Page 6 of Matched

I’m so sorry bro. Promise I didn’t do it on purpose. Pass on my apologies and I’ll work on the coding right now

“He says it shouldn’t have happened, and he didn’t do it on purpose. I believe him. He wouldn’t do shit like this just to fuck with me. What would be the point?”

Charlie straightened up. “Yeah, it would be kind of fucked up.” He tapped the machine, nodding towards the LCD display showing his score. “Your go. See if you can beat that score, mugger.”

“You call that a high score? I’m not worried.” Stepping up to the machine, I took a moment to familiarise myself with the controls. It had been a while since I’d played on a pinball machine. A while since I’d done anything like this on a date, actually. Not that this was a real date, but it was supposed to be. Most of the dates I’d been on had either involved a coffee shop, chain restaurant, or just hanging out at the student union. There was nothing wrong with any of those things, but it was nice to do something different for a change.

“Remember, I’m the fucking pinball king.” He jerked his thumb towards his chest.

A laugh burst from my throat. “Sorry, what?”

His lashes swept down as he scuffed the toe of his trainer against the floor, his cheeks flushing. “I don’t know why I said that.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“Okay.” His gaze flicked back to mine. I realised his eyes were a light green, with a darker green ring around the edge. Hmm. Unusual. “I worked at my friend’s brother’s pub last summer. They had a pinball machine just like this one. When the pub was quiet, we used to play on it, and I ended up with the highest score at the end of the summer.”

Stretching out my arms, I cracked my knuckles. “You may have been the pinball pub king, but I was the undefeated pinball youth club champion for five years back home. Watch and learn.”

Then, I proceeded to demolish his high score in ten minutes flat.

“Oh yeah. Still got it.” I fist-pumped the air, and Charlie gave me a wry grin.

“You fucker. This is not fair.”

“How isn’t it fair?” Without any discussion, we drifted towards a sofa in the corner of the Game Room, placing our pints down on the pitted wooden coffee table before sinking into the cushions. “Bloody hell, I feel like this thing’s gonna swallow me.”

Charlie shifted into a more upright position. “Yeah. This sofa could do with a bit more support. Uh, so. Unfair.” He held up his hand, ticking off points on his fingers. “Great at pinball. Great at football—as evidenced by you being on the LSU team. The type of…uh…vibe women go for. The?—”

“Whoa. Hold on a minute. What do you mean by ‘the type of vibe women go for’?”

“Y’know.” He flicked his hand out. “The whole dark hair, potential mugger thing you’ve got going on at first glance. Then you smile and it’s all…oh, fuck. This sounds so weird when I’m saying it out loud.”

I laughed, and he gave me the finger. It was weird how we’d instantly fallen into this banter with each other, like we’d been friends for a while instead of meeting each other less than an hour ago.

“What I’m saying is,” he continued, “you know what you look like. Conventionally good-looking. That’s all I’m saying.”

Well…I guess I couldn’t dispute that. I was aware of how I looked, and Ihadbeen told I had a nice smile. But Charlie…I took my time to study him properly. “I can counteract every single one of your points.”

He snorted. “Unlikely.”

“Shut up and listen, or I really will mug you. When you least expect it, as well. You’ll be walking alone across campus, in the dark…”

His brows flew up. “Okay, stalker. Thanks for making this situation a hundred times more uncomfortable.”

“When you least expect it,” I said again.

“I’m gonna start carrying pepper spray and a Taser. I don’t care if they’re illegal.”

My wide grin matched his. This whole conversation was so fucking weird, but I was having fun. Way more fun than I’d had on any actual date in a long time. “Scary.Anyway. Back to your points. Your pinball score was literally fifteen points below mine, which is nothing?—”

“Which means I’m not the pinball king anymore.”

“The pinball prince, then. Now, can you shut up for more than five seconds so I can finish a sentence without you interrupting?”

He slammed his hand over his mouth, nodding as he widened his eyes dramatically.

“Good. As I was saying. Only fifteen points lower than mine, and you still smashed the previous high score. You’ve got that cheeky kind of look girls like.”

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