“Is there a prize?”

“A spa weekend.” She smiled. “I want to win.”

“You have a competitive side?”

“Sometimes. Would you mind if we did some stuff on my list? You know, for the challenge with Ellen?”

She passed over the piece of paper. He read it cautiously, not sure what to expect. Item five caught his attention. Sex with a handsome (and age-appropriate) man. He was up for that. The other one he liked had her wearing a dress without a bra. But he had a feeling she wasn’t going to want to go for any of those.

“How about we try rock climbing?” he asked, picking one of the items least likely to scare her off.

“That would be a good one. Or something else, if you’d prefer,” she added primly, as if aware she was being demanding while offering little in return.

“Unity, do you want to go out with me again?”

She fidgeted in her seat, glanced away, then back at him. “Yes.”

The answer he’d been hoping for, the answer that should have relieved him. Yet he knew that nothing about what they were doing was simple for either of them.

“Then we’ll go out,” he told her. “We’ll figure out the rest of it from there.”

“I like that,” she said with a smile that kicked him in the gut and warned him he was playing a very dangerous game.

eleven

Ellen couldn’t believe how much getting a tattoo hurt. The needle just kept going and going, making her want to scream that she had changed her mind. Only she couldn’t. Last night Unity had told her she’d gone skydiving. Skydiving! At an indoor place, but still. Ellen still couldn’t figure out the stupid smoky eye and Unity was flinging herself into some air tunnel.

Even more startling, she’d gone with a man! And they’d agreed to go out again. Had anyone but Unity told her that, Ellen would have assumed the person was lying. But Unity had always been totally honest, which meant in less than a week, she’d gone on a date and been skydiving.

Game on, Ellen thought, gritting her teeth against the jabbing, piercing pain. She was getting a tattoo for sure. How much longer could it take?

After what felt like three days of torture, she was finally done. Ellen listened carefully to the instructions, took the offered salve and soap she was supposed to use while it healed and walked gingerly to the waiting area.

Lissa came to her feet. “Did you do it? How was it?”

“Yes and painful.”

The teen grinned. “Can I see it?”

“Not for a couple of hours. I have to keep on the bandage.” Ellen pressed her hand against the throbbing on her left, rear hip. “Then I wash it and apply this stuff.” She waved the salve. “Then I live my life.”

There were other instructions. No soaking in water for three weeks, no scrubbing. She had a list.