Page 26 of Revenge Honeymoon

Emily cringed.

“Let’s start with Ruby and Emily.”

Of course.

Emily’s body flashed hot and cold. She locked eyes with Max and attempted to communicate using a series of rapid blinks that she hoped came across as an SOS message. Was a free zip line experience worth it?

“Ruby, can we just go?” she whispered to her best friend while the room chanted their names.

Ruby leaned in. “What? I can’t hear you.” The roar of the audience demanding that Ruby and Emily have all their secrets revealed live on stage to a roomful of strangers drowned out any communication.

Emily took a breath.Stop it. Stop spoiling this for Ruby.She wanted to be up here and was excited they were in the running for a spin of the prize wheel. “Nothing.”

“All right,” began Sylvia. “We need the audience to decide these five questions. Thumbs up for ‘yes, we accept the answer’ and thumbs down for ‘no, we don’t accept the answer.’ The majority will decide. Question seven: When did you have your first fight and what was it about? Ruby answered: fourth grade—wow, your romance goes way back—and pizza pocket. That must’ve been some pizza to have a fight over it.”

The crowd laughed.

“Emily answered: grade school and cafeteria food. What do you think audience? Is that close enough? Who says thumbs up?”

The audience voted in the affirmative, and Sylvia moved on to the other questions that were close, but not quite close enough. The crowd voted each time for the two women and gave them three more answers.

“The final question that we need a vote on is—”

Emily prayed it wouldn’t be the question she feared. The most horrifically embarrassing thing she could ever think read aloud in a public place about her personal life. Her muscles locked up.

“—question eleven.”

Oh, holy hell.

“What is Spouse One’s most irritating habit in the bedroom?”

Why had Emily even put an answer down for this question? And why had she written an honest answer? She’d done it for Ruby. She’d done it for the stupid spin of the prize wheel. Ruby deserved to win. No matter how horridly embarrassing this final answer would be. No matter what Max thought of her afterwards.

Crap.

“Ruby answered: lots of screaming.”

Ruby giggled next to her.

Crap times one hundred.

“Emily answered: loud sex noises.”

A hush fell over the room. The couples participating in the contest didn’t know how to react. Even though everyone secretly hoped for an answer like this, nobody knew what was an appropriate response. One older husband wearing a bad toupee elbowed his new middle-aged wife who turned red as a beet.

Sylvia rushed past the awkwardness. “Okay, who wants to give a thumbs up to this one?”

Max stood, held up his hand, made an exaggerated thumbs up, and laughed.

* * *

“All right, everyone. Looks like we have our winner.” Sylvia waved at Javier, who rolled the prize wheel from its spot next to the bar and placed it front and center. “The couple who will win their shot at the prize wheel is—”

Max drummed his index fingers on the table. Several other audience members did the same, creating a loud drum roll.

Emily, who had yet to recover from the humiliation of everyone in the room knowing she was loud in bed, stared at the floor and crossed her fingers behind her back. She and Ruby deserved the wheel spin based on personal reveal alone.

Ruby quaked with excitement.

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