Page 27 of Hang the Moon
Brendon spun around, throwing one leg over the seat, straddling the bench, giving her his broad back. “Am I going to have to do something to embarrass myself? Even the playing field to make you feel better?”
She slid forward on the bench and reached under her skirt, tugging her underwear down. Just like sitting on a toilet... hopefully there weren’t cameras on this damn ride. “Are you offering to whip it out and pee in front of me?”
He laughed. “I mean... would that actually make you feel better?”
“Doubtful.”
“Thought so.”
“Hey. Brendon?”
“Mm-hmm?”
“You stopped talking.”
“Oh, right. Uh... did Darcy ever tell you about the time we went down to the Underground for an escape room?”
“I think she mentioned something about it?”
“It was a lot of fun, actually. We wound up...”
She tuned out his words, instead focusing on the deep cadence of his voice, her face flaming as she prepared to pee in this stupid coffee cup. It took her bladder a moment to get the memo that it was okay to relax. At the first echoey splash, she nearly jumped out of her skin.
His words faltered for a split second before he raised his voice, nearly shouting. “So yeah, it was fun. Solved a bunch of puzzles, and you should’ve seen the look on Darcy’s face when Elle...”
Her bladder breathed a sigh of relief, even as her head went dizzy with mortification. She’d actually done it. Peed in a coffee cup on top of a Ferris wheel. That was one item she could cross off her bucket list of unanticipated, humiliating acts she never wanted to repeat.
She wrinkled her nose at the cup and wiggled her underwear back up her thighs one-handed. “Brendon.”
He stopped talking. “Yeah?”
Her face burned. “Can I have the lid?”
“Oh.” He passed the flimsy plastic lid over his shoulder.
She snapped it on and then stared blandly at the cup in her hand. At least it was well insulated and opaque. No one would be the wiser as to its contents save for her and Brendon, which was bad enough.
“You can turn around now. I’m... done.”
At first, she thought she was imagining things, the lightnessof her bladder throwing her off, making her feel like the gondola was moving. But no. Their cabin swayed, beginning a slow, smooth descent back down to Earth.
She clutched the cup in her fist and groaned when Brendon snorted, covering his laughter with a cough.
Thirty minutes, her ass.
Chapter Five
Brendon was 99 percent sure Annie’s giant tote contained some sort of portal to another realm. How she crammed that much stuff inside one purse was a mystery, but she managed to withdraw a pair of earrings, several quarters, her passport, a tangled pair of earbuds, one of those ultra-flat flip-flops nail salons handed out, and a bottlecap, all before finally muttering a quick, “Aha!,” Darcy’s key jingling in her hand. “Let’s pretend today never happened.”
“Ah, come on. It wasn’t—”
“Shh.” She pressed a finger to her lips. “Let us never speak of this day again.”
He chuckled. “It wasn’t that bad. At least no worse than going to the hospital for emergency French fry removal after puking your guts up in front of the girl you have a crush on.”
Annie shoved the key inside Darcy’s door and paused, looking over her shoulder, her eyes wide.
“What?”
