Page 10 of Facing Off
He explains the rules.
“It’s designed for friends to get to know each other better. We take turns pulling out a question from the deck to ask each other.” He lifts out a card and reads it. “This one says,What’s your favorite childhood memory?” He reads another one. “What do you most like about the other person?” He glances at Sonya’s pinched mouth and chuckles nervously. “The questions aren’t all intense like that!” Shuffling the deck, he randomly tries another one. “This one says…Are you lying to yourself about anything right now?”
“Not happening,” says Sonya at the same time I say, “I love invasive vulnerability. Let’s go!”
I stride over to Quinn and help him set up, which reallyonly involves bringing his living room table closer to the couch where Sonya sits. Two dining room chairs are placed around it. Then the deck of soul-piercing questions is dropped down like an armed bomb.
I whistle. “Is the ballerina scared?”
Sonya thuds her beer can on the table. “Screw you.”
She snatches a random card. Looking at Quinn, she asks him, “Describe what it feels like to be loved in one word.”
“Acceptance,” he says after pondering it for a few beats.
We both look at him. One-armed, I hug my goalie. Sonya walks up to him and pats him on the shoulder. “Yeah… We obviously accept you.”
“…enough to play this game properly with me without rushing through it?” Quinn wonders, rubbing at his eyes, which are peeking through his fingers and…twinkling?
“That ismanipulation,” Sonya growls.
“I’m going to take that as a yes!” he says with obvious glee.
He deals out cards to each of us, starting with five apiece.
The night goes on, though not without resistance and more beer drinking. Sonya and I don’t follow the rules, even as Quinn tries to keep order.
“How are you really?” I ask the group after our third round, reading from my card. “That’s the question.”
“Delighted,” says Quinn who is smiling pleasantly to himself.
“Being punished,” grumbles Sonya.
Quinn picks another. “Who has had their heart broken?”
“All the time,” I brag. “Makes me feel alive.”
“There has tobea heart for it tobebroken,” Sonya says under her breath.
Fighting back a grin, I start unbuttoning my shirt. “Want to have a listen and check if it’s in there?”
“No nudity,” exclaims Quinn. “Or I won’t order us food!”
“And I’ll gouge my eyes out,” Sonya adds.
Quinn pulls out his phone and starts looking something up. “Actually, I’m starving. Let’s order now.”
“Don’t spend the next twenty minutes looking up reviews of restaurants,” warns Sonya. “Just pick a place. Pizza preferably.”
“No way.” Quinn stands quickly. “I’m treating you two to the best meal for being here. Give me five to ten minutes, and I’ll go look on my laptop. Be right back.”
He’s gone.
It’s me and Sonya left.
My hand inches, reaching for another card on the table.
“You don’t have to,” she offers. “We could sit on our phones and not talk to each other until my brother comes back.”
