Ever so slowly, I lowered my mouth to the lime. As I did so, I felt the brush of her lips on mine.
Just a touch. Just a breath, and it ignited fire in my veins.
And at that moment, I forgot a lot. My heart stopped, my breathing quit, my thoughts cea...
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"I'll beat your ass at jeopardy," she said, pulling me by the hand toward the small tent with a large "JEAPORDY" sign above it.
I smiled. "You wish."
"It's true," she continued. "Don't you remember biology? All those jeopardy games?"
I rolled my eyes. "You must have selective memory. From what I recall, I came in first in most of those games."
"I guess we'll find out today who the true winner is," she said, winking.
We stepped into the tent, and it was like nothing I had seen before. In fact, I had never heard of a jeopardy game being at a carnival, but there was a first time for everything.
"Welcome!" a short, stout man said from our side, sitting at a table. A large screen was in front of us, and projected onto it was a large jeopardy board. "Only you two?"
Lia nodded in front of me and handed him the tickets we needed to play the game.
"The rules are simple," the man began. "You two will compete against each other. One of you will go first and choose a category and price. You'll have a thirty second time period to give me your answer. If it's wrong or you fail to answer in time, it will be passed to the next person. If everyone gets it wrong, then no one gets a point. Points will not be subtracted for wrong answers. Is everything clear?"
We both nodded before Lia asked, "How do we get a high score to produce maximum tickets?"
The man's lips twisted into a smile. "If you get everything correct without any wrong answers, then you will get 100 tickets. But it has never been done before, so don't expect anything."
"Okay," Lia said to him, but when she turned back to the screen, I saw a hint of a smile and a quick glance at me. It was obvious what she was trying to say, and I reciprocated it.
Game on.
"Go ahead and step onto your podiums," the short man said. We did as we were told. "Which of you would like to go first?"
"Ladies first," I responded before Lia could. The words reminded me of one of our interactions back at Princeton – a phrase Lia had jokingly said to me when we were walking to the principal's office.
By the slight smirk on her face, she remembered the moment too. "All right," she conceded. "I'll go first."
The man stood and walked toward the screen, his height and waddle almost comical. He clapped his hands together. "Alright. Pick your square."
She studied the board, and I did as well. There were five categories: history, science, literature, geography, and pop culture.
Lia shot me a smug smile before telling the man, "Science for $500."
