He watches her mouth and her hands, and smiles back at her. Her eyes focus away from the notebook and the pencil, and onto him finally, and she laughs now at herself.
"You're very gallant in defeat," she says, and for a moment he thinks she may be coming finally into his arms. But she doesn't, quite.
"You're a fast learner."
She purses her lips. "My mother always told me to use my head. 'Be smart, stupid', she would say".
A pause. Eventually, Anthony thinks, she was smart enough to leave.
Her smile comes back. "Also, I always go first!"
Something in the new smile disturbs him, and he gets up from the floor. But the next day, she does come into his arms, and for a year they are together in the apartment, in the city. Eventually, he tells her that he thinks they've played Three-in-a-Row often enough.
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