The Evolution of Genius: Every Night, I Get Smarter!-Chapter 75: Conundrum

We left the music room with the girls. On the way to the guest room, Veronica decided to take off her thin sweater, leaving her in a black shirt and tight latex pants... inappropriate, to say the least.

Mrs. Hayes ordered Italian food.

We sat in our previous spots and started the feast; glances were exchanged, especially toward Veronica.

Only Mrs. Hayes seemed unfazed.

Spaghetti alla Napoletana and wine straight from Mainz, local wine from the province not far from Frankfurt. Delightful, semi-sweet, electrifying.

At first, we ate in silence. Later, conversations started about how I met Olivia and even where Mrs. Hayes’ husband was hiding. Allegedly, he left her immediately after she told him she was pregnant.

No one would say these things to people they barely knew if they weren’t drunk. I thought.

As the evening went on, we drank more wine, and the conversations took various strange directions. Veronica asked Olivia if I was her first boyfriend, and Olivia responded by asking if Veronica had a boyfriend.

As always, Mrs. Hayes let the guests sleep through the night at her house, but before that, Veronica turned to me and Olivia.

"I have this game called Taboo. You want to play?"

"Taboo, huh?", Oliv said with an arched brow. "Sounds naughty."

"Don’t you wish, Olivia", Veronica said. "It’s a word game"

After that, we moved to Veronica’s room to have a small late-night card game marathon.

We sat cross-legged on the floor. I took off my black sweater to get myself comfortable, and Veronica explained.

"It’s better to play in pairs, but we can still play. In each round, there are three roles. One person takes a card and has to describe the word on top without saying that word or any of the five words on the card. The second person has to guess the word. Like here, we have ’wedding.’ I have to get Olivia to say ’wedding.’ But I can’t say ’marriage,’ ’bride,’ ’groom,’ ’nuptials,’ or ’honeymoon.’"

"That sounds easy," I said. "What does the third person do?"

"They make sure the reader doesn’t say any of the taboo words. That’s what the buzzer is for. It’s my favorite part of the game," Veronica said evilly.

"That sounds interesting. Do you still have some wine?" Oliv asked.

"Of course I have wine."

Once we had settled into the room, Veronica poured some wine into three glasses and put on some music. Then she dug the game out of her closet.

"So, what if I guess ’wedding’?", Oliv asked.

"If you guess, then the reader takes another card. Times up when the hourglass timer is done. Basically, we rotate who does what. The reader and guesser each get one point per card. The reader loses a point for each mess up."

"All right. Let’s go. I’ll read first.", Veronica said.

I flipped the hourglass, and Veronica pulled up the first card. "So... this is something that you ... shit, um ... take out of your house and can use to move between places"

"Car!", Oliv guessed.

"Yes! Next. Okay, you use it in the room that you ... umm ... prepare... things you put in your mouth"

"Kitchen! Oven?", Oliv guessed.

"No, ice can go in it, to ch-- I mean mince it up."

"Keep going!", Oliv urged.

"Ehh... it has knifelike things that go around."

"Blender!"

"Yes!"

"Next! Hmm... when you take..."

"Time!", I yelled out.

"Let’s see, Oliv gets two points and Veronica you also get two points." I jotted the core on paper and took the stack of cards.

"Oliv, what did you have for dinner today?"

"Pasta"

"What kind of pasta?"

"Spaghetti?"

"Yes!", I flipped another card. "Name some mammals that can live on a farm."

"Uh, dogs, cows, pigs ---"

"Ding! Pig, Next. If electricity goes out, we can see, and make a nice atmosphere by setting up a what?"

"Candles."

"Yeah! Next."

Veronica grinned as I collected 6 points with Oliv.

...

Much later, we were still playing. Veronica and Oliv had learned some tricks from me and had gained some ground.

The wine was making us a little careless. Our glasses were empty since we had gone to swigging straight from the bottle when we opened the second one.

"Alright, last one," Oliv announced. "Veronica’s turn to read to me. How many points do I need?"

I looked at the score, "Umm... You need twelve."

"Come on, Veronica, we can do it!" Oliv urged.

"There is no way.", Veronica said. "My best was nine, but let’s try."

"Ready?"

"Go!"

Veronica turned up the first card. "You do this when you want to ... beat someone up. You can do this with your... your fist. Emm, punch or pound"

I looked at the card and thought, ’What does ’horse’ have to do with this?’

"Hit? Smack?", Oliv guessed wildly.

"Just like that, keep going,", Veronica urged. "Name some other things, like hitting, pounding."

"Well... bitch-slap?"

I burst out laughing.

"Shh! Like, I don’t know when you beat the crap out of someone. You do this. Pound."

"Pummel?", Oliv said.

"Yes!", Veronica yelled. She moved to take the next card.

"That’s not the word.", I said.

"What?"

"That is not the word on the card"

Veronica looked... ’Pommel’

"Fuck!", she yelled.

"Time!" I said a second later. I struggled to keep myself from laughing.

"What do you mean?", Oliv said.

"The word was pommel, like a pommel horse, that you use for gymnastics.", I looked at Veronica. "Didn’t you wonder why none of the words on the card had anything to do with punching, Veronica?"

She just shot daggers at me with her eyes, but when Oliv started laughing, she joined in.

"I could have won, ", Oliv said. "Veronica messed it all up."

"I’m sorry." Veronica said.

Oliv patted her knee, "No, no, I was just kidding."

Veronica passed the wine bottle around.

"Woohoo!" Oliv yelled. "It was so much fun. I’m really starting to feel the wine."

"Me too.", Veronica admitted as she stretched herself along the base of her bed.

"Are they really saying what I think they’re saying in this song?", Oliv said.

Veronica laughed.

"I want to fuck you like an animal!", Oliv said along to the music.

"Right..." I said, louder than intended.

Oliv frowned at me and then started laughing.

"I think we need to cut you off, Oliv , Veronica said, taking the bottle of wine from her.

I stood up. "I’ll be right back."

"Where are you going? You’re not going to sleep, are you?", Oliv asked.

"No. I’ll come back."

"I want a head massage, ", Oliv said.

"Me too!", Veronica chimed in.

Olivia looked at Veronica, staring deep into her eyes, and said to me, "Don’t fall down the stairs. I would be very sad."

I chuckled, closed the door behind me, and went to the bathroom.

When I was done, I went back and stood in front of Veronica’s room door.

I wondered what would happen when I went back inside. Oliv was giving me looks that made me want to... and what about Veronica? She seemed interested in me.

I walked in. Veronica looked at me from her bed. She switched the music to Bach.

Oliv was lying partly under her bed.

"All right, who’s first?", I announced.

"I’ll wait. I can’t move right now.", Oliv still hummed the tune to the song. The line about fucking like animals.

Veronica smiled. She slid off the bed and leaned back against it. I sat on the edge of the bed, behind her and began to massage the back of her head.

---

Veronica’s POV

As Max began his work, I closed my eyes, relaxing into his touch. His fingers lit me up, making pleasurable waves spread through my torso. And he was only touching my scalp. I wished he would move his hands all over my body.

But... I like Sandra, I can’t just steal Max away from her! But I just want to...

The word ’Taboo’ stared out at me from the game box. Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was the late hour.

Taboo.

---

Oliv got up from under the bed and watched as I worked through Veronica’s hair. She didn’t seem to be against it.

I caught her look and gazed at her. Oliv smiled openly, invitingly. I returned the smile.

For a long time, I looked at her as Veronica let out a murmur. I moved my hand down to her shoulders.

"I hope you do that to me too...", Olivia said.

Finally, I finished. Veronica crawled onto the bed, and Oliv got up unsteadily, moving to take her place in between my legs.

She shuddered when my hands touched her head. I touched her differently than Veronica. Gentler.

Then, I stopped.

And then I resumed, and Oliv relaxed again. This time I touched her more sensually. It wasn’t a massage anymore; it was more of a caress.

I had my eyes closed while I massaged her, and suddenly, I felt a hand on my cheek. It gently pulled my face around. I could sense Veronica kneeling on the bed behind me, pushing her waist against my back.

Veronica’s lips materialized out of the darkness and pressed themselves against mine.