Page 1 of Fun and Games

One

There was somethingoff with my ears. There had to be. I must not have heard right.

There was no way I'd gotten this question wrong.

My brow furrowed as I turned to the girl next to me.

"Did she just say we came in second?" I murmured, aghast.

Samantha shrugged and nodded.

"I guess." She wasn't perturbed like I was, simply taking a sip from her cocktail glass and scanning the bar with a shrewd eye, on the prowl.

My fingers tapped against the tabletop as I thought quickly.

I could stand up and contest the results. I could point out their mistake and claim my place as the rightful winner of pub trivia. I could correct this wrong and go to sleep tonight glowing with satisfaction.

Or I could forget about it and go about my evening having a quiet drink with my new coworker. I could accept the outcome and return to snacking on pretzels as Samantha regaled me with office gossip.

My tapping turned rapid as I weighed the options. I didn't usually like to make a fuss about things, but…

I tucked a finger into my pocket and felt around for a small folded piece of paper. It was soft and worn from all the times I had turned it over in my hand or ran my thumb along the edges.

Whenever I didn't know what to do, whenever I felt lost, everything always came back to the same question:

Would I regret it?

Wouldhehave regretted it?

I stood from the tall bar stool and placed my palms flat on the high table in front of me.

"I'll have to contest that result," I said in a firm but polite voice.

It may have been, to coin a phrase, trivial, but life wasn't always about making grand gestures or big moves.

Sometimes you had to stop and appreciate the small things.

Like being crowned winner of pub trivia night.

The woman at the front of the room, the quizmaster, waved a hand in my direction, indicating for me to speak.

"I believe I got every question right," I said. "Can I ask where I lost the point? Even if another team also got one hundred percent, we would have tied for first."

The quizmaster shuffled through the papers in her hand, blinking down at them.

"It was the question about Niagara Falls," she said. "That was the only point you lost."

I opened my mouth and heaved a deep breath, ready to launch myself into a debate, when Samantha tugged on my arm.

"It doesn't matter, Bree," she said. "It's just a trivia game."

"It's not just a game, it's a matter of personal pride." I waved my hand around in the air. "There's no way I got that fact wrong. Whoever came up with the answer must've been mistaken."

I hadn't realized my voice was rising until Samantha flapped her fingers and made a shushing sound, looking around frantically.

"Is there a problem here?" a deep voice said from behind me.

I turned to find a tall man walking out from around the bar counter.