She couldn’t have been blushing any harder.
“Hmmm,” TJ hummed thoughtfully. “Judges?” He turned and asked the camera crew behind them. Everyone was bitinglips and grinning. Olivia wondered if any of them had watched the footage of their kiss and judged the cost of their violation. Benny gave a thumbs-up along with another cameraman Olivia didn’t know by name. Tyler enthusiastically pointed both thumbs in the air.
“All right, we’ll give it to you,” TJ said. “Next question! Chuck, what is Olivia’s bra size?”
“Oh my god,” she muttered, and tried to melt between the cracks in her chair. She’d been wrong about not being able to blush any harder. She scribbled two numbers and the same letter twice on her board and couldn’t believe she was about to reveal her measurements on a TV show. But then, everyone had just learned about Chuck’s insatiable sexual appetite, so all bets were off.
“Time’s up!” TJ called.
Olivia sputtered a laugh when Chuck turned his board around to showperfectscrawled across it.
She flipped hers to show the real answer, and everyone laughed.
“While thatischarming,” TJ said, “it isnotcorrect. Sorry, Chuck.”
They went back and forth for several more rounds of questions, getting most right (Olivia’s dream vacation: Italy; Chuck’s favorite superhero: Thor) and some wrong (Olivia’s college major: journalism, not English; Chuck’s favorite sport: soccer, not baseball) until they were down to the final two questions, and they needed them both to win the bathroom.
“Okay, Chuck,” TJ said, deadly serious, “what is Olivia’s favorite thing aboutyou?”
Chuck let out a breath through rounded lips. “Saving the hardest question for last, I see.”
“There’s a lot on the line here,” TJ said with his hands out.
Olivia thought about how to even answer that question. There were the superficial, obvious things like his body, his smile, his impossibly perfect hair. But those were complete strangers’ favorite parts of Chuck Walsh. Anyone who knew him like she did knew he was so much more than appearance—though the appearance was inarguably damn fine. But as she sorted through possible deeper answers, she realized that ten seconds was not nearly long enough to come to a suitable one. He was complex and dynamic; fantastically frustrating at times and wildly tender at others. Through it all, she realized in a profound moment, that one thing remained constant. He was always trying.Tryingto succeed.Tryingto understand her.Tryingto fix whatever problem they were having. And damn it if that wasn’t what made her stick around when things got tough despite her reflex to run.
She scribbled on her board right as TJ called time.
“Big moment here!” he sang for dramatic effect. “Let’s see what she said!”
They both flipped their boards around, and a hard lump instantly swelled inside her throat.
That I don’t give up on anything, he’d written.
His tenacity, she’d written.
Olivia blinked away the moisture that blurred her eyes as she realized they were much more on the same page than she’d ever known. Chuck softly smiled at her with a flush in his cheeks.
TJ disrupted the moment with a low whistle. “Wow. Look at that! I mean, that’s really just a matter of semantics, right? You guysreallyknow each other. It’s almost like you should still be a couple! I say we give it to them. Judges?”
The crew all nodded and murmured in agreement.
“Okay! Final question for all the glory here—and a bathroom along with a dishwasher! Olivia, your turn: What is Chuck’s favorite thing aboutyou?”
Her heart thudded, and she blinked away her still misty eyes. “If you say my boobs, I will murder you,” she said thickly to a round of laughter, including her own.
Chuck playfully smirked at her and picked up his board to write.
In truth, she’d made the joke because she already knew the answer to this one and didn’t need the full ten seconds. A dreamy memory floated back to her: them, naked, tangled up in her sheets and still tacky with drying sweat. She’d been flat on her back, arm over her head, with Chuck beside her tracing gentle patterns on her bare skin as she talked at the ceiling. It had been days after one of the more memorable and divisive political incidents in the past years, and she had a lot on her mind. Most of what she’d said had felt like rambling at the time, opinionated babble that would have gotten her harpooned on social media, but Chuck intently listened to every word. When she finally paused to breathe, he stroked his finger down her nose and then hooked it under her chin to turn her face toward his.
“You know what my favorite thing about you is?” he’d said into the soft glow of afternoon light.
“My boobs?” she’d joked even then.
He’d shaken his head with a grin and then tapped his long finger on her forehead. “The way your mind works.” And then he’d kissed her, deeply, and grabbed her thigh to hook her leg around his hip. They’d missed their dinner reservation that night and ended up eating cereal in front of aParks and Recrerun marathon instead.
She scribbled her answer on her board and looked up to see Chuck finished and waiting. A soft grin lifted his lips.
“All right, final chance here!” TJ sang. “Let’s see those answers!”