It wasn’t the first time they had an accidental kiss. It happened once back at the turf club as well, so she didn’t have to mind it that much. It’s just like stepping in dog poo. That’s all. She took a deep breath and turned to Toby, who was already waiting for her to take the card. She clenched her fists and told herself to not make any mistakes before leaning over to take the card from him.
Toby’s eyes lit up a little when he felt the warmth coming from her lips, but it was gone after two seconds. It wasn’t even enough for him to savor it. He stared at the sofa, feeling crestfallen.
One minute passed by quickly, and the manager announced the families that would proceed to the next round. They were number one, number three, and number five, the last one being Sonia’s team.
Douglas clapped his hands happily. “We can go to the next round, Mommy.”
“Yeah.” Sonia nodded in disbelief. She thought they lost too much time after that mistake, so they would be eliminated. Instead, they managed to proceed to the next round.
Toby thought Sonia looked cute when she was bewildered, and he smiled. “Number one and number three did a perfect pass, but the other families made more mistakes than we did, so we made third place.”
“How’d you know?” Sonia looked at him curiously.
Toby met her stare. “I kept an eye on them, so I know.”
I see. Sonia gave him a thumbs up. “Good job.” He managed to keep an eye on the competition even though we only had one minute. That's superb observation skill. No wonder he managed to lead the company to the top in the city.
“It’s nothing. Just a habit.” Toby smiled after getting praised.
However, Sonia thought it was a smug smile, so she pouted and turned away.
Toby arched his eyebrow. What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong? He kept thinking about it, but he couldn’t figure out how he annoyed her.
Before he could say anything, the manager announced, “Congratulations for proceeding to the second round. For this round, we’ll be doing push-ups. Participants, please come here.”
“Let’s go, Mom.” Douglas tossed the poker card away, jumped out of the sofa, and dragged Sonia to the clearing. He ignored Toby, since he knew
Toby would go anyway.
Sonia didn’t call him either. She paid all her attention to Douglas, telling him to slow down.
When Toby realized they weren’t calling him, his face fell. That brat did that on purpose. He’s getting back at me for the pinch.
He snorted, but Toby put his hands in his pockets and was about to follow them, but he saw something that made him stop in his tracks.
There was a poker card on Douglas’ seat. It was the one they used earlier. Toby narrowed his eyes and picked the card up to see if Sonia’s lip print was still there. It was, and clearly as well. For some reason, Toby put the card in his suit’s pocket.
Right after he put it in, Douglas called out to him, “Come here, Dad. The game’s starting.” Toby turned around and snorted happily. So what if he’s trying to get back at me. He still has to call me “Daddy” if he wants to win the games. Cheered up, Toby strolled over to where the boy was. Coming.
The game was called push-ups. The father would do twenty push-ups with the mother sitting on his back to act as extra weight, while the child would count the number of push-ups the father did.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Madam Escaped Again Sir