Samuel and I made the entire drive to wherever we were going playing twenty questions. I was attempting to guess our destination on the way but as we pulled up, I realized how wildly unsuccessful I had been. In fact, I never even came close. When we parked and got out, I still couldn’t figure out where we were. The building didn’t have any insignia and the sign by the road was too far away to read. I looked at him, perplexed.

“Don’t worry, you’re going to love this. I think.” He laughed.

“Such confidence from someone who doesn’t know me,” I countered.

“I already told you. I’ve been knowing you the whole time.”

Suddenly I was uneasy and shifting. He motioned for me to walk with him toward the front. He opened the door for me just as he had the night before. We walked to the front counter and were greeted by a cheery young guy, maybe high school aged.

“Hey, guys! Have you been here before?” he asked.

“I have, she hasn’t,” Samuel answered, showing him some type of membership card.

“All right then, let’s get you set up!” he said.

By then I was so confused, I just followed them both down a small corridor where we were both dumped into a room with gun holsters. What on earth?

“You look like you need a medium. Are you right handed or southpaw?” Samuel asked me.

“Southpaw,” I said. And he grabbed a thigh holster from the wall. He reached down toward my leg and I jumped back probably a foot.

“I’ll do it,” I said, grabbing it from his outstretched hand.

“Okay,” he said with a smile.

I was definitely not ready for a man to be touching my legs. No way. I strapped it on with his guidance from afar and tightened it. We walked to the nearby counter and the guy behind it put about five different handguns in front of me.

“We are shooting stuff?” I asked.

“Well, sort of. Don’t worry, they’re only rubber bullets.” He laughed.

I chose the 9mm Baretta. I checked and loaded the clip, put the safety on, and holstered it.

“Whoa, wait a minute. You seem to be handling that like it’s not exactly your first time,” he said.

“Is that a question or a statement?” I grinned.

“Both, I think.”

“I may or may not have handled a gun or two in my time, sir,” I said.

A thorough look of surprise and approval swept his face. We walked into the next room where it was dark. In front of us were two doors, and a red siren light was fixed above them. I looked around for clues but there weren’t many. Another young guy appeared and started spouting off some rules.

“Don’t touch them. Only open doors when the lights signal you to. Keep going. There are twenty-five targets and you’re equipped with twenty-seven bullets between the two clips. So don’t miss too much,” he recited with ease.

“Are you ready?” Samuel asked with genuine excitement in his voice.

“I still have no idea what we’re doing!” I said.

“Oh, we are killing zombies! GO!”

“Wait, what?!” I yelled toward him as he charged forward through the door. I followed behind him into a dark makeshift corridor while strobe lights flashed overhead and ominous music played loudly with an occasional woman screaming. This was straight out of a haunted house. One of those really fancy, over-the-top haunted houses. Just then something popped up to the left of us and we both jerked instinctively to point our guns at it.

“Go ahead!” he yelled.

I steadied my aim at the chest of this zombie figure and pulled the trigger. A direct hit and the figure popped back down into its hiding place.

“They have sensors in their chests that you aim for! Come on, we have to save the world!” he said.

We turned the corner and another two popped up just ahead of us on the right. We both fired and they went back down. Okay, Delilah, this is super fun!

We went on like this through the course, killing zombies and laughing hysterically. And who would have guessed that we’d make a pretty damn good zombie killing team? We killed all the zombies and hit the button to release the cure into the atmosphere before time ran out.

“Okay, this place is seriously awesome,” I said as we were walking back to the car.

“So I was right then. You’ve got a little savage in you.” He smiled.

“Okay, okay. Yes, you were right. I thoroughly enjoyed that. Thank you,” I said. “You seem very pleased with yourself. Your smug smile gives you away, in case you didn’t realize.”

“Oh, no, I’m very aware, miss,” he said, smiling even bigger.

* * *

We arrived back at my place after having lunch at a pizza place down the road to find Emma’s car parked in the drive.

“Oh, right! Emma is coming over for dinner tonight, I totally forgot,” I said.

We made our way to the door and walked in. Emma was there with David, waiting with a sort of worried look on her face. I had given her a spare key.

“Delilah! Where did you go? I was worried when your car was here but you weren’t. I tried texting you,” she said, rushing over to me as if to examine me, even though I was perfectly fine.

“Oh, sorry, we were shooting zombies,” I said, motioning to Samuel.

“Hello again, Emma,” he said with a small wave.

“Hi, no trouble at all. I’m glad to see her out and about. And with you no less.” Emma smiled.

I shot her a look and rolled my eyes. “Yes, Emma, just making new friends you know.”

“Right, yes, friends,” she said.

A silence fell over the room and I wanted to crawl under something.

“Well, then, that’s my cue. I better be going to pick up Mason,” Samuel said as he backed up to the door.

“So soon? You’re welcome back for dinner, the two of you. We are getting fancy tonight. Delilah is going to be cooking...something,” Emma said.

“I don’t want to impose,” Samuel said.

“No imposition at all!” she said.

“Okay then. I guess I will see you all later,” Samuel said. He gave me a nod and smile as he left and I returned the smile as the door shut.

I whirled around. “Oh my god, what did you just do? What did you actually just do, Emma?”

“What? I just thought it would be nice for all of us to get to know each other,” she said, feigning innocence, but I knew better.

“Well, I’ve been knowing him, so I mean, that really has nothing to do with it,” I said. I laughed internally at my phrasing and scoffed Samuel for it.

“Well, I haven’t and I want to!” Emma said.

“Great, great. Oh, and I’m cooking, too, then? I wasn’t aware of this,” I said.

“Well, you’d probably figure it out. You’ve got like three hours so you’ll be fine.” She laughed, pleased with herself.

I walked to the kitchen, preparing myself to scavenge the ingredients of some sort of meal I had not anticipated making. I heard Emma following me in and I prepared myself for the third-degree questioning. I found myself relieved that I had stocked up on wine. I had a feeling I was going to need it.

She knew better than to suggest more than a friendship with Samuel. I just wasn’t ready and despite his charming ways, I didn’t have anything more to offer him or anyone else at the moment. Perhaps I was too relaxed with him earlier. I hoped I hadn’t done anything to give him any other impression. Maybe I would have a talk with him later and make my stance a little clearer.

I began to collect things from cabinets, pulling out pans and getting sort of organized. I’ve got this. Fortunately, I worked well under pressure. Emma started in with her questions and I gave her vague answers as I got busy around the kitchen. The silence grew after a few minutes and Emma put on some music. She walked into the living room and wrapped her arms around David and I allowed myself to be envious of them for just a moment. They had love. Real honest to goodness love. I hoped I would want that one day. I hoped one day I’d be ready for it.

I let the music take me. It was soft and soothing. My mind went to Samuel and Mason. What it must’ve been like to lose a wife and mother. They seemed very close in her absence and I’m sure it was true. They only had each other.

I found myself recalling the details of Samuel’s face. I’d stolen glances at best and only managed to study the details once or twice. He was attractive, there was no doubt about that. I could say that, it didn’t mean anything. So what? He had the type of eyes you could fall into and never quite climb back out of, which is probably why I avoided eye contact with him most of the time. His mouth was pleasant. I didn’t have a better word for it. Pleasant. And his voice. That was the kicker for me. His square jaw was covered in the perfect amount of scruff. His hands were less than delicate looking but I hadn’t had a chance to catch the ink on his arms again. He wore long sleeves each time I saw him. I made a mental note to ask about his tattoos. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t come up in conversation yet. Surely, he saw mine peeking out, too.

I was pretty lost in thought when I heard my phone ding. A text message was sitting on the front screen across the bar and I glanced over to see. Unknown number. Again.

My jaw dropped. My hands shook. Someone is watching me?