He rolled his eyes. “A woman can be attractive and still be nice.”

“No,” I said. “It’s been my experience that those are mutually exclusive traits.”

“Well, your experience is for shit,” he said. He turned his attention back to the game. He was in the lead and I had his back as we navigated the jungle. “You need to raise your standards.”

“My standards are fine. I just like my women to have a certain aesthetic,” I said.

Jackson slowly swiveled to face me. He had one eyebrow raised higher than the other. “Like what? A big ass or something?”

“Not specifically, but I do like them to be supermodel worthy,” I said. I glanced at the screen of our game, trying to maintain a straight face. Why did I enjoy tormenting Jackson with my feigned misogyny so much? It was bad of me, I knew that. He was just such a Boy Scout about these things that I liked to get him all aggro with my knuckle dragger comments.

“So it’s just about looks for you?” he asked. His expression was deeply disappointed. “Well, having seen her up close, I can assure you, she could give any model a run for her money with those big brown eyes, perfect skin, and a killer smile.”

I frowned, annoyed. I used the machete my character carried to hack up some foliage. Totally unnecessary but it made me feel better. “Exactly how close did you get to her? I only sent you to deliver a message, not try to score.”

Jackson’s laugh erupted with a sonic boom. You’d think I’d be used to it by now. I wasn’t. I jumped in my seat. I bit back the urge to slug him. Barely.

“Relax, she just invited me in for a glass of wine,” he said. He pressed on through the jungle.

“She what?”

Jackson wagged his eyebrows at me. “What’s the matter? You don’t care if I hook up with her, do you? After all, she’s clearly too nice to meet your ‘aesthetic.’ ”

“I don’t care,” I scoffed. “It’s not my business. It’d just make things awkward if I have to throw her out.”

“For breaking your rules,” he clarified.

“Yeah.” I really hated that he’d managed to turn this around on me.

“What did your note say?” he asked.

“Why?”

“Because she was worried you were going to throw her out,” he said. We’d reached a cliff and we were both clicking away at our controllers as our characters scaled the face of it. “You didn’t, did you?”

“No, I just answered her question about the hot tub,” I said. My thumb was starting to cramp as I tried to navigate the terrain.

“What question was that?”

“Whether it’s off limits. It is.”