She groaned and reached into her pocket and grabbed out a quarter. “Fine. Compromise?” She raised an eyebrow and showed the dirty quarter.
“How so?” I guess it was just a date. Surely it wouldn’t be dangerous to have one night with no plans. I could let go a bit.
Her face lit with joy, like she radiated sunlight somehow. She must really want those cookies.
“I’m listening. Is this the magic Fate quarter?”
She grinned and nodded. “Yep. And it says heads, we go left, tails, right.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t stop smiling. “You know, technically, this is still a plan, right?”
“Shhh, don’t ruin this for me.” She charged into the next intersection.
We continued through the maze, heads left, tails right. Mary dropped the magical quarter three times in the dark, and we had to find it with our phone flashlights. We decided a dramatic shaking system with a grand reveal worked better.
“Tails. Right it is.” I squeezed her hand and headed to the right. Tonight was turning out to be more fun than I expected. “Tell me. How did your friends convince you to go on this date?”
She jumped over a fallen stalk. “I told them we each had to do something that was out of our comfort zone.” She shrugged. “This is mine.”
“Blind dates?” We stepped around a large mud puddle.
“Dating in general,” she added.
Well, at least she wasn’t disappointed to be with me specifically. I brushed against her shoulder. “Well, hopefully it hasn’t been too terrible so far.”
Okay . . . I guess I’m flirty now?
“Just shy of it,” she shot back a wink. “What do you do for work?” She eyed my suit.
“Lawyer,” I added. She would probably imagine my life as one of prestige. Not that I was living off ramen, debt, and dreams.
We reached another fork in the maze.
“Why law?” Mary placed the quarter in my hands. Her fingersbrushed against my palm and my stomach dropped. I tightened my grip on her hand involuntarily.
“Left.” She looked away and took the quarter.
“Why not, I guess.” I shrugged. “I knew the schooling was something I could excel at, and it would provide the type of lifestyle I wanted.”
“I work as an office manager at a small law firm.” She went rigid and nearly tripped.
It was the truth, but it slipped out. She must have forgotten she was playing as “Mary” tonight.
“Small world.” I stopped at the next corner and waited for the quarter’s divine answer. “Why an office manager?”
She deflated a bit. “It has always been a means to an end. The end is taking longer to reach than I hoped.”
“Sounds like you need a plan.” I winked, rubbing small circles on the back of her hand with my thumb. This was fun. Not at all what I would ever plan, but fun. I felt her hand squeeze mine back affectionately.
“Plan. Gross.” She mimicked vomiting. “This might be a shock, but not everyone reads planning material for fun.” She kicked a rock to the left of the path. “The more I plan for something, the more it feels like it will never work out.” She pulled on her shirt, lengthening it with her free hand. “Better to just keep it in the moment, you know?”
“Are you cold?” I dropped her hand and shrugged out of my suit coat and held it out to her. The jacket she wore looked threadbare.
She looked down at her free hand. “Oh no! Are we going to be disqualified now?”
“I won’t tell if you don’t.” I smiled in her direction. I must have stolen my twin brother’s persona for the night because this comfortable flirting and talking with a woman was not a me thing. I wondered if Micheal was somewhere randomly rattling offstatistics.
She draped my jacket over her shoulders. She held her hand back out for mine and I took it.
