Leo

The past week, Josephine and I have been talking on the phone every day.

That night her brother saw me in her bathroom, I texted her and asked if I could call. She didn't answer, but instead called me right away.

Her voice was calm and not strained. I didn't want to bring up or ask what happened after I left, so we just chatted away.

I didn't stop until I made her laugh, just to make sure she was really okay.

Now, I'm in my truck, my visor down and making sure my hair is in place as I had the windows down on the way to Josephine's place.

She invited me to a 'game night' with her girlfriends, Candice and Ananya, and two of her brothers.

I don't know for sure if one of those brothers is Roman, but I'm guessing not.

I wasn't sure what a game night really meant. Are we actually playing games? Or is it just what everyone calls these get-togethers? When my cousins and I meet at Lusso, we just call it a family meeting or family dinner.

And I'm not ashamed that I Googled what one should wear to these kinds of meetings. In the end, I had put on what I usually wear; jeans and a simple shirt.

I knock on Josephine's door and when she opens it; she gives me a big grin.

"You're the first here." She waves her hand for me to enter.

"You said eight, right?"

"Yup." She walks back into her little kitchen. "But eight for them means nine."

"Oh." I frown.

"But that's alright. You can help me with the snacks." She tells me. "Take this bowl to that table, please."

She hands me a bowl filled with chips over the wall slash cabinets that separates the living room from the kitchen. After placing it where she told me to, I lean against the fridge and wait for her next request.

While doing so, I take her in. She's wearing lounge shorts but they're cut and frayed at the middle of her thighs, showing silky smooth skin. Her shirt is big, and the neckline is so wide, it turns into an off-the-shoulder shirt when she moves to grab a plate from one of the cupboards, revealing her nape.

She doesn't have her earrings on, and it makes her look more young.

"Could you put this into two plates?" She gives me a bowl of some salsa and two smaller plates.

"Si."

She grins at me and faces the stove again.

For almost half an hour, she gives me tasks and I execute them without complaint.

"So," she sighs, drying her hands. "We're done. Now, they just need to arrive."

"Are they always this late?" I ask with a smile.

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah. But it's okay. I knew they wouldn't be here till like nine."

"That's a good thing." I say, my hands in the pockets of my pants.

She frowns and scrunches her nose in confusion. She looks adorable doing it. I want to kiss her nose.

"Why?"

"I get to spend an hour alone with you."

She beams, and it's so infectious I grin off her smile.

The knocking on the door breaks our little moment, and she goes to open the door.

"Heyyy," a loud voice cheers. "The party can begin!" Candice and Josephine embrace each other in a quick hug, then enters Ananya.

The next two men entering, I assume, are Josephine's brothers. I'm glad neither of them is Roman. Each of them has a six-pack in their hands. Lastly, another guy enters. He has the same dark skin tone as Candice and the same eyes. So I take it he's her brother.

His eyes trail down Josephine's body as she's greeting Ananya, and he licks his lower lip.

Someone has a crush on her.

That makes two of us.

"Guys," Josephine says. "Let me introduce everyone."

I near her and smile when she looks up at me.

"This is Leo. My friend." She jerks her thumb in my direction. "Leo, you know these two." She nods to her girlfriends.

I nod to Candice and Ananya, and the latter does a little wave.

"This is Milan,"

We shake hands.

"And this is Julian."

I shake hands with him as well.

"And this is Carter. Candy's big brother."

"Nice to meet you." He shakes my hand. It's firm.

"Likewise." I nod.

"You're the dude with the blue truck?" Julian asks.

I'm surprised he'd think that. "Yes."

Everyone goes about grabbing beer and snacks and taking a seat.

"It's really cool." He makes an impressed face. "What year is it?"

I answer and he asks a few more questions about it and if he can test drive it. I tell him only if I'm supervising. My uncle didn't treat it like his third child and kept it in pristine condition, only for an excited guy to press a little too hard on the throttle.

"You two, come on." Josephine points at us.

Julian sits on the ground and rests his back against the wall. I look around for a place to sit, but the only available place is next to Josephine.

I hesitate for a second. Two of her brothers are here and not just one like last time. But then again, now, I'm fully clothed and not in her bathroom.

She gives me an inviting smile and scoots to the inside of the couch so I can sit down.

She hands me a beer, but I decline. "I'm driving."

She shrugs and takes a sip.

Candice, who's sitting adjacent to me on the other couch, coughs to hide her saying, "prude."

I don't take offense. And I think she's only joking anyway.

Well, at least I think she's joking. I don't know her too well to know for sure.

From the corner of my eyes, I catch Josephine shaking her head at her friend. Inwardly, I smile, but I don't let it show.

"How about we play 'bad people' first?" Candice asks.

A round of yeses goes around but Josephine lifts her hand up and says, "But Leo doesn't know you too well so it's not fair."

I have no idea what that game entails.

"Okay." She pulls another stack of cards. "'Cards against humanity' then."

This game I do know because we play it too much when we have nothing else to do.

"I'll be the judge." Ananya calls out and starts handing out ten white cards to everyone.

She draws out a black card and reads, "What's the next Happy Meal toy?"

We take a few seconds to choose a response from one of the cards in our hands and putting them face down in the middle.

Ananya grabs the first one and reads.

"Viagra." We all burst into laughter. A few of the answers include, The Holy Bible, BATMAN!!! and A salty surprise.

"None of these make sense." She wheezes. "But I'm gonna go with viagra."

I extend my hand for the black card and put it in front of me, ready to have the most points.

"Next." Another black card is taken from the stack. "What's making things awkward in the sauna?"

Everyone slaps a card in the middle.

"Rick fingers." She makes a weird face. "What the hell?"

"If your dick is as big as your finger, I feel bad for you." Candy sips her beer.

"Good job body shaming men." Julian replies.

"I didn't body shame. I'm just saying that it's sad." Candice shrugs.

"Moving on!" Carter says.

"Yes." Ananya read a few more. "Last one is 'when you fart and a little bit comes out'. That's the winner. Whose is it?"

"Mine." I say and rest my hand on the back of the couch, smiling smugly.

They groan at me winning twice in a row.

I end up with the most cards at the end of the round.

Milan throws a few cards at me and my quick reflexes have my hand shooting out in front of Josephine's face and blocking a card that flies quickly in the direction of her eyes.

"Be careful with those." A paper cut with those is no joke.

"Oops." He winces and mumbles an apology.

"Bathroom break." Josephine yells and stands up. She almost trips from my feet before I get the chance to remove them, but I grab onto her hips to balance her. "I should stop drinking, right?" She whispers to me.

She only had two and a half bottles of beer.

I'm not one to tell her she should stop drinking, so I just smile and let her pass me.

Going to the kitchen, I refill the salsa and chip bowls. Josephine sits back down and her hair is now up in a messy bun. She crosses her legs and laughs at something Carter says. From what I've gathered, he's the one who did all her tattoos. They seem pretty close.

"Josephine," I call. She turns around and raises her eyebrows. "Is there another bag of chips?" I lift the empty bag in my hands to show her.

"Yeah, in the cupboard next to the fridge."

I grab it and see Candice coming to lean against the counter where I'm filling salsa and chips.

"Not the government name." She mumbles, loud enough for me to hear.

"Pardon?"

"You just called Josie using her full name."

"And?" I dip a chip in the salsa. "That's her name, isn't it?"

"True. But no one calls her that. Only Josie. Or Jojo if you're really close to her."

"I like her full name."

"Hmm." She squints at me when I eat the chip, so I offer her one, but she declines. "So what are your intentions with Jojo?"

I don't miss the way she used 'Jojo' to let me know she's really close to her.

"Intentions?"

"Yeah." She crosses her arms and stands straight. Her eyes are dead set on me and they remind me of my first drill sergeant.

"Good?"

"Why did you say it as a question?" An eyebrow quirks up. "Are your intentions not good?"

"They are." I confirm. Who asks this question? What are her intentions?

"Then why did you sound unsure?"

"Because you're a little intimidating." I confess.

A surprised chuckle escapes her mouth. "Me? Intimidating to you?" She points between us. "You literally play with guns as a job and you find me scary?"

Scary isn't the word I used.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Now she takes a chip and eats it. "But really," she levels me with a look.

"She's my friend." I shrug. It feels good to say that. To have a friend who I made myself and who isn't a family member.

"Well, you seem nice enough, but if you break her heart in any shape or form, I will kill you."

"I won't. I promise." I nod. In the back of my head, a little voice is calling me a liar. Because some things are out of my hands. But I do know I'll do my damn hardest not to break her heart if I can help it.

"Good." She nods and walks away, striking up a conversation with Julian like ours didn't happen.

•••

"Poker is more of a mind game than it is a card game." I tell them.

We've been talking and playing different types of games all night and when they heard I know how to play poker, they jumped at the opportunity to teach them.

Josephine, Candice, Ananya, Julian and I are sitting in a circle around the coffee table. Carter and Milan are on their phones, watching us.

I attempt to teach them the most basic rules and things to look out for. After a half hour tutorial, we start the first round.

"Wait!" Josephine yells. "We didn't put any money down."

"Bitch, my rent is due tomorrow." Anaya says. "We'll play it without money."

"But that's not cool." She defends.

I take a pretzel and put it in my mouth as I watch them trying to come up with a solution. As I'm about to eat the third one, Josephine grabs my wrist and yanks the pretzel free from my fingers.

"I was gonna eat that." I mumble.

"Pretzel as currency." She raises it in the air like it's gold. "Okay, everyone take ten pretzels."

Josephine still has her hand with the pretzel—my pretzel—raised in the air. So I bite it with my teeth and take it from her grasp, my tongue grazing the tips of her fingers.

She laughs and pushes my shoulder as I smugly chew on it.

I catch Candice's eye and she mouths 'intentions' to me. I don't make direct eye contact with her brother, who's sitting behind her on the couch, but I can literally feel his eyes on me. And I can also tell he's frowning.

Someone needs to learn the art of subtlety.

"Okay, let's do this." Julian says.

We do a few rounds, with me winning all of them. Of course.

"Oh, come on!" Josephine cries. "This isn't fair. You're like a pro at this." She throws her cards on the table. She has a pair of jacks among other pretty good cards. Me, on the other hand, have all random cards that in no way could have me winning.

"Why did you fold?" I ask. "Those could've won you this round." Only her, Julian, and I are doing this round.

"You made me believe you had a flush, or whatever it's called." She leans back against the couch and pouts, her plump lower lip sticking out. My eyes quickly meet her eyes again before she notices.

"That's the whole point of poker. To make your opponents think you have the winning cards even if you don't." I tell her.

"Whatever." She murmurs.

After two more rounds, Julian pulls out. Then Ananya.

"It's just you and me." Candice says after Josephine folds for this round.

I give her a smirk and put a pretzel in my mouth.

"Don't eat your money." Josephine scolds, but she's a second too late. The pretzel is already making its way down my stomach.

I reach over to her stack of pretzels—sorry; I mean money—and grab one. Slowly, I put it in my mouth and chew. Josephine's eyes are fixated on my lips and mine are on hers.

Candice's voice telling me we can start a fresh round pulls my gaze away from Josephine's tempting lips.

Candice is the shuffler for this round. It's only Josephine and I. She's moved to sit in front of me while the rest is watching as we play.

I check my cards and see I have a high card. Which means no two cards are the same, so I will probably lose.

"I'm all in." I announce and push my pretzel money to the middle of the table. So far, I won almost all the rounds, but a few times I purposely lost because I felt bad.

"Hmm. You sure?" Josephine asks. "That's a lot of money to lose." She eyes my money in the middle.

"Who says I'm going to lose them?" I say quietly. My face remains blank, void of any emotions.

Not only have I mastered my RBF during my time in the army. But I've also mastered the art of playing poker and the mind games it requires.

Josephine taps a beat with her pointer finger against the cards. She subtly bites the inside of her lips and I'm pretty sure she at least has a pair. If not, two pairs.

"What's it gonna be?" I taunt. "I don't have all day."

"I'm thinking." She says.

"You wouldn't have to think if you know you're gonna win." I say, making her lose her focus.

She gives me a glare before looking back at her cards. Candice behind her shakes her head at me while trying not to laugh.

I'm not sure how they keep falling for my shit. Most rounds I won were because I was talking nonsense and convincing them I have the best cards. And they would complain about how I was lying, but they believe me every time.

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, then locks eyes with me.

The room around me blurs and the only thing I see is her and how her eyes are glinting. I can almost hear her deep breathing from across the table.

"I'm calling your bluff. I'm all in." She says in the end and pushes her pretzels towards mine in the middle.

Candice reveals the last card on the table and Josephine cheers because she has three Queens.

"Oh my god. I won!" She grabs a handful of the pretzels and plops them in her mouth. "Take that." She says with a mouthful.

"Congratulations." I tell her. "If only we played with real money, right?"

"This game was so hard." Ananya says. "Good thing I didn't lose any actual money."

"Can we play blackjack?" Julian asks. Everyone groans and says a variation of no.

"You won't stand a chance." I chuckle.

If they think poker is tough, blackjack is even harder.

Imagine playing it with a bunch of cocky motherfuckers who know how to keep a straight face and are math experts and count cards to win.

After a little while, they start to gather their stuff to go back home. When everyone's left, I stay behind to help Josephine clean up a little.

"How about you give me a few lessons in blackjack, so during the next game night I'll win every round." She says.

"Sure."

After we've put away most of the rubbish, I stand in the living room and look around. "Well, I guess I'll see you on Thursday?"

"Yes!" She says and bounces on her heels. "Where are we going?"

It's my turn to plan something, and I already know what we're doing.

"I'll give you a hint. It's something fancy."

"Ooh. Okay, I'll pull out my Birkin bag and Louboutin heels."

Somehow I how these brand names because of my mother and Izzy. "You do that." I take a step toward her. "I'll come pick you up at seven thirty."

I give her forehead a quick kiss, longer than last time. When I lean back, I watch a pink hue traveling up her neck to her cheeks.

"Ciao." Her voice comes out as a squeal.

Thursday can't come soon enough.