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“For God’s sake, Yordan! Would you slow down?”
The man didn’t answer. He was too busy squaring off with the evil game show host. “One for one is fair.”
“But the question is about the two of you.”
“Don’t care. You get me or nothing.”
“Hmmm,” said Gamfay as he looked at Kit. “I’ll go with nothing.” Then he and Coffee winked out.
Shit, shit, shit. “Yordan, you have got to get a grip. We either work together on this or not at all.”
Yordan shook his head. “I’m not risking you on some fucking fairy—”
“Both our names are on that page,” Kit nearly screamed. “Both of us are in this relationship. You’ve got to stop going it alone, or this is never going to work.” And by “this,” he meant their relationship, the fairy deal, and their working together. “You aren’t alone anymore. Unless you make it that way.”
He saw that information filter in. He watched Yordan’s stubborn shoulders slide down as his expression softened. “I’m trying to protect you,” he finally murmured.
“And I want to protect you, but you know it doesn’t work that way. We’ve got to take the risk together. Especially if we’re risking our relationship.”
“Listen, it’s an easy bet,” Yordan said. “He can’t change the way I feel about you. There’s not a damn thing that I’d believe out of his lying mouth. So if you feel good about us—”
“Of course I do.” That was a rash thing to say after less than a day of honest communication between them, but Kit was certain how he felt. After all, he’d been feeling it for years.
“Then we’re good. We win,” Yordan said.
Too easy. This was too fucking easy for a fairy bet. But they didn’t have any other options.
“We’ve got to do it together,” Kit said firmly, and he waited until Yordan finally agreed.
“Fine. Together.” Then he leaned over to kiss Kit, but before their mouths could touch, Coffee and Gamfay were back. They blinked in with a hearty ho, ho, ho that made both of them jump.
“Do we have a deal, then?” Gamfay asked.
Kit dropped his hands on his hips. “Give me the particulars. Slowly.”
Gamfay chuckled. “Dwayne, show your friends the game, shall we?”
They turned and saw Coffee prancing about, this time dressed as a game show girl, long skirt, bright lipstick, and all. He set down a podium with a large red button on it. Above it hung an arrow pointing straight up between TRUTH on one side and FALSE on the other.
“It’s simple,” Coffee growled, clearly annoyed with playing Vanna. “He says something, and the arrow goes to Truth. You then say something, and it slides to False.”
“Now, now,” interrupted Gamfay. “That’s not exactly correct, is it? This is a lie detector, gentlemen. If what you say is the true, then it’ll point to true.”
Yordan rolled his eyes. “According to you. It’s a fairy game. It’ll point to whatever you want it to.”
Gamfay held up his hand. “Upon my life, it will answer honestly.”
“How can it?” Kit challenged. “Truth is too complicated for any machine to effectively judge it. Especially if it’s about feelings.”
The fairy stroked his tie. “True, true. But the machine measures if you think you’re lying or not. Not the actual truth of the matter. If you actually believe Coffee is my sweet baby boo, then it’ll read true. If you don’t but say he is, then it’ll know you’re lying.” He grinned as he pointed to the big red button. “Go ahead. You can test it, if you want. You don’t even need to say the words out loud. It’ll know.”
Yordan stepped up immediately, putting his hand on the big red button. He thought for a moment, then pressed the button down. The arrow swung straight to TRUE. Next press went to FALSE. And then a couple more landed somewhere in the middle to indicate sort of true or sort of false.
He stepped back and looked at Kit.
“It works well enough now. Don’t know if we can trust it in the moment.”
Coffee shook his head. “Not his style. He’s a prick, to be sure, but he’ll play by the rules. He figures we’re weak enough to keep playing. Eventually, we’ll overextend and lose. It’s the nature of gamblers.”
