Page 25 of Revenge Honeymoon

“Order another drink and relax,” the cruise director said. “I’ll be narrowing down the answers to the top three couples, and then we’ll read through them in order and find out the winner!”

Someone in the casino turned up the music, and the husbands and wives navigated toward their partners. Some laughed, hugged, and kissed. Others immediately headed for the bar to order more drinks.

Max approached Emily and Ruby who had met back up at a blue paper table. “Guess it wasn’t quite the kind of trivia we had in mind.” He rubbed his hands together. “But this is gonna be good.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“I couldn’t think of anything for question twelve. What about you?” Emily asked Ruby. Her nerves ratcheted up to the highest, craziest level possible.God, please, let her say she didn’t have an answer either.

“What was question twelve?” Ruby sipped a massive Bloody Mary that was more celery sticks than drink. “Was that the one about our first fight? ‘Cause I put fourth grade when we fought over the last pizza pocket at lunch. Remember that? Hot pizza sauce and cheese all over my new dress? My mom was livid for weeks. Did you know she didn’t want me to be friends with you after that?”

“Question twelve, the one about the most irritating habit in the bedroom—” Emily’s ears hadn’t caught up to Ruby’s words. “Wait, I thought your mom loved me?”

Max grabbed an empty chair and sat down, “Fourth grade drama? I’m in!”

“Weren’t we supposed to stop talking about our lives off the ship? No more personal stories?” Emily crossed her arms. “I thought we’d made a promise to each other?”

“But this is trivia,” Max announced. “Newlywed Game Trivia. A cruise event. I can’t help it if the answers reveal embarrassing secrets from your past.” A knowing smile took over his gorgeous face.

Not good. No, not good at all. The dinner promise had been no more real talk. Only fun vacation cruise talk. Crappity-crap. Max might find out—things.

“Em’s right,” Ruby said. “No more personal stuff.”

“We aren’t going to make it to the finals,” Emily said.

Max would never find out any of these things because Emily and Ruby would not make it into the top three couples. How could they? They weren’t really married. They had never really dated. They were friends, but they couldn’t possibly know enough of the answers to the questions asked to score high.

“Oh, damn.” Max frowned. “I was looking forward to all the dirt.”

“Sorry!” Ruby sing-songed.

Sylvia barked into the mic, “I need the following couples to come to the front: Brian and Sandra Murray, Jayne and Dustin Brightman-White, and Ruby Evers and Emily Small.”

“Shit.” Emily’s stomach dropped.

* * *

Ruby and Emily made their way to the front.

Emily’s knees knocked together. Why did she answer the questions so truthfully? If she didn’t think they’d win, why did she bother trying? How was it possible she and Ruby had the same answers to the questions? Some of these newlyweds must not have dated that long.

Ruby grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Maybe we’ll win the zip line prize.”

“Maybe,” Emily mumbled.

If that is what Ruby wanted, she had to be supportive. This was, after all, her revenge cruise. Emily raced through her answers. Some were innocent enough, but some of the others?

Oh my.

She sneaked a glance at Max, his wavy hair shining under the colored casino lights, his perfect white teeth sparkling as he smiled, his hard body rippling under his shirt. Well, maybe she was only imagining that bit.

“This is how we will determine the winner. All three couples had ten out of fifteen questions correct.”

Brian and Sandra, a middle-aged couple who wore matching bright green T-shirts, raised their fists in the air and whooped it up. Jayne and Dustin, a couple in their mid-30s and impeccably dressed in linen and silk, smiled stiffly and stood as far away from the Murrays as possible. Emily and Ruby took a spot between the two and clapped along with the rest of the audience.

“The final winner comes down to the last five questions. We will be asking the audience to judge the best match to each question, as some were not identical, but we determined they were ‘close enough.’ Ready?” Sylvia’s eyes lit up. She could probably see her shift ending in thirty minutes and some ‘me’ time waiting down in the crew area. Her second wind must’ve kicked in.

“Ready!” the audience shouted.

Max joined in.

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