“What?” My eyebrows fiddled together.
She gestured toward our aisle.
“You let me win,” she accused.
“I didn’t let you win.”
“Yeah. You did.”
“Alright, I did.” I chuckled. “But, I mean, I think it’s bad date etiquette to crush your date at something you invited them to.”
“That’s valid, but I’d rather you crush than lie to me.”
“Throwing a bowling match isn’t lying.”
“It’s deception.”
“Alright.” I nodded once. “If that’s how you’re going to take it, I won’t let you win shit no more. You’re done.”
We laughed together.
“Yeah, okay. Let’s see if you’re as good as you think you are.” She hopped up.
“I’m better,” I said.
“And so humble too.”
I winked at her and hopped up too.
I watched her roll her first ball and grimaced as she hit three balls. She exhaled and shook her hands out while she waited forthe ball to come back. I tilted my head as I watched her second throw and cringed. Fuck. I was going to dust her.
I gave her a tight smile when she turned around. She giggled.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She cut her eyes at me.
“Because you’re beautiful,” I said. “And bad at bowling.”
She covered her mouth as she laughed. I plucked up my ball. I walked to the lane and rolled it easily and spun around to face her without having to watch.
Strike.
“That’s got to be luck,” Novi accused.
“Alright.” I didn’t argue.
She licked her lips and headed back to the stand to get another ball.
It wasn’t luck.
I rolled several strikes in a row and ended up beating her by over a hundred points even while I was fifty points away from a perfect game.
She asked for a tie breaker so we rolled again just for me to dust her again, this time by seventy points.
I whistled as the final points lit up on the screen.
“Okay. You dusted me.” She collapsed beside me. “But I’m going to say y ou set me up since you picked out this whole bowling thing.”
“I’ll take that,” I grinned at her. “But now it’s on you to pick out the next thing we do together. You choose. I’ll pay.
