Page 73 of The Cupcake Standard

The guide scurried away, head down.

Derek slid his hands in his pockets, the picture of nonchalance. “Sorry about that guys. I’ve already done that one, and not too long ago. Want to make sure we have the full experience.” He gave me a wink.

And that was it—problem solved without anyone blaming me. Just a simple scheduling error. I ducked my head, this time in relief. Derek sat down on the bench next to me, and I burrowed into his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around me. My muffled thanks hopefully reached his ears.

He kissed the top of my head. “I know how you can make it up to me.” He leaned down close to my ear. “Just picture me naked.”

I knew it was coming, but I still smiled.

They had another room ready for us five minutes later. Gina casted worried glances my way, but I waved her off. “It’s okay. Really.”

And it was. This one was all about archaeology, set in ancient Egypt, much more up my alley. We awoke a curse on our expedition and had to figure out the cure before our time was up. After pairing off by couples, we each tackled different sections of the room. Derek and I worked well together, flying through puzzle after puzzle. Gina and Josh made a great team. Unfortunately, this was not Carla’s thing and Liam did more explaining, or what I’d call mansplaining, than working. Finally, Gina had had enough. We needed their answer to move on to the next one, so she just shoved them out of the way and took over.

We managed to beat the time by five minutes. Carla wasn’t speaking to either Liam or Gina and wanted to go home. Derek ordered her an Uber, per her request. We walked her out. She gave me a hug, saying she’d like to hang out sometime, and thanked Derek. Then she was gone.

“If you’d just let her solve the puzzle instead of telling her what to do, you two would’ve been fine,” Gina yelled as she stepped through the door that Josh held open for her.

Liam stomped after her. “She didn’t get it.”

Gina crossed her arms. “She might have if you’d given her a chance, instead of mansplaining everything. She’s smarter than you give her credit for.”

Josh tried to distract her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, Gina, let’s—”

“Back off.” She stepped away from him. “This isn’t about you.”

Derek’s phone rang, and he glanced at it with a frown. “I have to answer this.” He walked over to our car, one finger in his ear to drown out the arguing.

“Maybe if you paid her the slightest bit of attention, then you wouldn’t be in this mess right now!” Gina and Liam were now toe to toe, both red-faced.

Josh stood off to the side, looking defeated.

I moved to stand by him. “Hey, you okay?”

Liam began justifying his behavior, but Gina shut him down again.

Josh shook his head. “I’m done. I can’t compete with that, especially now that Carla’s out of the picture. Maybe they just need to fuck and get it over with.”

My jaw dropped as he walked away. Then I looked back at the two of them, Gina and Liam. There was definitely something between them, volatile and explosive. I wondered if it would ever work in the long run, or if they’d kill each other in the process.

Derek came back. “Where’d Josh go?”

I explained what Josh had said.

He let out a low whistle. “Wow, that actually might work.”

“Unfortunately, I thought the same thing.” We stared at our two best friends still yelling at each other in the middle of the sidewalk in broad daylight. “If we can get them to calm down first.”

“I don’t know. I’ve heard make-up sex can be pretty amazing.” The look he gave me heated me to my very core.

Maybe I could find something to get mad about. “Well, what are you waiting for? Pick a fight with me!”

Instead of teasing, Derek sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “Actually, I have a flight to catch.”

“What?” I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. He’s leaving? What about our private after-party and our time to explore?

“Yeah.” He sighed, staring over at the two maniacs on the sidewalk. “Maybe we should just leave them here. See how long it takes them to realize it’s just them?”

I grinned. “They did cock-block us last night. Or tried to.”

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