Easy A+

Chapter 144

And I couldn't be sure
I had a feeling so peculiar
That this pain would be for evermore

— Taylor Swift, Evermore

. . . .

Several days pass. Within the span of the last few days, we had visited both my parents and his. We'd gone to lunch with his family then spent that evening at dad's house. Lilly bonded with the twins all while keeping an eye out for when someone was passing Mason onto the next person. She eventually got to hold him, and she had the time of her life looking down at the little baby in her arms. Like his daughter, Harry was beaming to hold Mason till he started to cry for Bonnie to feed him.

Earlier today, we had gone out to see a movie then came back home to have lunch and spend the day at the house. We played Monopoly, and Harry and I argued about him cheating by giving the wrong number on the dice when it fell off the table. He was facing possible jail time by reading the actual amount on the dots, but I saw the white cube roll down by my foot before he picked it up. In the end, he stayed in jail till he paid up and Lilly ended up taking all the money in the 'free parking'. Despite him cheating, he unfortunately won by having the most properties and Lilly won with most money saved up because she barely bought anything. I just kept landing on every property that wasn't mine and kept having to pay. I wasn't very successful.

Lilly's collecting the small pieces and putting them in a ziplock bag as we put the game back in the box. Harry takes a step closer to me and starts gloating.

"What's wrong? Upset you didn't win?" He asks cockily.

"Some of us don't cheat."

"In my defense, if I were in jail, I wouldn't be able to take all your money away from you."

"What kind of defense mechanism is that?" I look at him incredulously, but he has such a charmingly smug grin on his lips that my faux-angry glare cracks.

"I just read the amount of dots on the dice wrong. You can't terrorize someone just because they don't meet your standards of 20/20 vision, love."

"Oh, be quiet. You didn't even win anything."

"I won bragging rights."

"You did not!"

"Lilly won too!" They high five and he continues gloating.  He pats my ass and gives it a tender squeeze. "You can't be so bitter about losing a game, babe."

"At least Lilly knows how to manage her money. I think she deserves more of the congratulations for winning."

"She didn't even buy anything."

"Whoever said you had to buy stuff? I think you overspent."

"I overspend on you all the time," he jokingly acts like spending money on me is my doing and not his.

"Your choice."

"Well, I do it because I think you deserve the world."

"You're so sweet."

"I know," he smiles.

We pack away the rest of the game then Lilly and I head out to the driveway for her to ride around on her bike while Harry stays inside to make dinner. The weather is not hot in the slightest, but wearing a light jacket is not much to complain about. She's content with riding around on her little bike, and I'm enjoying watching her and George playing. He's tied up on his leash since Harry's property is not fenced in, and I'm not risking George being interested in some small animal across the street and bolting off trying to catch it.

"Violet?" Lilly asks as she's circling around on her little bike.

"Yeah?"

"Is your school hard?"