“You snooze you lose, motherfucker.” I laughed, keeping my attention on the measuring stick above the targets.
“I can’t believe you.”
“See it and believe it.” I kept on cracking up, so close to winning, so close…. “Yes!”
I turned my chair at the same time he turned his. “Again,” Alex demanded.
I leaned toward him, grinning so wide my fucking cheeks hurt. Why did this feel like I’d won a gold medal? “Are you being a sore loser right now? Because it’s okay if you are.”
His mouth was slightly open, and he was shaking his head, those bluish-purple eyes glittering as the bright, colored lights hit his irises.
I leaned just a little closer. “Do you want me to let you win the next one?”
His snort was soft, his gaze following my face. For one millisecond, his eyes glowed before the color snuffed out. “You better not.”
* * *
I held up the plate of fried dough and powdered sugar and tried not to smile.
Then I failed three seconds later when an annoyed set of eyes landed on me, the eyebrows above them flat in jealous sauce.
“Oh, don’t be a sore loser,” I said. My cheeks were still tingling from smiling so much. “You’re good at everything. Just not at being a better cheater than me.” Sucker.
Alex gave me the dirtiest look in the whole world, and it just made me smile harder. “None of your wins count because you cheated.”
I shrugged and held the plate a little closer to him. “But you fell for itthree times. It’s not my fault you did.”
He shook his head slowly, but I caught the quick flick of his gaze toward the plate I was still holding out as a peace offering. “You said you were done cheating each time, you liar.”
Okay, I had done that, but part of me had expected him to know I was full of shit.
It was his fault for believing I was that good of a person.
Alex snickered, then reached for the funnel cake, tearing off a piece of the dough and plopping it into his mouth.
I smiled and ripped a piece too, eating it slowly as I watched the sore loser. We were standing a little away from the cart we’d bought the funnel cake and bottle of water at, right beside a fun house. Now that it had gotten darker, more people had arrived at the roadside carnival. Alex’s contacts had officially bitten the dust, and I’d purposely made to stand in a dark spot without a lot of lights. I figured we were going to be done soon; we’d blown through the tickets playing the water game over and over again.
“Thank you for doing this with me,” I told him seriously, taking a sidestep closer so he could have better access to the plate.
His eyes flicked to me as he slipped his hand under mine and took the plate. His voice was gruff. “You’re welcome.”
“I really appreciate it.”
That got me a long look as he chewed a huge piece.
I opened the bottle of water and took a swig before holding it out to him too. He took it, watching me the whole time. That pissy little face still present.
“You still lost,” I reminded him under my breath, not able to help myself.
His eyebrows went up, and just as he opened his mouth to talk shit, we both turned toward the attraction behind us.
“Mommy,please.” The little girl standing beside her mom pleaded as they stood beside a game that said TEST YOUR STRENGTH! The woman lowered the oversized fake sledgehammer down and shook her head, saying who knows what to the little girl.
The goal of the attraction was to hit the hammer against this scale thing on the ground and get the giant light-up thermometer-looking sign above it to go all the way to the top in order to win the whopping prize of a giant unicorn.
“One more time! Please! I know you can do it!” the little girl said, squeezing her palms together under her chin. “Please, please, please, Mommy.”
The mom shook her head, saying something else that even without super hearing, I could tell was going to be a definite “no.” I couldn’t blame her. I figured those games were rigged so that you couldn’t easily win them.
