Captivation

Captivation Part 16

Jared looked across at the two and concluded that all was not well in that particular partnering. Caitlin looked deliriously happy while Nigel looked utterly petrified. Had she intimidated the man that much? Surely not!

Candy glanced over at Nigel, threw him a broad smile, received nothing in return so simply turned her attention back to the matter at hand. "Ok then. Let's pool our stuff!" Candy said happily totally oblivious to the discrepancy between Nigel and Caitlin's response. Candy smiled at Caitlin and led the way to the door.

They walked out to the car park in their pairs. Jared and Candy leading the way. Jared turned around periodically to see if Caitlin and Nigel were still with him. He wasn't convinced they would follow. Something wasn't quite right. But Jared was relieved to see that Caitlin and Nigel were following. Though in reality Caitlin was practically dragging Nigel along. Once again that had Jared wondering about what was going on between Caitlin and Nigel.

Candy smiled at Caitlin, having decided that Nigel was unlikely to speak given how panicked he looked. "Do you want to drive your car to here?" Candy asked as she took in the fact that other groups had driven closer to each other to collect and store the items they'd found.

Caitlin who was already trying to figure out how to break the news to her other team mates that they only had one item, was rather slower to notice the way the other teams were operating. So she blurted out without thinking, "Why?"

"To transfer the stuff." Candy said as if it was patently obvious. Candy's brows furrowed. For now Nigel was not the only one looking anxious. Though Caitlin's anxiety was fleeting.

"Oh, that won't be necessary." Caitlin replied gaily, and sensed Nigel's panic escalate as the moment of truth got nearer. She wondered if he suffered from panic attacks.

That finally clued Jared into why Nigel looked petrified. He stopped, turned and faced Nigel and Caitlin. "How many items did you get?" Jared finally asked and kept his eyes on Caitlin. He wanted to see how she was going to extricate herself from this situation. Nigel was clearly uncomfortable, and getting more so by the second. There was nervous energy coming off in waves from Nigel. Whereas Caitlin seemed care free.

Nigel tried not to squirm as Caitlin said blithely and with assumed confidence, "One."

"One?" Candy shrieked, her eyes widening to almost fill her face. She looked at Jared in utter confusion, then back to Caitlin with a question in her eyes, as she announced in puzzlement. "One?" She asked again, her eyes wide. She straightened her spine and announced as if they had just won a gold medal, "We got 20 of the 25."

Caitlin tried not to wince. Typical, she thought. They couldn't just get a handful. Oh no. Not with Jared on the team. Typical. But that didn't mean she had to feel guilty. This was a social game. That's what the event was about. People socializing. Actually finding the stuff did not really matter. Though from the look on Jared's face it did. So Caitlin thought fast.

"Ah, but you guys had the top of the list, things got more difficult in the bottom 25." Caitlin bluffed without any hesitation. She didn't know what the top twenty five were but that was irrelevant. She just needed a good excuse, and she was delighted with what she'd come up with. There were times in her life when she exceeded her own expectations! Quick thinking under trying circumstances was what she needed and was good at, in her professional life! Good to see those skills were transferable.

"So what exactly did you get?" Jared demanded and banked his exasperation. He was pretty sure he was not going to be happy. He also knew that the list contained a random list of items, there was no hierarchy of difficulty associated with the items. So her quick thinking might have fooled Nigel and Candy but it had not fooled Jared.