Meet Your Match

8. Keep Me Guessing

By Draco’s estimation, he and Granger had made a fairly successful transition into the role of friends. Friday drinks were no longer interrupted by screaming matches, toppled furniture, or spilled glasses. He couldn’t resist pushing her buttons a bit, but she took his ribbing in stride and never hesitated to take him down a notch when she had the chance.

True, he had now seen her nearly naked. And had since imagined her fully naked a few dozen times. But that was nothing new. He cringed and decided not to spend too much time debating whether it was creepier now that they were officially friends. 

Especially not when his new friend was currently sitting across the room from him, finishing off the last of a particularly sticky toffee biscuit. Granger was nodding, listening intently to Janelle’s story, and unconsciously sucking the residual toffee off of each of her fingers. Draco watched as she opened her mouth, inserted a digit onto her tongue, and then slowly drew it out, her cheeks hollowing around it. As the tip of her tongue protruded to pay special attention to the pad of one thumb, he was forced to shift in his chair and drop his gaze.

She was seated sideways on the sofa, facing Janelle with her legs crossed, and unfortunately, she picked that precise moment to lean forward and place her plate on the coffee table. As she did so, her blouse rode up and exposed a wide stretch of smooth skin on her lower back. Tragically, this included a set of prominent dimples at the base of her spine. Draco, who had only seen her nearly naked from the front, had mostly been preoccupied with what her arse might look like in the tiny shorts. Now, it seemed he would have a new feature to obsess over. You know, how friends do.

“Right, time for a game!” Thomas announced to a chorus of groans. He looked undeterred. “It’s always the same with you lot, no one wants to play and then next thing you know you’re at each other’s throats.”

“No, that’s only Hermione,” Shannon said off-handedly.

Granger looked indignant. “It is not only me!”

“No one else has ever crawled over the coffee table,” Thomas pointed out.

Granger huffed and pushed her curls back over her shoulder. “That was one time.”

“As long as I’m not on Hermione’s team,” Nick chimed in, looking apprehensive.

“Oh, honestly,” she snapped, rolling her eyes.

“Last time you slapped me!” Nick countered.

“Well, it’s your loss,” Granger said, looking haughty and not bothering to deny the allegation of physical abuse. “Surely, you recall that Hermione’s team always wins.”

Draco was suddenly desperately curious to find out what sort of game would involve Granger crawling over tables and slapping people.

“Have you played before, Draco?” Thomas asked, holding up a box.

Draco inspected the cover though he already knew the answer. “No.”

“You’ll be on Hermione’s team, then. It’s easier if you have someone who knows you well,” Thomas said.

“Hope he likes it rough,” Nick muttered into his drink while Carl snickered.

“I’m sure he can handle her,” Shannon said with a wink.

Granger was rolling her eyes again. Then, to his surprise, she stood up and motioned for him to follow her out into the hall.

“Strategy meeting,” Granger said in response to Thomas’s questioning look.

As soon as they were out of earshot, she rounded on him and began a rapid-fire monologue.

“Alright listen up, it’s a guessing game. You will turn over a card facing away from you so you can’t see what’s written on it, but your teammates can. Your team will call out clues for you to guess what’s written on the card. Shout out any guess you have, there’s no penalty for wrong answers. As soon as you get the correct answer, we will motion for you to move to the next card. You’ll have one minute per round and the goal is to guess as many cards as possible in that time, so go as fast as you can. Got that?”