“You might be right about that.” Libby chewed on her lip as she counted out the price for Pacific Avenue. “I think I am going to try out for track and field. I like to run.” Tony stiled for a moment and raked his eyes over her the length of her body. “Yeah.” His voice was a little huskier than normal. “I could see that. You definitely have the legs for it.”
Just remembering the appraising way his eyes had settled on her legs where they were stretched out along the edge of his bed was enough that she could feel a blush rising to her cheeks.
Every now and then Tony would smile at her. Like when she told him that she remembered what a good story teler he had been as a kid, and that journalism sounded like a good idea. It was not the I love my life easy-going-Tony smile she was used to. It felt like a new only-for-Libby smile. When Libby could no longer hold back her yawns they checked the time; it was actualy early morning and Tony had long ago missed The Top Ten.
“Should we cal it a draw? Or see who has the most cash?” Tony smiled slyly and Libby knew exactly what he was up to.
“No way Marchetti! I have 3 monopolies! You might have more cash but a few more turns around the board and it wil al be mine! Nothing doing – we can finish tomorrow.”
“How do I know you won’t cheat during the night?” Tony played along with mock outrage. So they carefuly wrote down who owned what and their cash totals and they even went to the extreme of carrying the board to the garage and locking it inside. When the door was locked and the key solemnly slid underneath Mr. and Mrs.
Marchetti’s bedroom door (for safekeeping) the hilarity of it Marchetti’s bedroom door (for safekeeping) the hilarity of it al (compounded by the fact that it was now almost 2:00 in the morning) over took them and they exploded into giggles. Giggles! Anthony Marchetti actualy giggled!
Libby grinned at the memory.
When they caught their breath Tony walked her back to her room, his room realy, and for one excruciatingly long moment things got weird again. Exciting weird. At the door to his room she turned to say goodnight, and found him only inches away from her. With one arm braced against the door frame over her shoulder he leaned in and was so close she could almost taste his breath. It occurred to her that if she arched into him even a little bit she would feel his hard chest against her body. And after eight summers of beach vacations with him she had a true appreciation of his upper body.
“This was fun. You know, Libby, I think this is the first time we have ever played together. We should do it again.” His voice went al husky and low. Was he flirting with her? No, he couldn’t be— but stil this was new.
“We can finish the game tomorrow, and we play scrabble al the time at the beach.” Scrabble was a Marchetti family vacation staple. Tony looked almost confused for a moment, and then his smile returned. Not the only-for-Libby smile, but the old friendly smile.
“‘Night Lib.” Tony straightened up, reached out to open the door behind her, and turned and walked down the hal. For one fantasy moment she had thought Tony had actualy been about to kiss her. Even though she was exhausted it took her a very long time to drift off to sleep that night, and she nearly slept through Mrs. Marchetti’s huevos rancheros the next morning.
The next night instead of sitting on the bed Tony wheeled in his father’s office chair. It made the smal room even smaler, and Libby felt a certain loss at sitting on the bed alone. “I must be getting too old to sit up al night with no back support.” Tony joked as he settled into the chair.
For just one fleeting second she thought she saw him look sort of longingly at the empty space on the bed.
Monopoly lasted three more nights, with Tony holding on through stupid barters, and desperate trades.
Honestly Libby purposely let him make those stupid barters just to drag out the game, but somehow she had the feeling that he knew what she was up to and he didn’t seem to that he knew what she was up to and he didn’t seem to mind. Every now and then his voice would drop an octave and tease her in that new way that made her heart leap, but there were no more moments when she could taste his breath. No more is he going to kiss me goodnights. Each night they locked up the board as if it were the most important game of monopoly in the history of games of monopoly, and each night Libby lay awake far too long afterwards reliving each word, and each smile.
On Friday night Tony finaly, albeit grudgingly, admitted his utter defeat in monopoly. This seemed a little convenient since she was going home the next day.
“Libby?” Tony took a deep breath. “Libby, did you realy like those stories I used to tel? When we were kids?”