Captivation

Captivation Part 19

An hour later, the winners were announced.

"And the moment you have all been waiting for..." Lisa took the envelope. "Third prize goes to Beasts and Babes." There was a round of applause as the team members headed for the stage to collect their prize, "Two bottles of wine and a weekend at the cottage with the other prize winners." Lisa kissed the cheeks of all four team members and Anne gave them the bottles. Once hush had descended again, the next announcement was made, "Second prize goes to Music Makers." Another round of applause and the team headed for the podium and Anne now in charge of the microphone added, "And I have to tell you there were only three things that separated second from first." This time Lisa handed the team their envelope as Anne listed what they had won, "Tickets to the Village cinema to be used within the next month. Two bottles of wine and the weekend cottage." Anne waited until there was a bit of a hush in the room, "The first prize goes to the team who got the feather boa, stethoscope and chef's hat."

Candy squealed and whispered at the same time. "That must be us." She hugged Nigel.

"So first prize, two bottles of wine, tickets to dinner at Mais oui, the cinema, and the weekend cottage, goes to Guys and Dolls."

Candy jumped up and down. "That's us. We won!"

"So if Guys and Dolls could make their way here."

Candy and Nigel glanced around. They spotted Jared standing beside his friend, but as they searched the room they couldn't see Caitlin. Had she gone home? They couldn't blame her.

"Guys and Dolls?" Anne called again. "Come on, no need to be bashful! Let's see you all!" There was some laughter and then applause when Nigel and Candy headed toward Lisa, and reluctantly Jared made their way forward. The three were joined a few feet from the podium by Caitlin.

Nigel threaded his arm through Caitlin's and smiled at her before whispering in her ear "Thought you were going to bail."

"Hey, who got those items?" She asked him in a whisper. "Not bad for a lamp post!"

Nigel gave her a gentle reassuring squeeze. He felt bad about what had been said about her and the fact he hadn't stopped Jared at the time. Nor had he corrected Jared at the time.

Lisa handed the bottles to them and Anne handed over the envelope. Caitlin stepped off the stage with a bottle of wine. Nigel had the vouchers, Jared the dinner tickets and Candy the other bottle of wine. The four of them headed toward the back of the hall. But Jared was waylaid as some friends teasingly congratulated him so the other three continued without him.

"Isn't this great?" Candy grinned in absolute delight. She 'd had the best fun today and to cap it all, they had also won. "We won." She threaded her arm through Nigel's. This was perfect. She could get to spend more time with this man. Caitlin was a good judge of character, Candy thought, for Nigel was funny and sweet and when he smiled really good looking! "We should organise when we go to dinner and the cinema. It will be great." She leaned forward to catch Caitlin's arm, "Hey, are you free next Friday, or Saturday."

"I don't think so." Caitlin said quietly, she stopped, held up the bottle of wine. "I think this is fair for my contribution to the treasure hunt." She leaned forward and kissed Nigel, "I had a great time. You were lovely company." Then she kissed Candy, "Tell Mr Adonis to find someone who isn't a waste of space to make up your foursome for the rest of the stuff."

"But you can't not come." Candy's eyes lost that sparkle, "I mean, it was you that made this whole thing fun." And showed me that Nigel was interesting, "And you got the three key things that got us first place and..."