Chapter 34
ELI
“Okay, you have to trust me, Eli. No peeking.” Sapphire huffs and puffs, securing the blindfold across my eyes.
I fold my arms and frown like I’m a storm cloud come to life.
“Do you promise?” she asks.
I shake my head in frustration. I do not want to do this.
“Stop moving around, I’m already on the tips of my toes and I can’t tie this if you keep wriggling… There… got it,” she says, sounding victorious yet exasperated as she ties it firmly—maybe a bit too tight for my liking—at the back of my head.
She hates it when she can’t reach the things she wants, like the donuts from the top shelf in my kitchen. I might be guilty of putting them there to save her from turning into one. If she eats one more, there is a real possibility of that happening.
Thinking about it now, if today goes to shit, I’m hiding the stool I bought for her for my house because she can’t reach the top shelf of… well, anything… The closet, kitchen cabinets, the pantry, bookshelves… I really should get a carpenter to move everything down by several inches.
However, I did confess that I hid the television remote up high because I knew she’d never find it and the last thing I wanted to watch was a dramatization of her favorite spicy romance novel, Jacob.
I mean, who the hell wants to watch other couples having sex on screen when we could be having actual sex ourselves?
She hated it when I told her I’d hidden it, her tiny foot tapping like an angry rabbit. It was cute, though, and I’d do the same again just to see that look once more.
“Do you promise not to peek?” she asks again, this time firmer than before, my absence of vision making me hyper-aware of Sapphire’s presence.
“I’ll try not to.” I can’t make any promises.
Her voice shifts from behind to in front of me.
“Can you see me?” A whip of air blasts over my arms as if she’s flapping them about.
“No. I hate blindfolds.” I hate games and not being in control. I grind my teeth together making them screech in irritation.
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“No idea, I can’t see for shit.” This is ridiculous. I already hate it.
“You could be lying,” Sapphire bites back with enough sass that it makes me want to spank her bratty ass.
“I’m not lying… or, maybe I am.” I test her patience once more.
“I’m flipping you the bird, can you see that?”
I grumble, “Why do we have to do this?” This activity seems pointless.
Sapphire exhales, again, for about the tenth time today.
“All you do is complain. Your new nickname is Complainy McComplainerson. And you’re great at chess, which means you’re great at puzzles, so you’re going to smash this.
” She places her soft hand in mine, her touch oddly calming.
“Take three steps forward, then we’re going to walk through the door. ”
“What’s through the door?” I hate not being able to see, holding my other hand out in front of me to try to get my bearings.
I’m hating everything about the way our first night is starting off.
“I know as much as you… One more step… Right, I’m opening the door now.” A turn of a handle and unclicking of the lock is what I hear next, and I jump out of my skin when she lets out a piercing scream that has me on high alert and ready to attack whatever the fuck is inside that room.
“What the fuck is it?” I shout, my heart leaping out of my chest, my pulse at borderline heart attack levels. “Sapphire, what is it?” I reach for my blindfold to take it off until she starts laughing her ass off.
“Gotcha.” Her fun-filled hearty laugh fills the space. “Ha ha, your face.”
“You’re a child.” Her playfulness is mischievous and… kinda wonderful.
She snorts, trying to get her fit of giggles under control.
I lay my hand over my chest. I wasn’t lying about the heart attack. “When you’re finished, can we get on with this?” The sooner this is over, the better.
Eventually, when her hysteria filters off, she retakes my hand and explains she’s leading me through the door. “You’re safe with me.”
“You could’ve fooled me,” I snap back.
She ignores me. “Okay, Eli, we’re inside a simply lit room, like an escape room, with what looks like clues all around.
” Still holding on to my hand, she closes the door behind me.
“Oh, there are words on the wall… ‘Welcome to Blind Trust, designed to test your trust in your partner and completely surrender.’” She reads them out loud.
“I won’t be good at this,” I state stiffly.
“We don’t even know what we are going to do yet, but your job is to listen to me, follow my instructions and feel your way through it.”
Okay, well, when she puts it like that, it might not be so bad. I’m not on board with the old musty smell, though; it makes me feel tense, my shoulders stiffening.
Sapphire reads something else. “Your task is to talk your partner through three games to reveal the combination code to unlock the key on the wall, which will set you free from this locked room.”
On cue, the door behind us locks with a loud metallic clunk sound, and I jump again.
“Fuck.” I really hate this, and it makes me feel like I’m being challenged, and not in a good way. I don’t like relying on other people either. I take a step backward, but Sapphire squeezes my hand.
“Wrong way, take a step forward for me.” She either doesn’t pick up on how awkward I am or she’s ignoring my need to run as far away as possible.
“There’s a small box in front of us,” she adds then tells me what to do as I stumble on my own feet moving closer to where she wants me to be.
“Find my secret, find the first number.”
Fumbling at first, I pat my hands out in front of me until I feel a square, the box, and run my fingers over it. Wooden, I think. “It’s flat.” Smooth on all sides with not a hint of a lock or combination.
“I think there are secret channels cut into the wood. Let me get a closer look.” Sapphire’s breath dusts across my hands, making me feel safe. She’s here with me. I can do this but I have my doubts.
I mumble under my breath and mutter to her that it would be faster if I just took the blindfold off, but like always, with laughter and warmth, Sapphire pulls me out of my usual rigidity and encourages me to go quiet and follow her voice.
After dozens of instructions, Sapphire’s voice kicks up in excitement. “It’s there, I can see it, Eli. Touch the top right-hand corner, further up, yes, that’s it. There’s a line in the wood, try pressing it down and sliding it to the right.”
When that doesn’t work, she tells me to, “Press it harder and slide it away from you.”
A small crack of what sounds like wood breaking makes me freeze for a second, caught somewhere between disbelief and pride, and I shift my focus to where I think she is and smile despite not believing I could trust her, or trust myself to do it.
My fingers slide a small piece of wood, separating it from the rest of the cube.
“Yes,” Sapphire yells before telling me to stick my finger into the box to see if there is anything in the hole it’s left.
“I’m not shoving my finger in there.” I feel around the entrance of the hole. “What if there’s a spider in it?”
“Or a bear,” she drawls. “Come on. Just do it, Eli.” She lays her hand over mine.
“I would never ever tell you to do something if I didn’t think it was safe.
I know how hard you are finding this. And I know how uncomfortable this makes you feel.
But we’re in this together. If you lose a finger, I will chop off one of mine and give it to you. ”
She laughs, and I can’t help but join in, feeling lighter. Her ability to disarm me is a skill all on its own.
Bumping her hip and shoulder into mine, she nudges me gently. “I think there will be a clue hidden inside to help us find the next number. I can’t touch the box, so you have to, Eli. Just breathe deep and stick your finger inside.”
“That’s the same words you used last night, Sapphire.”
“Shut up.”
Even though I can’t see her, I know her cheeks will be full of rosy-pink blotches.
Oh my God, here goes. Tentatively, I run my finger around the edge of the gap and slowly insert it into the hole, my fingertip feeling for something’s edge.
When I fully press my finger on it, I let out a loud roar and shout, “It’s got me!
” Then I shake my body as if something has bitten me, causing Sapphire to scream.
“What’s wrong? Eli?” she yells, panting and shouting, worried, and I hear a whirlwind of commotion by my side.
I freeze my body, like a statue, and whisper, “Gotcha.” As tempting as it is to take a peek at her reaction, I leave the blindfold on from fear of failing the challenge.
That makes her push my shoulder. “You are evil and such a nincompoop.”
“A nincompoop?” I fling my head back, laughing, then hold the small piece of what feels like paper in the air. “A nincompoop who found the next clue.”
“See, nothing bad happened,” she mutters. “You’re insufferable sometimes.”
“Just sometimes?”
“All the time, then, satisfied?” She goes quiet.
“What does it say?” I assume she’s reading the next clue.
“Five is your first number. To find two, please do not blunder. Up high is where you’ll find it, up and up and away. Can you reach it?”
“Look up, Sapphire, what can you see?” I tilt my head even though I can’t see anything but darkness.
“A hot air balloon.” Her voice rises by two octaves in excitement. “I’ve got no hope, but there’s no way you’ll reach it either.”
“You’re going to have to get on my shoulders,” I suggest.
Then she’s clambering onto my shoulders and I give in to the madness of the weekend, let go and allow Sapphire to take the lead until we finally find the last clue.
Sapphire and I are both lying on the floor, our legs working fast, cycling upside down to pump water into a bottle that has a tiny ball at the bottom with the last number hiding inside of it. Squealing that we’ve done it, she helps me off the floor and tells me to wait.
Running across the room, she tells me what she’s doing, like she’s done at every step; her guidance and reassurance are just the perfect amount. “I need to punch the numbers into this panel on the wall.”
Half out of breath from exertion and half flushed from the need to get this blindfold off and leave the room, she lets out a whoop of victory, runs back to me, and whips my blindfold off.
I blink and blink, my spotty vision returning as I cast my eyes around the dimly lit space that looks like a mad professor’s library, old cameras, journals, and scientific equipment lining one of the walls.
“We didn’t die, Eli.”
I didn’t think we would, and I didn’t think I would make it through the first minute, but it’s a miracle we did.
“Eli and Sapphire, you’re the first ones out.” A cheerful voice travels into the room from the doorway, and I have to squint as the bright lights from outside pour through the door.
“Teamwork.” Sapphire breathes out, looking flushed and as pleased as punch.
“Is it teamwork if you’re forced to do something?” I tease, joking with her because I know how much she likes it. I know her, know her better than I know myself.
“I think you secretly enjoy me pushing you beyond what you think you’re capable of.” She pulls me in for a kiss.
I hate it, but I hate it even more that I would let her do it to me all over again.