The Escape Room

by Alexa Land

  “It’s okay. I stuck it in rice when I got home, and it dried out and started working again.”

  Ryan slumped against the back of the couch and exclaimed, “Thank God! It would have taken me forever to pay that off.” He sighed quietly, and after a moment he murmured, “You must have been so disappointed when you discovered I was your blind date.”

  “No, not at all.”

  He grinned a little and told me, “You’re a terrible liar.”

  “I really wasn’t disappointed,” I said. “And I didn’t have any expectations about tonight. All I was hoping for was a fun evening out, nothing more. I’m not looking for a relationship. I’m not looking for anything, actually.”

  Ryan said, “Same here.”

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

  “But then, why were you at a singles mixer?”

  “Saying my last relationship ended badly doesn’t even begin to cover it,” I said. “It was the emotional equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off in the middle of my life. It’s been two years, and my friends think I should start dating again, so they bought me a ticket to that charity event. I agreed to go so they’d think I was okay, and I didn’t expect to win any of those prizes, but here I am.”

  “I see.”

  “What about you? Did you just go to that event because you had a free ticket?”

  He broke my gaze and nodded. After a pause, he asked gently, “Did your boyfriend die? Is that what happened?”

  “Nope. He’s alive and well, and totally crazy about some new guy, from what I hear.”

  “Then what—”

  I interrupted him and started to reach for the champagne. “Let’s not talk about this, Ryan. It was horrible, and humiliating, and the worst day of my life, and I just…can’t.”

  He blurted, “Oh God. He stood you up at the altar, didn’t he?”

  I stared at him in disbelief, and my voice sounded rough when I whispered, “How could you possibly have guessed that?”

  “It was the worst thing I could think of, apart from the death of a loved one. I’m sorry, Rick. I can tell by your expression that I really should have kept my mouth shut.”

  “I can’t believe you figured it out.”

  He looked apologetic as he said, “I’m good at filling in blanks. It’s the trivia player in me. Did he…no, sorry. I almost asked another question, but that’s awful of me. It doesn’t matter if I’m curious, since you clearly don’t want to talk about this.”

  I got up and stepped around the coffee table, and for a long minute, I studied the curios that lined the fireplace mantel. Once I had my emotions under control, I said, “Did he break up with me before the actual wedding? If that’s what you were going to ask, the answer is no. Chad waited until we were dressed in our tuxedos and standing in front of everyone we knew, under a stupid arch covered in two thousand dollars’ worth of fucking out-of-season freesias, which we just had to have because they were his favorite flower. He waited until the part where the wedding officiant asked if anyone had any objections, and then the man I loved said, ‘Actually, I think I do.’ He then proceeded to tell me he’d really tried, but he just couldn’t go through with it. He said the more he thought about it, the more he realized he was making a huge mistake by marrying me.”

  “Holy shit.”

  I turned to look at Ryan and said, “You want to hear the funny part? My mom and her entire family had all flown in from South Korea for the ceremony. This was a huge deal. Chad and I had to travel to Busan ahead of time to meet with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They had to be convinced about the whole gay marriage thing, which isn’t legal in their country. It meant everything to me when they gave us their blessing and showed up for the ceremony.

  “But most of them spoke very limited English, so as Chad was telling me he didn’t want me, my half-deaf grandmother was yelling, ‘What did he say?’ My mom started loudly translating for her, so I got to hear my world get torn apart twice, once in English, then again in Korean. It was surreal, and I probably would have found it hilarious under any other circumstances. But not that day.”

  Ryan whispered, “Oh God, Rick.”

  “It’s been over two years, so apparently I’m supposed to be ready to move on now, according to everyone I know. But how can I, or anyone really, come back from something like that? How can I ever trust another person enough to let them get close to me, after that kind of betrayal? And that’s exactly what it was. Chad could have broken up with me in private. He could have stopped the ceremony and pulled me aside. He even could have had our marriage annulled immediately afterwards. But instead, he chose to eviscerate me in front of a hundred and fifty of our nearest and dearest.”

  Ryan said softly, “I can’t even imagine how much that must have hurt.”

  “There are no words.”

  After a pause, he asked, “And you really haven’t dated since then?”

  “No dates, no hookups, nothing until last Saturday, when I let two good friends talk me into attending that singles event. The chances of actually winning a date were supposed to be slim, so I figured I was safe. But only two people entered to win the escape room prize, and here we are.”

  “Really? There were only two entries?” When I nodded, he stood up, and my hoodie slipped from his shoulders. Ryan closed the distance between us and said, “That means you and I were meant to meet tonight.”

  “But I’m not ready to start dating.”

  “Even if you were, you wouldn’t want me. My life is a disaster, and if you knew my whole story, you’d run the other way. But we were still meant to be here, so we could do this.”

  When Ryan pulled me down to his height and kissed me, every part of me responded. I could taste strawberries and chocolate on his lips, and he smelled faintly of coffee, which was comforting for some reason. But after a minute, I pulled back and asked, “What are you doing?”

  “Giving you what you need, with no expectations and no strings attached. Let’s make tonight about having fun and putting the past behind you.”

  “But I can’t just use you to forget about my ex.”

  His eyes sparkled with amusement, and he asked, “Do you always overthink things like this?”

  “Without fail. I can never just shut off my brain and have fun. It’s why I’ll never be a great dancer, and probably part of the reason my ex left me.” He took off his shirt and tossed it aside, and I asked, “Now what are you doing?”

  “Getting naked. Go ahead, keep talking.”

  A playful smile curled the corners of his lips, and I mumbled, “I…um….” His sneakers and socks were the next to go, and when he unfastened his belt and slid down his zipper, my heart began to race.

  He dropped his jeans and briefs to the floor and stepped out of them, revealing flawless skin, an impressive cock, and a happy trail that told me he was a natural brunet. I ran my gaze down his body and murmured, “You’re so beautiful.” That was an understatement. Ryan was a work of art. His smile grew wider as he untucked my T-shirt and pulled it over my head.

  When his lips met mine again, lust shot through me. I picked him up and claimed his mouth with a rough kiss, and his breath caught. He wrapped his arms and legs around me as I pushed him against the wall beside the fireplace. His cock swelled against my stomach, and he grabbed my ass and pushed his tongue between my lips. I felt a tremor go through him, or maybe it went through me. We were too close to tell the difference.

  The need to taste him was overwhelming, so I swung him onto the area rug and ran my tongue down his smooth body. He parted his legs for me and tangled his fingers in my hair as I licked his shaft. When I wrapped my lips around his cock, he rocked his hips, lightly fucking my mouth as I sucked him. It was so gratifying to watch him writhe with pleasure and to hear his soft moans.

  After a few minutes, he whispered, “I need you inside me, Patrick.” My achingly hard cock was straining against my jeans and briefs, and those words made it throb.

  I str
ipped myself quickly, while he retrieved a condom and a packet of lube from his wallet. When he took charge and told me to get on my back, it spiked my desire, and I did as he asked without hesitation. He rolled the condom over my hard-on and slicked it, and after he worked some lube into himself, he straddled my hips and lowered himself onto my shaft. Then he began to move, slowly at first, but we gained momentum quickly and he rode me hard. When our eyes met, our connection was so intense that my breath caught.

  I rolled us over and pushed into him, and he swung his legs onto my shoulders and ground out, “Harder.” I held nothing back. Ryan bucked underneath me and murmured, “Fuck yes,” meeting each thrust with almost equal force as he drove himself onto my cock.

  It was wild and primal and uninhibited, and it was exactly what I needed. There was no overthinking, no second-guessing. There was just Ryan, and pleasure, and sensation, and it was absolutely perfect. I reached between us and started jerking him off, and in a matter of minutes he arched off the rug and yelled as he shot across his stomach. A huge orgasm slammed into me just a few moments later, making my body shake and my head spin.

  It took a while for both of us to catch our breath and come back to earth. He smiled at me, and I brushed his hair from his eyes and kissed him tenderly. When I felt him shiver as the sweat cooled on our skin, I eased my cock from his body and quickly discarded the condom before picking him up and carrying him to the couch. Then I covered him with my hoodie and wrapped myself around him to keep him warm.

  When he looked up at me, I was startled by the stark emotion in his eyes. He laced his fingers with mine and whispered, “Thank you for taking care of me.” That broke my heart a little, but I didn’t know why.

  Chapter 3

  We both ended up dozing off for a while. I had no idea what time it was when we awoke, but it was still very dark, and the rain had slowed to a light patter on the window. After taking turns in the restroom and cleaning up a bit, we got dressed and returned to the sofa. Ryan leaned against my arm, and I asked, “Do you still feel like solving the puzzles?”

  Instead of answering, he tumbled off the couch and darted across the room, returning a moment later with the manila envelope. He handed me a fake candle and cuddled up at my side, and I said, “You do the honors.”

  You would have thought I’d just given him a lavish gift, judging by how excited he was. He tore open the envelope, and his eyes lit up as he read the letter. The first part set up the fictitious crime we had to solve, which was to locate a hidden chest of jewels before the thief left the country in two hours’ time. A bit hokey, but sure, why not?

  He turned the paper over and read the first clue. “The mighty one who grasps the earth, swallowing wood and water, dreading wind but no man, and picking a fight with the sun.” Ryan clicked his tongue and said, “I hope they get harder. That’s way too easy.”

  “Seriously? I have no idea what you just read.”

  “It’s actually ancient Norse, one of Odin’s riddles.”

  “Well, thank God I majored in ancient Norse in college. Oh wait, no. It was biology.”

  Ryan grinned at me and said, “Don’t worry about where it’s from. Just focus on the riddle.”

  I held up the candle and read it again, then shook my head. “Nope. I got nothing.”

  “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m here. The answer is fog. It swallows up everything on earth and blocks out the sun, and the only thing it has to worry about is the wind.”

  “Oh. Okay, now it seems obvious. But what does the answer refer to? There’s clearly no fog in here.”

  There was that little grin again. “Read the plaque on the painting above the fireplace.”

  I got up and did as he asked. It was a portrait of a man in a top hat standing in front of a hot air balloon, and I took a look at the brass plaque at the bottom of the ornate frame and told him, “It says Phileas F. Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

  The grin graduated to a smile. “Phileas Fogg was the main character in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Look behind the painting for a clue, and if there’s nothing there, we’ll study the canvas itself.”

  I slid my hand behind the frame and felt around, and a moment later, I produced a sealed envelope. “Oh man, I totally suck at this, and you’re awesome,” I said, as I returned to Ryan’s side. “I was so sure I’d ace the entire escape room in record time.”

  He took the envelope from me, and then he kissed my cheek and said, “It’s okay. We’re a team, so we share our success.”

  As he tore open the flap, I asked, “How did you know what the plaque said?”

  “I didn’t, but that’s obviously a portrait of Phileas Fogg. Who else would be posing with a hot air balloon and wearing a top hat?”

  “Lots of people!”

  Ryan pulled out a notecard and read it, and then he exclaimed, “Aw! This one’s super easy, too.” I read the card and drew a complete blank. He was chuckling as I groaned and face-planted onto the couch.

  If I had to guess, I’d say Ryan solved the entire puzzle in about forty-five minutes. The fact that we only had the fake candles for lighting in an otherwise pitch-black room didn’t seem to slow him down much. I provided very little help, aside from one random science fact. Actually, he probably knew it too and just threw me a bone.

  Once we produced the treasure chest from a hidden panel behind the bookcase, we sprawled out on the couch facing each other and put on all the riches it contained. I adjusted my plastic tiara and reread the cypher he’d solved to produce the five-digit code that would have unlocked the door, and then I muttered, “I’m an asshole.”

  Ryan was wearing my hoodie, and he’d pushed back one of the sleeves so he could admire his faux diamond bracelets. He let the sleeve drop as he looked up at me and said, “No, you’re not. Why would you say that?”

  “Because I completely misjudged you when we were at the bar. I took one look at the pink hair and the playful attitude, and I wrote you off as an airhead. But in reality, you’re one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met. It’s not just that you know an astonishing amount of trivia, either, or that you solved the logic puzzles like they were nothing.”

  “I was drunk off my ass and acting like an obnoxious party boy when you first met me, so no wonder,” Ryan said. “Besides, everyone thinks I’m a frivolous airhead, Rick.”

  “Then everyone is wrong, because you’re amazing.” When he shifted around, trying to get comfortable, I held out my arms and said, “Come here.” He curled up at my side, with his head on my chest and his leg draped over mine. I covered us with the tablecloth, because it was the closest thing we had to a blanket, and said, “If you’re cold, I can pull the tapestry off the wall.”

  “This is perfect.”

  We ended up talking all night, curled up together in the pool of light from those fake candles. The conversation ran the gamut from trivial things like our favorite movies, to deeper subjects, including the frustration we both felt at our stalled-out careers. He’d seemed so different from me on the surface, but it turned out we actually shared a lot of common ground, once I bothered to look a little deeper.

  Eventually, as the first light of dawn tinted the stained glass window and Ryan started to drift off, I found myself asking, “When can I see you again?”

  He murmured, “I thought this was just supposed to be one night. You’re still getting over the terrible thing your ex did to you, and I’m…well, let’s just say there’s a lot you don’t know about me, and you wouldn’t like me very much if you got the whole picture.”

  I kissed his forehead and pulled the makeshift blanket over his shoulder. “Let’s talk about it in the morning. And possibly all day tomorrow, if the power’s still out.”

  We both settled in, and after a while, he whispered, “Thank you for tonight. It meant more to me than you know.” Ryan fell asleep soon after, as I held him securely.

  The first thing I saw when I raised my lids the next
morning was sunlight streaming through that magnificent stained glass window. It splashed a kaleidoscope of colors onto the walls and ceiling, and I sat up and looked around for Ryan, so I could show it to him. But I soon realized he wasn’t in the room with me, and the hoodie he’d been wearing was draped over the back of the couch.

  Since the double doors were open and the lights were on, the city had obviously restored power sometime during the night. Ryan was probably downstairs talking to Benji, so I put on my shoes and hoodie and started to go find him. That was when I saw the note.

  It was written in a small, tidy script on the back of one of the clue letters, and it said:

  * * *

  Dear Rick,

  Thank you for your kindness, and for being so open with me. I’m sorry I wasn’t brave enough to be open with you, too.

  When I said you wouldn’t like me if you knew the whole story, I meant it. The thing is, I’m a prostitute. I was off the clock last night, but I was working the night of the charity raffle. The reason I could afford it was because I gave some guy a blow job in the parking lot, and I used the money on a ticket because it seemed like a great place to find my next trick.

  That’s who I am. I wish I wasn’t, but it’s how I survive. And no, I didn’t lie about being a barista, but that part-time, minimum wage job isn’t enough to keep a roof over my head.

  It was so tempting to agree to see you again, but guys like me don’t end up with guys like you. We just don’t. As soon as you found out what I was, you’d never look at me the same way again. That would break my heart, because I really liked the way you looked at me.

  Anyway, I hope last night started you moving in the right direction, in terms of putting the past behind you. Your ex was a dick, and he never deserved you in the first place. You’re an absolute treasure, Patrick, and it’s just a matter of time before you find a man smart enough to realize that. I wish you nothing but the best.

  Love always, R.