With effort, I refrain from rolling my eyes. “You told me.”
“Did I?”
This time, I actually do roll my eyes. “Do you remember any conversations you have that aren’t about cars?”
He blinks at me, looking faintly surprised. “Yes. Just because I don’t remember every single thing I’ve ever told you—”
“Every single thing?” I repeat. “You’ve told me, like,threethings about yourself.”
He stares at me, and for once I think I’ve actually startled him out of his usual apathetic stupor. My cheeks grow a little hot under his gaze.
“Forget it,” I say. “Let’s just finish Wordle.”
I turn back to my phone determinedly. HELPS gave me a yellow E and a green S. Time to rule out some other letters.
CRAZY, I type. As in, I must be CRAZY trying to have conversations with John.
It’s a better choice—the C is green and the A is yellow.
C, E, A, S.
C, A, E, S.
Hmm.
CAVES, I type in.
Shoot. Every letter is green but the V, which is wrong.
CANES, I try.
Crap. Wrong again.
I skim through the remaining letters.
Oh! CARES! It must be CARES. I confidently type it in and click enter.
Crap,crap. How can that not be right?
Oh. Wait a second.
CAKES. It could be CAKES.
Or... CAGES.
... and isn’t CATES also a word?
Oh, god. This is my worst nightmare. Any one of those couldbe right, but I’ve only got one guess left. My streak might end right now, just because of pure badluck.
I swear under my breath.
“What?” John says.
“I’ve got one guess left, and there are three words that it could be.”
“Show me.”
I turn my phone toward him. “CAGES, CAKES or CATES.”
