T H I R T Y T H R E E
T H I R T YT H R E E
- Avery -
“T his is so embarrassing,” I said, staring at the small treasure chest in my hands. Oliver left it outside my apartment days ago, but I still hadn’t managed to get it open. Apparently, it was some sort of puzzle box with a built-in key, but that was as far as I’d gotten with Google.
“Don’t worry,” Grace said, knocking on Noah’s door again. “We’ll crack it.”
I knew I could’ve popped next door and asked Oliver to open it, but my ego wouldn’t allow it. After all, that was probably exactly what he expected me to do, and I couldn’t bear being predictable. “What if there’s something embarrassing inside?”
“What if there’s not, and I don’t get paid for my help in giggles?”
I groaned. “I’m glad one of us is having fun.”
Colin opened the door in striped boxers. He looked slimmer than I remembered, but that might’ve been because I’d gotten used to gluttonous eyefuls of Oliver’s beefy muscles. My heart squeezed in my chest. Who was I kidding? I definitely missed him, and not just because he paired perfectly with red wine.
I wasn’t ready to admit it aloud, of course, but that’s why I was standing here clutching his stupid puzzle, wasn’t it? A stronger woman would’ve chucked it in the garbage and moved on with her life, but... I guess I was more stubborn than strong.
“Hey ladies,” Colin said before shoving his loaded toothbrush in his mouth.
“Hot date?” Grace asked, perhaps detecting his cologne the same moment I did.
“She better be.” He backed up to invite us in. “If I get catfished one more time….”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he disappeared into the bathroom, and we veered towards the sitting area where Noah was reading a biography of Winston Churchill.
“I hope you’re ready to dazzle us with your detective skills,” Grace said as I placed the small chest on his coffee table. “There’s a lot riding on this.”
“There’s nothing riding on this,” I lied. “Unless there’s something rotting inside.”
He closed his book and scooted to the edge of the couch. “No pressure.”
“Or the winning lotto numbers,” I added, to keep things interesting.
He reached for the chest and slid it in front of him. “Nice box.”
“Why thank you,” I joked.
Grace shot me look, and I let the smile fall from my face. Then we sat down and waited for Noah to work his magic. Unfortunately, the way he was tapping on the thing wasn’t inspiring much confidence. It reminded me of the way Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson bang on the desktop computers in Zoolander when they hear the files are trapped “inside.”
“Maybe it would be easier to solve it if you slipped into your pirate costume,” Grace teased.
Noah fought a sly smile. “I don’t think Avery’s ready for the pirate costume.”
“I’m definitely not,” I said, admittedly charmed by the cheesiness of their inside joke. For how serious they could both be in real life, it amused me how willing they were to behave ridiculously in their relationship.
“What’s in the box?” Colin asked, emerging from his bedroom as he finished buttoning his collared shirt.
“It’s a mystery,” I said, noticing his damp hair was starting to curl.
Noah turned the box on its side and smoothed a finger along one edge after another, looking for imperfections that could be popped or wiggled. I bit my tongue, resisting the urge to mention I’d done that at least fifty times. “I underestimated this guy,” he said finally.
I scoffed and everyone looked at me for a second.
“Let me have a look,” Colin said, heading towards the table. “I assume if I solve it, I get to keep a share of the treasure inside?”
“I wouldn’t get my hopes up,” I said. “The last thing the guy gave me was a dog leash.”
Colin squinted at me. “I didn’t realize you had a dog.”
“I don’t.”
“And the orgasms, of course,” Grace said, clearly pleased with herself. “Don’t leave them out.”
I blushed.
Colin turned his attention to the box and dropped to his jean-clad knees beside the coffee table.
“God, those women were funny the other day,” Grace said, the memory softening her focus as she leaned back on the couch. “I’m surprised one of them didn’t offer to be his rebound girl.”
“What happened?” Noah asked, his focus on the box greater since Colin came over.
“Oliver came into the café to flirt with Avery—”
“And buy croissants,” I said. “Which neither of you are in a position to judge, since Noah invented that courting technique.”
“True,” Grace said. “Except he ended up charming a whole group of lunching ladies, and after he left, they wouldn’t stop gossiping about whether he was an actor or if he looked familiar because they’d met him in their dreams.”
“Sorry I missed that,” Noah said.
Grace patted his shoulder and ignored his sarcasm. “We probably should’ve put them out of their misery and told them who he was, but their conversation made for such a colorful morning.”
“I bet their conversation still would’ve been colorful if we told them the truth,” I said. “If they realized they were fawning over a professional jerk—”
“All that stuff is produced,” Noah said. “He can’t be that bad.”
I stared at him.
“What?” he asked when he felt my eyes on him. “He can see how special you are, right?”
“A blind man can see how special Avery is,” Grace interjected. “Would you open the box already?”
Noah scowled like he didn’t appreciate being taunted but turned his attention back to the puzzle.
“Remind me what I get if I figure it out?” Colin asked, his face giving the game away.
“Unbelievable,” Noah muttered under his breath.
“Just open it!” Grace and I cried in unison.
Colin flicked part of the handle on one side before slowly sliding out a skinny slat of wood no wider than a pencil. Then he spun the box ninety degrees and pushed the pin through the side of the padlock, making the latch pop open.
The rest of us looked on in amazement.
“My dad’s an engineer,” he said with a shrug. “He used to make these for fun.”
Grace and I descended on the box until the four of us were huddled around it like a Ouija board.
Dear God, let it not be a sex toy , I thought. I didn’t want the fact that I got free lube for spending over thirty-five bucks on that negligee to be the joke that refused to die.
Fortunately, it appeared to be a tiny scroll of paper.
Everyone fell silent, but their impatience was tangible.
I plucked the paper out and unrolled it, my eyes scanning the page.
“What does it say?!” Colin cried.
Grace shushed him, and he groaned like a sour schoolboy.
“Dear Avery,” I read aloud, Oliver’s familiar cursive comforting me like an old friend.
“You don’t have to read it out loud, if you don’t want,” Grace said.
“Maybe she should, though,” Noah argued. “Since this can only go one of two ways.”
I raised my brows in his direction.
“Either it’s sweet, and you forgive him,” he explained. “Or he flubs it, and Colin and I learn a valuable lesson.”
“Never give a girl a puzzle box?” Colin guessed.
“Dear Avery,” I started again. “I’m sorry about the advanced puzzle box. I looked at a few easier ones, but I didn’t want to insult your intelligence.”
Everyone nodded like they agreed it was a strong start.
“That said, I know I screwed up, and I am truly sorry. Not just because I haven’t even scratched the surface on all the ways I want to have you…” Heat rushed to my cheeks. “But because I miss being with you. Learning about you. Falling for you.” A lump rose in my throat. “You make the falling part so easy.”
Grace reached over and rubbed my back.
Noah and Colin exchanged glances like they weren’t sure if they wanted to hear more or be sick.
I cleared my throat and kept reading. “Nothing excites me more than thinking about ways to spoil you, impress you, and make you feel good. In the bottom of the box, you’ll find twenty-five business cards, belonging to my favorite restaurants. Each one represents a date I hope to take you on in the future, and I want to visit all your favorite places, too. Most of all, I don’t just want us to go to new places together. I want us to go everywhere together.”
Colin scooped the cards from the bottom of the box. “That’s a lot of dates,” he said, fanning them out across the table. “There’s some good places in here.”
Grace shushed him when she realized I wasn’t done and urged me to continue.
“But we can only go one place at a time,” I read. “And I want to start with a clean slate. No more games. No more secrets. No more puzzles.”
“Weird way of showing it,” Noah mumbled.
“Three of these places are in Spain?!” Colin said, still mesmerized by the business cards.
“What else does it say?” Grace asked.
“Just his name,” I said, keeping quiet about the XX. “And a PS that says, ‘Meet me at the disclosed location at 7pm sharp.’ Disclosed location?”
“There’s something else in here.” Colin pulled out a folded piece of paper and placed it in my open palm.
I unfolded it carefully and smoothed it against the table.
“It’s a map!” he said, like the game was finally getting exciting.
Sure enough, X marked the spot, but besides that, there was nothing besides two dotted lines that led to the X from two distinct rectangles.
Grace and Noah looked perplexed as they stared at the hand-drawn picture, but I recognized the “disclosed location” instantly.
Grace furrowed her brow. “I don’t get it.”
I shook my head, surprised at how such complexity could lead to such simplicity. “It’s the hallway between our apartments.”
Noah looked baffled. “Why would he want to meet you in the hallway between your apartments?”
I shrugged. “Probably so I can’t slam the door in his face again.”
Colin inhaled sharply between his teeth. “Makes sense.”
“Well?” Grace asked, angling towards me. “What are you thinking?”
“You have to show,” Colin said. “Otherwise, he’ll think you couldn’t solve the puzzle.”
“Good point,” I said, realizing my pride was on the line. “Wouldn’t want him to think that.”
Besides, I wanted to hear him out.
I wanted that clean slate.
Because he wasn’t the only one who’d behaved badly.
But if I’d learned anything since we stopped dating, it was that life was a lot more fun when we were behaving badly together.