Page 60 of Canadian Boyfriend

“Exactly.”

I forgot my disappointment as we were assailed by a wall of happy sound. Thebloop-bloopof arcade games, the gleeful, sugar-jacked shouting of kids. The whole carnivalesque atmosphere of the place made me want to literally skip.

Mike Martin tried to buy us tickets, but I objected. It was one thing for him to pay for my ice cream after class when we had Olivia with us, but this was different. As he had just informed the Minnetonka Moms™, we werenotdating. We were kissing but not dating. It should have been confusing, but somehow it wasn’t.

“Come on,” he said. “This was my idea.I’mtakingyouhere. That’s the whole point.”

“Yeah, but you know I’m weird about money.” Also weird?That hedidknow about that hang-up. That I could reference the fact that he knew, casually in conversation.

“I know, but it’s not a childhood dream fulfilled if you have to pay.” I opened my mouth to issue a rebuttal, but before I could get it out, he said, “Humor a guy, Aurora Lake.”

The way he said my whole name gave me pause. Long enough for him to buy two passes. No one ever called me by my whole first name—I wasRorypretty much everywhere. Except Mike Martin always called meAurora. But this first-and-middle business was new. It made me feel warm. Cared for.

Was that… an OK way to feel around someone you were just kissing?

“All right,” he said, as we walked deeper into the space. “We have two hours of play.” He handed me a card. “Apparently we can pause the time, though, so what do you say we do some games, then take a time-out for dinner in a bit?”

“Sounds great.”

He surveyed the space and, seeming to find what he was looking for, pointed. “Your Skee-Ball awaits, milady.”

It turned out that while Skee-Ball was as fun as I’d always imagined, I was really not good at it. “I’m glad you’re not paying by the game because apparently Skee-Ball is not my calling.”

“The key is to keep your arm and wrist straight.” He demonstrated from his own lane. “It’s like bowling but with a slope.”

“What makes you think I know how to bowl?”

“Surely you’ve been bowling?”

“Nope.”

“Oh, wow. We gotta fix that. But we’ll wait for Olivia. She loves bowling.”

After a break for food, we played some arcade games. I sucked at all of them until we found a dancing game.

“Ah!” I had heard about these games, where you have to hit marks on the floor, but I’d never had a chance to try one. “You might be the Skee-Ball champion, but what do you want to bet I kick your ass here?”

“I would never take that bet,” he said, swiping his card with a smile. It wasn’t lost on me that we’d both spent the last hour grinning like kids yet were not kids. Our adulthood stood out here; we were the only grown-ups playing games without kids in tow.

The dancing game was harder than I’d anticipated, but I got the hang of it, and, as predicted, I cleaned Mike Martin’s clock. You could choose your level, but even on the easiest one, he struggled to keep up. Eventually he gave up and I played solo. It was ridiculously fun, like should-be-illegal levels of fun.

When I had to give up because I couldn’t breathe anymore, I stepped off the platform and Mike Martin kissed me.

“Oof.” I hadn’t been expecting it—I hadn’t thought kissing in public was a thing we did—so our teeth clacked together and, startled, I recoiled a bit. He planted his hands on my cheeks, which I was starting to recognize as a signature move of his, but this was a more urgent version of it, as if he were trying to calm my startlement and get me to stay still so he could kiss me senseless.

It didn’t last, though. He stepped back with his eyes wide. “Oh shit. Sorry.”

Yeah, see? Kissing in publicwasn’ta thing we did.

I didn’t want any awkwardness, so I said, “Let’s turn in our tickets for prizes.”

“How many’ve you got?” he asked as we stood at a prize counter that looked like a tsunami made of cheap, brightly colored plastic crap had struck it and receded.

“Enough for…” I looked around. “A rainbow Slinky? Or…” I laughed and picked up a fuchsia plastic… item. “Whatever this is.”

“Take mine, too.” Mike Martin had a fistful of tickets thanks to his Skee-Ball domination.

“Get something for Olivia. We shouldn’t even be here without her. She loves arcade games, doesn’t she?”

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