“Alright, think of this as zip lining,” I told her. “Besides, I’ll be right behind you and I promise I will not let you fall.” I put my pinky finger out.
I watched the emotions cross her face before she swallowed and linked her pinky to mine.
“Okay, I trust you, partner,” Carla gave me a small smile but I could tell she was having a huge internal conflict and her fear was winning.
Because Carla and I were first on the leaderboard, we had to go last. I could see that the wait only made Carla more anxious. The object of this course was to complete it in the fastest time with the least mishaps.
Hayley and Drew had completed the course in record time.
“Good luck, guys.” Hayley smiled at us before looking at Carla and saying to her, “You’ve got this.” They walked off before Carla could say anything.
“Come on,” I took Carla’s hand in mine as we got attached to the ropes. “Remember, I’ve got you.” I put my handcuffed hand right next to hers on the overhead rope. “Trust that,” I whispered into her ear.
We got through the event in record time, which surprised everyone including me. At first, Carla had hesitated a bit but once she got going, her need to win overcame her fear.
“You did it,” I lifted her up and twirled her around, caught up in our victory.
“Thank you, Damon.” Carla smiled up at me.
The next event was my worst nightmare. It was a horse race where you had to collect a certain number of flags. The winner would be the first one over the finish line with the most flags. You weren’t allowed to jump off the horse to pick up a flag if it dropped or go back if you missed as you rode past it. You were also not allowed to slow down to a walk to grab the flag.
“If I can go up into the trees, you can get on the back of a horse with me,” Carla assured me. “I’m an excellent rider and now it’s your turn to trust me. I will come up with the flags on the side of your free hand so all you have to do is reach out and grab it.”
Carla explained to me how to lean. Because we didn’t have the luxury of a long ribbon like the others did, reaching for the flags was going to be a lot trickier for us. But Carla and I worked it out. Now, I just had to get over my fear of horses.
“Here,” Carla gave me an apple.
She put it in the palm of my hand and made me feed it to the horse. Then she made me gently stroke its neck, so the horse and I could become familiar with each other.
Being on the back of the horse with Carla was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and I got to put my arms around her, feeling her soft body. I thought that was my saving grace. Needless to say, we won the race by one flag; both Hayley and Drew were expert horse riders.
***
It had been an amazing day. Carla and I had pulled through it without one argument. We had worked together like a well-oiled machine. We were sure Hayley and Drew would uncuff us for the rehearsal dinner. But that was not the case. We were shackled throughout the entire dinner. To eat correctly, Carla and I kept knocking elbows; we were so close together.
During the meal, Carla and I quietly devised our escape plan. It was not going to be pretty but Hayley had put her second bridesmaid in charge of Carla’s nightly getting ready for bed ritual and Drew had put one of his groomsmen in charge of me. It looked like Carla and I were going to be spending the night handcuffed together so we were going to spend it in her room this time.
At the end of the dinner, we went up to our rooms, showered, and put on sweats for the evening. When I went back into Carla’s room, we were handcuffed once again and left for the night. We waited for a few minutes and even put on the TV in case anyone was listening.
Carla had found the handcuff keys in Hayley’s purse. She was not proud of tricking her friend into taking her to the bathroom but Carla needed to see where the keys were. We found out that Hayley, Drew, and Calvin each had a key. The easiest one to get the key from was Hayley. I couldn’t believe how cunning and crafty Carla was or how much fun we were having being handcuffed together.
A few minutes later, Carla took out the key from the bedside drawer and unlocked us. Now we were going to go to the bar and have a few drinks after a hard day. We knew that everyone else was having an early evening because the wedding was the next day. Carla and I were going to go for a few drinks and go over the plans for tomorrow.