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“Most definitely.” She snuggles closer to me. “Want to do some yoga? I brought the mats.”
I laugh. “Seriously? Date weekend is yoga-free. Let’s find a movie instead.” I reach for the remote as Olivia gives in. We don’t even make it to the halfway mark before what starts as simply cuddling turns into something so much better. Once again, Olivia has the power to make me forget tomorrow’s battles. She’s all that exists tonight and that’s just the way I like it.
EARLIER TODAY, WE met up with Olivia’s brother for lunch, and spent most of the rest of our time hanging out with my siblings, and sometimes Grant as well. Saturday night comes and so does our date. This is date weekend, after all, so I need to take her out. There’s a place not too far from our hotel where I plan on taking advantage of Olivia’s competitive side. There’s arcade games, laser tag, air hockey, darts, and all sorts of stuff like that. It’s mostly a local hangout for teenagers, but I don’t think she’ll mind.
When she exits the bathroom, she’s dressed in jeans and a purple v-neck short-sleeved shirt with some sort of white design on it. She’s pinned her bangs back and looks like she’s even wearing a little makeup. The thing I notice most of all is her wide smile, my favorite thing about her.
“Ready?” I ask, standing up.
“Yep!” She walks over, holds out her hand, and I take it before leading the way. “Where are we going?” she asks once we’re in my car.
“You’ll see.”
Nervous, I run my now-clammy hand down my thigh before switching to do the same to the other. Olivia doesn’t seem to notice since she’s looking out the window, humming the tune to the song playing on the radio. All I can think about are a thousand questions designed to annoy and worry me. What if she hates this? What if this is really stupid? What if, what if, what if? What if’s can go to hell because I can’t stand them.
Once I park and we walk inside, I give in and check Olivia’s reaction. A smile creeps onto her face as she takes in all the games. Then she laughs and glances at me. “You’re so going down.”
We first feed money into a machine that spits out the coins we’ll need for the games. Olivia drags me to the air hockey table first. Before we start, I give her my most serious expression.
“There are two rules.”
At this, she props her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes. “And those would be?”
With one finger up, I say, “No playing dirty.” I lift another finger and add, “No cheating.”
“You’re no fun, Corey, but okay.” She shrugs.
Her eyes stay focused on the red disk as it glides across the table. I’m focused too, but when I score first, sending a smirk to Olivia, she gets serious about the game. The moment she exaggerates leaning forward to push the puck back my way, I get a glimpse of her cleavage.
“Hey,” I start when she does it a third time, causing me to almost allow a goal. “No playing dirty, remember?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she grunts, hitting it hard and making it bounce off the wall. I’m not quick enough to keep her from scoring this time. “YES!” she shouts, throwing her arms in the air and doing a little victory dance.
I shake my head at her. The trick doesn’t work after that, as I keep my eyes on the red blur as it moves across the table. It doesn’t matter either way because Olivia wins the game, 4-2.
“What’s next? I’m ready to kick your ass again.” She grins.
We slowly make our rounds, playing nearly all of the games. I start winning too, although Olivia gets some wins in as well. She’s keeping score, and once I get three wins ahead of her, she folds her arms over her chest, glaring at me as I feed coins to the next machine where we’ll toss basketballs into the net.
“You’re playing dirty,” she states.
“What?” I laugh. “I am not.” I so am.
“Were you not the guy standing behind me a little too closely during darts, whispering dirty things in my ear?”
“Nope. Here.” I hand over her basketball. “Redeem yourself.”
She tries, but the poor girl can’t shoot a basketball to save her life. “Uggghhh!” she groans as the buzzer sounds and she’s had zero goals. “Corey, you know, I’m not the kind of girl who will get mad if you start letting me win,” she tries, her voice turning sugary sweet as she slips her arms around my waist.
“Yes, you are. Maybe we should up the ante.”
“Like with a bet?”
“Yeah. All or nothing showdown in laser tag. Whatcha think?”
“Hmm,” she hums, pretending to think about it as she tilts her head. “If I win, which I will because I’m a beast at laser tag, then I get a hundred bucks. If you win, then I’ll give you my spare key to my apartment and whatever else you want. Deal?”
“Hmm,” I mimic. “Deal.”
