Captivation

Captivation Part 17

Unfortunately, Jared wasn't impressed an hour later. For Caitlin and Nigel returned an hour later with just two of the items on their list!

"You've got two?" Jared asked in utter disbelief. His eyes narrowed as he demanded with a fair amount of frustration, "Which two?"

Surely they were not serious. Was she deliberately trying to annoy him? Or did she think his patience really was endless? Which part of this task didn't she get? They were meant to be hunting for these items, not ambling along killing time! His earlier good humour once again vanished in smoke.

Caitlin whisked out the toy doll and the toy medic kit. "Ta. Da! Stethoscope and feather boa."

Nigel had resigned himself to the fact that Caitlin was simply not going to go out of her way to appease their team leader. Half of him was delighted and the other half petrified. In Nigel's world it was best to just conform to the wish list of the A-listers. And Jared was an A-lister. Not that Caitlin seemed to realize. Nigel had given up trying to persuade her to get stuck in and had just gone with the flow. And enjoyed every minute of it! She was funny and sweet. Thoughtful too, and she seemed to be genuinely interested in what he did and what he had to say about stuff. So time had flown, even if they hadn't made much progress with the treasure hunt. Though to be fair, this time they had tried to find the other three things. It was easy going rather than determined or frantic. It was just unfortunate that by the time they'd decided what to do, most of the shops had shut.

"How clever!" Candy gushed in delight. "That's really clever. We never thought about that when we had the list!"

Caitlin threw Jared a smug look. He wanted to grind his teeth.

Candy held up a few items, "We've got about 15 of the things on the rest of the list." Candy said completely oblivious to the fracas that might ensue given the thunderclouds in Jared's gaze when he continued to just look at Caitlin's and Nigel's two items. Candy and Jared had figured out a plan and stuck to it, as they tracked down the items they'd identified on the list Caitlin had swapped with them.

Caitlin beamed instantly and congratulated Candy, "Hey, that's great! How good are you guys! Well done." She looked over at Jared. "So we've only got another 12 to get." Caitlin then turned and winked at Nigel. He flushed, knowing she was about to run the gauntlet again. Jared ground his teeth. He could see that Caitlin was already positioning for another excuse. Caitlin threaded her arm through Nigel's and leaned close. That had Candy eyeing them with speculation.

"Perhaps we should change partners." Candy said, eyeing Nigel. It was odd, but he suddenly appeared rather appealing. He was a good looking man, even though he was wearing a sweater that had probably been bought for him by a maiden aunt. He was a touch reticent. Not really the confident or communicative type. But really, when one started looking a bit more carefully, he really was rather charming! And when he smiled he was rather handsome in a kind of bookish way! "We could swap." Candy repeated wishfully as she took a few more notes. Nigel could do with a decent hair cut that could showcase his strong jaw line, and patrician features. And if he made more of an effort to update his wardrobe, he'd have women taking more notice. His jeans had been ironed, and his sweater was nothing other than functional. It wouldn't take much to elevate this man's status from unseen to in demand.

Candy's suggestion concerned Caitlin. She wasn't keen to spend any time with Jared. Nigel blinked in astonishment at Candy. Surely she did not want to trade in the Adonis for the nerd? But Candy was proposing a swap. So Caitlin once again put her quick-thinking-under-fire brain into action.

"No, you guys seem to be working really well together. No point destroying a great partnership." Caitlin told Candy her voice full of conviction. "Nigel and I are just hitting our stride. Aren't we?" She held onto him, as if he afforded a protective blanket.