“That’s right. And X is ten and V is five. That’s technically five numbers if you line them up.”
“Okay, yeah, but what order do we put them in? Biggest to smallest?” he asks.
“I was going to say alphabetical.”
“Okay, let’s try that. So the code would be 5-0-5-1-0.” We both take off towards the door we entered through at the beginning, and Tanner sings the five numbers over and over again like a chant.
One minute and thirty seconds remaining.
I press the numbers into the keypad as Tanner repeats them slowly. The door clicks, and the light turns green. We did it.
“Hell yes!” he shouts, grabbing and spinning me around. “You’re amazing.”
“I’d say we make a pretty good team.”
His lips find mine, and he slowly lowers me down his body until my feet touch the floor. “Yeah, we do!” he says, kissing me again.
CHAPTER 36: THE L-WORD
WREN
“Where are you taking me now,” I ask as Tanner pulls out of the escape room parking lot.
“I needed to run an errand, and then I thought we could go grab a bite to eat.”
“What kind of errand?”
“You’ll see.” He smirks, grabbing my upper thigh with his right hand. I place my hand over his and link our fingers.
“Today has been a really good day,” I say. “I can’t believe we made it out with time still on the clock. I was so nervous we weren’t going to make it.”
“With you I think anything is possible, so I wasn’t surprised. I can’t believe Ted cock-blocked me in that secret room,” he chuckles.
“I promise to make it up to you later.”
“Oh, do you?”
“Yes.”
He continues to drive, and we both sing along to the music playing through the speakers. I mindlessly scroll on my phone.
“Anything else from your boss?” he asks.
“No, they must be surviving without me. Did your dad reach out?”
“Of course not,” he says, merging into a turn lane.
I click on my email and scroll through the new messages. Four messages from the top, I have one from the mattress company that reads:Shipping Update.Clicking on it, I scan the contents. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I laugh.
“What?”
“It looks like my mattress got delayed again. Something about a cargo ship overturning. I guess my mattress is currently sinking to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.”
“Well it’s a good thing you don’t need one for a while.”
A while.The plan was for me to only stay with him a few months, and I know we’re dating now, but we haven’t talked about whether or not I should look for a different place to stay. While being exclusive was a no brainer, living together officially seems like such a bigger decision. I make a mental note to look into alternative places to stay when I have time. We’re already burning pretty hot—I don’t want us rushing into something more serious too quickly and fizzling out.
“Yeah. I just can’t believe I’ve hit another issue with this mattress. I guess I can go back to sleeping on the?—”
