I scratched my head, thinking of a game she might like. And then a lightbulb lit up. "There's one you might like." I went over to the TV setup and grabbed two controllers and handed her one. "Ever played streetfighter?"
"I was thinking of a single player game. So you don't have to bother me."
"You said you wanted me to entertain you," I said as I slumped next to her.
She shook her head. "Fine. How do you play it?"
I frowned. "I thought you knew."
"Nah. Only watched you and your brothers play."
I showed her the controls. Which buttons to hit and what they do. Then I showed her each character and their power moves. Her frown deepened with each explanation I gave.
"You only want me to play this game because you know I you can beat me."
I was good at it, but not that good. To be truthful, I chose it because it's a two player game and I wanted to play with her. "We could play another game if you want."
"And learn a more confusing set of rules? Let's stick with this one."
I started the game. I beat her the first three games. She got frustrated, and I let her beat me one game, but she was smart enough to realize I had given the game and that made her more mad than losing. So I played fairly the next two games and beat her. But when she started getting the hand of it, she beat me two times. And three times more when she was finally understood when to play the power moves.
"You know what?" she said after beating me again. "I'm starting to think you're pretty shit at this game."
I chuckled. "That's because you call dibs on the best fighter all the time. You have her and you're winning nine times out of ten."
"Is that the sound of a sour loser I hear?" she shrugged her shoulders. "I was only picking her because she has a cute outfit."
"Right. My brothers were the ones obsessed with it, anyway. It was never my game."
She laughed. "Uh, huh. Is that the best excuse you can come up with after being beaten by a girl?"
In a funny way, I didn't mind getting trounced. I've always felt sour whenever I lost to Nolan, Ivy, or any of my brothers, but not her. Losing or winning, playing with her was more fun than I expected. "Wanna play another round?"
She leaned back into the couch and threw the controller to the side. "I am tired of winning. Got another game?"
We scrolled through a few other games, but she didn't like those. We tried other games similar to streetfighter, but even those weren't as fun as the original. After a few more plays,we got tired and hungry. It was in the middle of the afternoon and I brought out a bag of chips and two diet cokes while she disappeared to the bathroom. When she came back, however, she had a box in her hand.
"You didn't get that from the bathroom, did you?"
Her face was beaming. "I found this in the brooms closet, while looking for…whatever it doesn't matter." She flipped the box up, showing me the red lettering written on a white box with a little man in a top hat. "Monopoly," it read. "I didn't know you were board game enthusiast," she said, shaking the box. "You have an impressive collection, sir."
"They're all Nolan's. He used to stay here. He forgot them when he moved out."
She looked like she didn't believe me."You two used to be roommates?"
"Is that surprising?"
"I don't know. You don't strike me as the sharing type. You're possessive of your things."
"Funny, that's what Nolan said when he moved out."
"Nolan and I are right." She shook the box again. "Wanna play?"
I led her to the breakfast room, and we both laid the game pieces of the on the table. "It was my father's favorite," she said as she arranged the fake bank notes. The little I knew of John made me believe her. He was a cheery who would always accommodate us when we were kids. "Your father liked playing with us as kids." I arranged the board, took out the dice and the tokens. "He let me drive the car once when I was fourteen."
"I remember. You were really slow and drove in circles around the estate."
"How do you know that?"
