Henry needs to be my plus one. A new plan formulates in my mind, while Henry still has his arm around me. I must've zoned out with my new idea when I feel Henry shift and look at me in my face, with concern. He moves his entire body to face me, the concern turning to suspicion.

"I want to ask but I am afraid to know what's on your mind right now," he says. I don't blame him since my new idea is going to require pleading, bargaining and bartering. There is no other option and I don't have the luxury of time to find another. Online dating has proven itself useless to me.

"Don't say no-" I start before Henry cuts me off.

"No."

"You didn't even hear me out." Henry gets up and goes to a kitchen cabinet and pulls out a lollipop. I follow him to the kitchen as if distance will help me plead my case.

"Usually when someone starts a sentence like that it ends with something I don't want to do. So I will stick with my no." He unwraps the red lollipop and pops it into his mouth. Henry is an ex-smoker so he claims that the lollipops help him keep his house busy since old habits die hard. He usually has a stash of lollipops everywhere.

"Be my plus one to Ava's wedding," I continue, following him as he walks back to the other end of the room to pick up his mug to put it in the sink.

"Tempting but what's in it for me?"

"A free holiday to South Africa." I love to think that there would be plenty of people jumping at the idea of a free holiday to a sunny country while the days were getting shorter and colder here. Looks like I'm wrong.

"Charlie was getting a free keyboard," Henry teases, putting his mug into the sink. He turns around and leans against the counter, arms crossed, watching my reaction.

"Do you want a keyboard?" I am not sure how expensive a keyboard is but I am sure it can't be that much. If Charlie spends his whole day gaming, I am not sure how much money he's making if his mother needs to buy him one as a bribe.

"No thanks, I like my current one very much," he declines, glancing in his keyboard's direction as if to make sure he is happy with it, before nodding to himself.

"Why don't you want to come with me?" If I knew the reason behind his reluctance, then it will be easier to change his mind. I just need to figure him and then it should be smooth sailing.

"Evelyn, do you really need a plus one?" he replies with a question, not answering my question. Never mind. There were days when Henry got seriously evasive and this was not what I want or need right now. I backtrack on my interrogation and choose a different route.

"How about we make a bet instead? Whoever wins has to do something that the other person wants," I propose. I don't think pleading or begging will make much of a difference so I need to appeal to Henry's competitive side. Henry stills, taking a deep breath. He looks down at me with seriousness his blue eyes that I have never seen before.

"You should never make such an offer to another man, Evelyn."

"I want you to be my plus one to Ava's wedding, what do you want?" I ignore the heaviness in his voice and continue on with my plight to somehow get him to join me at this wedding. I rather not address whatever just happened.

"Are we really doing this?" He sighs, resigned to his fate. I wasn't letting this go. This was my last chance to get someone as my plus one and while Henry is my last option, he is in fact my best option. I am stupid for not thinking of this yesterday and instead wasting my time on Tinder with a bunch of losers.

"Are you afraid to lose when we haven't even chosen a competition? Just pick something," I bug him, patting him on his arm. He looks down at my hand before replying.

"Give me a chance to think..." And then proceeds to take his sweet time thinking about what he wants. I start to get worried that he might plot something nefarious and maybe I will lose. I needed to make sure this game was as fair as possible. Watching Henry think, made my mind want to wonder about all the worst outcomes possible when I should be thinking of the competition.

"You are taking too long to think," I stop him in his thoughts after a while, getting a little too nervous. Plus I have a valid reason. I don't have time. I need to tell Ava by tomorrow whether I have a plus one or not and send her Herny's details.

"I figured it out. You have to join me next time I have my friends over."

"Fair enough." I think I realise that maybe Henry's reluctance to be my plus one might be due to similar reasons as the ones I have when it comes to joining his friends when they are over. I didn't think of that, I just thought of the million activities on the itinerary that he might enjoy and the beautiful weather.

"So how do we decide the winner?" He is asking a good question because if I was not even sure that we would get this far.

"We need something fair so the other person does not back out." This is the only thing I had figured out. There was no way I could do anything physical since I knew Henry went to the gym almost religiously on the weekdays at five am like a crazy person. Some might argue he has his life together, I just think there is no reason to be up at five am to go into the cold to go to the gym even if it is a short walk away.

"Damn, there goes my programming competition idea," he jokes.

"Very funny." I don't laugh.

"Thank you, don't forget to leave a five-star review on my page." He has an answer for everything except the questions I need answers to.

"You are not helping," I point out, hoping that he actually does help or has any idea.

"This is your idea, and I have nothing to lose. I don't need to think. I can just enjoy my lollipop here in peace." he smiles, happy with his position in all of this like he is saving the power of his brain for another time. Not much help at all.

I groan, leaving him standing and returning to the sofa to grab my phone. I google some random questions and take a deep dive into finding the answer I need. "Every day I wonder if the internet was a good idea. Today it's proven its use."

I look up to find that Henry had moved to his desktop and was busy answering some emails on the weekend. I suppose when your office is in your front room, it can get a little hard to leave work alone. It doesn't help that he gets his emails to his watch.

"Henry..."

"Did you figure something out?" he doesn't look up from his screen as fingers fly across his keyboard while he is typing. The speed of his typing and the fact that he doesn't need to look down to find letters ever so often is something to be envious of. If everyone worked as fast as he did, I am sure we would be able to clock out halfway through the day since it would take half a minute to reply to emails.

"Yes."

"Ok give me a minute to finish up here and you'll have my full attention." I don't reply, giving Henry the space to finish up his work instead of nagging. It is probably going to take him a minute unless he is writing some sort of report. I doubt he would start doing that while I am here though.

It does not take long before he swirls around on his office chair to face me, after locking his computer, "So what are we doing?"

"A coin toss."

"I am actually impressed. I thought you would've gone with rock, paper, scissors."

"It is fair with a 50-50 chance. One toss. I toss, you call and where it lands is how we decide our fate." And it is quick but I don't mention that. I did come across rock, paper, scissors but that pause before we reveal is enough to make the whole thing unfair and start an argument. I would be the one arguing if I lost in reality.

"I think I have a 2-pound coin in my wallet, hold on." Henry goes into his bedroom to find his wallet while I wait and quietly hope that the universe doesn't screw me over this time. He returns with it and hands it to me.

"So I call when you toss or before?" It's a good question and I make up the rules randomly so we are both on the same page. I don't want arguments and maybe if I win I might just one day accept his invitation to meet his friends as a thank you. However, first I need to win.

"When I toss." I balance the coin on my thumb with heads facing upwards. He nods and sits next to me to get out of the way of me tossing the coin into the air. The idea is to let it land on the floor and allow fate to do its work. I close my eyes as I toss.

"Tails," Henry calls. The sound of the coin landing on the wooden floor is louder than usual. Neither of us jumps up to see both looking at each other first. Can fate be on my side for once?

"Let's go," I grab Henry's hand to drag him to the coin after a few moments of silence.

On the floor lies the coin facing Heads.

~*~
Thank you for 100 reads<3

Does anyone have a default when they're playing rock, paper, scissors? I usually go for rock :)

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