Page 38 of Try Me

“You…don’t want me to answer that question.” I could hear the grin in Chet’s voice. “It’s fine. I just did it, remember?”

“Probably why it’s so loose, then,” I grumbled.

“Nnnnn…I’ll take that as a compliment. Now, shuffle about three feet forward, and that’s going to take you to the first loop.”

I was wobbly from the get-go, and where Chet had somehow managed to look like a fucking cheetah crossing the savanna, my hips kept shooting out to one side or the other like a baby foal’s as I tried to maintain my balance.

“You bring those moves to the dance floor, Farrow? Bet you’re popular.”

Goddammit. And what was worse was that I burst into laughter, which was probably due to a combination of nerves and, fine, the fact that it was a decent burn. “No comment. Focus on your captaining before I fall, get a concussion, and you have to do all the reading for our project because the small print will give me a headache.”

“Fine.Stop,” Chet said, so I did. “Now, lift your right leg and step through the loop. Yep, that’s it. Slowly. Annnnnnd you’re through. Now lower it. Slow, yeah, just like that. Rope’s about another inch down. There you go. Now do the same with the left foot.”

Once I made it through, I grinned. “Okay. That wasn’t as bad as I remembered it.”

“Great, now we just do it seven more times and hope the apocalypse hasn’t started before we get finished.”

“You should be so lucky to go through the end times with me. I’m resourceful.”

“Yeah? A second ago you did the best unintentional Scooby Doo-on-skates impression I’ve ever seen, so I’ve got my doubts. I could probably trade you for some beef jerky, though.”

Over the next four loops, I fell into a pattern of shuffling my hands and feet along the rope and listening for Chet’s voice to let me know when I was coming to the next loop. It was on the sixth loop that I fucked up and missed the rope on the other side as I tried to put my foot back down. Instead of landing on something solid, I met air. I jerked to one side, the rope biting into my palms as I gripped it and hung in midair. My heart flew into my throat, and I kicked my feet, trying to find the tightrope. I hated how the blindfold made me lose all sense of direction except down.

“Mark.” Chet’s voice cut through my panic, calm and steady. “Be still and let the ropes settle. Then reach to your left and you’ll feel it. Farrow,trustme,” he added when I flailed again.

After forcing myself to quit swinging around and sucking in a galvanizing breath, I found the damn rope and got myself balanced on it.

“Two to go,” he said in that same patient voice. “Slow and steady. There you go!” he praised when I made it through the next, and he actually sounded encouraging.

The second I made it through the final loop, Chet gripped my forearm and hauled me onto the platform. I ripped the blindfold off and used it to mop the sweat across my brow.

“Okay?” His gaze flickered over me, and I thought I detected a little concern in it that was totally unwarranted. And also annoying.

“I’m fine. Just fucking hot and ready to be done.”

“All right.” He indicated the parallel ropes. “Let’s get to it, then. Last one. Sure you don’t want to take a breather for a second?”

“I’m good.” We stood across from each other, and I laced my fingers through Chet’s when he lifted his palms. “Don’t make any stupid jokes while we do this.”

“Your legs are already trembling.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about.”

“That was an observation, not a joke.” Chet was unrepentant.

“Okay, so let’s just not talk at all, then.”

“As you wish—” I narrowed my eyes at him and, for a second, his expression was perfectly sober, and then the corner of his lips started quivering as he tacked on in a murmur, “Buttercup.”

I yanked my hands free. “You know, I let you make me feel like a total pussy for liking that movie when we were kids and guess what? Turns out itwasa good fucking movie. It’s a cult classic. Can you say the same about2 Fast 2 Furious—which didn’t even have the courtesy of Vin Diesel and was like two steps removed fromCars 3? You can fuck off with that bullshit. No. Talking.”

I twined my fingers with his again, and we inched sideways onto the rope, wobbling while we still had one foot on the platform.

“Keep your eyes on mine. That’s going to keep us from wobbling.”

“I don’t want to look deep into your eyes for the next minute,” I told him. “You’ll probably steal my soul.”

“It’s gonna take us longer than that to get across, Buttercup, as slow as you’ve been moving. Put your other foot on the rope.”