“Come on! We’ll get farther in the game if they’re on our side,” she said.
I groaned.
Ten minutes later, I emerged from the tent, my cheeks blushing at my sock-stuffed bra. It felt incredibly obvious. Georgie linked her arm with mine and leaned in. “If you own it, no one will notice,” she murmured, and strode forward, dragging me along.
Swift and Plate were waiting a short distance away, talking to Jendan and Annabelle. The orange team had their arms wrapped around each other and were all smiles, laughing and talking. Both men of the black team turned at the sight of us, and two big smiles crossed their faces.
“Goddamn, I wish I had a camera,” Plate said as we approached. “No one at home’s gonna believe I went out on a date with Georgie Price.”
“Uh, hello,” Annabelle said, gesturing at the cameramen that crawled all over the impromptu camp. “You think they’re going to leave you alone for five minutes?”
“Good point,” Plate said, and stepped up to Georgie, putting his elbow out for her to take. “Miiiilady,” he said in an exaggerated accent.
“Milord,” Georgie teased, and put her hand in the crook of his arm and they walked forward.
Swift scratched his head and glanced over at me. “They…do realize we’re not in England, right?”
I chuckled, crossing my arms over my (thrusting, sock-filled) chest. “I don’t think they care.”
Swift shrugged and offered me his arm. And because I couldn’t refuse with a camera hovering so close by, I took it.
We were about a five minute walk from Aguas Calientas, and Georgie and Plate laughed and skipped ahead of us, clowning around. Swift walked a lot slower, to the point that I started to wonder if he’d hurt his leg earlier today. We were quiet, and I kept mentally thinking up topics and discarding them. Weather? Stupid. The race? Derp. Biking? I didn’t know jack. Paleontology? I knew way too much and I doubted he’d be interested.
As I struggled to come up with something to say, Swift squeezed my arm and slowed his steps a little more. “Hey,” he murmured. “Let’s stop for a minute, okay?”
I gave him a puzzled look. “Um, okay?”
He stopped and put his hand on the side of my neck and pulled me in close. I froze as he leaned in. Was he going to kiss me? Just like that?
“I’m trying to make it look like we’re flirting, okay?” he said in my ear, voice low. “Help me make this look good, all right?”
“Okay,” I breathed and slid my arms around his waist. I pulled him closer and pressed my body against his.
“Uh…not that good, Tiny. I’m only human.” His hand tightened against the side of my neck. “Jesus, you’re pretty.”
That startled me. A hot blush crept up my cheeks and I avoided looking at him. “So…um, what’s this about?”
“Your sister,” he murmured in my ear, and I felt his lips move against my earlobe. Oh gosh, it was going to look like we were making out if someone saw us, wasn’t it?
Did I care? I wasn’t sure I cared. Swift was gorgeous. My fingers dug into his shirt, twisting. “Um, what about my sister?” Um, what about anything? I couldn’t concentrate. He smelled spicy and clean, like fresh deodorant…which shouldn’t have smelled as good as it did.
“She okay?”
I tried to pull away from him, and to my surprise, he pressed his mouth against my neck. Oh. Right. My nipples perked and I was suddenly glad for the socks in my bra to hide that fact. “Um, why wouldn’t she be okay?” I asked as he pressed his mouth against my neck. Oh jeez. If this was fake flirting, what was real flirting like?
“Plate said she totally lost it on that last challenge.”
“It must have been hard,” I said automatically, ready to defend my twin.
“That’s just it,” Swift said, moving up to nibble at my ear before continuing. “He said it was a cakewalk. You just matched up clothing and you were done. Ours was the hard one.”
I didn’t understand. “W-what do you mean?”
“I mean, I think something’s going on with your sister.” He moved forward, and then pressed a light kiss to my mouth before grinning at me. I stared at him dumbly until he winked.
Right. This was all pretend so he could pass the message on to me. Of course, I didn’t need some fake flirting to know that. I was Georgie’s twin. Something was clearly wrong with her. But I also knew my sister, and knew that asking her directly was the wrong way to go about it. There was more than one way to get a secret out of Georgie, and the best way was patience.
“Thanks for the warning,” I murmured to Swift.
“You bet, Tiny,” he said, and kept a hand at my waist. “Should we catch up to the others?”
Chapter Seven
“So I figured we’d fake flirt for a bit, right? I’d pass her the info, we’d be good. Except…Jesus. She smells so damn good and her skin’s so soft that I sorta forgot all about the ‘fake’ part. And now I’m going to spend the rest of the race with a serious case of blue balls.” — Swift, Team One Percent, The World Races
We sat down at a restaurant and the waiter arrived, chattering happily in Quechua, and took our drink orders. Both Georgie and Plate got sodas, while I hesitated over the menu.
“Chicha? Cerveza?” the waiter asked us, pen in hand. Beer?
Swift and I shared a horrified expression at the word chicha. I shook my head and put the menu down. “Water. Agua.”
“Same,” Swift said, and the waiter nodded and left. As he did, Swift looked over at me and grinned. “I think I’m going to be off corn anything for a while.”
I knew just what he meant. I could still taste all that hard, purple corn in my teeth. “I hope all the challenges aren’t like that. I might lose a filling at this rate.”
He chuckled.
Awkward silence fell.
We sat in a booth at a local restaurant, and it was hopping despite the weird hour. I could see lots of tourists at nearby tables, and there was a souvenir stand at the far end of the restaurant that sold Machu Picchu gear. Instead of the teams sitting together, Swift sat next to me and Georgie sat next to Plate.
Which, of course, made me feel super awkward. I pushed at my glasses. I wasn’t the kind that double dated. I was the kind that liked to fade into the wallpaper. The fact that Swift wasn’t letting me? It left me rattled.
And I kept thinking about that weird almost-kiss we’d shared on the walk here.
“You ladies having fun on the race?” Plate asked as he dug into a complimentary bowl of chips on the table. Swift took a handful for himself, I nibbled on one, and Georgie ignored them entirely.
I looked at my twin, curious to see how she’d answer.
“It’s been interesting so far,” Georgie said with a shrug. “I liked seeing Machu Picchu. I don’t like being in last place, but I’m interested to see where they’ll send us next.”
“It’ll be Europe,” Plate said confidently. “They want to see us getting our Swiss Alp on, I bet.”
“You think?” Georgie smirked. “Or you just dying to wear some lederhosen?”
“That’s Germany,” I corrected. And then all eyes turned to me, so I stuffed the rest of my chip into my mouth and proceeded to chew.
“So, what is it you do again?” Swift asked, looking over at me. There was a pause as the waiter brought our drinks, and then all eyes turned expectantly to me again. “Something with dinosaurs, right?”
“Sort of,” I said, after I swallowed. I shot Georgie a helpless look, because I hated talking about myself, but she was busy playfully squeezing a lemon slice into Plate’s soda while he mock-wrestled her for it. Kids these days. I shot Swift another helpless look, but his gaze was on me and he actually looked…interested. I licked my lips and took the risk of nerding out on him. “So, there are different kinds of paleontologists. There are the ones that study dinosaurs, and there are ones that study invertebrates. I study invertebrates, and I focus on one particular era.”
His brows drew together.
“Okay. Do you mind if I ask why? It’s like every kid’s dream is to muck around with dinosaurs, but you’re skipping them? Is there a particular reason?”
I grinned, because it’s not often I get to geek out about my job around regular people. “So the further back you go, the crazier things get. My particular area of specialty is the Devonian era. Everyone thinks about the end of the dinosaurs at the Cretaceous, but imagine it twice as bad – that’s the Devonian. So many more families of creatures were wiped out in the extinction events then, and some of the events only affected sea creatures. It’s fascinating to imagine the wildlife that must have been in the seas before the extinctions took place.”
“And you like…what were they called?” He seemed interested in what I had to say.
“Ammonites,” I gushed. “They’re the circular looking sea-shell creatures in fossils.”
“Are they crabs?”
“That’s just it,” I said happily. “We think they wandered through the open waters of the ocean. They weren’t bottom dwellers. They’re an entirely different sort of creature. And the female has a larger shell than the male.”
He laughed.
I shot Georgie a worried look. Was I being too nerdy for this conversation?
“So you like ammonites because they have the gender balance set up the way you like it?” Swift teased.
My cheeks heated. “That’s not it. Not all of it, of course. They’re fascinating subjects—“
“Quit teasing my sister,” Georgie said, reaching over and patting my hand. “She doesn’t realize you’re joking.”
Swift just grinned at me, and I felt my cheeks get even hotter. “You must be pretty smart, Tiny.”
“She’s got a PhD,” Georgie said proudly.
I groaned. Was she going to point out to everyone I had a degree? I tried to change the subject instead. “So where did you guys go to college?”
Plate stared at me. Swift found his napkin interesting, all of a sudden.
“Oh,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s no big,” Swift said. “I’m a mechanic.” He nodded at Plate. “So’s he. We both work for his dad.”
I shot a help me look at Georgie.
“So what does your dad do, Swift?”
Swift stared down at the table and got real quiet. “He’s a lawyer.”
An uncomfortable silence fell again.
“You girls wanna hear how we got our road names?” Plate said, breaking the awkwardness.
“Shit, man,” Swift said, then groaned. “Don’t.”
Plate just grinned.
“Well, now we have to know,” Georgie said with a smile.
“Swift here got his name—“ Plate began.
“Don’t,” Swift warned.
His buddy ignored him. “—because when he gave it up to a girl for the first time, he blew his wad too fast. One pump chump.” Plate snickered and raised his hand for a high five.
Swift just rubbed a hand over his face. “Fuck you, man.” The words don’t sound grumpy, though. They sounded tired and amused. As if Swift’s made this argument a million times before and lost each time.
A horrified giggle escaped my throat. “Really?”
Swift gave me a sheepish look. “Really. Sometimes shit just sticks. The name, that is.”
Plate waved his hand, still hanging in the air, then shrugged and put it down.
“What about you,” Georgie asked him with a nod in his direction. “Why Plate?”
The big man just grinned and picked up another chip. “Cuz I’m the best at lickin’ things and I didn’t want to be called Pussy.”
Swift snorted. Georgie’s eyes went wide and she looked at me. “I…is that a joke?”
“Nope,” Swift drawled.
Plate just wiggled his eyebrows at Georgie. “I just lie back and think of you, baby.”
“I don’t know whether to be flattered or horrified.”
“Be both,” I said. “Definitely be both.”
Plate was good at breaking the tension, at least. By the time the meal was served, we were all chatting up a storm. Conversation ranged from Georgie’s travels to Plate’s biker stories, to strategizing about the next leg of the race and who’d actually win the thing. An old song came on the radio and I started to hum along as I picked through my delicious papa rellena.
Swift looked at me in surprise. “You’re a Guns and Roses fan?”
I nodded. “I like 90’s rock.” I didn’t tell him that I started to get into it because of a guy I had a crush on. The crush faded but my love of hair bands stuck.
“Fine, then. Use Your Illusion – one or two?” he asked me.
“One,” I said without hesitation. “Definitely one.”
“Are you kidding me?”
I gave him a look. “November Rain is the greatest song of all time.”
“Civil War? Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door? Yesterdays? You Could Be Mine? Hello?”
“November Rain,” I emphasized again. “Don’t Cry, the original version. Live and Let Die.”
“What about the Spaghetti Incident?” He fired back at me.
I raised my fork in the air and shook my head. “The first rule of GNR fandom is you don’t talk about the Spaghetti Incident.”
“Oh my God, you just quoted Fight Club at me.” Swift stared at me, a grin spreading over his face.
“Don’t look now, Georgie,” Plate said in a mock-whisper. “I think Swift’s nerdboner is about to knock our drinks off the table.”
I blushed. I also might have preened a little at Swift’s appreciation. He knew good music. That was a bonus point.
Dinner went on for a few hours, since we didn’t have anywhere particular to be. We started yawning, and decided to head back to camp. While we didn’t cement anything specific with the guys, strategy-wise, we made friends. That was something, at least.
We parted and went back to our tents, because we were all too cheap to rent a hotel room this early in the game. As Georgie and I snuggled down into our Race-logo sleeping bags, I looked over at my twin in the darkness. There was a smile on her face, her eyes closed. She looked like she was having the greatest time in the world.
I wondered if I should have asked her about her meltdown earlier. But Georgie seemed fine now. If anything, she’d laughed and flirted with Plate while Swift and I shared shy, awkward conversations. At least, my conversation was shy and awkward. Swift seemed comfortable, just a quiet sort compared to Plate’s boisterousness.
“Hey, Georgie?” I whispered into the darkness, tugging my sleeping bag higher.
“Hmm?” She sounded sleepy.
“About today…”
“I know,” she said immediately. “I screwed up. I just got flustered when everyone started running in. The cameras were everywhere, and I felt like I was letting you down. I freaked a bit. I’m sorry.”
It sounded legit, and yet…I frowned to myself. It wasn’t like Georgie to lose her cool over something like that. “No big deal,” I said. “If something were bothering you, you’d tell me, right? Sisters tell each other everything.” And that went double for twins.
“Of course I would.”
I nodded. “Okay then.”
“So….” She said. “Since we’re on the subject of telling the truth, what do you think of Swift, Clemmy?”
I felt my cheeks get warm, even in the dark. Damn it, I needed to stop blushing all the time. “He’s cute.”
“You guys were like two nerds in heaven,” my sister teased in a low voice. “You should let him know you’re interested. I have a feeling he’d be interested back.”
“Yeah, but…” I let the word hang in the air, then continued. “Guys don’t look at me.”
“Why not? They look at me. We have the same face.”
It wasn’t just the face, though. It was the whole package: the personality, the confidence, the way she walked compared to me. Everyone noticed Georgie, and no one noticed me.
Up until Swift,
of course. I hugged the blanket tighter around my breasts, and then winced and pulled a sock out of my cleavage. The sight of it depressed me. “You think he liked my fake boobs?”
“Probably not,” Georgie said lightly. “They looked lumpy all through dinner.”
“What?” My shriek rang through the quiet camp, followed by my twin’s evil giggle.
Chapter Eight
“I almost wish we hadn’t gotten first place on round one. We got the Ace, and now we can ‘save’ a team. Except I’m not so sure I want to save anyone. We’re all competing, right?” — Swift, Team One Percent, The World Races
A production assistant with a stopwatch handed us our clue token. “You can’t flip that over until instructed,” she told us, and glanced at the stopwatch again.
“Gotcha.” I looked over at Georgie, who was stifling a yawn. “You ready to do this?”
“Ready,” she said and smacked her lips.
We were the last team to leave Aguas Calientas. Swift and Plate had been the first to leave, and we’d waved them off, then gone back to sleep for another nap. We’d caught the Red Hat grandmas on their way out, and then sat around for a few more hours, waiting for our turn.
Longest four hours ever.
Georgie was in a good mood, though. Dinner with Plate and Swift had restored her cheery humor and she bounced on her feet next to me as we waited for the stopwatch to go off. Nearby, a cameraman hovered, filming us, and the microphone pack strapped to the back of my shirt itched.
Beep beep beep.
It was time. The production assistant pointed at us, and we flipped our clue.
“Make your way to the ruins of Tikal in Guatemala,” Georgie and I read in sync, our voices sounding as one. There, you will find your next clue.” We exchanged a look.
Time to go.
~~ * * * ~~
We traveled back to Cuzco on the train and took the next flight to Guatemala. Or rather, we took several flights and eventually headed to Guatemala. The ride from Cuzco to Flores was a nightmare of layovers and wait times, but at least the race had paid for it.