Page 23 of Revenge Honeymoon

True love could happen at any age. Emily hoped she didn’t have to wait that long to find it, though.

“All right,” Sylvia snapped. Apparently trivia had a very important timeline that must be followed. “Now that we’re done numbering our papers—”

Emily scrambled to finish her numbering. Why was she always so easily distracted? Ruby made it clear she wanted to win the game, so Emily had to do her best to answer the questions correctly.

“Question one.” Sylvia held up her paper. “Ah, this should be an easy one. Although I have a feeling the brides might do better than the grooms.”

A groom raised his hand. “Excuse me, Sylvia.”

The cruise director squinted and searched the trivia tables. “Is there a problem?”

The man, with a carefully groomed and styled mop of curls, stood so he could be seen. “What if you are two grooms?”

“Two grooms?” Sylvia’s penciled brows drew together.

“Yes,two grooms.” As he came forward to emphasize his point, he bumped the table. People’s drinks splashed. One bride had her yellow paper ruined. “Not every couple here is straight.”

“I need a new paper.” The bride held up her drink-doused sheet. “I can’t play until I get a new one.”

Sylvia snapped her fingers, and a server quickly took the woman’s wet paper and replaced it with a fresh one.

The action gave the cruise director a moment to realize her mistake. “Ah, yes, same sex couples. I’m so sorry I did not take that into account.” She fumbled with her paper, and scratched at her neck.

“Maybe we could call ourselves Spouse One and Spouse Two?” offered Ruby. “I’ll be Spouse One, Em!”

“Yes, that works,” mumbled Sylvia. “Spouse One and Spouse Two. Can someone give me a pencil?” She shielded her eyes when the flashing lights of a gambler’s slot machine went off. “Javier?”

The server who’d handed out a fresh yellow paper swiftly came to Sylvia’s aid and handed her a golf pencil.

“Thank you.” Sylvia leaned over her paper and began to write on it. “Let me make a few adjustments to the questions. Mark told me the game was ready to go, but clearly he made a mistake.”

Poor Mark—whoever he was—Sylvia was likely to cook his goose later.

The delay allowed Emily enough time to finish numbering her paper.

“Question one: Where did you go on your first date?” Sylvia strolled around the trivia players and repeated the question more slowly, “Where. Did. You. Go. On. Your. First. Date?” She ended up right next to the older groom with the oxygen and rested a hand on his shoulder.

First date? God, already Emily was going to bomb this. She was hoping the questions would be favorite color or least favorite food. Not things related to, well, relationships. Dating. And maybe even—gulp—sex.

Max had remained on his stool and ordered another beer. He caught Emily’s eye and raised his bottle in the air, toasting her.

Chapter7

Spin of the Wheel

Emily scribbled the first ideas that popped into her head. Any answer to a trivia question she could base on reality, she wrote down. Several times she shot a look at Ruby from across the room, hoping to teleport her answers into her best friend’s mind.

First date?

Why not Ruby’s first date with Tyler? Would that work? A bungee jump at Wintergreen Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains and dinner at one of the nearby wineries. She’d raved about it for weeks afterward.

First kiss?

Well, the two friends had kissed ‘by accident’ when they were eleven. Neither one wanted to go into middle school without having kissed someone. Too lame. Everyone in seventh grade had probably kissed someone but the two of them. Ruby, before ‘the change,’ had been a gangly girl with braces and huge feet. Emily had been—well—Emily.

Emily wheedled her mother into letting her stay the night at Ruby’s over Fourth of July weekend, even though it was the big family picnic at the Small house, the one with her mother’s world famous—well maybe Virginia state famous—potato salad. But she’d given in. All Emily had to do was promise to be back home in time for the picnic at one o’clock on Saturday.

Done.

---