brother wasn’t there, I’d become the Zizzo of VVU.
“Hey.” Carson’s voice was soft as he stepped closer. “What’s wrong?”
I smiled tightly. “Nothing that a drink won’t fix.”
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a drink in the world strong enough to make me forget Carson. What Nicole had said about us being seniors resonated with me but not in the way she’d intended. I had wasted the first three years of college watching Carson hook up with random girls while I secretly pined for him. He loved me—I knew he did—but I couldn’t wait around forever for him to see me as more than a little sister. To quote the wise words of my father, it was time to shit or get off the pot.
Carson clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “What can I make you? Rum and Coke? Screwdriver? Sex on the Beach?” He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Uh, yes, please. That was the thing with Carson—most of the time, he treated me like a little sister, but every once in a while, he made flirtatious comments. “Do you even know how to make that?”
“No, but Google does.”
“Sure, I’ll take one, then.”
“Coming right up.” Carson started tapping on his phone, and I stared at the muscles in his tanned forearms as they flexed from the minute movement. As he read the recipe, he chewed on his lip, something he’d done as long as I’d known him. It was a good thing he wasn’t an avid reader, or his lips would be shredded.
But God, it was a sexy habit, and I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he did it at other times as well.
“Better make it a double,” I said.
***
Carson
I EYED ZIZ as she held her cards close to her face. “Bullshit.”
She grinned. “Nope.”
“Shit.” I flipped over the discard pile, and sure enough, she’d laid down three queens. I grumbled as I picked up nearly the whole damn deck and added the cards to my hand. “Since when did you become a good liar?” It was just my luck she’d developed a poker face in time to hose me.
She giggled. “Since wouldn’t you like to know?”
Jesus. She’s wasted. I’d been keeping pace with her, but I was barely buzzed. Maybe I shouldn’t have made her drinks doubles. Eh. She was safe there with me, and besides, it was nice to see her cut loose. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be sorry the next morning.
“I would,” I said evenly. “That’s why I asked.”
“I’ll never tell…” she sang in an eerie tone that sent shivers down my spine. I seemed to remember that line from an old thriller movie.
Beside her, Nicole shuddered. “Stop it. You’re giving me the creeps.”
Ziz leaned closer and sang the line in her friend’s ear.
Nicole pushed her away. “I’m serious! You’re going to give me nightmares.”
“That’s right,” Ziz said, not sounding sorry. “I forgot you can’t watch scary movies.”
Jimmy shot Nicole a pitying look. “You’re missing out.”
Nicole shook her head. “Oh, trust me. I’m not. The only thing I’ll miss out on if I watch those movies is sleep.”
“She’s a scaredy-cat,” Ziz said matter-of-factly.
“One hundred percent, yes. I’ll own that. Is it my turn?” Once we nodded, Nicole laid down a card. “One king.”
“Hang on.” I shuffled through the dozens of cards I was holding. “I’m going to call bullshit on that one.”
Nicole scooped up the card. “Damn.”
“You can’t bullshit a bullshitter,” I told her. Although holding half the deck in my hand helped.
Ziz snorted. “Didn’t I just do that?”
I shook my head. “No. You actually told the truth.”
She scrunched up her nose, causing cute little wrinkles to form on her forehead. But I was smart enough never to call attention to a woman’s wrinkles. “So I truthed you?”
I grinned. “Even I know ‘truth’ isn’t a verb.”
“Then what’s it called?”
Nicole’s mouth twisted to one side. “Hon, I don’t think that’s a thing.”
“Well, it should be. I’m good at truthing.”
Nicole patted Ziz’s knee. “Again, it’s not a thing.”
“It’s not like ‘fetch.’ I’m so going to make this happen. For real.” The girls convulsed into a giggle fit.
Jimmy looked at me with a question in his eyes.
I shook my head. “Yeah, I don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“Mean Girls!” Ziz exclaimed. “Obviously.”
“Okay,” I said, still clueless. Ziz was all about the movie references tonight.
Ziz slapped a hand on my knee, gripping it with her fingers. “Oh… my… God. You’ve never seen Mean Girls?”
“Isn’t that a chick movie?” Jimmy chimed in.
“Movies are genderless,” Zizzo said.
“Rambo,” I challenged.
Nicole pointed at me. “Dude movie. He’s got you there,