Page 42 of Broken Hearts
“I’ve been on a date that involved karaoke but I’m pretty sure it was coincidental.” He lifts a hand to get the moderator’s attention.
“Everything going okay?” she asks tentatively. So tentatively I wonder what kind of interesting stories she might be able to tell about these speed dating events.
“I’d like to buy her a drink. Whatever she wants.”
When she looks to me, I smile. “Can I get a vodka and Sprite?”
“Sure.”
“And can we also do the question game?” Rhett asks.
Again our moderator looks to me for confirmation so I nod my agreement.
She brings my drink and then hands us each a pad of paper and pencil.
“I’m going to ask you three questions about each other. I hope you were asking lots of good questions and getting to know one another because these are tricky. After each one, I’ll ask you to show each other what you wrote. Each correct answer earns you one minute which between the two of you could add up to a grand total of six.”
Rhett chuckles quietly.
“Ready?” She looks to each of us.
I sit tall in my seat like a good pupil. “Ready.”
“What is your date’s favorite color?”
I laugh. “Favorite color, seriously?”
“It’s the most frequently asked first date question,” she assures me, then adds, “Take a guess.”
Rhett holds the pad of paper up and scribbles something. I take a guess, blue, and we show our answers.
“Did either of you guess correctly?”
Rhett nods enthusiastically. “Yep, love blue. It’s my most favorite color ever.”
“And pink is… also my most favorite color.” We share a secret smile.
“Two minutes,” she says without looking at us. “Next question, how many sexual partners has your date had?”
“That cannot be a question people ask on a first date,” I say.
She looks down at me. “It isn’t, but it makes for really good bar conversation.”
I hesitate, but finally decide on a number. Rhett seems to have a lot easier time deciding what to write.
“Okay, let’s see those answers.”
My stomach is in knots. I’m not sure I want to know the answer to this one.
Before we can share, our moderator gets called to help someone else.
“I’ll be right back,” she says before hurrying off.
“Let’s see,” Rhett says, sitting forward.
I turn the paper around and watch his expression as he sees the number. I went with ten because it felt like a good round number, but I have no idea. “Am I close? I don’t need to know the real number, just let me know if I’ve got the right number of digits.”
He barks a laugh. “You think it’s possible my number hasthreedigits? Like one hundred or more?”
