Rogue of Taurus

Two long tables overflowed with delicious food. Livia was having a good gab with Camilla while Corvin bantered with Hortensius across the room. Suddenly, Alexander called attention to himself at the center of the room.

He lifted a hat into the air. “Party games!”

He put his hand into the hat. “I’m drawing out names for our first victims.”

Livia watched in amusement. Alex reached into the hat and pulled out, “Corvin!”

Corvin leaned against the wall next to Hortensius. When he heard his name, he pushed off the wall and went to the center of the room.

“What are we playing?” he asked.

“Not sure yet,” Alex mumbled. He reached into the hat again. “Hey! Livia! Where are you, Livia?”

“You’re kidding me,” Livia muttered.

“Right here,” he waved the paper. “Name on the strip.”

Livia hesitated. Then decided to play along. She walked to the center of the room. “Fine.”

“Okay, truth or dare?” he asked.

“No,” Livia snapped. “I don’t like that game.”

Corvin rocked back on his heels. “Let’s play Trivia roulette.”

Livia’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that?”

Alex thought. “Okay, that’ll be fun. I don’t have cards or post-it notes, though.”

Epiphany had post-it notes in her purse.

“How do we play this?” Livia asked.

“First step,” Alex directed. “You write three things you want Corvin to do for you, and he writes three things he wants you to do for him. Then we, the audience, choose three things we want you to do. We put them up on a board, and whoever answers a Trivia question correctly gets to knock one out.

Livia didn’t think the game sounded too awful. She revealed her first card. “Teach me how to start a fire without matches.”

Corvin laughed. “Really?”

There was a soft rustle of whispers across the room and some snickering. Corvin sent them all a warning look, and everyone settled down.

Confused, Livia felt like she had to explain herself. “Yeah, Cam was bragging about how good you are at it.”

Corvin revealed his card. “Bake me a caramel apple pie.”

The audience laughed.

“Good one!” Alexander stuck it up on the board with Livia’s request.

The audience wanted Corvin and Livia to do a polar bear plunge for their choice.

“That wouldn’t be too bad,” Livia said.

“Says the Taurus,” Corvin muttered.

People laughed, including Livia. “You afraid to get cold, Corvin?”

He gave her an exasperated look. “Yeah, Liv, it’s a thing.”

She teased him. “Nah, you’re just weak.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Okay? Next?” Alex asked.

Corvin already had his ready. “Teach me to bake a pizza from scratch.”

Livia had to hurry and write hers down. “Sing to me every night for a month.”

The audience oohed and then roared with chatter.

Alexander asked as he put it up on the board. “You still singing, Corvin?”

“Not frequently,” he said, looking a little overwhelmed. “I might be too out of practice for that to be pleasant, Liv.”

Livia shrugged and looked up at Alexander. “What are you guys putting up?”

After a hefty debate, they suggested a ten-mile hike.

Corvin groaned. “Guys, these options.”

They laughed at his protest.

“You don’t like hiking either?” Livia asked. “It’s just a long walk.”

The audience laughed at this. “Ten miles—a long walk!” “Okay, we need to switch tactics.” “Spoken like a Taurus.”

Livia needed help to come up with a third answer. Corvin had already put —“Take ballroom dancing classes together—” on the board.

She gave him a puzzled look. “Ballroom dancing? Really?”

“Why not?” he grinned.

“That’s not something I’d do,” she answered. Livia thought that she’d be awful at it. Being graceful was not her strong point.

What would Livia ask Corvin to do for her? With a certain amount of trepidation, she wrote something she’d always hoped for but had always been unattainable. “Teach me to play the guitar.”

Corvin grunted. “Not sure I know how to do that—”

Alex let out a low whistle. “Guys, this is the nicest board I’ve ever seen. But, come on, we need to up the ante here.”

Corvin leaned back, pleased. “This is different. I like this.”

“You’d think she would be ruthless, right?” Alexander said.

“Oh, was I supposed to be mean?” Livia asked.

“No, Livia,” Corvin said with a grin.

“Wait! I’m supposed to be mean!” Livia straightened up and slapped her thighs, irritated.

Corvin laughed. “Can’t change your answers.”

“What?” Livia protested. “Why not?”

“Too late,” Alexander said.

“But…I can be mean,” Livia insisted. Her tough girl credibility was taking a hit, making her feel vulnerable.

“Sure,” Corvin said, calling her out. “You don’t have a nice bone in your body.”

“I am very mean,” Livia assured him, making her feel more pathetic.

Corvin tossed her a skeptical look. “You can’t fool me.”

Livia tried to devise something she’d be willing to inflict on Corvin. She went blank.

“You can…eat raw cookie dough,” she blurted out.

Everyone roared with laughter. Corvin laughed so hard he had to wipe a tear off his cheek. “Cruel, Liv, Cruel.”

“You could get very sick,” she defended, her neck and cheeks burning with embarrassment.

“Do you guys have your third one yet?” Corvin asked, still laughing.

There was furious chatter. Several options offered. Then everyone unanimously settled on: make out.

“What?” Livia cried. “Seriously?”

This is exactly the reaction they wanted out of her. The heat of embarrassment migrated down to the center of her chest, and her stomach muscles tightened. Livia shifted to ease the increase in tension and hide her emotions to avoid any more teasing.

“Just a couple of kisses,” Corvin joked.

Livia glared at him. “You’re going along with this?”

He’d gotten angry that people had done this to him a couple of days ago. Livia didn’t want to be a part of doing that to him again. Not to mention her own issues.

He shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”

The crowd settled, and Alex pulled up a trivia question app on his phone. Corvin got the first three answers and had crossed off the ten-mile hike, the polar bear plunge, and building a fire option.

Livia groaned, feeling stupid. “Can we stop asking obscure grammar questions?”

Alexander obliged. “What is the only ancient Roman lighthouse still in use?”

The only Ancient lighthouse Livia knew about was the lighthouse of Alexandria. It was most definitely destroyed. She looked at Corvin, but he hesitated, unsure.

Hortensius called out, “The tower of Hercules in Spain!”

“Correct!” Alexander said.

“Our family visited last summer,” Hortensius explained. “Cross off…caramel pie.”

Corvin huffed. “Hortensius, I was really hoping for that. Do you know how good Liv is at baking pie?”

Everyone laughed.

“I miss her cheesecake, personally,” Hortensius said.

Cam joined in. “No way, those chocolate chip cookies, guys. Those are the best.”

“Why aren’t there any cooking Trivia questions?” Livia muttered.

Alexander ignored Livia’s plea. They asked a Trivia question about the location of three ancient Egyptian obelisks nicknamed Cleopatra’s needle. The audience won, and they nixed Livia’s guitar lessons. Livia had to fend off a wave of disappointment. Then the audience took the following question and crossed off ballroom dancing. That, at least, was a relief.

Now, the three options left were: make out, singing, and pizza. Corvin got the next question.

“Wait, Corvin,” Livia said, grabbing his arm. “Wait, we have to strategize here.”

The audience got in a great uproar about this—some hooting with laughter, others saying allowing them to plot together was unfair. Alexander allowed the conversation to continue, though. Probably, because he thought it would be more entertaining that way.

“Strategize, what?” Corvin asked, leaning close.

“They’re going to win if we don’t knock them out now. So, cross out making out.”

Corvin shook his head. “If I do that, you’ll win.”

“No, you could still get pizza, but he has all the power,” Livia pointed at Alex. “If it comes down to kissing and something else, he’s going to give you some obscure military question they can all answer, and you don’t know.”

“They wouldn’t do that,” Corvin said.

“Yes, they would!” she said. “They want to win.”

“But I cannot commit to coming over every night to sing to you for thirty days. I can think of five evenings already where it would be impossible.”

“Sing to me in the morning,” Livia begged.

Mutters went around the room. “Romantic.” “Over some coffee, maybe?” “A serenade along with your breakfast in bed.”

Livia turned red at that last one. The back of her neck burned with embarrassment. She had been utterly unprepared for how thick her skin needed to be for this ridiculous game.

Corvin was unfazed by the teasing. He paused and then said decisively, “No, too early.”

Livia met his eyes, intent on protecting him. “Corvin, trust me. They’re going to screw us over.”

“It’ll be fine,” he said, leaning away.

“No, it won’t,” Livia insisted, voice firm. “I’m telling you. They are going to trick you. They know you. They will figure it out.”

Corvin hesitated. A calculating look came over his face. “Nah, I can outsmart them.”

How was she supposed to help him avoid the awkward mess of being forced to kiss her if he wouldn’t listen to her? She didn’t know how to be more direct or clear. Frustrated, Livia put both hands over her face. “Argggh! You’re being so stupid, Corvin!”

But Corvin was confident in his ability to answer whatever trivia question came his way. So, he crossed off the singing challenge. Livia bowed her head and rubbed her temples. They were going to be making out. Corvin had essentially chosen that outcome himself.

“You are so infuriating,” she muttered. “You think you’re so smart.”

Corvin smiled at Livia. “I am smart. I got this, Liv.”

“You don’t got this. This is not a thing you got.” She glared at him. “They got this. They’re going to trick you.”

“Why do you think this? These are good people.”

“Who want to win!” she gestured wildly.

The audience was in hysterics over this argument. They could not stop laughing. Because Livia was right, and Corvin refused to believe it. Livia ended up being right. They did it play-by-play as she’d predicted. It was even a military question.

Livia gave a stunned Corvin a hard stare.

“Uh, that did not go as planned,” he stuttered.

Everyone was laughing at him, giving each other high-fives for winning.

“You think?” Livia demanded.

He pressed his palms together and pressed his fingertips to his lips. “I should have listened to you.”

Livia threw her hands up. “Corvin! Seriously! Cor-VIN!”

He blew out all his breath. “I understand you’re angry.”

“Do you?” Livia growled. “I have ideas on how I can make it clearer—”

“That is not necessary.” Corvin took a deep breath.

Livia stood. “Well, where’s the closet?”

Corvin shook his head. “We’re not going to a closet. We’ll go outside.”

Livia glared. “It’s cold outside.”

Corvin gave her a grin, setting off a furious case of butterflies in her belly. “We’ll keep each other warm.”

Livia could feel her face turn a deep shade of red. Considering the number of times she’d flushed with embarrassment tonight, she wondered if the color of her skin would remain red permanently. The group all laughed. Cam came up to her and put an arm around her. “Liv, relax, have fun with this.”

Livia couldn’t even look at her.

“Fabulous, Corvin will take good care of you. Forget we are even here,” Alexander said.

Livia decided dealing with the audience was worse than getting the deed over. She turned and marched over to the coat rack. “Where’s my jacket?”

She was so flustered while looking for it that Corvin found it first. He held it open so she could slip into it. Livia barely submitted to the kindness, muttering as she jerked her arms into the sleeves.

Corvin grabbed his coat and put it on as he pushed open the door. “After you, Liv.”