Chapter 26
Marcela
I ’ve been dying to know where Theo is taking us this entire ride. I’ve tried to goad him into telling me, but he’s locked up like a vault.
We exit the freeway, and I can’t say I’m familiar with the area. We drive for a few more minutes, and eventually Theo makes a left turn into a parking lot with a building with a sign that says “Fun Zone.”
“What is this place?” I ask, noting the bright neon colors the building is painted with.
Theo parks and turns to me with a wide grin. “It’s exactly that, a fun zone. There are arcade games, laser tag, mini golf, and even fowling.”
My brows pinch together. “What is fowling?”
“It’s a mixture of football and bowling. You use a football to throw at large bowling pins.”
“You’d be okay to play that?” I ask, knowing his distaste for football.
He shrugs as he unbuckles his seatbelt. “Of course. This is for fun, and it’s with you. I’ll love it.”
My stomach flutters at his words, unable to ignore the way they make me feel. Knowing he enjoys spending time with me makes me question if the line between real and fake is beginning to blur. Not just for him, but for me too.
Because I enjoy spending time with him, so much so that I agreed to this date without the guarantee that we’d run into Hunter or Ruby.
I push those scary thoughts about the reality of our relationship away, when Theo opens my door and we walk hand in hand inside the building.
“Where do we even start?” I ask, overwhelmed by everything around us. It’s loud with kids, teenagers, people our age, and adults moving around the place.
The center is filled with arcade games, from the classic Skee-Ball to newer machines like Flappy Bird. I think fowling is near the back wall, and the sound of pins being knocked over confirms that.
“Let me take care of you. I’ve got this,” Theo gives my hand a squeeze as he leads us to the front desk where he pays for two passes that give us access to both fowling, laser tag, and tokens for the arcade games.
“Thank you,” I say as we move out of the way for the next people in line.
“What do you want to do first?” he asks, giving me a choice.
I look around the bustling building, overwhelmed by how much there is to do. I decide on the first thing I can think of.
“Wanna fowl?”
“Sure,” He smiles, taking my hand in his once again as he leads us to the fowling area near the back of the building.
There are four lanes with ten pins at each end. Players stand on opposite sides, throwing footballs at the pins. Some people seem to be in teams, while a couple is playing against one another next to the empty one we walk up to.
Once the attendant stamps our passes and explains the rules of the game, we’re ready to play.
Theo’s about to walk to his side of the lane when I stop him. “Wait,” I rush out.
“What is it?” he asks, looking concerned.
“I’ve never thrown a football in my entire life. Can you teach me how?”
“Another lesson,” Theo winks. “I’ve got you, Celly.”
I shake my head and laugh as he picks up the football and holds it out to me.
“Do you see these white lines here?” I nod and he continues. “Your fingertips should rest in between each line.”
My hand wraps around the football, my fingers resting exactly where he told me. Theo then steps behind my body and lifts my arm that’s holding the football up and back above my shoulder.
“Before you throw, bring it back up here to your shoulder. Then you’re going to twist here with your hips,” he says as his hand grips my hip and twists it for me. My heart skips a beat as my entire body heats just from his touch.
Wait … why is this happening? We’ve been intimate before, and we’re not actually dating. Yet, when he put his hands on me just now, it felt … right, exciting, and good.
Theo stops my spiraling thoughts when his hand that’s on my arm pulls it back, then extends it forward. “You’re going to pull this arm back, then twist your hips like I just showed you as you extend your arm and throw the ball. You aim with your shoulders, wherever they’re facing is where your ball will go.”
I hear what he says, but it doesn’t process because all I can focus on is how close his body is to mine. It makes me want to leave here and roll around in my sheets together. Naked.
The way I want Theo is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. I crave it daily, though I’d never admit that to him.
“Celly, you with me?” he chuckles as his free hand wraps around my stomach, and he rests his chin on my shoulder.
“Yeah,” I say, my tone an octave higher than normal. “You ready to lose?”
Theo unwraps himself from my body, and comes to stand in front of me with a small smile on his face. “This is the most excited I’ve been to toss around a football in my life. Let’s do it.”
My heart clenches at his words. The relationship he has with football and his dad is complicated, so instead, I focus on the fact that this is going to be fun for the first time in a long while.
And that’s exactly what we do—we have fun. We laugh the entire time, especially after one of my throws hit the lane next to ours. The couple was sweet and thankfully laughed it off with us.
I already knew that Theo is amazing at football, but watching him throw the ball with precision each and every time today was amazing. It proved that he has worked so hard to get where he is—time that he would’ve rather spent doing anything else.
After Theo beats me a few times with ease, we head over to laser tag where we face off against each other. Our laughter echoed off the walls as we chased one another around the arena, and we were out of breath by the time it was over.
To my surprise, I beat him. He took the loss with a shrug of his shoulders, not caring in the slightest.
Hunter would’ve cared a lot.
I wish I didn’t compare the two so often, but when you’ve never received the bare minimum and then start to receive it, you quickly realize how much you were missing before.
We spend the rest of the night at the arcade playing the games and taking photos in the photo booth. The night ends with enough tickets to get a small stuffed penguin, which Theo lets me have.
It’s truly one of the best dates I’ve ever been on. It’s scary, considering I don’t know if this is fake anymore. We didn’t do this to show off to Ruby and Hunter.
We did this because we enjoy spending time together.
“Shit,” Theo mutters under his breath as we exit off the freeway, heading toward my apartment complex.
It had begun snowing on the side of town we were just in, but here it’s a complete blizzard. The roads are covered in snow, and it’s coming down so hard he has the wipers on full blast just to see out the windshield.
“Just drive slow. It’ll be okay,” I say softly, trying to reassure him and myself.
And that’s exactly what he does. He drives as slow as he can, allowing us to make it to my apartment safe and sound.
“I don’t want you driving home in this. Will you please come in until it passes?” I plead, my stomach twisting at the idea of him driving a centimeter further in this weather than he has to.
“As long as you promise to read Love Bites to me,” he says, making me roll my eyes as I smile.
“I’m going to buy you an audiobook membership,” I chuckle as I reach for the door handle.
“Ah, ah, wait for me,” Theo instructs before he hops out and runs around to my door. He opens it and lifts me out.
“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he says hurriedly as the snow falls hard and fast around us.
I do as he says, clinging to him as he carries me into my building and onto the elevator.
“You didn’t need to carry me,” I say, lifting my head from his shoulder so we’re now eye to eye.
“And risk you slipping and hurting yourself?” he says gently as he tucks my hair behind my ear. “Not a chance.”
Words fail me as I try to make sense of what’s happening between us. I know without a doubt that Theo cares for me in a way no one ever has. The things he’s done for me with no one looking speak to that.
I get lost in the light blue of his eyes, and he stares right back at me. My nails scrape along the back of his neck as my eyes dart to his lips.
Theo notices, his lips parting slightly before he leans in slightly.
Do I want to kiss him? Even with no one around?
My breathing turns rapid as I shut my eyes and—
Ding.
The elevator doors open, ruining the moment. Theo pulls back as I release my legs from around his body, neither of us saying a word as we make our way to my apartment door.
I’m worried I’ve made it awkward by not kissing him right away, but Theo pulls me into a hug once we’re inside my apartment.
I melt into his embrace, that feeling of pure serenity that I get with him coming back. “Why don’t you take a shower and warm up?” he says. “You’re freezing.”
“Is that weird though? What will you do while I shower?”
Theo pulls back so he can look me in the eyes, giving me an easy smile. “It’s not weird at all. I want you to be comfortable, okay? And I’ll read the book while I wait. Then you can take over and read to me after you’re done.”
“Maybe I want you to read it to me,” I quip, tilting my head up at him.
“Anything you want,” he says softly, making my heart do abnormal things inside my chest.
Ignoring it, I run straight to the bathroom to shower.
Because the last thing I need to do is complicate things, especially when we’re most likely going to be snowed in together all night.
This should be fine.