Sphinx in the Spinach

Maya's palms were sweating. Literally sweating. She wiped them on her jeans for the third time, trying to play it cool even though her heart was doing cartwheels.

"You ready for this?" Liam asked, grinning like he didn't have a care in the world. Of course he wouldn't be nervous. He was Liam—varsity soccer, effortlessly cute, and somehow still single. Maya had been lowkey obsessed with him since September, and now they were finally hanging out. Just the two of them.

"Born ready," she lied.

The escape room was dark, lit by flickering torches that were definitely LED and not actual fire. In the center stood a massive sphinx statue, its stone face frozen in eternal mystery. The game master had explained they needed to solve the sphinx's riddle to escape before the hour was up.

"Okay," Maya said, pulling up the clue on her phone. "'I have a face but no eyes, hands but no arms. What am I?'

Liam leaned in close—like, actually close. His shoulder brushed hers, and Maya's brain short-circuited for a solid three seconds. "Clock?" he guessed.

"That's actually... not bad." She scrolled through the clues. "But we need to enter it on the sphinx's keypad."

They worked through puzzle after puzzle, and Maya was surprised by how well they clicked. Liam was funny, quick-witted, and genuinely listened when she talked. She caught herself thinking this could be something real—not just a crush, but maybe the start of something.

Then came the final riddle. The sphinx's eyes glowed green (creepy but also kind of awesome), and a mechanical voice echoed through the room: "What gets stuck in your teeth but everyone's too polite to mention?"

Liam burst out laughing. "Spinach. Definitely spinach."

Maya punched it in, and the door clicked open. They'd escaped with twelve minutes to spare—a new record, apparently. The game master high-fived them both, and they walked out into the cool evening air, buzzing with adrenaline.

"Hey, Maya?" Liam stopped walking and turned to face her. "I, uh, I had a really good time."

"Me too," she said, and this time she wasn't lying.

"Cool. So maybe we could—" He paused, his eyes flickering to something behind her. "You, uh, you've got a little something in your teeth."

Maya's stomach dropped. She whipped out her phone camera, flipped to selfie mode, and there it was. A bright green piece of spinach, right between her front teeth, probably there since lunch.

She wanted to die. Actually die. This was it. This was her life now.

But Liam was just laughing—not mean laughing, but genuine, I-can't-believe-this-is-happening laughing. And then, without thinking, Maya started laughing too. Because what else could she do? The universe had a sense of humor, apparently.

"Spinach," she groaned. "The answer was literally spinach."

"The universe works in mysterious ways," Liam said, smiling in a way that made her knees feel weird. "But hey, at least it wasn't a riddle from the sphinx."

Maya wiped her teeth with her thumb, mortified but somehow still okay. Because Liam was still there, still smiling, and he hadn't run away screaming. In fact, he looked like he might want to do this again.

"So," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Dinner next week? Somewhere with no spinach on the menu?"

Maya's palms weren't sweating anymore. "Deal."