Page 8 of Never With You
@girl_sees_the_world:
I got called up at the beginning. I played for a car and lost. I was one number off. Then I spun the big wheel, and it landed on one dollar. I went to the Showcase Showdown and bid thirty-five thousand dollars on two WaveRunners and a trip to Italy. The girl next to me overbid, so I won.
@worth_traveling_to:
What? That’s insane. How did you even get called up?
@girl_sees_the_world:
You have to be a psycho to stand out—like the most obnoxiously excited person. I embodied that, and the cameras ate it up. When I won and my friends rushed the stage, I got down on the ground and spun around on my back with my legs in the air. I’d be embarrassed about it, but I won, so…
@worth_traveling_to:
Wow, I’m learning so much about you right now.
@girl_sees_the_world:
They ended up giving me twenty thousand cash for the WaveRunners. But my best friend, Camila, and I took the trip to Italy. It was my first experience traveling, and I fell in love.
@worth_traveling_to:
So you owe everything to The Price is Right.
@girl_sees_the_world:
Yep. You can play every ten years. I’m going back in two years to play again.
@worth_traveling_to:
Hmm. Did you just inadvertently tell me you’re twenty-six years old?
@girl_sees_the_world:
Oops. So much for our pact not to exchange names or anything personal about each other.
@worth_traveling_to:
Seriously. Age is as personal as it gets. I’ll even the score so you don’t feel bad. I’m twenty-eight.
@girl_sees_the_world:
Whoa, we better stop there with the sharing. We’ve been messaging daily for the past nine months, and I just learned your age. Things are moving too fast.
@worth_traveling_to:
Right? We better shut it down before things get too out of hand.
@girl_sees_the_world:
P.S. I also went to Let’s Make a Deal, where they called up my friend to play for a car. She lost, but you have to dress up on that game show, so I was a deer with my dad’s real antlers on my head. It was so heavy. Every time the camera panned to me, I struggled to keep my head upright. It was the funniest experience of my life.
@worth_traveling_to:
Real antlers? That just sealed the deal—you’re the most fascinating woman I’ve ever talked to. Hands down.
“Okay,so just to confirm, you can order fifty-five thirty-pound bags of rice to the hotel?” I rub my temples as I talk on the phone with the head chef at the hotel in New Zealand.
“Yes. I’ll add it to the food order this week. It will come on a big pallet.” Arthur’s New Zealand accent makes me even more disappointed that I won’t get to experience the culture and adventure of that country.
