Bet.

one

CHAPTER ONE

It's finally time. My phone lights up, earning a quick glance from me. 5:55. Five minutes til the matchmaking extraordinaire comes out and procures a new great love story. I mean, also hopefully a good plan to get me to fully escape whatever weird feelings I had for Carson. Have? I think they're past tense, but there was never much closure. Not that much happened anyways. Just a love confession and awkward fumble because I thought he was kidding and then we stopped talking. No biggie. But even if nothing else romantic is there, I still miss that friendship.

"I got the chips!" Kanani walks in with the bag of doritos we bought yesterday, and James trails in behind her. Kanani quickly settles herself right next to me, with James plopping onto the loveseat.

"Nuh-uh" my finger accuses James, "You have to sit over here with us. Ain't no way we're separating Layla and Carson when the point of tonight is to pair them up."

"Fine, fine. Do you really think it's going to work though?" James slowly peels himself off the loveseat and settles onto the chair next to Kanani.

"Given the way they were dancing together last week at the salsa event? Yeah I do. Plus I've talked to both of them and they have both talked about wanting to go out with each other. Piece of cake." Of course, I don't mention that the conversation he mentioned taking Layla on a date had been the same conversation he mentioned wanting to date me. Irrelevant.

"Hey guys!" Layla beams as she enters the lounge, quick to come and wrap me in a hug. As if on cue, my phone starts to vibrate and Carson's name appears on screen.

"Hey Carson," I answer. "Oh y'all need to be let in?" I look up at Layla and tilt my head toward the door. She gets the memo because she immediately heads over to get the door. "Layla's coming. See you in a minute!" I hang up, and a few seconds later laughter echoes down the hall. Good sign.

"Hope you don't mind El, I brought a friend." Carson smiles while walking into the room with Layla right beside him. I watch as a tall figure emerges from the doorway.

"Oh my gosh, Taylor!" I shriek more than speak, because even if our friendship only existed at work, I still loved the guy to pieces. I scoot closer to Kanani so Taylor can sit next to me on the couch.

"Sorry for crashing your movie night" Taylor whispers while sliding next to me.

"You're always more than welcome to crash. It's kinda weird seeing you in non-work clothes though." I laugh, my cheeks heating up a bit as I become acutely aware of his looks. His cultural clothing from work has been replaced with a tight-fit gray shirt and shorts. His curls are significantly messier than at work, but he dons the same crooked smile with dimples poking through. He looks good.

"You look nice with your hair down. I didn't even realize you had curly hair with your hair in the same bun every day. I like it though." His hand reaches up and grabs a curl, pulling it to be straight then releases it back into its perfect little ringlet. He lets out a little laugh and adjusts himself more comfortably on the couch.

"I should get the movie started." I stand up, and walk to the TV. I start fumbling through the different wires trying to find the HDMI cable to connect my laptop.

"What's this on the table?" I hear Carson behind me, but continue trying to figure out how to get my computer to show on the TV. Eventually I finally get it to all connect, and turn around to find a box on the table with cards all around it.

"Woah. What's that?" I observe the strange array of craziness on the table. Three different piles of cards, a timer, and a dice.

"Aha! A note!" Taylor holds up a flimsy handwritten piece of paper and unfolds it in front of us all. He clears his throat, "Leaving our game here for anyone else that gets tired of playing apples and apples every time they're in the lounge. Fair warning, it's made by a bunch of college students."