Page 100 of Nash
I pick up the plate. She watches me take the first bite with the satisfaction of a woman who has won a negotiation and intends to win every future one.
"So," she says. "I have an idea."
"No," I say.
"You don't even know what it is."
"Your ideas involve chaos."
"My ideas involve community building and interpersonal bonding through structured recreational activities."
"Chaos."
"I want to play a couples game." She turns to the room. Full volume. "Attention. ATTENTION. I am calling an emergency session of post-crisis emotional regulation, which I just invented, and the prescribed treatment is a couples game."
"What kind of couples game?" Candace asks.
"The kind where couples answer questions about each other, and we find out who actually knows their partner. I saw it on TikTok. It's called 'Most Likely To' and it's going to be devastating."
"I'm in," Darla says from her chair, shifting again, her hand pressing against her side.
"Sloane?"
"As long as Knox doesn't try to turn it into a data analysis exercise."
"I would never," Knox says, already pulling up a spreadsheet.
"Maggie? James?"
James lifts his coffee. Maggie nods.
"Frankie?"
"No."
"Frankie, you can pair with Arden if he—"
"No."
"Noted. Frankie and Rider are observers. Amelia?"
Amelia turns pink. "I don't have a—"
"Kyle," Ruby says. "You're with Amelia."
Kyle, who is mid-sip of his coffee, chokes. "I'm not—we're not—that's not—"
"You're right, you're not a couple. But you need a partner for the game and so does Amelia, and you've been sitting three feet from each other at every gathering for the last month pretendingyou're not memorizing each other's coffee orders." Ruby crosses her arms. "Consider this a public service."
Kyle's face is the color of Darla's pickled okra. Amelia is studying the floor with the intensity of someone looking for an escape hatch.
"Fine," Kyle says. "But this is under protest. Official protest. I'm filing it with the Prank War Regulatory Commission."
"You don't have a clipboard anymore," Ruby says. "I stole it."
"That theft is UNRESOLVED."
"What's Kyle's coffee order, Amelia?" Ruby asks.
