Page 21 of Meet Mason, the Billionaire

At length, I stood up and cleared my throat. “Everyone, Mason has never been here before, not even as a little kid. I’m going to show him the ropes in the arcade.”

“Watch out for her,” Junebug said. “Certainly don’t bet her money on an outcome.”

“I’ll be careful.”

We went to the arcade, me holding his hand all the way. There weren’t any kids in there at the time, mostly on account of it being a school night after eight PM. That particular restaurant had a lot of retro games from the 80s. Stuff that had come out before I was born but I still loved to play.

“What’s this?” He asked, pointing at one of the games.

“Oh, Joust? Only one of the coolest games ever. Here, we can play head to head.”

“How do I play?”

“That button flaps your wings. You run into the other guy with your lance before they can get you.”

“What’s that egg mean?”

“Oh, stay away from that, it’s a bomb.”

“Right.”

We flapped around the screen chasing each other, until I went and got the egg and turned into a Pegasus.

“You said it was a bomb!” His laugh was as joyous as it was incredulous.

“Did I? I meant to say it’s THE bomb.” I killed his guy, and he gave me a look.

“I can see you like to play dirty,” he said.

“Uh-huh,” I replied.

“All right. That was just a practice run anyway. Best two out of three?”

“You’re on, but what are the stakes?”

He laughed at my wicked gaze.

“I was told not to bet money on this.”

“So don’t bet money. Let’s find something else to wager on.”

“Like what?”

“Loser has to dance the funky chicken in the middle of the restaurant.”

He gave me a long, hard stare. “You’re on.”

We settled into the game, and it got serious quick. Okay, not that serious, but there was a competitive edge to the game the second time. I won the first of the best of three series, naturally, but Mason was still getting his head around the game mechanics.

The second game, he managed to win, albeit barely. My forearms were aching from all the button mashing, but I wasn’t about to give up.

“And now for the last,” I said with great ceremony. “One shall rise—and one shall fall.”

“Are you planning on talking me to death?”

“Oooh,” I said with a hiss. “Look who brought his sassy pants to the restaurant.”

“Just put in the tokens and let’s do this.”

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