“My name’s Mark, and you?”
“Samantha,” I nodded, smiling.
“Bring that chair over,” ordered the guy who was still holding my hand.
Someone brought the chair to the table and I sat down. A girl in jeans and a bra, glared at me and dealt me five cards.
“Do you know how to play poker?” Mark asked.
I nodded, but I didn’t have any money, so I wasn’t sure how I would play.
“Well, this game is going to be different, instead of playing for bets, you’ll play by taking off clothes, each time you lose you’ll take off a piece of clothing.”
My eyes widened, instinctively I looked at Nick. He was watching me too, surely he expected that when Mark explained the rules of the game, I would back off, but I wouldn’t.
“That’s fine,” I concluded.
I looked at Nick again, who was in front of me. His lips were pursed and I could almost hear him grinding his teeth from here. I smiled in satisfaction, knowing I was bothering him.
“That’s not fair, she only has that dress on,” Nick said.
“We all have three pieces left, Nick,” Mark retorted. “What’s your problem? Why don’t you want her to play? Do you like her?”
He glanced at me for a millisecond and then smirked.
“I couldn’t care less,” he responded.
I felt as though a bucket of icy water had been dumped on me. I froze, stunned. I swallowed back the urge to cry and prepared myself to play.
The first three rounds I won. The remaining three girls were left in their bras and panties.
We were in the fourth round, everyone showed their cards and I lost. I slowly pulled down my dress, feeling no shame, thanks to the powers of alcohol.
The three guys and the spectators started to whistle, I felt quite flattered.
Now everything became more- heated. If any of the girls lost now they had to remove their panties or bra. I was sure that the alcohol in my system wasn’t so much that I would stop caring about that, but I wasn’t going to let Nick win.
Two rounds later, two guys took off their pants. Nick was one of them and I knew he lost on purpose, to annoy me with girls looking at his -package-.
Speaking of, many did and continued to do so. The girl next to him was touching his shoulder and chest. I looked away and, distracted by that idiot, lost the round.
“Okay darling, take something off,” Mark said. I stood up and looked at everyone at the table, expectant.
My gaze met Nick’s, I started to unfasten my bra when he stood up from the chair abruptly and approached me.
He lifted me onto his shoulder. “Hey, mate, what are you doing? This was the best part.”
Nick walked through the crowd, ignoring anything Mark could say.
“You’re very strong,” I said, touching his arms.
I started to laugh, I don’t know why. Was being over Nick’s shoulder amusing to me? At another time, I might have started to hit him and scream. Today it feels great to touch him.
The wind caressed all my skin and suddenly I wanted my clothes back. I felt cold, I even think I started to shiver.
Nick put me on the grass, it took me a few seconds to realize we were in the backyard and there was nobody around.
“Were you going to strip in front of half the university just to make me angry?” Nick shouted.
My laughter stopped and all the anger resurfaced in me.
“So what if I was? Didn’t you say you didn’t care about me?” I replied defensively.
“You were going to look like a whore, if you’re not one already,” he roared.
“You’re a goddamn sexist bastard…”
I pushed him a couple of times, he grabbed my hands and left me motionless. It’s strange to be arguing with him, in the middle of the patio and half-naked.
“Enough, Sam. If you want to argue, we can do it later, now listen carefully, I’m going back inside, I’ll look for our stuff and I’ll take you home, stay here,” he commanded. I stared at him.
“You have nice eyes,” I affirmed.
He relaxed his expression and I thought I saw a small smile. “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”
I nodded my head many times, laughing.
“Stay here, please don’t leave.”
He turned around and went back inside.
When he returned, he was wearing clothes again. He helped me into my dress, took my hand and led me out of the house.
We got to a car, he used his keys to unlock it and he made me get in.
“No! Wait, I left Eva.”
“She’ll know how to manage.”
“But I can’t leave her alone…”
“She’ll be fine.”
He started the car and I settled into the seat.
“I don’t want you to take me to Olivia’s house,” it sounded like a plea.
“You don’t have anywhere else to stay.”
“But I feel alone there, you’re not there.”
His eyes left the front and fixed on me, he was surprised.
“Take me to your house,” I ordered, then started laughing.
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Why not?” I pouted and his eyes fixed on my lips, then back to the front.
“Yesterday, when I kissed you and you started crying, I decided I wouldn’t bother you anymore, Samantha. I’m not good for you and you deserve someone like Aaron by your side, even if it’s hard for me to admit. You were right, I’m a damned misogynist, womanizer, everything bad. I won’t interfere in your life anymore, I’ll leave you alone. I’ll give up on you. I don’t want to see you cry again and I can’t bear it if you do it because of me. You don’t want me with you and I understand that, it sucks and it hurts but I’ll learn to live with it.”
“It’s strange, isn’t it? The person who is perfect for me, who I know will never betray me and will not hurt me, I don’t want. But you, who betrayed me and broke my heart, I want you so unconditionally that it hurts and it’s a shit, but I don’t know if I can live with it,” I don’t know at what point Nick parked the car, but he did and now he had all his attention.
I settled in the seat and fell asleep.