“No, it isn’t.” Maurice stepped closer to me until his comforting warmth was all I could focus on in the dark. “Our night vision is shot. Hold on. I can already see a bit.”
I held my breath and groaned when he swung the bookcase shut and the latch caught. There was no going back. “Why did you do that?!”
“The light was keeping our eyes from adjusting.” He rubbed my shoulder, and I blew out a long breath.
Maurice shook my hand around. “It’s okay.”
“I’m fine. I have you.”
He snorted. “Of course you do.”
“This was a great idea.” We both jumped as Celestine’s voice came out of the darkness to our right. Now that we’d been in the room for a moment, I could see there was a very soft blue light illuminating the space that seemed to emanate from the ceiling like twilight—walls came up just over the top of my head, on either side of us, which appeared to me made of stone but didn’t reach the distant ceiling. For some reason I hated Celestine a little more right now than I had earlier this week.
Lacey giggled, and I thought maybe she leaned against Celestine. “Yeah, it was a great idea. I’m so smart.”
“Hey,” I said, but she only burst out into what sounded like a victorious cackle. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but I couldn’t wait for us to get back out into the fresh air.
“I think it’s a labyrinth,” Maurice said.
“Yep, Edgar and I are going this way. Have fun, boys,” she singsonged.
Maurice sighed. “I’m beginning to feel as if this was a setup.”
“Of course it was. We’re pranking Celestine.”
“No, we aren’t.” His shoulder bumped my arm. “I think Lacey and Edgar were in on.... You know what? Never mind. I’m not sure.”
“What?”
He laughed and dragged me to the left. “Let’s check this way.”
We fumbled our hands along the walls that felt a lot like plastic shaped the way stone should look and came to an opening, which we took. We had a choice, and Maurice went left, so I followed him.
“We’re going to die in here.”
He chuckled. “If you don’t like things like this, why did you pick it?”
“I didn’t know what to expect until we started!”
He rested his hand on my chest, and in the dark it felt ten times more intimate than anything else that had ever happened to me outside of a bed. “That’s okay. I’ll get us out. The dark doesn’t bother me.”
I thought about telling him again I was fine, but at this point he probably knew I was lying, and since he didn’t let go of my hand, I didn’t mind. I thought we had to be getting close to the end of our time when we rounded a corner—after going back from a dead end—and spotted a door withThe Endpainted on it in glow-in-the-dark red.
“Yes!” I hustled forward, pushed on the door, and in a jiffy we were back outside. We took a small path along the building to the parking lot. Darkness had set in for real while we were inside. I dragged huge gulps of air into my lungs, and after I no longer felt like I was at the bottom of the ocean, I gaped because there was clearly another group getting ready to go inside, but Lacey’s and Celestine’s vehicles were gone.
“They left us here.”
“Yeah, I think Lacey has heard me talk a time or two about you.” He gave me a small, embarrassed smile. “And... she got the wrong idea.”
Hurt smashed through me and I cleared my throat as I wriggled my hand free of his. “Oh well, joke’s on us.” I smiled. “Lacey thinks we would make a good couple, then? She hasn’t heard of a solid work relationship?”
He shrugged.
“So, you don’t think Celestine wants to date her?”
“Oh, he does.” Maurice rubbed the back of his neck and stared at his feet. “I just think he might already be doing it.”
I wiped my sweaty hands on my suit pants and stared at his slumped shoulders. “Well, it’s only us now. Do you still want to go to dinner?”
