In which your humble narrator decides to merge worlds...
Step-Something III
3 - 1. Party Favors
When Sophie arrived at Ben's apartment, about half of the party guests were already present. She deposited the bottle of wine she'd brought with the others, and filled a glass from one that was already open.
Beside Ben, she knew no one except for Stephen and Jasmine, whom she'd met briefly. Stephen was a classmate of Ben's. He was dark-skinned, with shaven head and merry, dark eyes. Jasmine, his girlfriend, was shorter and darker than her partner, though her eyes sparkled much like his.
Rose had golden hair, freckles, and pretty green eyes. She was perhaps the most casually dressed, in green crop tee and cutoffs so short they were more like denim panties, while her friend Heather was the least casual, in a green body-hugging dress with gold-framed glasses and a gold cross around her neck. She had auburn hair, and the dress's U neck showed a couple of inches of gracefully-lifted curves.
Ben was preparing the first game when the final arrivals rang the doorbell. Yui and Amanda were Ben's next-door neighbors, and they came armed with vegetarian snacks, since they were certain he would have nothing that was meat free.
Yui was a petite Asian woman in glasses, with short dark hair. Amanda was only slightly taller than her, with an olive complexion and ready smile. "He only invited us so that we wouldn't complain about the noise," she told the room.
That was unlikely, Sophie knew. These apartments were expensive and large, and there was very little chance of sound being a problem. That also meant that the women were probably not college students. Ben's accommodation was atypical for a student, as was Sophie's.
~~~~~
When they all had drinks and some had sampled the vegetarian snacks, everyone sat around the large dining table.
"I hope y'all realize," Ben began, affecting a Western drawl, "that the games ain't gonna be G-rated. If you get to the point that you're uncomfortable, there ain't no shame in opting out. You can watch, or leave, if it's too much, and that's fine. It won't go beyond strippin' an' kissin', but if that's too much for you, you can say no at any time. Okay?"
Everyone nodded. He must have warned them when he invited them. He hadn't warned Sophie, probably because, well, she wouldn't expect anything less. The other guests' levels of enthusiasm varied, though. Where Rose and Jasmine were grinning, Rose's friend Heather looked nervous.
Stephen was beaming, but as he was one of only two men playing naughty games with six women, Sophie figured that was understandable.
"First game is embarrassing in a different way," Ben said, having dropped the drawl. "Who all here hasn't played Cards Against Humanity?"
Yui and Amanda had not. Heather said, "I have, once, but it isn't my favorite game."
Ben quickly explained the rules, which were simple enough, and the game got off to a quick start. Heather, in spite of claiming not to like the game, did remarkably well at finding funny combinations, beginning with "My plan for world domination begins with slowly easing down onto a cucumber," and she took the winning round with "During sex I like to think about Finding Waldo."
"Does winning mean I'm a horrible person?" she asked Ben. She was clearly happy to have won the game.
"Sure does," he replied. "So why do you hate it so much?"
"I got so embarrassed the last time I played," she said. "I played a card that had everyone rolling on the floor." Her cheeks had colored. "Listen, I really, really did not know what bukkake meant."
Most of the table burst out laughing.
"You do now?" Stephen asked.
"Never, ever, ever google a Cards Against Humanity card," she replied.
Sophie had been considering Heather a little aloof, and likely something of a killjoy, with her dislike of the card game, but this confession took some courage, and she was clearly willing to laugh at herself. Sophie's estimation of the girl climbed, though the dress and the cross both still gave her pause.
~~~~~
After putting the cards away, Ben moved everyone into the living room. Rose and Heather took the large couch, and Sophie joined them, leaving the love seat for Yui and Amanda, Ben taking one chair and Stephen and Jasmine sharing the other. Then he passed around a delivery menu for chicken wings. Yui and Amanda looked at each other and nodded. Everyone else checked off choices of dip. After he'd called in the order, he announced the next game.
"Until the food arrives, we'll play hunt the thimble," he said.
Stephen jeered at that, and Jasmine said, "What the fuck?"
Ben laid his phone on a glass end table, and took a small object from his pocket, which Sophie saw to be the Monopoly hat playing piece when he set it beside the phone. "One of us is going to be the hunter," he said. "Another of us is going to hide the thimble somewhere on their body, and the hunter has to find it. You're not allowed to say hot or cold unless the hunter is actively searching someone. The person they're searching isn't allowed to give instructions or to inhibit the search in any way."
At that the naysayers started to grin. It wasn't hunt the thimble, it was
sexy
hunt the thimble.
Ben brought up an app on his phone. He pushed a button and it made swishing sounds, which slowed. Then he showed everyone the screen. On it, a bottle pointed to an avatar labelled "Rose." There were seven other avatars, each with the name of a guest, plus Ben's own. "You, Rose, are the hunter. Would you go back into the dining room?"
"Who's the victim?" she asked.
"You get to figure that out." He made a shooing motion and she stepped through the door and closed it behind her.
Ben pressed the phone and it made its swishing sounds again. When it had stopped, he picked up the Monopoly hat and handed it to Sophie.
"Oh, great," she said. After a moment's thought, she slipped the hat into the back pocket of her shorts.
Jasmine let Rose back into the room, tied a scarf around her eyes, then turned her around a few times to disorient her. She felt around until she'd found Amanda, then at the cries of "cold," moved on to Yui, then to Stephen. After that she seemed to be more able to orientate herself, finding the couch and feeling her way along to Heather.
Since she was getting "warmer," she felt around Heather some before moving on. Heather turned pink as Rose felt along her legs and around her shoulders, but her embarrassment didn't last long as Rose decided she wasn't "warm" enough and sought a new target.
Sophie had expected some groping. What she hadn't expected was Ben's calling out "warmer" and "hot" and "scalding" whenever Rose's hands got close to her chest. Stephen joined in, and then Amanda, leading Rose to squeeze the front of Sophie's tee, then get her fingers inside its neckline and down into her bra. Jasmine had slid off Stephen's lap and was laughing uproariously on the floor. Yui grinned at Sophie's discomfiture.
Heather was watching in horrified fascination, her cheeks flaming. Trying to hold her eyes, Sophie grunted, "Someone
please
give her better directions?"
Heather darted a glance at her eyes, but shook her head slightly. It was Amanda who finally switched from deception to correction, and it took Rose a few moments to reorient herself, until she ran her hands over Sophie's torso until she found the center of "hot" by squeezing her ass.
That located the "thimble," and a moment later Rose had gotten it out of Sophie's pocket and was holding it in the air.
Everyone cheered at that, including Heather. Sophie called out, "I feel like you should have bought me dinner and flowers first!"
Rose said, "Give me your number and I will next time."
Heather was frowning at Rose. Was she jealous? Sophie wondered if she and Rose were a couple. She hadn't had that impression.
