Playing Flirty

by Shameez Patel

Genres: Contemporary Romance; Romantic Comedy; Workplace Romance

Synopsis

The game is on for two nerds who love to outplay each other . . . even when their hearts are on the line, in this charming and geeky romantic comedy perfect for fans of Olivia Dade and Jen DeLuca.
 
For Rose Marie Jones, risks are a hard no . . . except for Game Night. For one precious evening a week, Rose can forget about her meticulously tracked life plan, her demanding boss, and her lackluster sex life and focus on beating the pants off her friends. But none of them brings out her hyper-competitive side quite like William Ashdern.

Her best friend’s half-brother, William is the paragon of a sexy nerd. The tall, dork, and handsome game designer is Rose’s playing nemesis. But when Rose decides to enter a contest with the board game she’s secretly invented, there’s only one person who can help her win. Now what has always been a game between Rose and William is getting a lot more serious. And after spending her entire life just trying not to lose, Rose might finally be ready risk it all . . . and play to win.

Release date: January 14, 2025

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Print pages: 336

Sample

If life was a game, I’d made a wrong turn.

In my constant effort to achieve everything on my Life Goals spreadsheet, I ended up taking on too much work and enrolling in a postgraduate business course that I had very little interest in.

Which is why I was sitting in my office finishing up a mind-numbingly boring report while the sunset’s orange glow smeared itself across my desk.

Shaun, my office mate, wheeled over to me from his desk, his backpack zipped up and balanced on his lap. “Come to game night.”

If it weren’t for this report I would, and he knew that. Game night was my favorite night of the week. The only time I could forget about work, forget about my goals, and play board games. And at least half the time, I’d win.

“You’re not usually this persistent,” I huffed out and tucked a strand of my wavy black hair behind my ear.

An email notification popped up. I navigated to my inbox. More promotional mail.

One day I would print out all these emails and bury myself under their weight as punishment for signing up to so many newsletters.

Shaun scrutinized my laptop screen. “You’re not even working,” he said and shuddered. “For someone who lives her life via spreadsheets, your inbox is a nightmare.”

He was right, and sorting through it was one of the items on my growing to-do list. Once something was on the list, it had to be done. That was the rule I’d set for myself.

“Organized chaos.” I closed the window before spinning around and studying him. “This is the third time you’re asking, and the answer hasn’t changed: I have deadlines to meet.”

He met my gaze, and his golden brows jumped toward each other. After years of working together and playing games every Wednesday night, I knew all his tells.

“I’ll help you with your deadlines,” he said. “But you need to be there tonight.”

“What’s happening tonight?”

He broke eye contact and pushed himself back until his chair knocked against his desk. He hopped up and ran a hand through his blond hair, tugging as he reached the ends. “Rose Marie Jones,” he said.

He only used my full name when he was scolding me or about to tell me something big. I took a deep breath as I anticipated his next words. “Shaun Henry Ashdern,” I replied, mimicking his tone.

He nodded, gearing up for his big confession, but then shook his head. The bright fluorescent lights of the office threw a shadow along the lines of his forehead while he fumbled his words. “I’m proposing to Neema and you’re our best friend and I need you there,” he rambled off.

My ears perked at his words, and a number of squeals escaped me. I barreled into him.

He steadied us and chuckled. “I take it you approve? I know you had your engagement scheduled before ours, but… I can’t wait. I love her. I just—”

“Of course, you fool.” I pushed him away, trying to think of something better to say, but there weren’t words to express my joy or the strange curdling sensation in my stomach that I chose to ignore. “I’m updating my Life Goals spreadsheet anyway. That deadline has come and gone.” I offered him a smile, hoping it seemed as genuine as I wanted it to be. “I am so happy for you, but I wish you’d told me sooner. I could have helped you plan something.”

“I ordered flowers?” he said as though it were a question. “And I couldn’t rely on you keeping this a secret. Rose, you’re terrible with secrets.”

I shrugged, not bothering to deny it.

“But I am relying on you for everything else,” he continued. “We have an hour and a half, so let’s grab all the party supplies you keep in your desk drawer and get out of this place.”

Shaun wasted no time dragging me out of the office. The sea breeze from the San Diego Bay was pleasant against my skin as we stepped outside, and I hurried to match his long stride.

Within fifteen minutes, we reached his upscale apartment.

He unlocked the door and skipped into the living room. His excitement was finally overriding his nerves. He spun around at the same time my phone pinged.

“I don’t trust you,” he said, extending his hand palm up and wiggling his fingers.

I narrowed my eyes and clawed my phone from the depths of chaos, also known as my backpack. Neema’s name flashed across my notifications. Before I could consider replying, Shaun snatched my phone. He walked into the adjacent kitchen and placed it on top of the refrigerator. His cheeky smile mimicked mine.

The click of a door opening drew my attention. William, Shaun’s half brother and my number one gaming nemesis, walked out of his bedroom and settled on the gray couch like a dark cloud. He stretched out his long pajama-clad legs and leaned back before lifting a controller and resuming the game that had been paused.

“Hobbit,” he said, his voice gruff and rarely used except to antagonize me.

I trudged toward him and scowled in his direction even though he wasn’t looking at me. I was sure he could feel it, based on the smirk threatening at the corner of his mouth.

While I was proud of my hobbit height, and even cosplayed as a hobbit not once but twice—despite having never seen a brown-skinned hobbit on-screen—I still didn’t like the way he said it, which was every single time since Shaun first introduced us.

“William.” I gave him a sickeningly sweet smile before stepping in front of him and blocking his view. “Could you please remove yourself and change into your formal pajama pants?”

Teasing William was one of the games I liked to play.

“My formal pajamas?” He hit pause and met my gaze. A familiar mask settled over his almost-black eyes, making him impossible to read. “What’s the occasion? Is Gandalf coming for tea?”

Teasing me was one of his.

I crossed my arms and made a dramatic show of rolling my eyes. “Oh, stop being so bitter because I beat you last week.”

“One time.” One of his dark eyebrows cocked upward. “What of the three weeks before that? Need I remind you of that time you—”

A whoosh of air escaped me before he could retell my most embarrassing loss. “Don’t start with that. You’re picking a fight.”

“Ah, babe, I’m a lover not a fighter.” He winked at me and then returned his focus to his game despite me standing right in front of the TV.

Everything William said was measured to get the biggest reaction out of me.

And it always worked.

I stomped over to my backpack and grabbed the bunting before climbing onto the other couch. “Don’t call me babe,” I snapped, irritation still burning through my veins. William had a way of getting under my skin when he wanted to. Which was often.

My foot sank in between the cushions, and I wiggled it loose.

“Where is our Perfect Patrick this evening?” William’s tone dripped sarcasm from directly behind me.

He leaned close and took the end of the bunting from my outstretched fingers before sticking it against the wall. I hadn’t even heard him get up.

“He’ll be here,” I said, hoping my boyfriend would see my text and arrive in time.

I hopped off the couch and met Shaun in the kitchen, where he was messily—and frantically—icing cupcakes.

“Could you maybe make a pot of coffee? Or tea? She prefers coffee, right?”

It was clear Shaun needed reassurance.

“You know what she likes. Stop panicking.” I pushed him aside and handed him a broom. “I’ll take over here. Go be useful somewhere far away from the kitchen. Sweep the balcony.”

His smile reappeared, and he bounced away, resembling an eager golden retriever. There was no one more cheerful and good-natured than him.

While he was out of sight, I climbed the counter and retrieved my phone from atop the refrigerator. Glancing at it, I sighed. No reply from Patrick. I dialed his number, and it rang a few times. No answer. He couldn’t miss game night tonight—he couldn’t miss my best friends’ engagement.

“All this setting up would go much faster if we didn’t have guests standing around playing on their phones.” William’s deep voice reached across the living room as he packed away his controllers. “Shaun should have placed it higher.”

In the time I’d looked away, he’d also managed to hang the other banner.

I shoved my phone into my pocket. “I can climb anything.”

William straightened, and his mouth kicked up on one side to reveal the mischievous smirk he wore far too easily. “Good to know.”

Wicked man.

I grumbled and slid off the counter, landing on the floor at the same time William stepped into the kitchen carrying an empty glass. He stopped inches away from slamming into me. I craned my neck and looked up at him. His height always took me by surprise.

William was tall—like really tall. Thor-tall, except Shaun was the blue-eyed, blond-haired brother. William’s eyes were dark, nearly as dark as his black hair and long eyelashes, and probably as dark as his soul.

“Where’s Sexy Stacey?” I took a few steps back and picked up the almost-empty piping bag as Shaun came back inside.

William’s eyebrows drew together, and the line dividing them deepened. There was a shadow cast across his irises, but I imagined them going a shade darker.

“We broke up.” He gave a half shrug, placed the glass on the counter, and turned on his heel before walking across the living room to his bedroom.

“Aaaah,” Shaun groaned, stumbling to lean against the kitchen island. “Forgot to tell you she’s been hooking up with her manager, and when William called her out, she said some nasty things to him and blamed him for a bunch of stuff that wasn’t his fault.”

“Maybe it was true.” As soon as I said the words, I regretted them.

Shaun raised an eyebrow in warning.

William reappeared holding a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, his eyes narrowed as they always did before he said something snarky. But Shaun raised a hand, silencing him, and gestured for him to join us.

“What now?” William asked.

Shaun released a long sigh. “Since the two of you can’t communicate like adults unless it’s a game, tonight’s game is: Play nice and don’t ruin my proposal or I am going to kill you both.”

William was shaking his head at the same time I’d started nodding.

Play nice. I could do that. I could win that.

“Sure.” I flashed William my nicest smile.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Shaun said, pointing at my face. “Now you.” He looked over at his brother.

William only sighed. A quick eye roll let me know I’d won this round.

My best friend and roommate had a habit of knowing everything—which is probably why Neema arrived carrying a two-tier cake.

She placed the vanilla-frosted cake on the table and straightened to her full height, only a couple inches shorter than Shaun. The dark brown skin of her legs contrasted beautifully with the hem of her yellow summer dress. Her short, black, curly hair bounced around her smiling face.

The second she reached me, she leaned in for a hug and whispered, “I’m going to say yes.”

“Uh, duh,” I whispered back.

I peeked over her shoulder at Shaun, who’d been scratching his blond hair every few seconds—a nervous tic I’d noticed during meetings. The poor man would be bald on one side by his midthirties.

“Wanted you to be the first one to know.” She let go of me and threw herself into her soon-to-be fiancé’s arms.

I pressed my lips together tightly to keep from grinning—until William interrupted it.

“She’s going to say no,” he whispered.

How did he get next to me without making any sound? Not a single creak. Maybe niceness was what weighed regular people down.

I closed my eyes—my patience-o-meter for William’s nonsense had reached capacity. “You know they’re happy. Why are you being such a wet blanket?”

“Love is temporary. Why would anyone pretend otherwise?”

I looked up at him, ready to hit him or curse, but he stared down at me with his shoulders slumped and his gaze dropping from mine to his feet. The smirk that usually resided on his mouth was nowhere to be seen.

Putting my daggers away, I managed a gentle, “Sorry about Stace.”

He shrugged and ran his hands over his face while exhaling. “It’s okay. Wasn’t serious.”

“Do I get a point for being nice?” I teased, and when his dimple reappeared, I counted it as a victory.

“Half a point, maybe.”

He followed me to the door as Claire and Lincoln—a best-friend duo Neema and I had met during our university days—arrived.

Lincoln walked inside carrying two bags that I knew were filled with sweetmeats made especially for me by his mother. I could already taste my favorite cardamom-spiced shortbread cookie. As he passed me, he touched my shoulder gently in greeting, which was miles more than he used to do when we first met.

Unlike Claire, who I’d hit it off with within seconds of meeting. She stumbled in and wrapped her arms around me.

“A hug?” I exclaimed.

“Don’t get used to it. I’m just excited.” She released me, and her grin matched mine.

The sharp sound of Shaun’s whistle officially started game night.

“Let’s play,” he said, swallowing hard and plastering a smile on his reddened face.

Each week, one of us picked a game. Then we’d signal the start of game night with our own personalized call. Shaun used a whistle. Neema whistled too, but used her fingers in her mouth, like an angry sports coach. Claire used one of her kid’s old squeaky toys, and Lincoln’s call was the Super Mario Bros. theme song.

I started every gaming session by beatboxing the first few seconds of the Star Wars opening song, much to everyone’s displeasure.

William joined us most of the time but pretended he wasn’t part of our group. He never picked a game or had a call, but I imagined he’d initialize game night by sighing about it.

We chose our tokens while Shaun set up the Monopoly board. He offered me a wink, knowing the game was one of my favorites. It took patience and planning—two of my strengths. Regardless of the theme or version, the rules were the same, and there were no surprises.

We settled in as if it were any other night with laughter filling the air.

I hopped up to my knees and extended my palm as William landed on one of my properties. “Money, please,” I said to him with a wiggle of my eyebrows.

“It doesn’t reflect well on you that you’re good at this capitalism-inspired game,” he grumbled and handed over his colorful paper money.

Shaun cleared his throat, interrupting the comeback I had lingering on my tongue. He cleared his throat again, louder now, until everyone turned their attention to him. If I hadn’t known what was about to happen, I would have thought he was sick.

“Neema.” Shaun scratched the side of his head again. “This is the… uhm… Lord of the Rings–themed Monopoly. Lord of the Rings. Or one ring. Like the one precious ring, like rings are important.” Shaun’s blue eyes darted back and forth between Neema and his own hands.

Up, down, up, down—watching the speed of his moving pupils made me dizzy.

“I love you,” Neema said, stroking his bicep. “Come on, ask me. I’ve prepared my best way to say yes, and it doesn’t involve discussing Gollum.”

“Bit of a mean way to refer to Rose,” William chimed in from across the board.

I bit down on my lip, barely suppressing the giggle trying to escape. He knew as well as anyone that I appreciated a good Lord of the Rings reference, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction or ruin this moment for my two best friends.

Shaun hobbled down onto one knee in front of Neema and gulped. “Will you marry me?”

A beautiful smile spread across Neema’s face before she leaned down and kissed him on the mouth. She slid off the couch and into his arms before whispering something in his ear that only he could hear.

Shaun’s face burst into a smile.

The warmth of joy spread across every part of me. Pulling out my phone to take a photo of them, I couldn’t help noticing Patrick hadn’t replied to my text. He hadn’t even read it. My chest tightened but I ignored it. My best friends were getting married, and that’s all that mattered.

With shaking hands, Shaun slipped the princess-cut diamond onto Neema’s slender finger. She turned to me, showing it off, and I pulled her in for a hug. Claire joined us, and I figured we had thirty to forty seconds before the three of us became blubbering messes. It didn’t take much to make us cry, and when one of us cried, we all did.

After two generous slices of cake, I joined Shaun and Neema on the balcony and congratulated them once more.

“We couldn’t have done it without you,” Neema said, squeezing my arm. “Thank you.”

My eyes prickled with tears.

“Patrick working late?” she asked, nudging her shoulder against mine.

I nodded.

She sighed in the way she did whenever Patrick didn’t show up. “Do you want me to give you a ride home? I’d give you my car, but I have an early morning meeting I have to get to.”

Neema and I usually drove home together, or Patrick would pick me up. But with Shaun’s arm curled around her waist and his eyes glistening with adoration, I couldn’t bear to pull her away from him.

“No.” I blew out a sigh. “You stay. I’ll take the bus or call a taxi. I’m a big girl.”

“Based on the facts we are presented with,” William said, walking onto the balcony and lifting his hand high, then lowering it until it was about level with the top of my head, “that is not true.”

I shot him a death stare.

His brows popped up before he ran a hand through his dark, tousled hair. Permanent bedhead that was impossible to tame. “I could give you a ride. I’m on my way out,” he said.

“Ten points to William!” Shaun cheered.

Neema giggled in his grip.

I groaned but William only grinned, exposing his deep dimple. “Come on, Rose, I don’t have all night.”

My name sounded foreign on his tongue, startling me. Grabbing my things, I gave Shaun and Neema one last hug and followed William downstairs to the parking garage. I looked for the latest GTI in crisp white and assumed it was his.

He climbed in and opened the passenger door from the inside. Then he stared at me while I reached for my seat belt like I was the strangest thing in existence. Not unusual for him.

“What?” I bit out, struggling with the belt.

“Why didn’t you take your backpack off?”

Admittedly, I’d forgotten because I was thinking about how we’d barely ever been alone together. But now it was too late, and I had to commit to keeping the backpack on. I turned my attention to the problematic latch and struggled for a few seconds. It wasn’t clicking in.

Leaning over, he took the buckle from me and snapped it into place. His pine and lavender scent washed over me before he pulled away.

“Thanks,” I said with an internal curse. Bested by a seat belt in front of my nemesis.

He rubbed the back of his neck and blew out a short breath before starting the car. It came alive with a deep rumble that shook my bones. Pulling out of the garage, he took the corner faster than I’d anticipated, leaving part of my insides somewhere before the bend.

“This isn’t Need for Speed!”

A breathy laugh escaped him, but his hands stayed flexed around the steering wheel and his eyes fixed on the road.

“Where are you off to?” I asked to fill the silence.

“Nowhere interesting,” he replied, which was probably code for meeting a girl.

In all the time I’d known William, he was rarely short of a date.

With that thought, I took out my phone and scrolled to Patrick’s name. There I found a text with a promise of dinner and a movie on Friday night. I gnawed on my lip, wanting to curb my enthusiasm.

William glanced over, his eyes falling on my lit-up phone. Disdain returned to his features, and he turned on the radio, surrounding us with smooth classic rock. The unread email notifications called for my attention, and I sifted through them with one subject heading standing out from all the rest:

Calling All Board Game Creators: Original Board Game Submissions Now Open

My heart zoomed. My finger hovered over the bolded text, but before my thoughts could run to the dream hidden in the corner of my mind, the car stopped.

“We’re here,” William said.

Pulled out of my daze, I glanced down at the email and exited the app. No way. I can’t think about that.

William hit the unlock button. “Out, out, out, loser. I’ve got places to be.”

I released the seat belt—successfully—and glared at him. “Loser? I won at Monopoly.”

“And I won at”—he curled his fingers into air quotes—

“‘Playing Nice.’”

A chuckle teased, and I stepped out of the car into the cold air. “That’s not a real game.”

“Oh, don’t be a sore loser,” he said with a wink.

“I’ll win next time,” I said and closed the door before he could reply.

But the window slid down.

Crossing my arms, I waited for whatever it was he wanted to say.

William leaned over, making eye contact with me before his signature smirk returned. “Game on.”

Dinner and a movie was revised to just dinner. Then, due to a marketing-related emergency—whatever that meant—our entire date was reduced to “I’ll bring dessert. Love you.”

In Patrick’s defense, he arrived with backup in the form of chocolate chip cookies. He knew the way to my heart was through chocolate and sugar, and he got the expensive, buttery ones that melted on my tongue.

“How were your meetings?” I asked, popping an entire cookie into my mouth.

The second the words left my lips, Patrick launched into describing each moment in excruciating detail, as if leading up to the climax of his favorite movie.

“They loved the pitch. I could have stopped mid-presentation and we’d still have won the contract.” His familiar green eyes lit up in a way they only did when he spoke about work. But, stopping suddenly, his cheeks reddened, and he cut himself off—something he did frequently when he was too excited. “How was your day? I’m sorry I missed the proposal and messed up our date again.”

Sighing, he twirled his fingers through my long black hair.

“No, tell me more about the meeting. Marketing sounds more exciting than investment plans.”

“Ah, babe, it is.” He leaned back onto the couch and draped an arm around me.

I inhaled his fresh minty scent and blew out a quiet breath. “Sometimes I think it’s time to switch careers, but what would I switch to? I’m an investment analyst, that’s all I know. I’d just go and do it elsewhere.” Anxiety and despondency settled in my stomach, and I reached for another cookie to replace that feeling with sugar.

“What are you passionate about? Except board games. Do not say board games.”

And now that was all I could think about.

“There’s actually a competition happening at the moment, and the winning game will be produced into an actual board game that gets sold in stores and played by real people everywhere.” I was aware of my voice increasing in pitch, but I couldn’t help it. “There’s a decent cash prize too and—”

“Be serious.” He shook his head with a small smile.

His tone pinched at my chest and clipped my sentence.

“You used to like board games,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, but we were students. Everyone was playing Risk and Explosive Kittens and whatever.”

Exploding Kittens. I didn’t bother correcting him.

He lifted my chin and met my gaze. His eyes held an expression that said, Please don’t turn this into a thing.

“Where do you picture yourself five years from now?” he asked.

Now, that was a question I had an answer to. I slipped out of his grasp and grabbed my laptop.

“Oh, here it comes.” He laughed, rubbing his hands along his beige c. . .