Page 112 of Four Weekends and a Funeral

“I watched the Billy Crystal movie. I watched three, actually, before I figured out which one was the right one. But I wanted to Billy Crystal you again. More intentionally this time.”

“I love you.” The words escape my mouth on an exhale. They couldn’t wait for air.

He moves his hand, tipping my chin toward him so he can kiss me. My whole body relaxes at the feel of him against my lips, and he drinks me in with sweet, warm sips. I never want it to stop, but a rapidly shrinking part of me knows we’re standing in front of a crowd of impatient trivia junkies. A disgruntled throat clears, and Adam and I slowly break apart. His heated gaze never breaks mine.

“I’ve loved you this whole time,” I whisper. “Even when I was Sam’s girlfriend. The second time, I mean, after his funeral.” The mic picks this last part up, and we start to lose the audience’s goodwill.

“It’s less weird in context, guys. Come on,” Mara says, defending me to the rapidly turning crowd. “Darren, put ‘traffic’ on the spreadsheet for him too. He’s with us.”

Adam and Patrick join us for the rest of the competition. In the semifinals, the Chelsea-Patrick mind meld comes through for the team in the form of prehistoric literary puns.

“Anne Brontosaurus.” Patrick points to the answer sheet.

“Not Charlotte or Emily?” I bite down on my thumbnail, the anxiety of getting so close to victory finally hitting me.

Patrick shakes his head. “No, it’s Anne. Stu said it was an epistolary novel.”

Adam bounces his knee with a bit more agitation than normal, competitive tension thick in the air. “I thought the brontosaurus wasn’t a real dinosaur species.”

Chelsea writes furiously. “It is now. It’s like Pluto. We’re always changing our mind about it.”

Adam and I are merely an impediment to the lizard-lit dream team, so I seize on the opportunity to lean in close and ask, “So you bought a house?”

“Yes, but it was a long time coming. I’ve wanted to be closer to my family for a while. I was going to tell you about it when I called, but I didn’t want to put any pressure on you. I wanted to invite you over for something very romantic that I still haven’t planned, if I’m honest. I wanted to show you I was serious about moving forward for myself. But then…”

“You got the calendar alert.”

“And I couldn’t spend another second counting down the days until everything else was ready. I was ready, and it was so like Sam to push me off the cliff. Our favorite ‘real estate multihyphenate’ showed me some places and a couple were ridiculous—like one had a pool? Why waste your entire yard with a pool in this climate?”

I gesture for him to get to the point.

“But one was perfect. Two bedrooms. A workshop. Nice neighborhood. Yard for a dog. But we don’t need a dog if—”

Mara snaps her fingers in front of her face. “Hey, guys. I’m thrilled for you and your many future rescue dogs, but can we focus on the task at hand?”

In the final round, Adam proves his worth early on by naming every Kurt Russell/John Carpenter collaboration for the “Famous Kurts” section (other Kurts being Browning, Vonnegut, Gödel, and Cobain).

“Snake Plissken was such a great action hero name that it was reused—”

Mara holds her left hand up to stop Adam’s chatter while scribbling Escape from New York with her right. “Demonstrate your value to Al another time.”

“Sorry, I was excited I knew the answer.” Adam squeezes my thigh under the table, sending a blush up my whole body.

“We’re going to have to figure out what happens next.”

He frowns. “I think Stu just handed Mara the image-round questions.”

“No, with us,” I explain while examining the pictures of men Mara shoves in my face. “So you live here?”

“In three weeks.”

“And we’re dating…”

“Obviously we’re dating, Alison.”

“Exclusively?”

“I am.”

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