“Give us two cards with fifty each.”
“Fifty?” Loki nudged me. “Isn’t that a bit much?”
Both me and the attendant laughed, and I sent the black-haired man a shrug. “He’s never been in an arcade.”
The attendant blinked at Loki like he’d seen an alien. “How is that possible?”
Loki glared at him and turned his attention to me when I passed the two fifties in cash over to the man behind the counter.
“Fifty will go quick, trust me.” I winked at him and thanked the attendant when he passed me the cards. “What do you want to do first?”
The arcade had expanded with a lot of new games since I’d last been here. It looked like they’d extended into a neighboring shop, which used to be a bakery, giving them a wider space. The décor stayed the same with brown brick walls and black laminate floors. Retro signs blinked above some of the games, with words like Game On and Fight! The game consoles were just as bright, flashing in LED colors.
“I don’t know…. You choose.” Loki glanced around in confusion, and I couldn’t help but laugh. A man who threw grenades and shot guns with ease was nervous around an arcade. The thought was too funny. He poked me. “Shut up or I’ll put those laxatives inyourwhiskey when we get home.”
“You wouldn’t do that, baby. I can’t fuck you if I’m stuck in the shithouse.”
He rolled his eyes but grinned.
“Come on.” I grabbed his arm and led him toward the racing machines first. I slid into one and with a sigh, and he took the seat of the one next to me. I gave him his card, and he watched me when I slid it into a slot in the console and yanked it out again. The game beeped at me to tell me it’d worked, and I gestured for him to do the same. “It’s like driving a car,” I said as I turned the wheel to choose the easy mode. Once upon a time, I smashed the higher levels, but it’d been a long time since I’d played one of these.
Loki copied my choices and finally the game began, with a countdown flashing on the screen. His face paled and he pulled his lips into his mouth in serious concentration.
“I’m going to kick your ass,” I teased.
He huffed out a laugh and smirked at me. “Challenge accepted.”
We both focused on the game when the countdown hit zero. I slammed my foot on the accelerator and immediately did a burnout. Loki, on the other hand, shot forward with the rest of the cars in the race. I cursed under my breath, and Loki’s tinkling chuckle met my ears. Finally, my car got moving, and I put the pedal to the metal. I took the first corner too sharply and the car rolled, and for a short moment, my mind slipped back to eighteen years ago, memories of the very real car accident flashing to the forefront of my mind, before I focused back on the race. The game righted my car and I accelerated.
It didn’t take long to catch up to Loki because he’d hit the walls one too many times, and soon we were side by side. The little imp tried to run me off the road a few times, but I avoided him. When he tried to do it again and I dodged, he hit a wall and the car went flying.
“Fuck!” Loki slammed his hand against the wheel of the console, and I cackled, racing past the wreck of his digital car. “Cheater.”
“Me? How am I a cheater?” I shot him a quick smile before returning my attention to the game.
“You just are,” he grumbled before he raced forward again.
By the third and final lap, I was well in front of him. There was no way in hell he could catch up, but he didn’t stop trying. Loki never gave up on anything.
I crossed the finish line and whooped, shoving his shoulder gently, and he batted at my hand with a glare. “I won.”
“Shut up. Let’s go again.” He was already inserting his card and settling into the game.
Laughing, I did the same.
I won the second and third game before I finally convinced him to move on to another one. We went to a bike racing console where we sat on fake bikes and tilted them to make the digital bike turn. Loki did better on that game, and while I won the first two races, he got me on the third.
A few teens came into the arcade and gave us suspicious looks, but otherwise we had the arcade mostly to ourselves. We didn’t pay attention to our surroundings anyway, more focused on our games and who was winning. After the bike console, I took Loki to a shooting game where we worked as a team to take down a group of bad guys.
The sounds of excitement he made had me flying high, a joy I didn’t think I’d felt before coiling itself in my belly. This was a date—anactualdate—and it was with Loki. I never imagined we’d ever get to this point. I expected him to get tired of waiting around for me and break off our sex arrangement. It would take him two minutes flat to find another dick to ride instead. But he stuck around, and we were hanging out in the open on a date. All we had to do now was admit the truth to Odin and our brothers. At this point in my life, I was ready for it. Fuck them if they didn’t like it. I’d faced off with my past, and so far was coming out to the other side. I felt fucking invincible.
We went from game to game, going back to the bike races just so Loki could beat me again, and as quickly as the money was added to the card, it was gone again.
“Woah, I’m out of credit.” Loki shook his head with a laugh as his card beeped to let him know he was out of money when he slid it into a machine. “I can see what you mean. It goes quick.” He gave me a sneaky smile. “Wanna go add more cash to it?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “It’s nearly three, and we haven’t even had lunch yet. Come on, let’s go back to the motel and order in.” Lowering my voice, I leaned closer to him where he sat on the bike of the motorcycle racing game. “We can stay in and have a little fun.”
His eyes lit up and he smirked. “Oh, do I get to play with your joystick?”
