Page 18 of For the Cameras

When the second question was announced, though, I knew I was screwed.

What was the name of Madonna’s first album?

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath.

Chase snapped his fingers. “Don’t even begin to worry,” he said, gently taking the pencil from my hand. “I’ve got this.”

He wrote down the answer—he was certain that the name of her first album was simplyMadonna.

“Damn,” I said. “Impressive.”

The following question was my favorite so far.

What is the name of the largest constellation in the sky?

“I love looking at the stars. I’ve got this one down,” I told Chase.

“It’s Hydra, right?” he asked.

I met his eyes. “Right,” I said. “Wow, you know about the constellations?”

“Some of them,” he said with a smile. “I love looking at the stars, too. My brother Jamie and I used to drive out to the desert in California, where you can see everything at night. We had this book of constellations. We’d look for hours.”

Something lit up inside me. I rarely met anyone who even gave a damn about the night sky, let alone knew a little about constellations.

“I’m a bit of a geek about the stars,” I admitted. “But that shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, I guess. I’m kind of nerdy about a lot of things.”

“How cool,” Chase said.

I’d never been called cool before, but somehow, from Chase, I believed he meant it.

The next three questions were slam-dunks for me. One was a math question, another one was physics, and the next was a very standard trivia question asking what the largest mountain in the US was. Most people, especially here in Colorado, tended to think of local tall mountains, but I’d long since known the tallest was Denali, in Alaska.

The final question in the first round was another that had me stumped, though.

What was the name of the first non-silent film?

I furrowed my brow as I stared at the question. “I feel like I’ve learned this before in some history class, but I don’t remember the name.”

I looked back down at the table and saw that Chase had already grabbed the pencil and was scrawling out an answer:The Jazz Singer.

“I don’t know much, but I know film and cinema,” Chase said, giving me a nod of confidence. “I was an art kid in high school. We’ve got this in the bag.”

Chase held up his hand for a high-five. As our hands touched he clasped my palm in his, giving it a shake, and heat bloomed throughout my body.

It had been too long since I’d socialized outside of work, but even longer since anyone had touched me.

“Ten-minute break, everyone, and then we’ll get started on round two,” the woman leading trivia said. People started to get up from the tables, mingle, and refresh their drinks at the bar.

“So when’s the last time you were out at a bar?” Chase asked.

I bit the inside of my cheek, thinking. “It was sometime near the end of grad school,” I said. “It was a bar in Denver that had a lot of businessmen in it.”

“Were you there for a trivia night?”

I shook my head. “I was on a date with a woman from my statistics class.”

Chase’s eyes went wide for a moment, and then it seemed like he forced himself to hide his surprise. “A date with a woman,” he repeated.