Wife desires are better satisfied without her husband.. The bottle spun around and landed on Kerrie to a loud cheer from all of us. She laughed and waved us away with one hand although I didn’t miss the way her eyes flicked to me. I prayed that she wouldn’t pick me out, trying to convey to her not to do something which would embarrass me, especially with what I had told her earlier in the day about my crush on Leo. I shuddered with the thought of Chris finding out.
“Lizzie”, Kerrie shouted out dramatically, theatrically pointing at me as though she was on her stage, picking out a doomed member of the audience to come up and be humiliated. My heart sank and I tried again to convey my warning through a fixed smile as the others looked over at me.
“You have to sit on Leon’s lap for the rest of the game.”
There was a loud laugh and applause at the dare. We were all sat the edge of our hot tub, the truth or dare game being suggested by someone as we finished up the barbeque and opted to sit in the hot water while the evening quickly fell away. I was suddenly very tired of the game and I realised suddenly that despite it being truth or dare, no one had actually been given the choice between them yet.
Leon smiled at me, not quite comfortable with the group of us yet to say anything outright. He had moved into the house next to us a few weeks previously and, wanting to be good neighbours, we had invited him around. Of course, Chris had wanted to be a good neighbour and if, in doing so, we saw more of the ripped black guy who had moved into our quiet cul-de-sac then who was I to complain about it?
I silently cursed the rest of the group as I stood up, self-consciously pulling down my bikini as I waded across the water. I could hear Chris being goaded by the other men in the pool, his loud, drunken laugh mixing in with theirs. Granted, I wasn’t really thinking about much else has Leo’s large black hands curled around my waist, guiding me down onto his lap.
I’d intended to perch myself at the very edge of his knee but he had guided me a little stronger than I had expected. I made a ridiculously exaggerated falling motion, even as I was being held up by the muscled young guy, drawing another bellowing chorus of laughter from the others. I felt myself blushing deeply with embarrassment and made extra sure not to move at all, even though I was nestled intimately in the curve of his crotch.
I leaned around. “You OK with this? I can move.”
Leo laughed. “No, I’m fine right there if you are?”
Mick’s brash voice boomed out from behind me. “No such an easy escape for you Liz haha!”
The rest laughed out again, the beer making even the lamest of comments seemingly hilarious. I tried not to meet Kerrie’s knowing look, why the hell had I even told her? I never looked forward to these get-togethers. Chris’ friends all worked with him at the office, loud and, most of the time, downright rude people who didn’t fit the quiet accountancy mould which I had assumed Chris was the exception to. Their partners seemed to be exactly the same.