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The tweens wasted no time heading inside and disappearing around a corner. No surprise there. Colton went in next, looking excited. He was too interested in the call-to-adventure to be grumpy any longer.
“What do you think?” I asked Ainsley, gesturing for her to go next.
She shrugged and followed in after him, and immediately I could hear the two arguing about which direction to go. At least they were talking again.
Denver nudged me with his shoulder. “I had already planned to get conveniently lost in this thing with you, but now I have totally different reasons.”
The flirt.
“Yeah, but that’s not our job here, is it? We better follow them before they get too far ahead.”
“Colton will do much better if I’m not there as a resource. Trust me. It’s the tough love BFF treatment.”
“That’s not a thing.”
Denver slid his hand into mine. “It is.”
He was awfully handsy with my… hand. Not that I wanted him to let go. Taking hold of Denver’s hand was like taking back a bit of myself that I’d lost somewhere along the way. Accepting the affection I had no idea I’d craved so much. I was literally putting my trust in his hands. Was that the right use of the word literally?
“Sadie?” He stepped inside and waited for me to follow.
I shook myself out of my introspection and stepped in after him, looking around. It wasn’t dark per se, but with the large walls on every side, it was dim, and the museum had added flickering sconces for effect. We were in The Office meets Indiana Jones. They had other decorations, too, like ancient looking keys hanging on hooks. I reached out and touched them. Nope, plastic cleverly painted in a patina style. Still cool.
“Right or left?” Denver asked.
“Whichever way Colton and Ainsley turned.”
Denver looked sheepish. “I wasn’t paying attention.
“Me either.” Our BFF game was not strong today. I tried to listen for the sound of their arguing, but all I could hear was a murmur of indistinguishable voices all over the place.
Denver swung my hand, looking way too happy about it. “So, I guess it’s just us.”
“Don’t get any ideas, Romeo. It’s our job to find them.” I headed right, knowing most people’s natural inclination was to go right. Except, Colton and Ainsley weren’t most people. I stopped. Maybe we should go left. Yes, definitely left. I turned us back the other way, making Denver laugh. He was not taking this seriously at all. In fact, he was purposely taking his time, stopping to read all the signs telling us interesting facts about mazes and locks through the ages. We were never going to catch up to everyone else, and I wasn’t sure it was worth fighting for it. After all, if we were all headed toward the same goal, we’d find them eventually. Being around someone so unhurried and curious was definitely rubbing off on me. I was always in a hurry, whether there was a need to be or not.
We encountered our first roadblock around the next bend. Cubicle walls had been cut and pieced together into pyramid shaped structures, almost like stalagmites coming out of the floor. They met so tightly together that there was no floor, only steep angles that met together in a V. I stepped up onto a pyramid and had to grip the top of it to keep from sliding off. My Vans couldn’t get traction and I slipped again and again until Denver took pity on me and pulled me off the thing, trying not to laugh and totally failing.
“Okay, let’s see you try.” I motioned him forward, secretly hoping he’d bomb. He was wearing Hey Dudes, which were practically house slippers as far as I was concerned.
With no hesitation, he leaped from pyramid to pyramid like an American Ninja Warrior and landed on the other side, making a ta-da motion. Seeing my irritation, he started doing the running man and then twirled before pretending to spike a football at his feet. It was adorable, and I wanted to kill him.
Oh, I was not getting one-upped here. The secret was constant movement. I could do that. I could be fearless. I copied his moves, jumping from one pyramid to the other and it was working until my shoe slid down the side of the last one and I leapt out in a panic, knowing it was that or doing the splits. Instead of backing out of my way, Denver lunged forward and caught me. Sort of. We fell back in a heap with his arms around me and my face smooshed against his chest. Shoot. My lipstick. I was pretty sure it was now decorating Denver’s pristine white T-shirt. Jenny had suggested smudge-proof lipstain with a saucy raise of her eyebrows and I’d put on this red lipstick instead in defiance.
I slowly lifted my head and winced. Sure enough, there was now the unmistakable outline of my red lips in the middle of his chest. Like I’d kissed him there, right in the hollow between his pecks. When his eyes followed my gaze, my face heated up until it felt like it was on fire.
“Wow, Sadie. I didn’t know you felt that way about me.”
“Shut up.” I used his shoulders as leverage and climbed off of him, before pulling out my phone to check my reflection and make sure I didn’t have lipstick smears anywhere else. Nope. I had pretty much left it all on Denver’s shirt. I added a bit of chapstick to even it all out and glanced back at Denver. He was watching me, still looking smug.
“I’m sorry about your shirt. I’ll buy you a new one.”
“Nah, it will come out. Just needs a little dish soap.” He sounded so certain, and when I realized why, I wanted to get away from him and his smugness immediately. I headed on down the maze, but Denver quickly caught up and then turned around to walk backwards in front of me.
“What did I say?”
“Nothing. I’m just embarrassed. I’m not mad.”
“Are you sure?”
