Page 44 of Why Not Both?

We pause in the conversation as Derek reads out the options people have given him. Spencer wins and adds the black card to his massive stack.

“Do you win every round?” I ask him. He just smiles, but everyone else groans.

“It’s all about knowing your competition,” he says, leaning toward me conspiratorially.

Adalie is next, selecting a card and reading it out for us.

“It was a group class,” Adalie says, continuing the conversation from before. “At the beginning of the semester, we selected a group, and together had to come up with a business plan. Vic and Spencer were always going to be together. But the groups needed three to five people. To learn how to work well with other people. Spencer selected me and Derek. In fact, I was already part of a group and I remember Spencer coming up to me and saying, ‘You’re in the wrong group.’”

“What did you do?”

“I wasn’t going to do anything. I was going to ignore him. But then he said the magic words.”

She pauses, smiling, looking at Spencer to say them now.

He leans his arms on the table and says, “Do you want to get an A or not?”

Adalie sighs happily, as though in love. “I switched groups then and there. Turned out, we were the only group to get an A. We worked so well together that when Vic decided to start the business we’d come up with, she invited us all to be part of it.”

“You came up with the idea for Blue Vista in university?”

Everyone nods.

“What happened to the group you had been with at first?”

Adalie bursts into laughter. “They ended up in counselling and barely passed the course.”

Everyone joins her laughter. She reads out the options and selects Spencer as the winner again.

“How do you do that every time?” I ask, pulling a black card from the stack.

“I told you. It’s about knowing who you’re playing with. Knowing what the person receiving the white card will find funny and knowing what the others will offer. Then choose the card that beats them.”

Before I read out the black card, he selects a white one from his hand and sets it down in front of me with a smile.

“Like this one.”

I’m so tempted to just flip it over, but I read the black card first, something about never leaving the house without whatever is on the white card.

As everyone else selects their choices for me, I watch Spencer, who is just looking back at me, full of confidence.

“There is one card in this game that is an automatic win for me,” I say.

He nods. “That’s it.” He taps the card. “I’ve been saving it for you.”

I have all the cards now and I’m supposed to shuffle and read them out. But I just want to read Spencer’s card.

“Go ahead,” Vic says, resigned. “It’s the one you’re going to choose, anyway.”

I flip over the card and laugh. All it says is “puppies.” I hand him the black card.

“You’re right. That’s my automatic win. How did you know?”

He shrugs, but he’s smiling.

The game moves on.

“Okay. You asked us a question,” Derek says. “Our turn. Spencer mentioned you grew up in Maple Ridge. What made you decide to move to Vancouver?”

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