“He didn’t like me working out.” Maurice lowered his chin and raised his eyebrows as if he thought that would be all I needed to figure out the situation.

  I slapped the steering wheel. “Why? Was it taking up a lot of your free time?”

  Maurice continued to scrutinize me as if he thought I was a few bulbs short of a pack.

  I tried to pinpoint where I’d gone wrong in my reasoning. “What?”

  “He was a chaser.”

  The bulb flashed on, but I still didn’t get the entire issue. “As in, he likes cuddle bears?”

  He grinned, and I was relieved he wasn’t looking at me like I was mentally deficient. “Cuddle bears?”

  I shrugged. “You’re a bear but younger.”

  “Not that young. You think I look cuddly?” He patted his belly.

  I gripped the steering wheel with both hands. Yes, you would fit in my arms nicely. “We were talking about cake.”

  “And cookies. And lemon bars. And cinnamon ice cream. And pralines.” He closed his eyes, but after a moment he was staring me down again.

  “Yum.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s what I thought at first, too. He would bring me something at least twice a day, sometimes more during the weekends. I love to eat and didn’t hesitate to shove it all in my mouth. I gained twenty pounds in a month because I didn’t want to be rude when he got me something, plus I liked it all.” He ran a hand across the red leather dash as if inspecting it for dust.

  “I still don’t—”

  “He hated the idea of me losing weight. He was a chubby chaser, and I hated that he wouldn’t want to be with me if I lost weight. My friends told me I was being stupid. In one week I lost my boyfriend, best friend, and two other guys we hung around with. They thought I should be grateful that anyone wanted me because I don’t have a six-pack. My cousin Lacey was around for that drama, and she called them all. . . a lot of unpleasant names.”

  “Good. I hope you also called them every name in the book.” Anger slammed through me. “That is something. And you told them all to go to hell?”

  He tugged his suit jacket firmly closed and nodded. “I felt awful about myself.”

  I had trouble saying anything to him. The entire conversation had dredged up unpleasant memories of my own, but I’d been the one to push things, and I was furious on his behalf. I was bad company for the twenty-minute drive to Escape Adventure and hoped to do better the rest of the time. I pulled into a space in the lot at the front of the wide brick building without windows. It was sort of creepy because the only break in the facade was the glass door to get inside.

  Maurice gave me a small smile as I cut the engine, and I forced one back at him.

  “I’m sorry that happened to you. How long ago was this?”

  He glanced upward. “Five years. I’m over it.”

  I reached for his hand, and he let me hold it. I gave him a squeeze. “It’s okay if you aren’t.”

  “I haven’t told anyone that story since it happened,” he said, voice barely loud enough to be heard.

  “Well, as always, I think you did the right thing.”

  “You do?”

  I nodded, and he didn’t smile, but he did squeeze my hand back.

  Lacey stuck her head out of the door of the building and waved at us, and I laughed. We got out of the car to meet her. On the way, I gave Maurice a quick side hug, and he smiled up at me.

  Lacey hissed, “Stay like that, with your arm around him. Just like that.” She danced around as if she was ready to fly apart with joy. She was wearing shorts that were silky and didn’t hide much, along with a black belly shirt that matched, and if she was trying to discourage Celestine, she could’ve picked something else. I let it go. Who was I to blow out her candle? She burned bright and shouldn’t have to change a thing. I was working myself up because I was still miffed at Celestine for hovering around Maurice all week, but I didn’t care.

  I drew Maurice closer, and he patted my chest as if to tell me it was okay. It felt good to have him quietly approving of my touch. As we went inside I mentally reviewed our plan—we were going to stay in character as doting lovers until the end of the date or Celestine chickened out and said he had to go, and then Lacey would let him know he’d been had. I planned to let him know this was to teach him a lesson for making other people uncomfortable.

  I had to let go of Maurice because we couldn’t fit through the door together, but I put my arm around him again as soon as we were in the plain lobby. Escape the Pirate’s Treasure Trove was on a chalkboard in swirly gold letters behind the cash register, and except for a small space, the counter had been piled high with fake gold coins, jewels, and a treasure chest. I’d chosen this as the place for our date because it sounded fun and was right up my alley. Celestine was bent over a clipboard while leaning against a corner of the room, signing his life away, and then he glanced up and his eyes almost popped out of his head.

  “Uh, Mr. Guidry, why. . . ? Why. . . ?”

  “You said to bring a date.” Maurice smirked up at me, and my stomach flipped pleasantly. “Wick loves things like this.”

  “It has been far too long since we spent an evening together having an adventure.” I rubbed my hand along Maurice’s bicep, and now that he’d mentioned lifting, I didn’t stop myself until I’d scouted out a firm muscle.

  We moved to the counter and a boy, who couldn’t have been more than eighteen, handed us clipboards with a winning smile that flashed every tooth he owned. He had a mop of curly brown hair and big brown eyes that belonged on an anime character. His Escape Adventure T-shirt billowed around him like the sail on a ship as he quickly moved around, getting us checked in.

  “You can’t take your phones inside.” He retrieved a box from under the counter and shook it at us, and I deposited mine, and Maurice reluctantly dumped his in, too.

  The boy couldn’t stop looking at me and Maurice, and I wondered if it was because he hadn’t run across many gay couples, or if he was in that phase of his life where he was trying to think of ways to tell other people where his interests lay. I winked at him, and he flushed and grinned.

  Maurice elbowed me and nodded at Celestine frantically whispering to Lacey while he shot wide-eyed glances at us. She seemed entirely unmoved and only nodded along.

  “Can you tell me what I’m signing?” Maurice asked the attendant.

  He pointed at the Escape Adventure sign that apparently Maurice hadn’t noticed yet. “You’ll be held hostage for an hour, but you can escape.” He danced a little jig that had Maurice shaking his head.

  Maurice dropped his pen on the clipboard. “Oh no. I can’t do this.”

  “Why? I thought it would be fun?” Disappointment smacked me and I rubbed his shoulder.

  He groaned but picked his pen back up and slashed his signature across the bottom line on the last page.

  I chuckled.

  When we were finished signing everything and had been given a lecture on trying not to break things we found in the room, we were all herded through a large door that one hundred percent reminded me of the detailed carvings on the old ships I’d toured. Excitement careened through my chest.

  “I love this,” I whispered to Maurice.

  “Yes, it looks a bit like the painting in your office.” He rolled his eyes slightly.

  I could’ve kissed him for remembering that. No one else cared about my strange obsessions enough to recall them later. I held him closer.

  Once we were inside, I was in pure ecstasy. The room looked exactly the way I’d imagined the rich captain’s quarters of a pirate, hellbent on having a debauched journey across all seven seas. There was a bed anchored in one wall, draped with luxurious silks, books along the other side, a table set with fine silver, and a wall constructed to resemble the forward-facing windows of the bow on a ship. The view of the ocean outside was lit up and flashed with lightning as a storm raged on the other side, and over hidden speakers we heard the crash of thunder. The view changed to spray from waves hammering the windows, which had to be screens, but it was all so well done it felt real. My heart raced.

  “Oh wow!” Lacey bounced around, and Celestine stared at me and Maurice. He caught me looking and pasted on a nervous smile.

  Maurice’s mouth was set in a determined line, and I wasn’t sure if he was very into games and winning or if he was upset about this for real.

  “Okay! Attention, please! I’m Felipe, your guide!” The attendant was all smiles as we turned to face him, and then he held up four sets of handcuffs that had me swallowing. They clinked as he moved them around, and maybe calling them shackles would be more accurate. They belonged to this adventure room as much as the sturdy supports on the bed and the scent of sea spray and cedar hanging in the air. “You have one hour to escape. This week’s record is ten minutes, but it’s not unusual for people to run out of time. You don’t want to find out what happens if the clock ends and you’re still in here,” he said ominously, then snickered. “We take your photograph for our wall of shame. The employees laugh mercilessly at you, and we post it on the internet for your friends and family to laugh at as well.” He seemed far too pleased.

  Celestine was cuffed first with his hands behind his back, and I didn’t mind that so much, but then Lacey was cuffed, and I hated seeing the boy put the shackles on Maurice. Then it was my turn and sweat broke out on my forehead as the cool metal snapped home on my wrists.

  “You’re all set.” Felipe tugged on my shackles, then backed off toward the door. “The first key you need is somewhere in this room! You’ll have to work as a team to find it and release yourself, and then you’ll be seeking a series of clues. Don’t give up! The things you need do exist!” He paused for us to laugh, I assumed, but I couldn’t force one. Everyone else seemed fine, though, and they all chuckled. “As soon as I lock you in, the timer will start. Good luck!” He went to the ornate door, exited, and then closed it. The lock that clunked was loud. A shiver raced down my spine.

  “Uh, do they watch us to make sure we’re okay?”

  “Yeah, for sure,” Lacey said, and she sounded as chipper as the first time I’d met her when she was four cocktails in for the night.

  “It was on the sheet you signed. Didn’t you read it?” Maurice asked, lifting his eyebrows in my direction.

  “No.” I shrugged.

  “You don’t have an ounce of shame, do you?” He sighed.

  “That’s what you’re for. You read my paperwork.”

  He groaned, and I had the overwhelming urge to keep talking to distract myself.

  Celestine cleared his throat. “So, Mr. Guidry. You and Maurice. . . .”

  I knocked my shoulder against Maurice’s, and he turned to face Celestine with me, giving him a very innocent face. “Yes? What about us?”

  Lacey giggled and if she wasn’t careful, she would give the game away. I tugged against the metal on my wrists and strained.

  Maurice leaned close. “Are you all right?”

  “Not a fan of cuffs,” I murmured. “Didn’t expect this.”

  Maurice stared around the room. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and the crash of waves echoed loudly, sending my pulse rushing faster. “Let’s get them off you, then.”

  “Yes, we have to find the key! We’re wasting time.”

  We broke apart to search for the key as best we could with our hands behind our backs, and I scoured the table, then began using my nose to flip over plates while Lacey giggled over it. I wanted to be having a good time, too, but the longer it took to find the key, the worse I felt. My clothes stuck to my body and my heart smashed against my ribs every time I strained my wrists.

  Maurice nudged me, mouth twisted down in a frown. “Are you still doing all right?”

  I studied his serious face, but I didn’t want to ruin this for him, especially if he hadn’t been out in a while. “Sure.”

  He glanced around—Lacey and Celestine were having a ball using their elbows to knock books off a shelf.

  “Oh!” Lacey let out a happy squeal that scared a year off my life. “I found the second clue!” She stared down at the mess on the floor.

  “We need the key to the cuffs before we can use it,” Maurice said, and Celestine nodded along with him.

  My heart pounded harder and my knees went wobbly. I swore I could feel the boat rocking as thunder rumbled and it got darker in the cabin. Overhead, candlelight whooshed to life, but when I glanced up, I realized the glow radiated from electric bulbs in a chandelier that was oddly behind a cube of glass. There was one jar hanging down below the light on a rope and something glittered inside.

  “Oh, there!” Maurice jumped up and down in excitement, and I forced a chuckle for him, even though I felt three steps away from death. “Do you see it? The key’s in the jar.”

  “How will we get it down?” I groaned because it seemed impossible.

  Maurice nudged me with his elbow. “Come here. I saw something over here.” He led me to the wall where a decorative oar full of carvings hung, which reminded me of an old-world map. Together we were able to knock the oar down with our elbows, but it took both of us to keep it from falling to the floor, and we had to put our backs to each other and work the oar between us in an upright position.

  Lacey and Celestine laughed their asses off at us as we awkwardly walked over to where the jar was hanging, and I thought maybe there was more than one way to get the key down, but the oar must’ve been a good suspect and that was why the chandelier was protected. It took us a few swings to tip the jar on its side, and the metallic ting of the key hitting the floor had joy leaping in my chest.

  “Wow, you’re good at this. I see why you’re dating. You’re a great team.” Celestine shot us a smile and it made me feel a bit better about the situation.

  Immediately I spotted the key on the floor and dove for it. I scrabbled around blindly, my fingers scraping the wood, and let out a sigh when I picked up the key in my right hand. The cool metal sent relief rushing through my veins. I tried to unlock my shackles, but the key was too long for that. I growled in frustration.

  “Maurice, come over here. I can unlock you but not me.”

  He hummed as I stood, and we moved around until we were back-to-back again. Celestine whispered something to Lacey, and my stomach jolted as Maurice’s warm fingers brushed mine.

  “Hold on. Let me have the key,” Maurice said in a firm, steady tone that had my heart slowing down a bit.

  “All right.” I passed the key to him, and my face heated as he easily slid the key into my shackles and turned the lock. Both cuffs opened at once and the metal clinked to the floor. I let out a moan as I rubbed my wrists.

  “Hurry!” Celestine said, and I was surprised to see how into this he and Lacey were, but I rushed to get the key and unlock Maurice, and then he went around and freed everyone else.

  Lacey scrambled over to the book mess on the floor and retrieved the second clue, holding the piece of paper with a wax seal on it in front of her at arm’s length like it was a bomb. We all leaned closer as she broke the red seal and opened the note.

  The second key, ye will find, below a knot of pine.

  “Well, that isn’t very good pirate poetry,” I grumped.

  “Just look at all the wood!” Celestine shouted as he scampered off to gawk at every wooden thing in the whole place, running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Lacey was more systematic, starting at the bookcase.

  “We don’t need to look at all the wood, we need to find a knot. And pine is a light wood. Let’s search for that.” Maurice patted my back.

  “You are good at this,” I said.

  The happy little smile he blasted me with made me want to take his hand, but we were rushing around to follow his orders before I could do it, and besides, Celestine wasn’t paying any attention to us, so I didn’t have much of an excuse to touch him now.

  Not long later Maurice let out a happy noise and dropped to a knee as he pried up a pale pine board that indeed had a knot in it, then peeled up several more loose floorboards. We hustled over to gather around him, but we all stared, flummoxed, when he pulled up a wall sconce. The bottom looked like it would fit into something heart shaped.

  “How is that a key?” Celestine asked.

  “A key only has to fit into a lock,” I said, glancing around. “It doesn’t have to be a small one.”

  “Oh! Oh! It doesn’t have to be a key like with the cuffs!” Lacey grabbed the sconce out of Maurice’s hands and ran toward the bookcase, and we all bolted after her. I could almost taste freedom and wanted out of here now. The thunder was starting to pierce my brain. On the wall to the left was a heart-shaped hole that could’ve been easily overlooked, and she fit the sconce there and we all cheered—but nothing happened.

  “Well, what do we do now?” Maurice poked at the sconce.

  “Generally, you have to turn a key,” I murmured. “Thank God we’re getting out of here. I don’t enjoy being locked in.” I twisted the sconce to the right. Nothing happened. “Fuck.”

  “Shh.” Maurice rubbed my back, and I swallowed hard.

  I turned the sconce to the left. A loud click sounded in the room, and the bookcase swung inward. Beyond was darkness.

  “Ah! How cool is this!” Lacey grabbed my shoulder and Maurice’s, then used all her weight to shake us, which added to the queasiness already sloshing around in my stomach. Lacey and Celestine dashed inside, and Maurice followed them. I hesitated, but Maurice reached back and grabbed my hand, dragging me ahead and into the room. I clung too tightly but couldn’t help it.

  “It’s pitch black.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Maurice stepped closer to me until his comforting warmth was all I could focus on in the dark. “Our night vision is shot. Hold on. I can already see a bit.”

  I held my breath and groaned when he swung the bookcase shut and the latch caught. There was no going back. “Why did you do that?!”

  “The light was keeping our eyes from adjusting.” He rubbed my shoulder, and I blew out a long breath.

  Maurice shook my hand around. “It’s okay.”

 

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