Dale smiled back proudly. I reached out to give him a fist bump, but he totally misread the gesture and, instead, high-fived my closed hand. Kenzie giggled at the uncomfortable moment. Yeah, I still had a ways to go with this guy.
* * *
The idol couldn’t have comeat a better time, as Marsha was systematically alienating every member of the tribe. Although our group had been effectively segregated from Gene’s team, Marsha was not playing by the rules. She flitted around camp, interrupting strategy sessions, spying on other players, and talking to anyone who’d listen.
“Did you know that the total weight of all the ants in the world is the same as the total weight of all humans?” Marsha informed Gene as he angrily picked the little critters out of his rice bowl.
“I just don’t care, Marsha,” he replied through gritted teeth.
“Should we rein her in?” Dale asked me.
“Are you kidding? Look at Gene’s beety little face. This is better than a movie. I just wish I had some popcorn.”
“Ooh, popcorn,” Kenzie said with wonder in her eyes. Her head was lying on my stomach as we lounged in the shelter. “Butter or no butter?”
“Woman, are you really asking me that?” My voice rose in surprise. “Of course butter. And Milk Duds and, you know, what the hell, throw in an Icee, a hotdog, and some nachos while you’re at it.”
“Why not?” Kenzie said, grinning. “It’s your food coma fantasy.”
“That’s right. And then I’d follow it all down with a large meat lover’s pizza dripping in extra cheese.”
Dale snorted. “Spoken like a guy in the prime of his life who has yet to experience high triglyceride levels, an expanding mid section, and a receding gum line.”
“What the hell is a receding gum line?” I asked.
“When the gums deteriorate and expose the upper areas of the teeth.”
“Why would you want that?”
“I don’t,” he threw his hands up, scoffing at my ignorance. “Nobody does, but when you get older, it happens, and then it makes the teeth sensitive to cold. For that reason I stay clear of anything frozen.”
“Damn, Dale, it must suck being you.”
He laughed. “Just you wait, young buck.”
“Luckily I have a long wait. What are you, like, fifty-five? Sixty?” I teased.
“Forty-two.”
“Don’t listen to him, Dale,” Kenzie consoled, and then completely lost her train of thought and jumped right back into our food discussion. “You know what I really want right now? A big, juicy bacon cheeseburger and an ice cream sundae.”
“Yeah, good call. Are you a cherry and nuts kind of girl?”
Kenzie opened her eyes and studied me a second, no doubt trying to determine if I was making a sexual innuendo – which of course I was.
“Both. No point in having a lonely cherry when there are willing nuts,” she answered mischievously.
“I like your thinking.”
She giggled.
“I’m still here,” Dale said, pointing out that he was most definitely the third wheel in our little flirt session.
“I’m not sure if you knew this,” Marsha was saying to Gene, “but women blink twice as often as men.”
“Uh-huh,” he mumbled, clearly not listening to a word she was saying.
“Do we really want to use our idol on Marsha?” I asked Dale.
