Mallory gasps. “Is that Trivial Pursuit?”
“Yes!” Melanie lifts the top off the box. “Teams will be me and Ben, Mallory and Randy, and Miles and Nora.”
After the game board is set up and the rules explained, we start the game. Miles and I start strong when we land on science.
Melanie picks up a card and reads, “What is the chemical symbol for tungsten?”
“W,” he says instantly.
“Ugh.” Melanie sighs. “This isn’t even fair.”
“It’s from wolfram,” he explains, like that clears everything up.
“You don’t get extra points for adding a description,” Mallory teases.
On our next turn, we land on the pink pop culture wedge.
“Who played Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games?” Melanie asks.
“Jennifer Lawrence,” I say, spinning the little pie piece with a flourish.
Ben groans. “I’m starting to think it was a bad idea to put those two on the same team.”
Miles smiles at me. As the game continues, we keep trading wins—him on geography, history, and science, me on entertainment, art, and literature, and we are half and half on sports and leisure. The family gets increasingly competitive, but in a fun way. On our next turn, Miles lands on science.
Melanie draws the top card. “Miles can’t answer this one. The rest of us need to catch up somehow. What’s the name for the upward force that keeps airplanes in the air?”
He opens his mouth—and pauses.
I jump from my seat. “Lift!”
He smiles at me. “You got it.”
“You told me,” I whisper. “When we went drone flying.”
The tips of his ears turn a light shade of red.
Later, Miles absolutely demolishes a history question, explaining something about maritime trade routes in the 1700s. I nod like I understand, but I absolutely do not.
When we land on pop culture, Melanie takes the card and reads it out loud. “What was the name of the coffee shop in Friends?”
“Central Perk,” I say instantly.
Melanie throws her hands up. “We’re losing to the pop culture queen and a science king.”
Miles beams at me, and I lean over holding my hand up in a high five. On cue, he smacks his palm against mine. It’s fun, playful, and slightly flirty when his knee brushes mine and doesn’t move.
By the end, we win. Barely. Mallory and Randy were matching us question for question. Melanie sighs happily, stacking cards. “We need to do this more often.”
Mallory nods enthusiastically. “Family dinners and games.” She looks pointedly at Miles. “Especially now that you have a girlfriend.”
I freeze. Miles freezes.
Melanie claps. “Yes! Next month for the Freezer Feast. We can pick a new game to play. Nora, you have to come.”
All eyes are on me, waiting for an answer. “Um. Sure. But what’s the Freezer Feast?”
Miles turns to me. “It’s a family tradition that started after Melanie and Ben got married. They wanted to clean out their freezer, so they invited everyone over and made all the random food they had.”
