Page 62 of Replay

“What is it?”

He grinned at me. “An escape room at Castle Loma. She gets to use her brain, and you can have dinner after.”

I frowned. “Am I going to look stupid?”

“She’s in STEM, right?”

“STEM?” Oppy was frowning again.

Mitch explained. “Science, tech, engineering, math. Those are traditionally male-dominated fields. She’s probably had to prove herself over and over again.”

Had she? I should ask her about that. I’d never considered that, because she’d always been so brilliant at math that it was a given. “Okay, so still want to know why I should do something I won’t do well at.”

“You are going to go and let her shine. Let her use her brain, and instead of competing with her, you support her. That’s going to win you major points.”

Approving murmurs came from around the room. That sounded good. Really good. I was never going to fool Katie with how smart I was. She’d been my tutor, so she knew. But I could definitely support her when she showed how smart she was.

An escape room. That wasn’t a super romantic thing. But if she felt good about me after… “Yeah. Let’s go with that.”

“We can go with you, make sure everything goes smoothly,” Royster added.

“Oh, hell no.”

“Ah, come on Ducky. We wanna hang out with her too.”

I shook my head, recognizing disaster when it was right in front of me. The guys began to argue about whether or not they should be on this non-date. Then Fitch nudged me.

“Yeah?”

“How important is it that this really not look like a date?”

“Kinda?”

“Then maybe take a few of the guys along. Maybe Jess—JJ’s sister. They seemed to get along when we were all out at the Top Shelf.”

He had a good point.

I stood up. “Hey, assholes.” The conversation dropped. “A few of you can come along. A few. Like, JJ if he brings his sister.” I considered. “And Cooper with his girlfriend.”

JJ turned around from where he’d been dressing. “What?”

“Bring your sister and come along to the escape room.”

Mitch, who was dressed and ready to leave, explained to JJ. JJ turned to me with his rare smile. “Oh, this sounds like fun. We’ll be there.”

“I’ll check with Callie,” Cooper said.

Good. Two math people along, and JJ and Cooper were guys I could trust not to embarrass me. Not too badly, anyway.

“Do Jayna and I get to come?” Mitch asked.

I nodded. He’d thought up the idea after all. That was eight people—big enough to not be a date.

“It can’t all be couples,” Royster pointed out. He was right, but JJ and his sister weren’t a couple.

Unfortunately, I’d lost control by then.

Katie

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