Charades? No...Telephone!

Hmmm. That bubbly pink wine must have gone straight to your head. What was that one with the gestures? You could do rude words with that! No, you would have to hop on one foot and fall right over. Everyone is looking at straight at you. Your cheeks feel hot. You pipe up with the first thing you can think of.

"Telephone!" you say. "Let's play Telephone!"

Your husband raises his eyebrow and chuckles.

"Telephone?" Gordon enquires, stroking his chin. "John, is that, perhaps, like Chinese Whispers? Possibly with the right phrase..."

"Yes, darling, it's Chinese Whispers." Melissa tells her husband, rubbing the back of his dress pants.

"Broken Telephone!" Melanie chimes in. "We used to do it all the time on sleepovers and birthday parties." She giggles. "With this group, it'll be plenty rude."

Dan looks at Marcia and squeezes her hand. "Are you up for a little whispering game, dear one?" She glances up around the room, then smiles and nods.

Nods and murmurs of assent came from the rest of the party. Anita giggles loudly.

"All right," you say. "Let's all get in a circle now. Boy girl boy girl."

Melissa adds, "Partners and spouses separate. Let's mix it up now. Melanie, help me move people around." Melissa puts a hand on your waist and another on the seat of your little black dress and steers you over between Mark, the young student, and Martin, the pin-up boy of the screens and cables department. Across the circle, Melanie is squeezing your husband in between Anita and herself.

Martin greets you with a smile and squeezes your hand warmly. You give him a little smile in return. Wolfish eyes, that man. And oh, those tight trousers. No underwear line. But you know he's looking right at you and nobody else. Give the man that.

Mark gives you a shy smile and essays a bow and kiss on the back of your hand. You smile and giggle at him. Mark's attention is wandering, though. He looks a little flushed. You see his eyes flashing across the circle. His date Anita? Maybe m'lady Melissa and her over-stuffed little vest?

It seems to take much longer than you expect to get all circled up. Melissa especially seems to be touching everyone, adjusting the circle a little. She bumps Martin with her hips to move him into line, and they both laugh. She spends a little extra time trying to jolly up Mark and help him relax. Melanie is rubbing up against her circle-mates, to which your husband seems to be responding in kind, while Gordon seems slightly amused. You can see Martin rubbing his shoe discreetly on Marcia's ankle. Marcia and Gordon seem to be holding hands and doing something with their fingers. Anita...why, Anita seems to have a hand squeezing the back of each of her neighbors' pants. Well, Dan doesn't mind, and your husband seems pretty content. Oh. Is it that kind of circle? You eye Martin on one side and Mark on the other, but they seem to be looking elsewhere. Well then.

Melissa says, "I think we're all ready now, John."

"All right now," you say, "for anyone who doesn't know, it's simple. Someone just makes up a sentence. Then you whisper it to the next person. Once it makes it back to you -- back to the first person, that is. Then you say your sentence the way it started, and what you heard coming back to you. Now who wants to start?"

"Me!" says Melanie.

Melissa says, "I love volunteers. But John, perhaps you should pick the first person." She smiles and looks around the room. "Choose your weapon?" she adds.

Let's see...round the circle, it's you, Martin the stud, anxious (but now smiling) Marcia, dapper Gordon, eager Melanie, your sweet sexy husband, enticing Anita, cheerful Dan, hands-on hostess Melissa, and nice young Mark.

You say, "I pick...ummmm..."