Forget You (12 page)

SAWYER

After we finished our meals, I pulled out my
phone and tapped on my notes app. Earlier I had jotted down all the
dares I wanted us to complete for the night, and had even made a
separate note to keep score in. There was only one thing I hadn’t
done yet. Set a wager. I couldn’t seem to think of anything.

“I’ve got everything taken care of, except
for what we win,” I said. We were standing near the water fountain
in the center of the main floor. This was as good a starting place
as any. “Do you want to do winner wins something, or loser has to
do something?”

“Loser has to do something.” A mischievous
look flashed in her eyes, one that made me wonder what was going
through her mind.

Eva shucked off her jacket and folded it over
her arm, revealing the sheer white, see-through top she was
wearing. There was a lacy camisole underneath, which perfectly
matched the color of her eyes. I wondered if she’d worn it on
purpose so they would stand out more, or if it had been a crazy
coincidence. Either way, it didn’t matter. She was stunning.

“Okay. What’s your wager, then?” I asked.

Her lips twisted into a smile. “If you lose,
you have to show me your other tattoo.”

“All right.” I enjoyed the fact that she was
thinking about where my other tattoo was so much. “And if
you
lose, you have to let me kiss you.”

It was immature, but I was attempting to keep
with a certain theme.

Eva shook her head. “Such a childish wager.”
Her brow arched. “But I like it.”

“Good,” I muttered. “You going first, or
should we flip a coin?”

“I’ll go first.” There was a level of
excitement dancing in her eyes, which surprised me; she seemed to
be more into this than I’d thought she would be.

“I bet you were the type who enjoyed truth or
dare when you were little.”

“Damn right. Now tell me my first dare,” she
demanded.

I tapped on my phone screen, and scrolled
through the list of things I had planned out, second-guessing
whether the first one was too bold.

“You have to go into the nearest store and
ask for change for a dollar…in pennies,” I said.

Her face scrunched up in a cute way.
“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” I insisted.

Eva started toward the nearest store, which
happened to be a sporting goods place, without checking to see if I
was following. Grinning from ear-to-ear, I dug my wallet out and
snagged a one for her.

“Here, you can use this,” I said once I’d
caught up to her.

“Thanks.” She snatched it from my fingers,
and stepped through the doors.

Waiting outside with a smirk on my face, I
wondered what the cashier would think when she asked for the
pennies. Part of me wished I had followed her in, just so I could
see the serious look I was positive would be plastered on her face
when she asked.

Not even a full minute later, Eva came back.
She was holding two rolls of pennies in her left hand and there was
a wide shit-eating grin on her face.

“Done. How many points do I get?” She handed
the pennies to me.

Cramming them into my pocket, I grinned.
“Five.”

“All right, so what’s your dare?”

I shrugged. “You have to make one up for
me.”

Her lips pursed together in thought. I
allowed my eyes to skim her face, searching for any sense of
embarrassment at having been put on the spot, but not finding any.
Eva obviously wasn’t the type who embarrassed easily; I didn’t know
why I’d assumed she would be.

“You have to find someone with a kid who’s in
a hurry, and hand the kid the pennies. Then you have to tell them
they have to make one wish for each penny, and then beg the parent
to let them do it right now,” she said.

I hung my head back, and laughed.
“Awesome.”

“I get to help pick the person, though,” she
insisted.

I nodded. “All right.”

We stood beside the fountain for nearly
twenty minutes, staring down everyone who passed by. Finally Eva
spotted someone who fit the bill—a single woman with two little
girls who looked to be about four and eight, pushing a stroller
with a baby boy. What the lady was doing with three kids all by her
lonesome at the mall, I had no clue, but I thought she was the
bravest woman ever.

“Her,” Eva insisted.

Pulling the rolls of pennies out of my
pocket, I stepped in front of the woman. “Excuse me, but I have
these two rolls of pennies that need to be used up for wishes.” I
held them up in front of me, and then crouched down to the little
girls’ level. “There’s one for each of you little ladies.” My eyes
shifted from them to their mother. Even flashing my best smile, the
woman still looked leery of me.

“Um, no thank you. We’re sort of in a hurry,”
the woman said.

“They’re wishes. Who’s ever in too big of a
hurry to make a few wishes?” I asked, praying she would give in and
go with it.

“I wanna make wishes, Mama!” the youngest
girl shouted. There was a bright smile plastered on her little face
that forced my grin to widen.

“Me too!” her older sister added. Her two
front teeth were missing, and I swore I’d never seen anything
cuter.

Bending down on one knee, I handed the oldest
girl a single roll of pennies.

“Wish away, kiddo,” I said.

“What about me?” the younger one asked.

“You too.” I winked. The second I handed the
roll out, she snatched it from my fingers and squealed.

“I don’t know, girls. We don’t really have
the time,” the mom insisted. Stress creased the area between her
eyebrows.

“Who’s ever in too big of a hurry to make a
few wishes, Mama?” The oldest repeated what I’d said before.

The woman held my gaze, her mouth twisted
into an annoyed frown. I shrugged, and crammed my hands into the
pockets of my coat.

“I guess we could pause shopping for Grandma
and Grandpa for a few wishes,” she said. “Let’s take a shopping
breather, girls.”

“Yay!” both of them shouted in unison.

The mom turned her stroller around, and the
little girls ran to stand at the fountain near Eva. “Thank you,”
she said.

“You’re welcome.” I nodded.

Eva walked toward me. “Done. Five points for
you, and maybe even a few bonus ones. I feel like you just did an
incredibly charitable before-Christmas act or something. That was
intense.”

Chuckling, I pulled my phone out to give
myself ten points. I felt as though I had done something incredible
right then too. I’d forced the mom to turn a hectic Christmas
shopping experience with her kids into a special memory. There was
also the simple fact that I really wanted to win this thing being
my driving force to add the extra five too. I really wanted to kiss
Eva.

“Next,” Eva prompted.

I scrolled through my list, and chose another
for her. “Next, you have to go down an escalator while pretending
to row a boat.”

She rolled her eyes. “Lame, but I’ll still do
it.”

When we found the escalators, Eva stepped on
one without hesitation. I watched as she switched escalators at the
top, and then nearly lost it in a fit of laughter while she put on
the best show of someone rowing a boat I’d ever seen. People stared
at her and laughed. It was hilarious. A goofy duck face as though
she was focusing hard on what she was doing spread across her face.
Just before she was about to hit the bottom, a strained expression
as though she was struggling to get to me contorted her
features.

“Done. Five points for me,” she boasted.

I wiped the tears from my eyes, and entered
in her points. “That was great.”

“You’re next, and I’m amping this game up
some.” She placed her hands on her hips, and glared at me. “Does
this mall have a bookstore? I haven’t been here in so long, I don’t
remember.”

“I think so. On the second floor.”

“Good. When we find it, you’re going in and
asking the cashier where their Kama Sutra books are. Then you’ll
proceed to tell the cashier it’s because you really need to learn
some new moves.” She flashed me a wicked grin, and all I could
think about was how sizzling hot I found her.

Eva was taking this game in stride. I loved
that.

I licked my lips. “Okay, I can do that. Am I
buying it so we can try some moves out later?”

Bold. It was a very bold question, but I was
unable to keep it from passing my lips.

“It’s a distinct possibility,” she said.

The second the words left her mouth, my pulse
could be felt in the crotch of my pants, and a slow grin spread
across my face as my head filled with sexy images of her and me. We
hopped onto the escalator that led to the second floor. Eva leaned
against the handrail, and eyed me. I swore she knew what was
spinning through my mind, but she never once called me out.

It didn’t take us long to find the bookstore
on the second floor. I stepped inside, ready to complete my dare,
and realized the cashier behind the counter was a woman in her
seventies. This was going to be embarrassing as all get out.

Eva followed me inside. “I have to watch this
one. I bet your face is going to shift through twenty shades of red
asking that sweet-looking old lady where she keeps the Kama Sutra
books. Oh, and don’t forget you have to say the last part too—that
you need it to learn some new moves. If you don’t, you’re only
getting two points.”

“Ruthless.” I shook my head. “You’re
ruthless, Eva Bennett.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “No,
I’m just playing the game you created…only I’m playing it better
than you. I did warn you I planned on amping this up, didn’t
I?”

“Yeah, you did,” I agreed. “Fine, here goes
nothing.”

Walking across the worn carpet toward the
woman who looked so much like my Great-Aunt Martha it wasn’t even
funny, I gathered my courage to say what needed to be said.
Suddenly, I was fourteen again, hoping I could follow through with
whatever embarrassing stunt my brother had put me up to.

“Hi, can I help you with something?” the
elderly woman asked, pulling her reading glasses away so she could
better see me.

I flashed her a charming smile, but I was
positive it would do nothing to lessen the shock factor of my next
words. “Actually, yes, you can. I’m looking for some Kama Sutra
books. Do you sell any? I um.” My throat seemed to close up as I
struggled to get the last few words out in order to complete the
dare. “Really need to learn some new moves.”

My cheeks flamed, and I heard Eva struggling
to stifle her laugh from somewhere behind me. The lady at the
register didn’t appear to be shocked by my words in the least bit.
In fact, she glanced over at Eva, and then shifted her gaze back to
me.

“She looks like she might be a handful in
bed; I can see why you’d want a book to learn by with that one.”
She nodded in Eva’s direction. “I’m sure you’re worried about being
able to keep her satisfied.”

My jaw slacked and the snickering Eva had
been trying to dim down quieted. The woman slipped from her chair
behind the counter, and motioned for me to follow her. I glanced
over my shoulder at Eva as I did so, and took in the stunned
expression on her face I was sure mirrored mine.

Following the old woman into the back of the
store, my heart raced. This woman was about to show me were all the
manuals on sexual positions were located. This was nuts.

“Here you are, sweetie.” She paused in front
of a shelf with maybe six different Kama Sutra books resting on it.
She reached for one in the mix, and held it out to me. “This one is
the better of the few.”

I nodded, but didn’t utter a single word.
There was no way I wanted an explanation as to why she felt that
particular book was the best out of the bunch.

“My Ralph and I found it to be the easiest
for beginners,” she added, giving me an answer to the question I
hadn’t wanted to ask.

“Oh, all right. Thank you.” I took the book
from her fingers, eager for this moment to be over. “I’ll take
it.”

As I exited the store with Eva at my side, I
handed the book to her and pulled out my phone.

“I just racked up some serious points with
that one.” I tapped in another ten points for myself. “There’s no
way you could catch up to me, especially not with the lame dares I
have left on my phone.”

Eva flipped through the pages of the book.
Her teeth were sunk deep into her bottom lip, and her brows were
drawn together in complete concentration as she eyed the pages.

“That’s fine. You win,” she said without
looking up. She flipped to another page. “I can’t believe some of
these moves. How in the hell are you supposed to twist into these
positions?”

“You do Pilates. It shouldn’t be a
problem.”

She laughed and handed me the book. “I wasn’t
meaning me. I meant you. Look.”

Just the simple fact that she was referring
to her and I doing the crazy moves together made the crotch area of
my jeans tighten. I took the book from her fingers, and skimmed
over the crazy little cartoon-looking drawings. Some of the
positions weren’t all that difficult looking. In fact, I’d done a
few of them already, but never realized there was a name for it.
There were a few that looked too fucking weird though, even for
me.

“I don’t know about that one.” I shook my
head, and pointed to one called
She Bang
. “It just looks
totally wrong.”

“Um, yeah. That looks like something a
lesbian couple would do,” she agreed. “Let’s go to the smoothie
place and browse through this thing. We can make a note of the ones
we’ve already tried before, because I think I’ve done quite a few
of them.”

My eyebrows met my hairline. “Well, if you
really want to.”

I was already fighting semi-wood skimming
over the cartoon images, but now that she mentioned she had already
done a few of these, I was nearing straight up wood. Right there in
the middle of the mall.