Page 42 of The Cuffing Game
“And you’re sure you’re not just using us for manual labor?” Noah asked.
If it were anyone else, Mia would have danced around it. But since it was Noah, Mia said, point-blank, “We are, but it’s for your own benefit, too. We need a path cleared up so we can safely leave the lodge for the second part of the day, a fun surprise that we’ll reveal later.”
“It better be fun,” grumbled Celine. “All the sweat is going to mess with my makeup.”
Mia was about to tell everyone to get ready when Noah cut in: “Wait. One of us—no offense, Miller—is a star athlete. How is this fair?”
“I can give myself a handicap if you want,” Jack volunteered.
Tiana cupped her mouth with her hands. “Boo! Just let him be himself!”
Shirin laughed, giving her a playful shove. “You just want to take advantage of the fact that he’s more athletic than all of us.”
Tiana grinned. “And I see nothing wrong with that.”
Jack scratched his chin. “Maybe I can just use one hand?”
“Never mind,” Noah replied. “Forget I said anything, because that’s plain insulting.”
Matías nervously looked from Jack to Noah. “May the best man win? Or I guess person, including the girls.”
“Sure.” Noah sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”
When her crew signaled that they were ready to go, Mia went to stand by the guys.
“Thanks, y’all,” she said. “We really do appreciate your help. All right. On your mark... get set... go!”
The boys sprung to action, snow flying every which way in their wake, as the girls cheered them on. Like everyone expected him to be, Jack was amazingly fast. He easily took the lead, arms blurring as he swung the shovel up and down.
“Wow, those muscles,” Alex commented, before groaning. “Note to self, delete that in post.”
Mia laughed. “You’re literally giving yourself more work!”
Alex gave her a sheepish grin, putting a finger up to their lips.
“Whoa, Matías!” Tiana cried out.
Mia jerked back to attention just in time to see Matíaspulling ahead of Jack, who’d started off strong but was now faltering. And Noah...
Mia bit her lip so she wouldn’t burst out laughing. Noah wasn’t even close to the other two boys, wobbling and staggering from side to side as he attempted to shovel the snow.
He clearly has never done any sort of actual hard work in his life,Mia thought.Typical rich boy.
Matías high-fived Shirin and passed over the shovel. She whooped and took off, clearing snow down toward the road.
“Why are you guys trying so hard?” Celine complained, folding her arms across her chest. “You don’t even like each other that way!”
She looked like she was about to cry. And Mia couldn’t blame her. She never expected Noah to be an athlete, but because of all his muscles, she thought he’d at least be decent. It was downright embarrassing how bad he was at shoveling snow.
“Yeah!” Jack high-fived Tiana, who also took off.
Noah hadn’t even gotten to Celine when Shirin reached the road and threw down the shovel.
“Yes!” she yelled. “We did it, Matías!”
Matías ran to Shirin and grabbed her hands. They jumped up and down as they spun in a circle. From behind his camera, Damien smiled, and so did Mia.
You can definitely tell they’re best friends,she thought.
