Page 137 of The Genius
Hunter was laughing at Magni too while eating the apple that was supposed to be a prop. When Marco pulled him over and tapped Hunter on his shoulders, he seemed to understand. Squatting down a little he spread his legs in a strong stance.
The audience were cheering when Marco climbed up and balanced on Hunter’s shoulders. It was an impressive feat and a testament to Hunter’s strength. With his six foot three, Marco was only a few inches shorter than Hunter.
“It’s that time when Marco climbed the flag pole in the Motherlands,” Raven whispered to me.
Looking hilarious with his pink scarf on, Commander Magni pretended to write something down and handed the imaginary note to Boulder. Marco did the same after jumping down to the ground again.
“It’s the time we beat the girls in the Motherlands,” Nero finally shouted.
“Yes!” Marco turned to the male audience. “What the fuck took you so long?”
Khan and Finn were smacking their hands on the table and crying with laughter. “Oh, we knew from the moment Marco stripped out of his clothes. But seeing you four up there was fucking priceless,” Finn said in a voice broken up by laughter.
“Next time you and Khan can get up here and we’ll laugh at you,” Magni retorted.
Like most people, Tristan’s shoulders were bobbing up and down with laughter too. “I didn’t see Marco climb the flagpole ten years ago, but I’m so happy I saw this epic moment. At the next reunion in ten years we’ll be up there portraying the time Mila had us playing party games, and she got Magni to dress up as a woman and Marco to climb on top of Hunter.”
“Yeah, yeah, very funny.” Magni walked over to put the pink scarf on Finn’s head, and the doctor stood up and made a funny impression of being a woman smitten with him and sending him air kisses.
Once the laughter had died down enough for Mila to be heard she spoke up again. “It took the male audience three minutes to guess the situation. Let’s see if the women can do it faster.” Mila waved us women to the center.
Less than three minutes and a lot of laughter later, we had won with our theatrical production of the time Archer and Kya got married.
Competitive to the bone, Raven made a triumphant fist in the air.
“That’s not fair,” Hunter objected. “We would have won if our audience had known they had to guess it on time.”
“Nope.” Finn shook his head. “Seeing Magni with a pink scarf was more satisfying than beating the women in some silly party game.”
Mila’s face fell and he hurried to explain. “Not that your games aren’t great. I mean I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.”
Khan stood up. “Thank you, Mila, for bringing us such entertainment. I would like to remind all the single women here that just because you weren’t born in the Northlands doesn’t mean that you can’t have a tournament and experience the rush of men fighting over you. We’ve had more than seven women from the Motherlands find a worthy husband that way.”
“How about you, Rochelle, you’re old enough to have a tournament – would you like me to fight for you?” Storm called out.
She looked a bit flustered but when she didn’t answer he continued, “If I could win you and a million dollars, I’d risk my life in a heartbeat.”
My eyes searched Marco’s but he had his head down, staring at his glass of beer.
Khan swung his arm. “These are some of the finest men of the Northlands; why not embrace our culture and let them fight for you?”
Marco looked up just in time to see me perform the most impulsive and insane act of love when I lifted my arm to volunteer.
CHAPTER 30
No and Yes
Marco
I was all over Shelly so fast that she didn’t have a chance to say a word. “No,” I hissed.
“But…”
Aware of all the eyes on us, I spoke in a strained tone. “Can I talk to you alone?”
“Do you need a chaperone?” Khan asked Shelly.
Boulder stepped forward. “It’s okay, Marco won’t hurt her.” He gave me a nod of understanding when I pulled Shelly with me. I didn’t care how it looked. There was no way I was letting her do something as risky as volunteer for a tournament.
