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She laughs lightly and I grin at the small victory. “No, it’s not. Honey pie is forever your name now.”
I teased her about the nickname, but in the back of my mind, I was secretly pleased with it. I like having these little inside jokes and nicknames for each other. I feel like we were falling back to the friendship level I had so desperately missed.
We make our way to the group that’s standing in a semicircle, all eyes on Cyrus as he gives instructions.
“Welcome to our first challenge! One of the biggest parts of Hansen is teamwork. We thrive best when we work together, when we work as a team to accomplish our goals, we all succeed.”
I see Viviana watching closely, absorbing every word and I smirk. She’s not exactly known for letting others help her.
“As you see, there are enough firepits here for each couple to work on, your job is to simply make a fire.” He gestures behind him at two men holding fire extinguishers. “These guys are here for our protection and will help if things get out of hand. Oh, and I hope you looked through your supplies and thought ahead, because we left the proper tools in there for your convenience, but if you forgot, you’ll have to get creative.”
Viv curses and sighs. “I didn’t bring any fire-starting tools!”
“Did you see any in the box?”
She narrows her gaze on me, I barely hold back a smirk. “No. I didn’t see any in the box, Archibald.”
“You know that’s not my name.”
“Would you prefer honey pie?” She retorts and makes her way to the firepit left for us.
“Yes, actually.” I note other couples did, in fact, have fire starting tools and they’d gotten to work right away. There’s a small pile of wood in the center to light and that’s all there is.
“What are we going to do?” She asks. “Is this thing timed?”
“Uh, I don’t think so.” I look around. “He didn’t say it was timed, I think it’s more of a character slash teamwork thing.”
“Great,” she grumbles and crosses her arms. “I don’t know the first thing about starting fires!”
I smile at her, probably annoying her even more. “Go into the woods and find some dry grass and bring it back.”
“Dry grass,” she deadpans, looking at me with such a straight-faced expression that I nearly bark out a laugh. However, I value my balls, so I keep my mouth shut.
“Yes,” I answer and she sighs again.
“Dry grass,” she mumbles, walking into the wooded area. “Get dry grass, he says. Like dry grass will magically light itself on fire.”
I chuckle at her not-so-inner monologue and get to work to find some rocks I can use to make sparks.
It’s not rocket science and I’m pretty sure everyone in the world knows that hitting two rocks together makes sparks and can lead to a fire.
However, I can also attest that it’s one of the more challenging methods of fire starting.
I scour the ground until I find the two rocks I need and rush back to the firepit, waiting for Viv to get back. I have this need to make this work for her, I want her to feel confident in herself so that it shows to Cyrus and Lillian that she's determined and willing to do what it takes to get a job done.
She’s no slacker, she’s just not big on the outdoorsy stuff.
Which is where I come in.
I glance around and see another couple has already lit their fire. I scowl. Damn. I was hoping we would be first.
Then, the couple just stands there waiting. They don’t walk to anyone else and offer help and Cyrus watches with curiosity and something in my head clicks.
Viv comes rushing back, a huge bundle of grass in her arms, and for whatever reason, her hair is a mess, like she had to wrestle the grass into submission. “I found dry grass!” She yells and I grin at her.
“Perfect, great job, babe!” I have her situate it under the wood and start to clack the rocks together. It takes a bit to get a rhythm going but then I see a few sparks start to come off of the rocks.
“Sparks!” Viv yells excitedly, and her enthusiasm has me grinning as I work harder.
