Page 25 of Leo and His Love Bunny

That makes her smile.

I love that smile. It makes the fire in my belly warm and glow.

“Your turn,” I say. And she doesn’t argue. We haven’t agreed on rules, no parameters, nothing. It could be a free-for-all, but I know that she will be honest and true. I’ve learned that just inthe little bit I talked to her, and I’m completely content with the fact that we haven’t established any ground rules.

If there are any issues or quarrels, we will work them out, and we will do it fairly. I’m sure of it.

I can’t remember the last time I met someone and was this sure of their character this soon after meeting them.

She turns slowly and points to the refrigerator. “Landing at the back corner.”

Oh. That’s a little different. Typically I try to hit the mark with them, and I didn’t practice landing too much. I do not allow that to show on my face; in fact, I do not allow anything to show on my face. My expression is completely impassive. I give a curt nod and don’t say anything.

She stares at the corner, pulls her airplane out, her forearm thrusts forward, and her wrist flicks. I watch, admiring the follow-through, before I see the airplane land gently on the top of the refrigerator and skid to a stop right at the far corner.

It does not hit the wall but stops exactly where she said it would.

All right. I’m impressed. I am not afraid to say it. “Impressive,” I murmur.

She gives a grin, not nearly as emotionless as I have to be. When I compete, all my energy goes into doing what I know I need to do. People have said that I skate angry, and that’s not the slightest bit true. I just look that way. It’s my look when I’m focusing on what needs to be done.

Still, her smile is infectious.

I almost admit, almost, that I’ve never done this before, landing a paper airplane. I was always about aiming and hitting my target.

Maybe she doubts her strategy and has decided to be all friendly and smile and see if she can ruin my concentration.

But I dismiss that idea. She’ll win on skill and ability, or she won’t win at all. I know for a fact that she’s not the kind of person who’s going to try to beat me some other way.

This can’t be that much different than aiming for a certain spot, so it’s all about adjusting the thrust while not ruining the aim.

I wish I would have had a little bit of time to practice, but I’ve spent so much time with paper airplanes that I’m confident I might be able to pull it off. If not beat her, at least...tie her? Or get close enough that she doesn’t choose to give herself a point.

What I meant to do, what I had intended, was to fly my airplane and land it gently on top of hers. What actually happens is my airplane hits the top of the refrigerator and pushes forward, shoving her airplane out of the way, and it drops with a small whop off the other side of the refrigerator while my airplane rests where hers had been, exactly.

“Well done,” she says, picking up the pen and giving me a point.

I almost protest. After all, I did exactly what she did. The thing was, I did it pushing hers out of the way.

“Don’t give me a pity point,” I say anyway. Because after all, she didn’t have the option of pushing mine out of the way which takes a completely different calculation in speed and thrust.

“That’s not the way I roll,” she says, and while it sounds casual, she is dead serious.

I believe her. I had already figured that much out about her.

She lifts her eyes from the paper. “Your turn.”

We do it three more times. I win once more, she wins twice.

As her paper airplane balances delicately on the overhead light in the kitchen, while mine fell off, on the fifth throw of the competition, I have to admit defeat.

“You beat me,” I say, without any kind of rancor or irritation in my voice. I can respect talent when I saw it.

“We can do a best of seven.”

“No. There were five airplanes. I had five chances. You won three of them. We don’t need to add another one, because that wasn’t the rules of the game when we started.”

That would be like changing the rules partway through. While part of me wants to do that, because I feel like I could get better, most of me prefers to play, and win, within the rules.

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