The Games We Play

by Alexandra Warren

  I wanted to assume he was asking the question for the same reason I had, trying to get an understanding of my situation before he made his move. But since assumptions hadn’t been going my way as of late, I stayed neutral when I replied, “I’m telling you these dudes around here haven’t changed in… however long you’ve been gone. And we don’t get transplants like big cities do so… the answer to your question is in there somewhere.”

  It wasn’t that I didn’t meet people, or date, or even have sex when I got desperate. But I had yet to meet anyone worth going beyond that with since everyone felt… the same. They all had the same general agenda, all moved at the same speed, all were way too content making just enough money and spending it at the same spots week after week. Then again, who was I to judge since I was pretty much doing the same?

  “Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” I responded in my head as Chance said, “That’s unfortunate.”

  “What? That none of the people you grew up with are really on shit?”

  He lifted the top of the trash bin, tossing the bag in while answering, “Well that, and the fact that ain’t none of them gotten on their shit to catch up with little Londyn.”

  “Maybe I’m not trying to be caught,” I offered with a smirk, knowing good and well I’d let his fine ass catch me any day.

  But considering I was supposed to be playing it cool, letting it come to me like my mother insisted with that glass of champagne hours ago, I held my smirk just long enough for him to reply, “Maybe.”

  “So, tell me. How many chicks you got sending you, “Can’t wait ‘til you get back in town, daddy” texts?” I asked teasingly as I slow-played returning to the party, the steady click of my heels against the pavement coinciding with Chance’s laugh of a reaction.

  “Wow. You really think I got it like that?” he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets as he matched my slow stride.

  “I know you got it like that, especially since all they know out there is grown-up Chance. They don’t know chicken legs Chance with the too big clothes.”

  Even though Chance was always considered fine, he hadn’t escaped falling victim to the trend of tall tees and baggy jeans. In fact, I was pretty sure my mom still had plenty of pictures for us to use as blackmail one day, though he was quick to defend, “Man, that was the style back then.”

  “It was. And I’m glad it stayed back then too,” I said with a laugh of my own as Chance stopped just short of the front door to turn my way.

  “Quit hatin’, LoLo. Cause my too big clothes sure didn’t stop you and your little cheerleader homegirls from following me around the halls back in high school.”

  While I knew there was some truth to his words, I was sure to correct, “They were following you. I was following them.”

  Considering I had no idea - other than the occasional run-ins at the mall and updates on social media - what those girls were even up to, it was clear following them hadn’t gotten me anywhere I wanted to be. And Chance made note of that when he replied, “Well I see you grew right on out of that shit. In a league of your own now.”

  Instead of blushing at his compliment, I shrugged. “Crowds are overrated.”

  “So if crowds are overrated, you probably don’t wanna go back inside, do you?” he asked, taking a step closer to pull at the front of his blazer and tightening it around my body just as a breeze passed us.

  Suddenly, I wanted to get rid of it - along with the rest of my clothes - , feeling hot all over as I swallowed hard before answering, “Not really. But thanks to your brilliant idea of life loans, I now have a debt to pay.”

  “Can it wait?” he asked, running a gentle hand against my hip that brought all air circulation to a complete halt.

  I was just getting ready to answer, “Hell yes, it can wait” when red and blue flashing lights coming down the street stole my attention, forcing me to put on my most-responsible-person-present cape to ask, “Is that the cops?”

  All of the sensual energy I had worked up fell straight to my feet as the cop car pulled right in front of us, barely putting it in park when he hopped out and asked, “Is the party still poppin’?”

  Wait what?

  Before I could answer his surprise of a question, the front door was yanked open by my far-from-sober mother in those damn footie pajamas. “Stevie! You made it!”

  “Stevie?” I whispered, watching as he turned his emergency lights off before joining my mother at the door and pulling her into an embrace. The sight was enough to make me ask again, this time much louder, “Stevie?!”

  My mother turned out of his hug just slightly to reply, “Londyn, don’t be rude. This is Stevie, my… friend. Stevie, this is Londyn, my daughter. And Chance, Ellen’s boy. You remember Ellen, don’t you?”

  “Ellen with the trap house?” he asked, making me snicker while Chance ran a hand along the back of his neck, releasing a heavy sigh before sticking it out to him for a polite shake.

  “That’d be her. Nice to meet you, man,” he said, pulling his hand away and landing it at the small of my back when he turned his attention to my mother to say, “Miss. Annie, I’ma go ahead and give Londyn a ride home since Eric appears to be staying for the night. Tell my mom I’ll be back over for brunch tomorrow. And make sure she has some water and some of that BC powder before she goes to sleep. You know how she gets if she doesn’t.”

  “Well, alright now. I sure will. And you get my baby girl home safely. Londyn, I’ll be expecting you at brunch too,” she replied with a wink that I knew meant she’d want a play-by-play of the ride home that had surprised the hell out of me.

  But Chance was clearly on a mission. And while that might’ve been a red flag worth acknowledging with the guys around here, somehow I felt safe under his spell, excitedly falling back against his hand when I answered, “Yes ma’am.”

  Chance

  This was a bad idea.

  I knew it. She probably knew it too. Yet here I was, giving Londyn a ride home when we both knew the drive to her place was really just a small step on the ladder of things I wanted to do to her. At least, I assumed she knew. She seemed to be well aware of the fact that I was wildly attracted to the woman she had become, a feeling that caught me off-guard since I hadn’t seen much of her over the years outside of the social media updates from Eric that told me she was living and living well.

  But I ain’t know baby girl was living this well.

  Truth be told, I always thought she was attractive. Glowing butterscotch skin, perfectly pointy nose, petite little cheerleader frame that she had filled out over the years, and those damn hazel brown eyes. But it was always, “Eric’s cute little sister” meaning she was off-limits; at least to me.

  Of course some of our other homies didn’t respect code, trying their hand at her only to come to blows with Eric since he wasn’t having that shit. And while they might’ve thought he was cockblocking, I always figured he was just being understandably overprotective, something I respected enough to keep my distance since I wasn’t about to ruin a friendship over a pretty face.

  Tonight though, she was more than just a pretty face. Little cutie Londyn had transformed into “sexy ass, grown ass Londyn”, not giving me much of a choice of whether or not I wanted to fuck with her; her brother be damned.

  As if she could read my mind, she broke the silence of the drive to say, “You know, of all of Eric’s friends, you’re the only one who’s never tried me. Why is that?”

  Instead of giving the explanation I had already thought up, I shrugged when I challenged, “I could ask you the same thing. I mean, all your little friends got at me one way or another. But not you. You were the only one who played it cool.”

  It wasn’t that I was bothered by Londyn being the only one to never come after me way back when, I just always found it… interesting, especially since I was well aware of the fact that I was the talk of her little circle. And man, did those girls try their hardest to compete against each other for my attention when I knew
good and well I wasn’t dealing with any of their ditzy asses.

  Still, while Londyn was always in the mix, she was never one to really even glance my way. Though she tried to make sense of it all when she replied, “Because you weren’t all that,” teasingly gnawing at the corner of her lip as she waited for me to be offended.

  Since I could tell she was playing - knew she better have been playing - I only laughed. “Damn, tell me how you really feel.”

  She turned in her seat towards me, the seatbelt straining against her chest that was barely contained by the thin fabric of her dress now that she had returned my blazer. And not only was the top getting ready to spill but the bottom as well when she kicked her heels off and hooked one of her legs under her, causing the hem of her dress to rise just high enough for her pussy to surely be peeking out if I had the time to look without crashing the car.

  “It’s a rental anyway,” I thought, tempted to take my chances when Londyn admitted, “Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. I guess I just… saw the kind of attention you drew and wasn’t about to join the pack when there were other dudes who wanted me. Or at least, other dudes who acted like they wanted me.”

  “Yeah, those same goofies you were complaining about earlier,” I reminded her, growing annoyed since, from what I knew, she deserved so much better.

  I mean, I could only imagine the type of bullshit she put up with on account of what was “best available” in this stale ass city. Nothing against my hometown; I was proud to rep it. But even from a distance, I knew just how shallow the dating pool sat.

  Shit was as close to empty as empty got.

  “You say that like you’re so much better,” she challenged with a giggle, leaning into the center console and increasing the tease I wasn’t sure she was intending to put on as her cleavage filled most of the space between us.

  But I certainly wasn’t complaining. And since I also wasn’t one to beat around the bush, I simply replied, “I can show you better than I can tell you, Londyn.”

  My plans were a lot more go with the flow than concrete since I still wasn’t 100% sure where her head was at and didn’t want to take any chances of reading it wrong. But then she licked her lips to ask, “And how, exactly, are you going to show me, Chance?”

  Oh, she’s definitely tryna fuck.

  I was glad to see we were relatively on the same page as I pulled up to the address she had given me, immediately noticing that whatever gaming company Londyn worked for was taking good care of her and avoiding her question to ask one of my own. “This you?”

  She nodded, already unclicking her seatbelt when she answered, “Yep. Pull behind the right side of the garage so you don’t block me in.”

  “Block you in? Who said I was parking to stay?” I asked, once again trying to confirm I was reading the situation correctly. The last thing I needed was Londyn putting me on blast in front of her brother for throwing my dick in the race when she wasn’t even on that.

  Lucky for me, Londyn made things crystal clear the second I put the car in park, not even waiting for me to turn it off before she was climbing over the center console to straddle my lap and answer, “Me.”

  My hands instinctively went to her hips, landing against the fabric that had bunched up around her waist as she rested her hands against my shoulders just… staring at me. The mystique of her eyes only intensified under the glow of night’s sky, seeing her full-on sex appeal without an audience around to interrupt enough to have me rock hard. And I could tell she felt it too once she ground her hips against me and smirked, though that still didn’t stop me from asking, “What you thinkin’ about, LoLo?”

  She pulled her lip between her teeth, the tone of her voice hinted with amusement when she answered, “Just tryna decide where I wanna start. All of you looks so… appetizing from up here.”

  “So do you. Especially these,” I replied as I bent my head and stuffed my face right in her cleavage, giving her titties a mini-motorboat that made her laugh.

  “You can do better than that, Chance,” she insisted, moving to pull the strap of her dress down to give me full access. And while I wanted to enjoy the show, the fact that we were still in her driveway - meaning, we could be seen by anyone who cared to look - had me a little shook.

  “Man, you’re crazy. These windows aren’t even tinted,” I told her, thinking maybe that reminder would have her reconsidering her actions. But she was hardly fazed, shrugging out of the other strap before reaching back to unhook her bra.

  “My neighbors go to bed at like, nine o'clock. We’re good.”

  In that case… “I got it,” I told her, reaching behind to unhook her bra myself as my mouth went to her neck. And any worries I had were snatched once I discovered her skin tasted exactly how it looked; sweet enough to have me wondering what the rest of her tasted like.

  “Probably like sin,” I answered myself, though my actions didn’t quite align with that assumption since I was still on my way to dance with the devil as I continued to kiss and nibble against her collarbone, making her groan.

  And grind.

  Londyn was dry-humping the fuck out of me with every swipe of my tongue, the restriction for much growth in my jeans quickly becoming a problem as I warned, “Londyn, you gotta stop grinding against me like that.”

  “Or maybe you just need to get rid of these damn pants,” she replied breathily, reaching between us to get to my zipper; something I knew we’d never be able to turn back from if I let her have at it.

  With that on my mind, I gave her one last out. “But what about Er…”

  She didn’t even let me finish, putting a stiff finger against my mouth to cut me off. “I literally give not a single fuck about Eric right now. This is between me... and you. So let it stay there, okay?”

  Her dress was tousled, her box braids had fallen around her shoulders, and her eyes practically dared me to stop her. She was too damn sexy. And even though I could sense the trouble I was getting myself into, that didn’t stop me from agreeing to her request as I pushed her braids out of the way to get back to her neck while she removed the opposite bra strap, unveiling some of the prettiest titties I had ever seen.

  With pierced nipples.

  I was doomed.

  She tilted back just enough against the steering wheel to give me better access as I leaned forward and flicked my tongue against her piercing before pulling her nipple between my teeth, eliciting a growl that had me worried I had bit too hard. But when she locked a hand behind my head to keep me close and started grinding against me like before, I quickly learned that was exactly how she liked it, making me do it again and getting an even more enthusiastic reaction.

  “Shitttt, Chance,” she moaned once I moved to her other titty, giving it the equal attention it deserved since it looked just as good while also tweaking the opposite nipple between my fingertips. It was almost as if whatever I did to them shot straight to her pussy, the smell of her increasing arousal only making me hungrier for sin as the windows began to fog around us.

  As if she couldn’t take the teasing any longer, her hands were back at my zipper. And that’s when it hit me. “I uh… I don’t think I have any protection on me,” I admitted, knowing it was the rookiest mistake of all. I mean, it would’ve been nothing to grab a pack of condoms during the ice run with Eric just in case. Then again, that might’ve made him too suspicious which would’ve led to a bunch of questions I couldn’t have answered with a straight face.

  Probably the exact interrogation I needed to keep me from fuckin’ with the devil.

  Sexiest devil I’ve ever seen, though.

  I was just sure that my slip-up would kill the mood until she replied, “I have some. In the house. Come on.”

  She was already climbing back to her side of the car to grab her things, covering her body back up just enough to get inside without getting an indecent exposure ticket when I asked, “You sure?”

  With her hand against the car door, she turned back with a
troubled expression. “Unless you’re not…”

  I quickly shook my head. “Nah, nah. I’m… I’m good.”

  But I wasn’t good. I was… bothered. Not because of anything she had done, but because of how eager I felt about the whole situation.

  This was Londyn; little LoLo from back in the day. And all I wanted to do was be inside of her. Was so desperate to get inside of her that I’m surprised protection even came to mind.

  Shit, it almost didn’t.

  Before I could let my overthinking think me straight out of a nut, I followed her lead and hopped out of the car, climbing the short set of stairs to her front door where she was already busy trying to hold her heels in one hand while digging through her purse for her keys with the other.

  “Let me help you, Londyn,” I told her, reaching to grab her shoes so she could have both hands to find what she was looking for.

  But instead of accepting my offer, she yanked out a key ring full of shit and said, “I got it.” Slamming and turning the key in both the top and bottom lock before pushing it open to let us inside.

  She immediately turned on the light in the front room then dropped her heels near the door, instructing me to do the same as she slipped towards the back of the house. And while I still couldn’t believe I was here, particularly my reason for being inside, I couldn’t help taking in how nice her spot was; structured with an older charm, but decorated with a modern feel that created the perfect balance.

  It was dope. And she was dope, incredibly accomplished according to the various awards and certificates lining the walls. One in particular stood out, an award for Emerging Video Game Designer that I may or may not have been salty about missing out on during my early years with the company I worked for. But I was glad to see they had at least broken out of the usual mold and given it to someone black; someone very much deserving according to the sketches laid out on her coffee table as if she had been pulled from work just for tonight’s party.