Housewarming 3

"I'm in! I'm in!" Stellar excitedly waved her hand in the air like a flag fluttering against the wind.

Her enthusiasm, however, didn't match the worried look on Holden's face.

"Is this a drinking game?" Holden asked with furrowed brows. The smirk on Cooper's face told him in advance of the answer.

Yep. It was.

"Maybe we can play a few rounds. It's a workday and we don't like to be nursing a hangover on a Tuesday," Yanyan nervously laughed.

The image of her boss firing her in the event she made a mistake due to her insobriety made her back break out in cold sweat.

Since everyone agreed to Cooper's sinister plan, whatever that was, Holden reminded himself to never let his guard down.

Knowing his twin like the back of his hand, Holden knew how Cooper rode the high of playing games with real people as his pawns.

The easy-go-lucky Knight twin might look harmless on the outside, but he wouldn't be sitting beside Audi Knight if he didn't earn it through his ruthlessness in the boardroom.

…

After dinner, the group was sitting outside on the terrace, enjoying the chill tropical night, their bottles of wine kept them company and warmed them up.

On most days and nights, it was warm and humid in the country, however, due to the northeast monsoon drifting down from the wintry Russia and China, temperatures drop around December up to February.

The group soon settled in their seats and Cooper laid down the specifics of the game starting with assigning a number to each person.

Since it was Cooper's idea to play the drinking activity, he was number one.

Irina who sat beside him was two and Yanyan sat beside Irina was three.

Across them, Stellar and Holden sat beside each other on the bench. They were four and five, respectively.

The rules of the game were, a bottle would be spun to know who would start the game by saying 'Pik'. Then, the person to the right would follow-up by saying 'Pak'.

Now, the third person from the right would not say 'boom' as the game's title suggested—Pik Pak Boom, but rather, he or she should say a player's number.

That's where the tricky part of the game was. Most of the time, the third person would say boom instead of a number, and so, the punishment was inevitable.

Everyone brought their A-game and the activity started smoothly, with Cooper and Irina ganging up on Holden, bent on getting him drunk with the couple having different plans in mind.

Cooper wanted to get his twin drunk just because he wanted to. Irina, however, was trying her luck if she could seduce the other Knight twin.

For years since university, Irina had been dating Cooper, on and off, and not once did he introduce her to his parents.

To her, it seemed as though he was just using her as his arm candy and to warm his bed.

She was tired of hanging onto Cooper's arm who's focused on work rather than making things with her official.

That was why in Irina's eyes, Holden was easier to trap into marrying her by getting herself pregnant with his child in the event that Holden gets drunk that night.

There was no way Holden could resist her charms when she was born with a bombshell of a body and a face that could launch a thousand ships. Her three million social media followers could attest to that claim.

Being stuck in the seminary for long, Irina was confident that Holden for sure was easy prey, what with his long dry spell when it came to bedroom matters.

In her mind, this was Irina's chance to snag Holden and be the next madam of the Knight family.

She fought hard to be in the same room as the Knight brothers, and Irina would go to great lengths to bring home the bacon.

So in order for her to come out victorious that night, she targeted Yanyan's number every chance she could. It would then result in Holden becoming the third person to say either a number or loss if he'd say 'boom'.

Unfortunately, every time it was Holden's turn, he would successfully dodge the punishment and call Stellar's number, so Cooper would end up being the person who would either win or end up with a punishment.

Since it was hard to trap Holden, and Cooper was starting to get dizzy, the couple then switched to their new target—Stellar, who was giggling nonstop that night.

They noticed how Holden would often 'help' Stellar, drinking the shot in her stead from time to time.

As the life of the party, Stellar's bubbly demeanor was a sudden one hundred and eighty-degree shift in her personality and could also be attributed to the amount of alcohol she induced as the clock's hand moved closer to midnight.

On Stellar's tenth loss, however, instead of drinking the wine, she accidentally poured it over her chest, wetting her sheer top. It exposed her purple bra underneath.

A grin flitted Cooper's face, not because of the sight, but how he saw Holden deliberately nudged Stellar so she would spill her drink.

Ever the gentleman, Holden immediately peeled off his hoodie and covered Stellar's chest.

"Ooops. Girlfriend, let's go get you changed," Yanyan raised her hand and stood up.

She staggered her way towards Stellar and Holden wasn't sure how one drunk lady would help another drunk lady.

He watched with tent up brows as the besties zigzagged their way back inside, and almost stood up upon seeing Stellar crawling up the flight of stairs while laughing.

…

Inside the master bedroom, Yanyan was facing the vanity and adjusting her hair, tucking in loose strands back in her bun.

"Have you noticed it?" Stellar uttered, her tone had a hint of gossip to it.

Yanyan's ears doubled in its size and she took rushed strides to Stellar. "What? Is this Irina?"

Stellar nodded her head. "So it's not just me? I thought it was the wine."

"Nooooo noooo," Yanyan swatted her hand in the air. "I was sitting beside her. How could I not notice?"

"I mean… She wouldn't stop staring at Holden," Stellar gritted through her teeth, feeling protective of the innocent ex-deacon.

Girls like Irina who knew how pretty they were could sometimes be aggressive.

At first, Stellar felt it was just curiosity on Irina's part, but Stellar's women's instinct kicked in when she noticed how Irina was dismissing Cooper that night.

On a few occasions, she would shut down anything that Cooper would say but instantly fawned over when Holden expressed his opinion.

"Don't worry, Stel," Yanyan reassured her friend and squared her shoulders. Her entire character changed as if she was gearing up for battle. "Let's protect our national treasure tonight."

"Yes, yes," Stellar agreed, bobbing her head. "But take care of him if I pass out before you."

Eh? Yanyan's face scrunched as she regarded Stellar who had a faint blush on her cheeks.

She was not a stranger to her college buddy's caramel skin blushing red every time alcohol entered her bloodstream.

"Ok. But don't drink too much, Stel. We have work tomorrow. We need to be responsible adults. Okay?" She clamped a hand on Stellar's shoulders.

Linking arms with Yanyan, Stellar giggled and dragged her friend out. "I'll try," she lied.

It had been a long time since she last got drunk. She missed the feeling of the freedom it brought to her.

Plus, she was in her home.

What could go possibly wrong, right?