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“You know, if this was a trivia night in New York it might actually be challenging”.
Devi rolled her eyes at her boyfriend’s comment. “Our past three trivia nights have been somewhere in New York; I think you owe me at least one in New Jersey.”
Monthly date-trivia-nights had become a thing for Ben and Devi since their freshman year had begun. Since they weren’t attending the same college it was a way for them to stay competitive with each other… even if they were on the same team. They’d end keep tabs on who managed to come up with the answer first and whilst they found it fun, most of their team found it just a little too intense and they were often left to be a team of two.
When Devi had signed them both up for the trivia night at Riley’s, a social club only a ten-minute walk for her dorm, she hadn’t even bothered trying to put together a bigger team. Even when the wait staff there had told her that she would need to at least sign up a group of three, Devi argued that everyone would have a much better night if it was just her and Ben on a team and after a small argument, they had finally relented, and Devi had managed to save trivia night for a lot of people.
“If I win this one, then we don’t do a trivia night in New Jersey ever again, deal?”
Devi grabbed his hand as they entered Riley’s and dragged them to a booth at that would give them a little more privacy but was still close enough to the front that they wouldn’t miss a single question. Sure, they were competitive with each other but there was absolutely no way Ben or Devi were going to let any other team beat them. In their three months since starting their tradition, there was yet to be a trivia night that they’d lost.
“I don’t think that’s a fair deal,” Devi slipped off her demin jacket as she sat down, leaving her in a lavender crop top.
Ben couldn’t help but stare at her for a moment, a glazed look in his eyes as he thought that there wasn’t a luckier guy in the world. It didn’t matter how many times he gave her that exact same look, she couldn’t get enough of it. It reminded her of how much he loved her, how secure she was in her relationship with him even if they didn’t get to physically be with each other every day. Nights like this and looks that that were what made her know that all of this was worth it.
“You’re beautiful, you know that right?” Ben gave her that soft smile that threatened to turn her knees to jelly.
The softness and compliments he had given had been jarring when they’d first gotten together. They would still tease each other at any given opportunity but Ben was more forthcoming with his compliments. His voice would take on a tender, gentle tone that Devi hadn’t been used to. It was something that just seemed to come easy to Ben though but for Devi, it had taken a little longer for her to say things like that so freely. She had no problem texting him those things or saying that he looked smokin’. But the softer compliments that were just randomly thrown out were something that had not come naturally for her at the beginning. Ben never seemed to care though, he knew that Devi didn’t always use her words to show how much she cared but she would do it was through her actions. The way she would send him texts to remind him to hydrate throughout the day, to check that he had eaten, always offering to look through essays for him before he even had a chance to ask her.
“Yeah, well I had a cute boyfriend to dress up for. I thought I’d forgo the Princeton t-shirt and sweatpants for the night.” She placed a quick kiss on his cheek and Ben wrapped his arm around her, pulling Devi into his side.
“Alright everybody!” A short man in his mid-twenties stood on stage with a glittery jacket and thick rimmed glasses, grinning at tables of teams. “How are we all doing? I’m Del and I’m your host for tonight!” He boomed into the microphone, thinking that he was at a concert in a stadium instead of a small college social club. The big cheesy grin that adorned his face gave the distinct impression that he wasn’t planning on toning it down for the night.
“What the hell have you brought us to?” Ben raised a brow, clearly unimpressed at Del’s hosting skills.
Devi was cringing slightly but didn’t want to admit that this trivia night might just be a bit of a mess. “It’s not that bad. He’s just… very enthusiastic.”
“Suuuuure, Devi.”
She hit Ben’s arm getting him to shut up as Del started the questions for the night. The first section was geography and the couple grinned at each other. The first twenty minutes had gone by fairly uneventful. Del had tried to turn every other sentence into a pun and had nearly tripped into the front three tables but it wasn’t terrible. Neither of them struggled with the questions so far and Devi had just about managed to edge ahead of Ben in their own competition. Even though she may have wrestled the pen out of his hand on a few occasions….
“Okay! And now we’re moving on to music in the 1990s!”
“Ugh!” Ben knew that he was going to lose this one against Devi, she had a weird affinity when it came to 90s music.
“Question one- oh crap! Two seconds everyone!” Del pulled his phone out of his pocket, answering it whilst still on stage.
“Are you actually kidding me?” Ben began to heckle before Devi hit his arm again.
“Will you shut up! People are staring!”
“You didn’t seem to care about them staring when you were draped yourself over me earlier,” Ben smirked.
Devi spluttered, “I did not drape! I was trying to get the pen from you.”
“Sure thing, Devi. How about you just admit that you’re just so insanely attracted to your dashing boyfriend that you couldn’t keep your hands off him.”
Del let out a sob on stage just as Devi opened her mouth to respond. The wailing sound had caught everyone in the room by surprise with all head turned towards the stage again. “I-I’m so sorry guys. But my girlfriend just broke up with me.” He wiped his nose across his sleeve, shoulders shaking slightly. “I don’t get it.”
“One of the many wonders of the world,” Ben muttered into Devi’s ear as she quickly shushed him.
“We were doing so well, I was gonna take her to a yarn museum for our anniversary.”
“Ah yes, the Eiffiel Tower of America.” Ben continued his ongoing commentary.
“I bought us this cute little tandem bike with matching cycling outfits. I thought it would be a good couple bonding exercise, you know? Bring us closer together.”
“Matching lycra is the way into every girl’s heart. You know I was thinking of doing the same thing for your birthday.”
“And I’d even written songs for her!”
“Don’t go breaking my heart…” Ben started off singing and Devi had to bite down on her lip hard to stop herself from laughing. With Ben not stopping and making his way through the song as Del continued to pour his heart out on stage, Devi grabbed Ben’s hand and dragged him out of the building. The two of them finally burst into laughter as the cool night air hit them.
“You’re terrible, Ben Gross! That poor guy was telling us about his heartbreak!”
“Oh, come on! Even you had to admit it was getting a bit much. Why was he even picking up a call in the middle of trivia night?” Ben stepped towards her with a grin on his face, placing his hands on her hips.
“So, technically I won right? So that means trivia nights in New Jersey as well?” Devi batted her eyelashes at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
They were interrupted by Del bursting out of the door and running down the street. Ben and Devi looked at him is disbelief before turning back to each other and laughing. “If you promise they’ll always end like this, then sure.”