“You’re so cute,” Leland coos, tossing heart eyes his way. I love how sweet they are together. I can tell that they’d do anything for each other, and it makes me hope I’ll have that someday.
Tavish pokes my leg, and I look over at him. Now that he has my attention, he doesn’t seem to know what to do with his finger, so he pokes my leg again as my eyes are trained on it before catching his. “If… there’s something you’d like… I’d crochet it for you,” he mutters.
“You really would?” I ask. And maybe I could have that thing with this man here…
“Yeah… sure. Just tell me what you’d like.”
“Really anything,” I assure him.
“Do you have a favorite animal?”
“Maybe cats?”
“Then I’ll make you a cat,” he declares. “And I’ll look manly while doing it.”
“You could look like anything while doing it and I promise I’ll love it,” I say, unable to stop the smile I throw at him.
TWENTY-FIVE
ELLIS
“Sup,” a tall, muscular man says as we walk up to where he and Henry are waiting.
“This is Micah. He’s like Tavish but cooler,” Leland explains. “And taller.”
I give him a smile. “Hi.”
“Micah, this is Ellis. He’s either undercover or an alien. We haven’t determined which yet,” Leland says. “We are all suspicious over how normal he is. He’s quite sketchy.”
“Anyone has to be more normal than you,” Micah responds as he takes my hand and kisses the back of it. “Pleasure to meet you, Ellis.” He gives me a smoldering grin.
“Ha… ha ha… Yeah… same… I think?”
Tavish glowers at him before setting a hand on my back and heading toward the door.
“I see you’re suffering,” Henry says to me.
“Umm… Confused too. Suffering and confused,” I assure him.
Henry gives me a knowing nod. “That’s the first issue. The moment you meet Leland, you’re supposed to just let your brainturn to mush. It’s the only way to successfully keep all your brain cells intact.”
“Weirdly, you’re not the first person to recommend that to me.”
“So… why are we at an escape room?” Tavish asks.
“Two reasons. Birthdays should always be fun and because there’s someone here who we’re going to torture,” Leland announces.
“Two times the fun,” Tavish says.
“Is it?” I ask.
Henry grumbles about that. “I was told that if I showed up, Leland wouldn’t sit on my lap during inopportune times and then send the pictures of it to my wife. He didn’t say anything about how long I had to stay.”
“You’re staying and you’re going to love it,” Leland says. “I signed us up with our code names.”
“What’s that mean? Leland, please… please tell me I don’t know what that means,” Jackson asks as we head inside the building. Jackson is apparently quite tortured over this, but he doesn’t have long to look distraught before he smiles at the woman who is standing behind the counter beaming at us.
“Welcome! Are you our five o’clock appointment?”
