Page 43 of Tension

“I smell different… Then I'm wearing these coochy cutting shorts, so I'm probably giving myself a yeast infection as we speak.”

Vel took a moment and looked down like he was trying to see what was going on with my cat.

“And taking a shower doesn’t help?” he asked, still looking down.

“I've been cleaning myself. It’s not a bad smell, just not my smell… I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Thank you for trusting me with this. Let’s just have fun, and when- slash- if the time comes, we will assess the situation together. As long as you're comfortable.”

I nodded my head. I always wanted this man, but when your body didn’t feel like yours, it was hard to get in the mood.

I thought I would have a little time before I saw him again to figure out what was going on.

Vel stood and held his hand out to me.

I took it, letting my problems go for now to live in the present.

“Loser! Loser! Loser!” the game attendant yelled when Vel missed for the third time.

He pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to the attendant to get some more balls.

“Baby, it’s not that serious.”

“You asked for the big pink unicorn; you're going to get the big pink unicorn,” Vel told me as he lined up his next throw.

“At this point, you've spent like a hundred dollars for one stuffed animal. You could just buy me one,” I told him over this whole thing.

“It’s not about the money. It’s about my pride. I just needed to practice; these games are rigged. You have to know how to throw just right.” He released the ball, and all of the bottles came down.

He aimed at the next set and did it again.

He had to get the last group of bottles to get the unicorn. Every time he got this far, but the last one was the hardest.

I held my breath when he released the ball from his hand.

It soared through the air, landing directly in the middle of the bottles. They shook from side to side, teasing us with a hard tilt before they all came down.

I jumped up in the air, yelling for him.

“Hell yeah!” he yelled as he grabbed me up.

“I told you. See, you need to stop doubting me.”

The attendant used a stick to reach way up high for my unicorn.

Vel grabbed it for me and handed it to me.

I was happy to have it in my hands, but then my face fell. I couldn’t even see past it to look at Vel.

I tilted it to clear my view.

“Maybe we should have saved this for the end of the night,” I told him.

He started to laugh, then turned to the attendant.

“Can I get that rope right there that was holding it up?”

He shrugged and handed it to him.