Page 117 of Perfect Mess

“Hey, wait a second,” Gary said. “Before you go.” Jack stopped and turned. I think Gary must have seen the panic on my face. Somehow, he knew exactly what I was thinking without me having to say a thing. Maybe all the time we had spent together had paid off. Maybe getting to know each other, really know each other, had created some sort of bond.

Gary’s eyes flashed the question. Do you really want me to do this? I nodded my head. An involuntary blush painted his cheeks reddish pink. Like a paintball welt. Or blood splatter from a tragic Ferris wheel catastrophe.

“We should get together again tomorrow night,” said Gary. If Jack and Janet weren’t watching, I would have kissed Gary right then and there. “I have the perfect idea. We can …”

“Tomorrow night? I’d love to,” said Jack. “But I can’t.”

“You can’t?” Somewhere in the back of my consciousness, a sad trombone player honked a lonely tune.

“I have to fly to Cancun tomorrow after my shift at the hospital.”

“Cancun?”

“That sounds fun,” said Karen. “Blue water beaches. Fancy drinks with little umbrellas. Sounds like a blast.” Karen turned to Janet. “Are you going to?”

Jack answered before Janet could even open her mouth. “Normally, yes, Cancun is totally amazing,” Jack explained. “But I’m going for a medical seminar. So no fun for me. I’ll be locked in conference rooms all day, every day, through the entire weekend. I might not even see the sun at all.”

“Bummer,” said Karen. Bummed seemed to be a good word to describe Janet’s mood, too.

Jack quickly changed the subject. “But I’ll see you all next week at the dragon and dungeon thing, right?”

“Absolutely,” Ralph answered.

“Definitely.” We all nodded our heads.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” added Gary.

Jack and Janet said their goodbyes, but that was it. No hug. No kiss. Maybe I had been mistaken about the whole kissing thing after all. Jack barely even glanced back at us as he walked out the door.

Mike started wiping down counters and stacking chairs, so the rest of us said our goodbyes, too. But just as we were leaving, Gary stopped to talk to Janet. “Hey Janet, did you need a volunteer to dungeon master? It’s been a while, but I’d be happy to help.”

It was the dungeon master’s job to create the story and set the scene for the players. Back in high school, Gary was always the dungeon master. He knew the rules better than anybody and had all the best ideas for monsters and traps.

“You still remember all the rules and stuff?” Janet’s mood and tone seemed to brighten.

“Just like riding a bike,” Gary reassured her.

I was pretty sure being a dungeon master was absolutely nothing like riding a bike. One requires at least some degree of physical dexterity and balance. And the other requires one to be a complete and total nerd.

“Sure,” Janet said without hesitation. “If you want, I mean. That would be great.”

When he looked over at me, I saw a twinkle in Gary’s eye. He was up to something. As everyone else made their way to their Ubers, I held Gary back. “What are you up to?”

He only smiled. “Trust me.”

ChapterTwenty-Seven

The dragon stretched across the width of the road, munching on a bone poking up from the dirt. It lifted its head and blinked, its yellow eyes blazing. It never stopped chewing.

“Look.” Gwain, the bard, pointed, his voice a frantic whisper.

Periwinkle, the halfling, and Gronk, the half-orc barbarian, had stopped about twenty yards back. That was on purpose. If the dragon attacked, Gwain would be incinerated first.

Gwain held up his hands in a gesture of peace, then called back to his fellow adventurers. “It looks wild.”

“Of course it’s wild,” Gronk hissed, tightening her grip on her magic purple shield. “It’s a dragon.”

“What do we do?” Gwain averted his gaze, as if making eye contact would set the beast off.

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