When we walked outside, Elijah said, “I’m so winning this bet.”
CHAPTER 5
“What?” I asked, even though I’d heard him perfectly.
“She doesn’t know,” he said, his smug smirk in place.
“That’s because you’re lying,” I said, walking toward my car.
“Lying?”
“Yeah, making stuff up. She’s not a lie detector.” I unlocked my car with my key fob, but since he’d followed me, I paused before opening the door and faced him.
“What was I supposed to do? We’re strangers.”
“Answer her questions honestly.”
“How could I honestly tell her what our strengths are? We don’t know each other.”
“It wasn’t the strength question as much as the actual stories you made up.” I changed my voice to a low-pitched impersonation of him as I said, “I asked her if I could help her with flowers and she said no. She never asks for help. She gives me back rubs, and I return the favor with a solid pounding.”
He choked out a surprised laugh. “I didnotsay that last one.”
“You implied it.”
Tires squealed on the main street and a car honked loudly, drawing our attention. Back to me, Elijah said, “Well, it’s on the table if you’d like to offer a back rub.”
“I wouldnot,” I said.
He shrugged. “Just letting you know.”
“Let me know less, please,” I said.
He released a low chuckle. “So what do you propose for session two if lying is not allowed?”
There wouldn’t be a second session, but Tara could tell him that, so I said, “The truth. Or as close to the truth as we can manage.”
“How?” he asked.
“Get creative.”
“Okay, fine. I accept your challenge. But if we’re going to be truthful with our new therapist, then we need to do the homework she assigns.”
I tucked the key fob I’d been clutching back into my purse. “You want to stare into my eyes every day for five minutes for the next week?”
“She’s going to ask us if we did it,” he said.
“And I’ll tell her the truth. I’ll say no, we didn’t get a chance.”
“How about we say that on the days we were together, we did?”
“Look at that, youcanbe creative with the truth.”
He smiled. “I still think I’m going to win.”
I opened my car door. “I wonder how you’ll look bald.”
“I wonder what song you’ll pick for karaoke,” he said.
