile and Luca bursts out laughing.
He’s pushing his fucking luck tonight.
“If I wasn’t a jealous man…” Luca chuckles as he picks up his cards and aims another annoying smile my way.
And I bite back my own.
Everyone is quiet for a moment as they look between us, trying to figure out what that means.
“Ok.” Adão nods. “Well… poker it is.”
We play a few rounds of poker, and then Rosa convinces us all to play rummy. I’ve never really played either, but it ends up being… fun. I find myself smiling and chuckling at Seb’s jokes and Elijah’s sarcasm, and talking with Adão about what training was like in Brazil. The feeling of being out of place and not belonging here slowly fades as I let go of the uneasiness, and trust myself to enjoy this, knowing there’s no trap to fall into. No dangers of past mistakes are lurking around the corner to punish me for having fun, and I don’t feel the urge to fall into old habits.
I’m safe here.
