Rolling the ball up to the hundred spot in the corner, it goes right in, and I can’t help but send a cocky wink her way.
“Thank god, I was afraid you were all talk.” She sends the next one to the corner hundred again.
She’s completely locked in, and I’m in awe. It takes her two more rolls going in the fifty to pull me out of the trance that she puts me in.
“Shit,” I mumble.
Going into the same laser focus as Mia, I send all but the very last Skee up the ramp. Looking over at Mia, she’s throwing her last one to give her a total of 850 points.
“Not too bad,” I say as cocky as I can manage while looking at her beautiful face.
She looks from her score to mine. “Seven hundred and ninety…you’re going to have to make the corner to win.” Stepping closer, Mia leans in, teasing. “Impress me, Reyer.”
Holding her eyes, I don’t spare a glance toward the board in front of me, letting muscle memory take the lead. I only look to Mia to find out if I make it or not.
Her smile pulls slightly. “Eight hundred and forty. You lose.”
Finally, pulling away, I look at our scores then back to her. I can’t say I feel the least bit like a loser standing here with her.
“Round two or next game?”
“Next game.” She pats my forearm. “Keep your chin up, we can try this one again later.”
Mia proceeds to kick my ass in air hockey, Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, and at least ten more. I can’t say I minded most of it,but I won’t lie, the Mario Kart loss got me. However, when I got a higher score in Pac-Man, I thought Mia was going to cuss me out. It was adorable.
We don’t stop until every game has been played, Mia clearly ending with the upper hand.
After grabbing some food from the concession, we find an empty table.
“Okay, moment of truth,” Mia says, picking up her pepperoni pizza. “If this greasy pizza is everything it looks to be, this will officially be one of the best dates I’ve been on.”
“One of?” I fake offense. “Give me some credit, you thought I was boring at first.”
Mia purses her lips before lifting her pizza to her mouth. “And yet, your fate is being tested by arcade pizza.”
Mia takes a bite, and her eyes roll as she lets out a small groan. “Yep, every date we have has to be here now.”
I can’t decide what makes my dick twitch more, the reaction she had to the food or that she wants to go out again. All I know is that I have to lean back in my seat a bit now so my pants don’t feel so tight.
“That’ll make planning things much easier.”
Mia chuckles, reaching for a napkin. “For the record, I didn’t think you were boring. Just looked?—”
“Too serious,” I quote her words.
“Could you really blame me? You have to admit…you have a resting serious face. The beard and huge stature just screamdon’t bother me.”
I chuckle. “I’ll give you that. Going out with the team sometimes calls for that dissociative face. I can’t tell you how many weird signal suggestions Will and I get from fans.”
“I can see that.” Mia sets her pizza down and this odd look comes to her face. “Look, I know I flirted with Beck, but I swear?—”
“Mia, stop. You don’t have to defend or even explain it to me. I told you my ego isn’t fragile.”
“I know, but you were right in my office earlier. I never really had any true interest in him. There’s not a single part of me that questions if it could have gone somewhere.”
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that there could be something lingering for Beck. So what if Mia flirted with an equally available person? I could ask “why not me” to start with, but what would be the point in that?
I’d much rather focus on being here with her now then question why.
