Page 56 of The Player in New Zealand
He shook his head. “I just looked it up.”
The next night, I whipped him up a cranberry-and-rosemary faux-gin spritz, handing it to him and raising my voice so he could hear me over the crowd.
“Spork?”
The corners of his mouth shot up and he shook his head. “Nah.”
The next afternoon, when I got off my shift, a black cotton something was folded up over my purse. I shook it out to find that it was a T-shirt with a print of Smaug in vivid orange and yellow. A piece of paper fluttered to the ground. I picked up a Post-it note that read,Whatever your guess is today, no.
I chuckled, straightening up until I heard a voice behind me.
“What are you guessing?”
I spun around to find Nina behind me, a bemused look on her face.
“You read it?” I clutched the note to my chest, already defensive for Tane’s sake since he wasn’t here.
“He asked me to put it in your purse today. It was just folded up and the note slipped out.” She spread her hands wide, aWhat can you do?look on her face.
“I was trying to guess his favorite Lord of the Rings character.”
She blinked at me, surprised. “I’m not sure he has one.”
I fluttered the paper. “Oh, he does, but I guess he’s just not going to tell me until I agree to... watch the movies with him.”
“He wants to watch the movies with you?” Nina frowned, obviously confused as to why her brother would want to sit through a nine-plus-hour movie marathon with me. “I knew you both had gotten friendly, but I didn’t realize you were doing movie nights together.”
“We’re not,” I said, and then firmed up my voice to say it again. “We’re not. This is just a stupid game and a thank-you for being his fake date.” I held up the shirt.
“Uh-huh,” Nina said, not entirely convinced, but she left me alone anyway.
The next day, Tane was the opening manager. I got there a bit early and I found him on the floor of the stockroom, sorting boxes of straws.
The door shut behind me with a click and Tane looked up.
I crossed my arms. “You aren’t going to tell me, are you? No matter what I guessed yesterday, your answer would have been no.”
Tane rolled to his feet, dusting off his pants. “What were you going to guess yesterday?”
I told him and he shook his head. “I was right. That’s not it.” Color rose to my cheeks and I was irrationally upset about his confession. “Why are you doing this?”
He studied me carefully. “It’s just a game, Claire, a little joke between us. What does it matter?”
“You said, if I guessed right—” I startled myself with the words, and looked at Tane, wide-eyed.
A smile flickered over his lips before he tamped it down. “I said if you guessed right, we might have to try it together.” The smile crept back up; he couldn’t keep it down and it was smug as hell. “You want to do it again, don’t you?”
“Shut up.” I swatted at him, blushing furiously. “I do not.”
Tane crowded me against the closed door. “You do.” His smile was miles wide. “All right, you really want to know what my favorite position is?”
“Yes,” I said. Tane looked down at me, close enough that our bodies nearly touched.
“It’s bending you in half and fucking you hard,” he said, as if it were obvious.
“What? That doesn’t count. It’smyfavorite position.”
“Well, it was so fucking good with you, it ruined all my other favorite positions.”
