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The woman only laughed harder.
They went back to the bar.
He ordered a drink. He had to drink it with his left hand. She’d handcuffed herself with her right hand, so she had her right hand—also her dominant hand—free. It would have been handy if one of them had been left-handed really. He supposed that if you were ever going to get handcuffed to someone, that was something to think about.
Essence asked if Hollis had come back. Lucy said no. Essence said to tell him they were in the back if so. Then she said they might as well go sit down somewhere.
He let her take the lead on the way to the back of the bar. He should never have even come here tonight. He must have known, deep down, she’d probably be here. Briars, maybe he’d wanted her to be here.
“We might as well talk,” she said, when they were seated at a table in the corner.
“Talk about what?” he said, even though he must have wanted to talk when he came here. He must have wanted to have whatever extremely awkward conversation he’d tried to initiate at work earlier. It was the only thing that even remotely made sense. Except now, stuck to her like this, it was the last thing he wanted to do.
She lifted the cuffs. “Okay, there’s obviously some hidden truth with us. Let’s just reveal it.”
He winced.
“Well, it’s the spell or whatever, so…” She let out a breath. “I pretend like I don’t know anything about football, but I used to watch it all the time with my dad when I was younger, and it was, like, my favorite thing.”
He snickered. “Uh, Essence, I know you know about football.”
“I mean, I’ve actively tried to forget about it. I was only into it in order to bond with my dad, you know? I don’t actually give a shit about telling the difference between a receiver and an offensive lineman.”
He was full-on laughing now. “This is not a secret. I hate to tell you, but you’re really crappy at hiding your sports knowledge.”
“Well, I only want it to be clear that we’re not spending the evening handcuffed together in front of the television, watching football.”
“There’s no game on right now,” he said. “As you know.”
“I do not.”
“See, this is getting us nowhere, because you’re lying right now.” He shook the cuffs’ chain at her.
She shrugged. “Okay, you reveal a hidden truth.”
He looked up at the ceiling.
“I know,” she said. “Larissa actually broke up with you, not the other way around.”
He furrowed his brow, thinking about it. “I think that was just kind of a mutual thing.”
“Probably because she could not train you in bed.”
He winced again. “Ouch. Are we talking about this?”
“Maybe it’s the hidden truth,” she said.
“What hidden truth, that the sex was bad and we both thought so? We did this. We already had this conversation.”
“Wait, you thought it was bad?” She drew back, and she actually looked hurt.
“I told you this. We agreed that we didn’t mesh.”
“I said we didn’t mesh. You…”
“Agreed with you.”
“Yeah, but…” She let out a huff. “What did you think was bad about it?”
