Bingo.
“You okay?” Wilder whispers as he moves in behind me.
“I am.”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” I whisper back.
“Good. You’re doing great, Pips.” He gives me a gentle squeeze on my hip, and pride surges through me. “Okay, this is the one that I’m going to go first on. I’m going to jump, and then I want you jumping after me. I’ll steady the square, and then we can jump to the next one.”
“Got it.”
A single floating square is about three feet away, and this is the one that everyone has been tripping up on. I appreciated Wilder’s insight, if I’m honest. He’s determined to do well and was watching carefully, but he was gentle when he explained his game plan.He must know how much I loathe a mansplainer.
Wilder leaps easily onto the square and then holds his hand out to me with a nod. I get a running start, leap, and then land right in Wilder’s arms as he steadies the square with his legs. Once it stops shaking, he says, “Squat down while I jump off it.”
I squat down on the square. He takes off, sending the square rattling, but I hold on, and then he reaches his arms out, waiting for me on the other side. I get as close to the edge as I can and then jump, my foot nearly missing the target, but because Wilder’s waiting, he’s able to grab hold of me. Then he leans back, sending us both to the ground but staying out of the water.
Playfully, he pats my hip and then helps me up so we’re now facing another staff member.
“Have you ever felt tempted to cheat on each other?”
Wow. Can’t imagine being confronted with this if we were really married.I can’t help wondering what Matt’s answer would be to that one too.
Wilder turns to me, looks me dead in the eyes, and says, “Never. I might get frustrated with you, but I’d never cheat. Ever.”
The sincerity in his voice, the conviction, hits me harder in the heart than I expected, and I attempt to not apply that answer to reality. “Same. I made vows to you, and I’d never do that.”
“Thank you,” Wilder says, his voice almost…shaky. And it stuns me for a moment, because there’s a part of me that believes that wasn’t part of the act. That his answer had meaning behind it. Personal meaning.
I don’t have time to think about it though, because the staff member moves to the side, allowing us to reach the bridge. It’s a rock-climbing wall that leads up to a thin bridge and down a slide for one more question. Once we pass this obstacle, we jump into the lake and swim for shore, and then our time is stopped.
“Get going,” Wilder yells, startling me. “Shit, sorry,” he whispers. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
I chuckle, turning my face away from everyone as I say, “It’s fine. Great timing.”
I start up the rock wall, and I’m about to step on one of the pegs when one of his hands connects with my foot and he says, “Push off me.”
He’s right behind me, so I push off his hand, and he sends me right to the top. He scours the rest like a freaking spider, then picks me up, draping me over his shoulder, and runs across the bridge. It’s hard for me to keep it together, because this is soridiculous, and if we’re doing this for another basket of condoms and dildos, then our hard work will go unrewarded.
But to add to the fanfare, I yell, “Put me down! You never let me do anything.”
“Because you have the coordination of a geriatric wildebeest,” he yells back and then tosses me down the slide.
I roll down and almost off into the water but thankfully hang on.
“You almost threw me off.”
“It would be the first time you were wet in years,” he yells back.
“Doesn’t say much about you.”
He joins me, and we stand in front of Ellison. When did she get here?
With pursed lips, she looks us in the eyes and asks, “Do you feel truly happy in your marriage?”
“No,” Wilder says. “But I know we could be.”
