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The red figurine lay out the board and green got everyone drinks, yellow distributed cards and blue sat coolly and waited for everything to be ready, but the game had begun long before the first pass of the dice – counterclockwise.

Klarissa couldn’t believe she’d rolled snake eyes again.  I’m never going to get anywhere with such small numbers.  It’s not that I need to win, I’m perfectly capable of losing gracefully, I just feel ridiculous being this far behind.  She leaned forward carefully to take up her red piece (crimson she called it) and counted the two paces, bringing her no closer to the other three figurines.  Alright, Klarissa, maintain your posture, keep your shoulders straight, set it gently without a sound, keep your elbows off the table . . .well done!  She smiled at her own accomplishment, looking up through carefully separated eyelashes to see if Brian was noticing how sophisticated she was being.  He wasn’t looking.  No matter.
They had been seeing each other for almost six months and Klarissa was sure he was the one.  He never said so, but she was sure he loved her.  It was in the calculated way he asked what she was doing all the time and how he carefully considered where they would go.  He had a purpose in everything he did.  That’s what I need in my life, a man with direction.  Someone I can count on for a lifetime.
The dice continued to roil in her hand, her meticulously braided blonde hair slipping over her delicate shoulder when she finally remembered to toss them.  We’d make such a perfect pair.  We could be affluent, well liked, connected . . .and all without even trying.  A five and a one.  Posture. . .shoulders . . .gently . . .elbows.  Klarissa counted the six paces, and passed the dice counterclockwise, lovingly stroking Brian’s knuckles as he took them from her.

Brian didn’t know how he managed to hold his hand steady while Klarissa worshiped it.  Women are so flippin’ needy all the time!  Every single one of them!  He’d been surprised that day to find out just how needy they could be.  Normally he could count on his other girlfriend to give him space but this time she’d turned petulant when he’d refused to go across town to a club with her.  What the hell was I supposed to say? “Sorry babe, I’m gonna go play board games at my other girlfriend’s apartment!”  That’s the last time I’d get it on in her bedroom.
Brian was notorious for balancing two or three girlfriends at a time, and everyone seemed to know - except the girls in question, that is.  While most guys referred to their “little black book” as an imaginary place to store as many girls’ numbers as possible, Brian’s black, leather-bound journal contained everything he needed to know to keep his women separated: where they went, what they liked to do, places they knew to find him.  Of course they can’t ever just be predictable, he threw the dice onto the table in frustration, they keep showing up in places they shouldn’t.  Not that Brian felt particularly concerned; he always knew where to find a new one, though, since none were ever completely suited to him, it was generally new “ones” that he found.  I have needs too, not that a single one of them gives a rip.  Some girls he used for status, some for support, others for sex.  Sure wouldn’t mind using Klarissa for that last one. She’s got the finest body on this side of, well, this side of the table actually.
Brian used the excuse of counting his blue piece around the far corner to look down Angela’s blouse.  She’s got everything her sister’s got plus a couple of cup sizes.  They both graduated cream of the crop and are raking  in the dough, but Angela sure can lose herself havin’ a good time. I’d love to see those hearts break when I walked into that club with Angela AND I’d still get laid, only problem is, it’d be across the hall from Klarissa’s room.  Brian brushed aside the cold feeling that thought gave him and instead focused on the challenge at hand – how to ditch one sister and maintain his chances with the other.  Klarissa, busy adjusting the corners of the tablecloth, never saw as he leaned in close to Angela and seductively drew his fingers across her wrist, letting the dice fall into her palm.

Angela was too busy watching her older sister in disgust to realize she had already been given the dice.  The little prat has everything and is too busy trying to look like Little Miss Perfect to even enjoy it.  It’s her business if she wants to waste her life but why does she have to dawdle with this guy, of all the fish in the sea!  She gets in the way of everything.  Angela was entirely conscious of what she considered the indisputable fact that her sister was the cause of all her problems.  What she was not conscious of was that Brian on her left and his brother Jonathan on her right were both looking at her expectantly, the corners of their lips beginning to twitch in an identical attempt to not laugh.
“You do know that those dice won’t throw themselves,” came Klarissa’s reproving voice from across the table.
Somehow Angela managed to throw the dice with a force just short of what it took to bounce them in Klarissa’s face.   Eleven.  Angela counted them off quickly at first then more slowly as she foresaw her destination.  She finally nestled her green piece tightly into the square with Jonathan’s.  Go figure.  Bitterness overtook her as she looked at her sister again.  The very first time she had met Jonathan she’d vowed to stop making fun of people who talked about love at first sight.  But Jonathan was Brian’s brother.  And Brain was Klarissa’s boyfriend.  Damn sister loyalty.  If Klarissa was loyal to me for just one second she’d stop giving me her used clothes, get a better job to help pay the bills, and break up with a guy she has zippo in common with.  But, Oh no, she’s too busy naming their kids and wondering if she’d make a good housewife to notice that he doesn’t even look at her anymore.  Not that Jonathan looks at me either, of all things to have in common. I’ve been a kid sister to him since I met him.  Angela scooped up the dice and tried for the God knows how many umpteenth time to send Jonathan a signal as she passed them counterclockwise in exactly the same way she had received them.

Jonathan tried his best not react to the sensuous way Angela brushed his wrist but the chills in the back of his neck still retraced their steps down his spine.  He let the dice fall from trembling hands. Two threes.  If she’d just stop making herself so available I could forget about her for one second.  Jesus I can’t believe I said that, but it’s for her own good.  Pulling his yellow piece away from Angela’s proved oddly painful as he began to count.
Jonathan had been shocked by Angela’s beauty the first time he had ever seen her, tearing down the stoop, late for work again.  He’d come to enjoy grabbing breakfast at the bagel stand currently sitting outside the window so he could watch her go running for her life everyday.  But “shocked” may not be strong enough to describe how he felt the day his brother introduced him to his newest girlfriend . . .who happened to have her sister in tow.  It was Angela.  I shoulda killed him then and there.  He listened to me talk about her day in and day out and teased me about being too shy to make a move.  Then when he saw I was getting close to having the courage he purposefully went and made her unavailable, just to mock me.  Hi, this is my girlfriend, or my brother’s girlfriends sister if you prefer, it sounds like something out of a bad Victorian novel.  Worst of all, she WAS interested in me, it was written all over her face when he introduced us.  Bastard!  He threw the dice again with considerable more vigor.  Nine.
In the end, Jonathan had decided to wait it out.  Brian would tire of Klarissa quickly, he would give them a cooling off period, then approach Angela without having to worry about the awkwardness of situation.  But there was one fatal flaw in the plan: while he had waited, he kept talking about her.  She’s so beautiful, she’s so smart; she’s so passionate; she’s so funny . . .
“Yeah, yeah, man, I heard you the first thousand times.”
“It’s true Bro, you go through women like cheap undershirts cause you don’t know how to recognize the good ones!”
“Alright, we’ll see.”
That was the problem.  Brain had seen.  I can’t let him have her; he’ll destroy her.  Lord knows he won’t listen to any holier than thou reasoning. This is the best way. I can make him fall in love with Klarissa the same way I made him fall in love with Angela: talk her up.  As soon as he’d seen that “gotta have her look” Jonathan had plotted how to turn it around again “I gotta confess man, I’m falling in love with your girlfriend!  You’re falling in love with Angela?  Dude that’s freaking hilarious!”  He’d spent the last few weeks constantly praising Klarissa and all she had to offer.  It wasn’t that hard, she does have a lot of good qualities.  She’s not passionate and active like Angela but she is really tender and sweet.  She genuinely cares about people and tries to keep the peace.  She seems so soft and gentle but there’s a lot of strength there too.  He went through the list he’d been reviewing with Brian all week as he counted the paces and scooped up the dice to pass to Klarissa.  Jonathan held them out for her to claim and, without thinking, let his hand linger longingly over her small, soft one.
Ah, CHRIST!

For the record, the blue figurine will go the farthest but the green will have the most points and red will finish first while yellow will go the most turns.  But none of that matters because no one will win, they just keep passing the dice – counterclockwise.