Hired Love

"Daddy?" Olivia piped. "Did we win?"

"Not yet, honey. But maybe soon." Heather answered. "Now, the next clue is, 'The drier I am, the wetter I become." Three minutes. Whoever gets here first with the correct answer wins. Good luck." Again, they wasted no time. Even aunt Emma ran like her ass was on fire. Stacy let Roman lead just because he seemed like he knew what he was doing. He got the previous answer correctly. Then they were in their bedroom, and he dropped her hand as he almost flew into the bathroom. The penny dropped.

"It's towel, isn't it?" She asked him. It made sense.

"You're catching up quick." He winked at her, flinging the white towel she'd used in the morning over one shoulder, grabbed her hand again and bolted to the door.

This time they were the first. "Yes!" She shrieked delightfully when Heather gave them a yes, instinctively hugging Roman. He wrapped his hands around her a bit too tightly, but Stacy wasn't complaining.

They were only a point ahead of Claire and Matt now, who got two points from the second task. If looks could kill, Stacy would have holes in her body from all the murderous glances Claire was throwing at her. Since Heather said there were only three riddles, Stacy figured there was only one riddle left. They had to win this.

Color her petty but there was no way she would stand aside and watch Claire naked in a Jacuzzi with her ex-boyfriend if there was something she could do about it.

When the rest of the house was present, Heather announced the last riddle. "This is the last riddle. Five points to whoever wins and a romantic night in my Jacuzzi with the love of your life. This one's a bit tricky so you get ten minutes." The smile on her face was a bit scary. "I am a special place yet quite a mystery. For adults may like me and childish dislike me. What, oh what could I be?'"

Nobody moved.

The room was so silent, you could've heard a pin hit the ground.

"Mom, what the fuck?" Claire asked.

"Daddy, what's a fuck?" Benjamin moaned when Olivia asked, his eyes on Claire.

"Why?" He whined at Claire, rubbing his face.

"I'm sorry," Claire said to him with pleading eyes. "But I literally have no idea what that means."

"Then it's a good thing you have ten minutes to figure it out." Heather said, waving them away. "Run along now, a hot bath and naked bodies await at the end of the tunnel."

Benedict laughed, "Aunt Heather, you're pure evil."

Stacy recited the riddle again in her head, and not for the first time. What did adults like that kids hated? Jobs? Responsibilities? But that wasn't an object and if you thought about it, kids didn't even know what a job was. Her mother had overdone herself.

"What do you think the answer is?" She asked Roman, pacing the area near the window.

"I'm not sure," He answered. "Would you quit pacing? It's distracting."

She stilled for a moment, then walked towards the bed to sit next to him. She wasn't surprised she'd taken the game personally. Ever since she was a little girl, she'd always had a competitive streak, always felt the need to prove she was good at everything. Especially now that her sister was dating her ex-boyfriend, she wanted more than anything to not give them the pleasure of winning.

Heather had taken all their phones so they couldn't use the internet. Stacy estimated they had about seven minutes left. She wondered if another group had figured it out yet then thought it unlikely. It wasn't that easy.

"I'm going to go scout the area, see if I can get anything." Roman said, getting to his feet.

"You mean you're going to eavesdrop and cheat?"

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He slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Stacy resumed her pacing. She imagined Claire and Matt in the Jacuzzi together, laughing and joking about how they'd pulled one over Stacy. She imagined Matt telling Claire that she was the better choice, imagined Claire agreeing with him. Imagined them kissing, groping each other. The image she'd seen that night crept its way into her mind. God, how she hated them both. They'd made her a laughing stock and hadn't even the propriety to apologize for it.

No way. She was going to figure this out before the time elapsed. She was going to be the one in the Jacuzzi laughing at them.

Just watch.

She marched to the door, turning the knob and opening it. However, the sight that greeted her in the hallway wasn't what she'd been expecting.

Roman was pressed against the wall with his back, in front of him was Claire with her hands around his neck and they were kissing.

The force she'd felt that night reappeared and this time harder than she'd expected. Her legs took a few unsteady steps backwards, her hands dashed out for something to support them.

Then Roman pulled away, staring wide eyed at Claire. She had a small, sultry smile on her face that Stacy knew she'd seen somewhere before and then it recognized in her brain where she'd seen it. It was the same look she'd given Matt all those years when they were younger, the same bloody look that had gotten her into his pants. And now she was looking at Roman like that.

She opened her mouth to ask several questions but the only one that managed to come out was, "Why?"