"You're not going to get me drunk," Echa said amused as Tryst poured her another glass.

"Am I that obvious?" He gave his sly grin although they both knew that'd never been his plan. "In that case, I suppose I'll just have to be direct."

"Now that would be surprise."

"The usual then?"

She shrugged. It was a game they'd begun to play. Tryst would spin three tales and she would have to discover which was a lie. She had to admit it was not only amusing, but incredibly satisfying.

Tryst loved this game. He loved the way she would catch his every word, toying with them in her head. When she found the lie—and she always did—she would lean back just a touch with pure satisfaction. She'd been lied to a lot by men and Tryst had always been a liar. It was a perfect match.

"Let me think..." he pondered like he hadn't been focused on just this all day while attending his duties as First Mate.

He held up a finger. "I once played cards with a mage who would change the card's faces when he thought no one was looking. I beat him by swapping out half the deck while he was enchanting."

Another finger. "To win a bet, I stayed on the crow’s nest for a week straight, sending down a fishing line for my food.”

Leaning back in the chair, Tryst finished with a sip of the wine. “And last, I first set foot on a ship to escape a woman.”

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Echa frowned. “If you’re not going to make this hard, we might as well stop. The last one is a lie.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Besides the lack of detail? I’ve yet to meet a man who could resist describing their past lovers.” Echa put down her wine glass. “Aside from that, you wouldn’t run from trouble, you like it too much.”

“Nah, I’m a coward.”

He looked up at the ceiling, his usual smug grin on his face and Echa took a moment to watch him. What was he really trying to say? Just brag about the two truths? No, that was too simple, not to mention uninteresting. Why that lie? Echa took a gulp of wine to hide her hesitation, to drown the question of why she even cared back down her throat.

She picked up her wine glass again. “Alright, my turn.”

That got his attention, she was always the guesser never the teller.

“I’ll give two lies and one truth, tell me the truth.”

Tryst cocked his head, a beaded portion of his light brown hair sliding to kiss his cheek.

“You choose that lie to make me jealous, you did it to make me leave, or you lied because you are a coward.”

“That’s not how this game is played, you know?” Tryst swirled the wine with a pout.

Something flickered in his eye, the smallest flinch escaped his lip, some minuscule detail warned Echa perhaps this was going too far. Tryst was frightened of the truth, his tongue so layered with lies the truth would stick there and never come out. Still, she was getting tired of playing games, perhaps too frightened herself of being played.

“Well?”

Slowly, he put the glass down and leaned over, brushing her lips with his own. “Why ask questions you know the answer too?”

She kissed him back but it was mechanical. For a moment, she wondered if he was done with games for the night but he pulled back enough to look at her face, those honey brown eyes as nervous as a boy’s. There was a gap he couldn’t cross, one Echa realized she was glad he left to her.

“You are a coward,” she said and kissed him again, this time—and the first time for a long time—completely of her own accord.