Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [46]
“Are you looking for the Geek Meet group?” the bar-tender asked.
She nodded.
He tilted his head. “In the back on the right.”
Faith walked back to the accompaniment of the “L” roaring by outside, making the floor vibrate.
A woman greeted her at the door to a large, quieter room. “Welcome.” She looked down at her clipboard. “We’re glad you’ve joined us. And your name is?”
“I didn’t sign up ahead of time. Is that a problem? Weldon told me it would be okay.” Faith scanned the name tags on the table beside her. Sure enough, there was Weldon’s Hi My Name Is self-adhesive name tag.
“Well, we normally like people to sign up beforehand, but we do have some extra space tonight, so you’re in luck. There is a cover charge.”
Faith paid the amount and headed for a table where a few other people were already sitting. A red and white checked oilcloth covered the folding table, and folding chairs provided the seating. She sat and filled out her name on the supplied adhesive name tag. She was just writing the last letter in her name when a guy bumped into her elbow with his backpack, causing her to smear her h.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, taking his backpack and setting it on the table.
His name tag said he was Marvin, but his voice said he was Caine.
Chapter Ten
The geeky newcomer didn’t look like Caine, not with the white T-shirt and orange and green diamond weave sweater vest he wore over it. His shoulders were slightly hunched, and his hair was totally rumpled—not in a sexy way but in a hasn’t-seen-a-comb-in-a-week way. He blinked myopically from behind a pair of glasses held together with tape at the right hinge.
He was good. She’d give him that. But what did it say about her that she didn’t need a costume to come to the geek gathering and fit right in? Her white blouse and khaki Capri pants were pretty conservative. Maybe too much so? Was that what gave her inner geek away?
“Welcome everyone. My name is Sharon, and as you know, you’re here for our monthly Geek Meet gathering. Let’s get things started with a few icebreaker questions. Raise your hand if you think the Mercedes symbol looks like an eclipsed conformation.”
A dozen hands went up amid laughter.
“Great.” Sharon smiled. “How many of you barbecue on your Bunsen burners?”
More laughter, fewer hands.
“Okay, how many of you get excited when asked, ‘What punctuation mark are you?’ ”
Faith’s hand shot up. She knew her place in the punctuation hall of fame. She was definitely a question mark. Always had been.
“How many of you know the Dewey decimal number for mathematics?”
Again her hand shot up, as did several others. “It’s 510,” she said.
“How about Melvil Dewey’s birthdate?”
“December 10, 1851,” a guy at the neighboring table shouted out before Faith could.
“Right. Which leads us into the next step—board games.” Sharon pointed to a pile of them on a small corner table. “Trivial Pursuit or Scattergories. Take your pick. One game per table.”
Faith grabbed the last Scattergories and brought it back to her table. Yes, she was the Trivial Pursuit champ at the library, but those boxes were all taken.
“Good choice,” a guy in an MIT T-shirt at her table said. “I hope you’re good at this game. We need to get a win tonight.”
“You’re a librarian, right?” the woman on the other side of him said. “I saw you put your hand in the air for those librarian questions. My name is Mia, and I’m a chemist,” she added.
“So when she hears ‘ABS’ she thinks about acrylnitrilbutadiene-styrol copolymer instead of antilock braking systems,” MIT guy said. “My name’s Ed, and I