Chapter 21

JOEY

"Well, that's disappointing."

"Liv," Brett warns, but there's no stopping my cousin.

"Friends, huh?" she continues, placing a finger on her chin. "Sounds strangely familiar."

"That's because you were dating that asshole when we first met. I had no other choice," Brett declares with a scowl, grabbing my TV remote and pressing pause.

Yeah, that asshole was my best friend and teammate before he fucked over my cousin and I broke his nose. Good riddance.

I fall back into my couch cushion, deflated. "She takes her future seriously. What can I do?"

"My advice?" Brett asks, taking a gulp of beer from the bottle in his hand.

"Anything."

"Bide your time. Embrace the friend zone and put yourself in her orbit as much as possible. She'll fold eventually; they all do." He doesn't even try to hide his smug grin as he turns to Liv.

"You weren't always this cocky. Is this my fault?" she asks as she absently pets her giant dog's head.

"Absolutely," is Brett's immediate reply.

He does have a point, though. Personally, I think the no-dating thing is bullshit. I mean, Nora talked about it like she thought it was damn near adorable. I wonder what changed. But it's not like I can tell Lynn I talked to Nora about her—that would not go down well. I'll just have to follow my newfound feminist side (thank you, Elizabeth) and respect her boundaries. She'll finish this internship at some point, and then I can get back to the business of wooing her.

Yeah, I said wooing.

"And you couldn't just, I don't know, date in secret?" Liv suggests. There's a reason we're related.

Brett gives his head a hard shake like he's Tambo after a bath. "Lies always have a way of coming out."

Brett is a wise man, although I'd be willing to risk it for another of those make-out sessions with Lynn. I thought my dick was going to kill me after that—for multiple reasons.

"Maybe I should sit down for some girl time with Lynn," Liv muses, attempting to imbue her tone with an innocence she simply doesn't possess.

"No!" Brett and I respond in perfect unison.

"Fine. Jeez. It was just an idea." Liv looks at Tambo, where he's taking up half the sectional. "Nobody likes my ideas, Bo." His only response is a yawn wide enough to fit a human head.

Brett unpauses SportsCenter, and we settle back to catch up on the day's games. Since all three of us are giant sports nuts, it's always easy to agree on what to watch on TV. Liv falls asleep with her head on Brett's lap an hour later, and he carries her to my second bedroom.

"Hey," I call after him. "This is my house, so it's my rules." When he sends me a questioning look, I finish, "No audible funny business. I don't need any more therapy bills."

"Ah. Got it," Brett answers with a smirk I don't like all that much.

I turn off the TV and carry my empty beer bottle to the kitchen. It's been a long day, and despite not playing today, I'm beat. But my brain refuses to relax; it keeps replaying my conversation with Lynn from earlier.

I wander down the hall to my room, and before I can think too hard about it, I pull out my phone and open Words with Friends as I climb into bed. Once I'm settled against my headboard, I click the plus sign to start a new game and type lynnqqueen in the search bar. Yeah, I still remember her username like it's been seared into my hippocampus for eternity. When her name comes up, I select it and invite her to a new game before the board pops up with all my tiles in a row.

It takes a few minutes to decide, but I finally settle on a starting word and spell, "HOT." One of the worst words points-wise, but it's strategic. I grab my remote and switch on the bedroom TV to channel surf until I get tired. But the game notification alerts me a couple minutes later that it's my turn.

When I look at the WWF board, I see Lynn has not caught onto my plan, instead having spelled "DEPOSITS" off my "T" and earning herself a massive head start with a fifty-point bonus for using all her tiles. I'm not about to give up, though.

I respond with "KISS" off her "S" and sit perched on my bed like a six-year-old on a weekend night when the babysitter has fallen asleep.

Lynn finally gets with the program, going with "KNEE," which has me laughing out loud. I send her a frowny-face emoji before responding with "OUCH," which draws a laughing emoji from her.

She comes back at me with "SORRY," and we continue back and forth until it's one in the morning. I fall asleep waiting for Lynn's response to my play of "SOMEDAY."

Yeah, I can do this friends thing. For now, at least.