Page 22 of Know Your Place

Inside, we had to sign a waiver and listen to some boring-ass rules I barely caught because Beretta’s thumb caressed my hand the entire time, and his touch was all I could focus on.

Once we were inside the room, the instructor closed the door, and Beretta asked, “You ever done one of these before?”

“Nope.”

He shook his head. “We gonna be locked in here forever.”

“I think they said they don’t actually lock the door.” I had caught that part of the boring instructions.

“You was payin’ attention?” he asked with his brows hiked up.

I bit my bottom lip before responding. “Not really.”

“Me neither.” He chuckled.

“I guess we should look around?” I said it more as a question because I wasn’t really sure.

He shrugged but glanced at a bookshelf beside us. I reached it first, though.

“Move,” he said as he bumped me out of the way.

I shoved him. “No, you move.”

He poked me in my side, and I shrieked. “Better get out my way.”

I stomped my foot. “Fine. I’ll look over here.”

Fighting with him was not supposed to be in the plans for the day, so I moved over to a desk in the corner and poked around. I yanked a pen holder off the desk, and it broke.

“Hey, don’t move things that are bolted down. You’ll have to pay for that!” a voice over the loudspeaker shouted, and I jumped before my eyes narrowed.

“I ain’t payin’ for shit!”

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the room,” the voice said.

I glared around the room as if I could see the person speaking. “Y’all got cameras up in here? Kinda freaky ass shit⁠—”

“Ma’am, we went over this just a couple of minutes ago⁠—”

“Aye, man, I paid money for me and my lady to be here. I’ma need you to pipe the fuck down and let us solve this fuck-ass puzzle so we can get out of here and I can slide up in that good ass pussy she’s holding up in those jeans, unless you want me to bend her over this desk and really put a show on for you,” Beretta snapped.

It was silent for a moment before the voice came back over the loudspeaker. “You’re both going to have to leave.”

“Leave my ass! This is our first date, and you are not about to ruin it,” I barked.

Beretta massaged my shoulders. “It’s okay, Juicy. Let daddy handle this.” He tilted his head up to talk to the weirdo watching us. “Aye, I’ll slide you five hundred if you let us stay.”

It was silent for a second before the voice responded. “Don’t break anything else.”

Beretta grinned and then bent down to whisper in my ear so low that only I could possibly hear. “I ain’t givin’ him shit.”

“And we gettin’ a refund,” I muttered.

He gave me dap before we continued to snoop around. We bickered the entire time, but this escape room was actually kind of fun. We were in the third room connected to this escape route, and the time only had thirty seconds left.

“In the corner! Look behind the lamp,” I yelled.

Beretta sprinted to the corner of the room and looked behind the lamp before cheering like he found something. “You was right, Juicy. The code is 30459!”