Page 61 of Falling into Place
“Okay, everyone,” a voice boomed from overhead. “You know the drill.”
Heads nodded and everyone around him grabbed little pieces of paper and pencils that a restaurant employee had dropped in the center of every table.
“I actually don’t know the drill,” he whispered to Kendall. “Help a guy out?”
“Three people to a team. You’re with me, and let’s grab”—she half stood and tapped the shoulder of a guy to her left—“Jeff. Get over here.” Jeff shot her a dreamy-eyed look and happily obeyed.
“He wins a lot,” Kendall whispered as Jeff moved seats. “Okay, so there are twenty questions. We pick a team name and they ask all the questions and we write the answers down before we turn in our papers. No googling or anything, and I’d keep your phone in your pocket if I were you. People get pretty crazy if they think you’re cheating. Usually takes them about twenty minutes to review everything and announcethe winners. Top three teams get prizes. In our group, top team gets a free round from the losers.”
“Who cares about drinks,” Jeff put in. “It’s all pride.”
Brooks held out his hand. “Hey, man. Sorry if I ruin this for you. First timer.”
Jeff eyed him as they shook hands, but Kendall waved the game card in the air. “You’re a doctor. You’ve gotta be super smart.”
Chances were the questions weren’t about sedatives or metabolic acidosis, but ... “I’ll do my best.”
The emcee boomed out a welcome and a cheer went up, followed by everyone taking a drink of their chosen beverage. He went through a quick review of rules, rehashing the No Google portion with particular intensity.
“Told you,” Kendall whispered, and Brooks chuckled.
She smelled nice. Not quite as appealing as the vanilla scent he’d noticed whenever Carly was around, but still nice.
Carly was about two yards away, within his line of vision, but she wasn’t looking at him. She laughed at something the guy next to her said, and he almost smiled just watching her face light up.
“Here we go!”
The room went silent as everyone crouched together with their groups, tiny pencils in hand.
“Question one: Singer Stefani Germanotta is more commonly known by what name?”
Brooks hadn’t even processed the question before Kendall had furiously scribbled a response on their paper. He didn’t see a point in checking to see what she’d written, because he had no idea and wouldn’t know if it was correct or not.
“Question two: How much does the Chewbacca costume weigh?”
What the actual hell were these questions?
“Eight pounds,” Jeff whisper-yelled, straight faced. “It’s eight pounds. Write it down.”
“Got it.” Kendall rubbed her hands together. “Off to a good start.”
“Question three: How many times has Kim Kardashian been married?”
Seriously, how did anyone know any of these?
He glanced up and caught Carly looking straight at him. She was laughing.
He pointed at himself, feigning affront, as if to say,You laughing at me?
She didn’t even try to stop and nodded, then gave him a thumbs-up.You’re doing great.
He wanted to send her a snarky text but didn’t want Jeff to kick his ass. By the time he refocused on the question at hand he noticed Kendall had already written downthree.
Brooks wasn’t even sure which one Kim was.
“Question four: What is the body’s largest organ?”
“Skin,” he said automatically, though based on the raucous laughter that filled the room, several people had suggested something very different.
