Page 62 of Falling into Place
“He’s a doctor. Listen to him,” Jeff said.
Apparently Brooks was too much of a doctor and Jeff was taking this too seriously for either of them to consider a dick joke along with the rest of the room.
That made him think of the guys who put that sort of thing on Carly’s style questionnaire, and he sought her out again. She must have felt his gaze because she glanced up. He pointed to his head and mouthed,brain?
Dick,she mouthed back, and shit, he knew exactly how that word sounded coming out of her mouth. He wished he didn’t find it so sexy, but lately there really wasn’t a thing about her he didn’t.
He only knew answers to two more questions—which country produced the most coffee in the world (Brazil) and which NBA team temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City after a natural disaster in their home state (New Orleans Hornets), but even so, he enjoyed himself. Kendall knew everything related to pop culture and Jeff had a lot ofhistory and geographic knowledge, and he thought they had a pretty decent chance of ending up in the top three.
Kendall turned in their game card with their team name—Doc Martin, which he had to admit was pretty clever and made him wonder why no one called him that at work—proudly written at the top. The entire birthday group reconvened to hang out together as the trivia hosts tabulated the answers, asking what other teams had put for various questions.
“You knew the basketball one, didn’t you?” Carly asked, slipping onto the bench beside him.
“Yup. And you knew the most expensive fabric in the world, didn’t you? What is it?”
“Vicuña wool. It’s something like two grand per yard.”
“Holy shit. Never buy that for me.”
She snorted. “I wouldn’t even buy that for myself.”
“We’d probably make a pretty good trivia team, you and me.”
“Yeah, I’d carry us most of the way, but you’d swoop in with the weird anatomy and sports questions.”
He wanted to argue he knew some pop culture stuff, but she was right. He stopped by the bar for another beer, and by the time he made it back to the tables, the emcee was once again tapping the mic.
“Here we go, everyone. In third place with seventeen questions correct is ...” He paused dramatically for several beats. “Let’s Get Trivial!”
A group of people several tables away jumped up and yelled in celebration as everyone else clapped.
“With eighteen questions correct, second place goes to ... I Am Smartacus!” After allowing that team to celebrate, audio of a drumroll played over the speakers. “And we actually have two teams with near perfect scores tonight, giving us a tie for first place. Congratulations to the Red Hot Trivia Peppers and Doc Martin, each with nineteen points!”
Jeff leaped across the table with a whoop to throw an arm around Brooks’s neck, knocking over several thankfully empty beer glasses in the process.
“Whoa. Yeah, great job, man.” Brooks clapped him on the back. The second Jeff released him, a very different body pressed up against his other side.
“We won!” Kendall said excitedly, giving him a squeeze. “You won your first-ever trivia game!”
Brooks grinned and hugged her back, weirdly proud of the accomplishment. Sasha gave him a thumbs-up from across the table, and over Kendall’s shoulder he happened to catch Carly looking their way, a strange expression on her face. Before his brain could really process it, though, she met his gaze and immediately smiled and gave him exaggerated jazz hands.
Kendall pulled away and her face took over his field of vision, blocking Carly, who stood in a small group several feet away. “That was fun.”
“Yeah, it was.”
“So, I have to be honest. I’ve followed along with your dating posts on Sasha’s blog.”
“Oh, yeah? What do you think?” He hoped it was real and sort of funny and was giving some local businesses recognition, but part of him wondered if all it did was make him look like a pathetic dating novice. Or a huge geek. Or both.
“I love it. I recently joined LoveInTheCity, too, and have had a few less-than-stellar dates.” She looked up at him from under long lashes, twisting her lips to the side. “Actually, I’d been thinking about asking Sasha to introduce us. After tonight, I really think we’d have fun together.”
He sensed what was coming and wondered where Carly was or if she could overhear their conversation. Which was stupid, because why did it matter?
“What do you think? Will you take me out, Dr. Martin?”
He regarded her smiling, confident, upturned face, certain she was very different from what he considered to be his type. If they’d had a lot in common from the dating site questions, they’d have been matched through the software, but he hadn’t seen her name anywhere. She was outgoing, loud, and fun. She was a lot like Sasha, come to think of it, which explained why they were friends.
Either way, he’d enjoyed hanging out with her tonight, so what did he have to lose?
