"Yusuf. Three."

"Already?"

"No way!"

Hal dropped his hand of cards on the carpet and chugged the rest of his hot chocolate. "I'm never playing with you again." His cards summed to a total of 40, knocking him past the agreed 100-mark.

Anderson grinned.

"This is why we shouldn't play straights. I want a rematch without straights!" I gathered the rest of the cards and started reshuffling them.

"Oh naive Claira, you and I both know that won't make a difference." Anderson sipped his earl grey without dropping his grin for a second. "Besides, that would be cheating, wouldn't it? Straights are in the official rules. Are you saying you need to cheat just to defeat me?"

I glowered at him. "But straights are just luck!"

"My score of 18 doesn't look like luck to me."

Hal and I stare at our scores pitifully--107 and 96, respectively.

"Sweet Hal, I have a gift for you." Anderson beckoned at him the way you might beckon a pet who had just destroyed the couch.

Hal squeezed his eyes shut and held out his arm. Anderson grabbed it in one hand and swung his other hand like a baseball pitcher, his middle and fore fingers eventually branishing against Hal's wrist with an excruciatingly loud slap!

As Hal rocked himself on the ground, dramatically hissing at his new wound, I got up to get more marshmallows from the kitchen. Beyond the pitch blackness of the windows, I could hear the gentle lapping waves on the beach. Maybe we can do a bonfire one of these days. It would have to be after the Orchid Daze though.

"Is it really midnight already?" Anderson glanced at his phone, but Hal smacked it out of his hand before he could unlock it.

"No phones at the sleepover. And don't pretend like you didn't plan on sleeping over either. I saw how big your backpack was.

Anderson ignored him and languidly reached out to retrieve his catapulted mobile. The two of them have been visiting me every other week since I ran into Hal in Copenhagen, and one way or another, they've managed to sleep over every single time.

"I can't believe you're paying rent just to spend half your time at my place, Anderson."

Anderson propped himself up onto his elbows and cocked his head at me. "You're right. At this rate, I might as well move in." He grinned. "You can even charge me for rent if you want."

"Ew!" Hal stabbed a bare foot into Anderson's side, effectively pushing him over. "Stop flirting with Claire! She's married, you know!"

Anderson huffed without flipping himself back upright. "It wasn't even like that."

We played six more rounds before Hal lost again, and Anderson had to chase him upstairs to get his slap. Seeing how it had gotten late, I cleaned up our mugs and followed them upstairs where they were wrestling on the bed like a couple of lion cubs.

"Save me, Claira!" Hal stumbled half off the bed and latched onto me just as Anderson started pulling on his legs. "Please, Anderson, aies pitié! I'm but a poor old soul!"

I let them pull me onto the bed in the midst of their ridiculous battle. Anderson couldn't get enough leverage to hit Hal, so he insisted on laying on top of him--because "Maybe he'll suffocate." Hal wouldn't let me leave because me not saving him caused the trouble he was in. Needless to say, none of us slept very well that night.