Page 43 of Jingle Spells

The crowd applauded. Delilah caught Jasper’s eye and he gave her a shy, precise smile. For a moment she almost forgot that he’d forgotten her.

But Scarlett was glaring at them. “Those dum dums got lucky,” she muttered.

“Next question,” announced the host with oily game-show enthusiasm. “Name a movie that was an improvement on the book it was based on.”

Oh, for crying out loud! Delilah thought. But she heard her sister crack her knuckles in excitement.

The marker squeaked against her whiteboard as Delilah wrote down the only logical answer.

“Let’s check in with our leaders over here!” The host turned to Delilah and Jasper first this time. “What did your lovely partner write?”

She turned her board around just as Jasper revealed his answer: “The question is moot.”

“No film,” they said in unison, then stopped, staring at each other.

“. . . is better . . .” Delilah continued hesitantly.

“. . . than a novel,” Jasper finished.

The audience broke into delighted applause. Someone actually shouted, “So cute!”

We’re not cute, Delilah thought. We’re correct.

“Oh come on!” Scarlett protested. She flipped her board around to reveal Jaws written in huge letters. “The movie was absolutely better! Even Peter Benchley said so!”

“The Godfather,” Nate’s board read. He shrugged apologetically at Scarlett. “I mean, Brando, Pacino . . .”

“How is this happening?” Scarlett demanded. “I’ve known you my whole life and those two goofballs literally just met!”

Well no, Delilah thought. We didn’t just meet. Except . . . we did. Except . . . we didn’t. Her head was starting to hurt.

“Moving right along!” The host was practically levitating with excitement; Made For Each Other didn’t get many word-for-word answers. “For our next question: name a quotation or motto that your partner lives by.”

Delilah scribbled without thinking: “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”

Her hand shook slightly as she looked at what she’d written. There was no way Jasper would⁠—

He turned his board: “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”

The crowd went wild. Someone shouted, “Soulmates!”

“This is ridiculous,” Scarlett announced from behind them. She revealed her board: “Not all who wander are lost.”

“There’s no place like home,” read Nate’s answer.

“Yikes,” said a woman in the front row. “Those two are in deep shit.”

As Scarlett and Nate bickered over their bad answers, Delilah glanced over at Jasper. She could see him trying to catalog this bizarre moment, to figure out where to store it in his well-ordered mental filing system. He glanced up and gave her an awkward little shrug, like he wasn’t sure if he should apologize or not.

She smiled and shrugged back.

“Final question!” The host beamed at them all like a demented Christmas elf. “Ladies, tell us how your partner would complete this sentence: The proper way to organize books is . . .”

Oh no. This was a topic that had started wars. At the Oak Haven Library, two librarians came to blows over the merits of different organizational systems. They didn’t speak to one another for years after.

But then she thought, What do I have to lose? Her marker was already moving: “Dewey decimal system with additional subcategorization by acquisition date and condition assessment.”

The second after she revealed her answer, she wanted to die of shame. To sink through the floor and never emerge. Nobody would ever guess that level of⁠—