Pulling into the car park of thecafé, the first thing either of them notice is the noise. It’s not a bad noise by any means, but it’s still surprising to hear it come from inside a type of store usually known for its peaceful atmosphere. Tori gives him an odd look as they move to walk inside.

  “I know, I know,” he smiles, “but just give it a chance. I promise it isn’t boring.”

  “I’m not worried about it being boring, I’m worried you might have misjudged the reputation of this pce,” Tori says, but still walks beside him.

  “And I’m certain that I have not,” Tyler replies back, threading their fingers together as they move through the door. “Just wait. Have my surprises let you down thus far?”

  “To be completely fair, the only surprise was that party,” she replies with a smile, “So…” She blinks.

  Tyler grins at the surprised look on her face. He wasn’t really sure how she would react to this. Hell he wasn’t even sure how he’d feel about acafélike this. It had sounded cool online but seeing it in person was a whole other experience.

  Air hockey machines were lined up on half of the floor space. Or that could be a pool table, he wasn’t really sure. But the overall vibe was certainly unique. He could see why people had rated it so highly.

  Even with the noise, it didn’t feel like a disturbance. Instead the patrons sitting on either side of the table seemed to be having fun cheering on one or both of the pyers as they pyed. But as novel as it seemed, theirs wasn’t the opinion he was concerned about.

  “So? Is this a good surprise or what?”

  “Tyler…” Tori grins as she pulls him over to table. “This is amazing. Where did you even find this pce?”

  “Uh uh. I can’t reveal all my secrets,” he tells her with a grin. She just ughs, shaking her head and picking up the menu.

  He’s not sure whether the owners would be against them pying the games without ordering, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe. Also. He’s fucking hungry. Tyler had made the mistake of skipping lunch, feeling far too jittery with excitement to stomach anything at all.

  Now it’s coming back to bite him. He internally sighs, looking over the menu and picking the first thing that catches his attention. Some sort of egg and ham combo. He doesn’t really pay that much attention afterwards.

  Looking up, a smile graces his face as he sees Tori gnce around the room idly. Her eyes skip over the pictures on the wall before focusing on the air hockey tables, lingering on the foosball one at the centre. The smile grows as one of her own spreads to meet him.

  “Later,” he tells her. He has more than a faint suspicion that he if lets her sidetrack them, they’ll never get to eating.

  Tori’shead tilts to the side questioningly, smile teasing. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Not even a little,” he tells her but can’t make it sound as monotone as he would like.

  “Rude.” She huffs a ugh, looking down at the menu again.

  The service is remarkable, he decides. It doesn’t take long after they order for the food to come out, drinks not long after. Tori gasps at the wooden board hers come out, wonder in her eyes and smile widening. He stifles a ugh as she pulls out her phone to take a quick picture.

  Let it not be said presentation wasn’t important. It’s cute to see her excited by the look of ham and cheese toast with a mushroom sauce and eggs on the side. He has to admit, it looks slightly cooler than the pte his is on. But whatever.

  “Alright,” he tells her with a slight ugh when her eyes roam back to the tables. “Let’s eat so we can py the games.” Then because he can’t quite help himself. “You’re so impatient sometimes.”

  “Sometimes?’

  “Most of the time,” he corrects and smile wider at the gre she shoots him.

  “Rude.” She rolls her eyes, picking up the fork almost threateningly, pointing it towards him. “But alright. Let’s eat so I can beat your ass at foosball.”

  “Sure, sure,” he replies, feeling both fond and exasperated by her.

  Having a full stomach makes the nerves subside remarkably fast. Tyler is undecided whether he should put that down to hunger or not. Either way, he feels more at ease asTorileads him into a tangent about something or another.

  “It was not my fault we got stuck in that tree,” Tyler tells her decidedly. “It was your idea to go up there and rescue that cat to begin with.” He will not stand for this snder.

  “Nope!” Tori gres back, “If you’d just gone with my idea, we’d never have been stuck to begin with.”

  “Your idea was to go up the tree alone and basicallyyeetit down to me. Which is both a terrible idea and was never going to work.”

  “Yeah? Well, your idea for us both to go up is the whole reason we were stuck there for so long.”

  “It was not,” Tyler doesn’t even try to hide the offense in his tone.

  “Was too.”

  “Was not.”

  “Was too.”

  “Was n…” He huffs, eyes narrowing when he sees the smile on her face. He smothers a sigh. He really should have remembered how muchToriloved messing with him. “Whatever. That cat was a literal demon, I don’t even know why you wanted to save it.”

  “Buttons was an absolute angel,” says the deluded woman, “So sweet and cuddly.”

  “That thing almost cwed my face off,” Tyler says, mouth scrunching as he remembers the thing. “And after I’d just gotten its paw unstuck too.”

  “You also called him ugly,”Tori quips back. She actually looks offended by this for some reason.

  “Of course I did,” Tyler rolls his eyes, “That thing looked like it hadn’t had a bath for months and had been a chew toy for an overenthusiastic dog.”

  “It was a mean thing to say,”Torishoots back. “And just because he looked unique, doesn’t mean he was ugly.”

  “Tori, that thing had it out for me from the day we met. And the only reason it didn’t get to is because it saw you and like the maniputive shit it was, he turned all sweet.”

  She blinks innocently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Tyler is acutely aware that there are people around them. It’s the only reason he hasn’t allowed himself to speak louder than a speaking tone. But it’s getting very difficult to remember that when Tori’s looking at him all smug and the irritation burns under his skin.

  He had swept the story out of his mind, not wanting to remember it. It had slipped his mind even when she’d mentioned it the first time. He takes a deep breath in. It was certainly an embarrassing experience, but he thinks his rivalry with a cat might be just as so. Still. He releases the breath in a whoosh, shooting her an annoyed look.

  “You’re just biased,” he says mildly. Biting down on his food is much needed reminder of where they are.

  “And you’re not?” Which…okay. She may have a point there, but Tyler feels he has the right to be a little petty after all the grief that little demon gave him.

  “Shut up,” he tells her, voice coming out a little too high pitched to have the intended effect. Instead, she bursts out ughing.

  However, it isn’t a reaction he minds either, so he simply shoots her another exasperated look, undermined by the smile he already feels pulling at his lips. Oh well. He rolls his eyes lightly, deciding to focus on finishing his food. Tyler believes they’ve veered off this topic of discussion and he’d like too keep it that way.

  Thankfully, by the timeTorihad gotten to an empty hockey table, their ptes already collected and paid for, she’d moved past the topic. Tyler was gd for it and would not bring the cat up again. And not just because it had been a menace.

  No…There was another memory he’d rather not remember. A mangy cat that had trotted up to him and instead of attacking had sat next to him whilst he’d cried. The one time it hadn’t tried to scratch his arms. When he’d simply sat beside him and had brushed up against him in a comforting motion.

  Tyler didn’t like remembering it. The cat had died not too long after, old bones giving way and gait growing tired. He would probably never tell Tori any of it though. He hadn’t mentioned it to any of his friends either. Better they remember him as the attacking snarling cat he was than the heartbroken one he’d become.

  “Come on!”Toritugs him to the game table. “What are you thinking about so hard?”

  There’s a carefree smile on her lips, a light in her eyes that had been slow to return after the graveyard. He can feel her practically vibrating with excitement as she looks up at him. He wants to protect that peace.

  “Nothing,” he tells her, a soft smile on his lips. “Nothing at all.” He moves over to one side, pcing the small ball in thecentre. “Now let’s get this game started so I can show you how it’s really done.”

  “Jerk,” she huffs, thankfully dropping the subject and taking her pce as well. She looks up and grins, hands on the sticks. “You’re on.” Then she twists and shoots it forward.

  Tyler manages to stop it just in time and shoots her a gre cking any heat. “Cheater.”

  “Just because you almost lost…” Tori makes a show of an innocent expression even as the grin on her face tells a different story.

  “Yeah,” Tyler grins back. “Almost.” Then he shoots the little ball to her side. What follows can only be described as chaos.

  Neither one of them wants to give up, and perhaps get a little too competitive when the ball does go in. They py it again and again, until he no longer remembers who’s in the lead. By the time someone else comes up for a turn, they’ve already delved into peals of ughter.

  Doesn’t mean the competitive streak is over though. Instead, they move onto the air hockey table, having just as much fun with punting the ft disc towards each other as they did moving the pyers at thefoosballone. At this point though, neither one of them cares enough to actually keep count.

  And when that too has to end, they simply move onto the table which has been flipped over into a pool table. Cue sticks resting idly by. They exchange a quick gnce, a silent agreement passing as they pick up the sticks.

  “Do you even know how this works,” Tyler asks as she lines up the shot.

  Tori throws him a grin over her shoulder. “Nope. Do you?”

  “Not at all,” he admits with a smile, “I’m not sure this is going to go well.”

  “Does it matter?” Tori asks, lining up her shot. “We’ll either figure it out or have fun trying.”

  “I suppose not.” Tyler just manages to reply beforeToriis hitting the ball. It misses horribly, which has him trying to smother a ugh as she gres at him. “It might be useful to have someone take pity on us, though.”

  Torihuff, rolling her eyes as she moves over to make space. “It might. But like I said, it doesn’t matter. Either they do or we can just make up our own rules if for whatever reason they don’t.”

  “Guess you’re right,” Tyler replies, lining up his shot.

  “When am I not?”

  Deciding not to dignify that with a response when she already looks so smug, he instead focuses on the game at hand. When the ball actually goes in, his annoyance turns into satisfaction. A smug grin of his own spreading as he takes in her annoyance.

  “Lucky shot,” she says pettily. Tyler just smiles wider in response, deliberately riling her up now. If it gets her off her game, than that’s a bonus.

  Of course, this starts up another sort of competition. Tyler is pretty sure they bastardize all the possible rules along the way as they try to one up each other. Enough so that someone eventually notices and they begin to get stares.

  But they’re not the bad kind. If anything, the other patrons of the cafe just look amused by it all, some even cheering them on. After all of the balls have vanished from the table, some of them even come up and offer to teach them the actual rules.

  By then though, they’re both entirely exhausted and all gamed out. Even so, neither of them objects as the man and his friend reset the board and demonstrate the rules for them. Looking on intently when they start up a game and making small talk for a while before heading out.

  He wouldn’t mind going back there, he decides as he pulls up in front of her house. Helping her out as she juggles her purse and a container of cake she insisted on buying for Jade. He has some of his own she talked him into getting for his own parents.

  “Got everything?” He throws a gnce back to the car to double check before meeting her eyes.

  “Yeah,”Tori says, already opening the gate. “I’ve got everything.”

  “Good.” A beat. “Guess I should go then.” He’s not entirely sure if that’s right, but it feels like the safest choice.

  “Yeah,” Tori repeats, but he can see indecision on her features. He stays silent, letting her process it and sees the moment she comes to a decision. He’s still not prepared when she leans over the gate and presses a kiss to his cheek. “See you tomorrow, Ty.”

  “See…you…tomorrow,” he repeats like an idiot as she smiles and heads to the door. Still frozen in pce, watching her as she opens the door and heads inside. Still unable to compute even when she’s safely inside.

  Tyler takes slow breaths as he heads back to his car. Taking a deep breath as he locks it and then proceeds to rest his head on the steering wheel and release an embarrassingly high-pitched sound, ears turning red, hands going up to cover his face. His heartbeat sounds thunderous in his ears as he tries to regain composure.

  Leave it toTorito get the st word in. It takes him far too long to recover and start the car. To get his bearings enough to focus on the road and repy the kiss in head. And even then, he can’t quite wipe the dopey grin from his face.

  One thing’s for certain though. As far asredosof dates go, this might be one of the best. It would be the best, if it weren’t forToriunbancing him so thoroughly.

  No matter. He’d just have to settle the score. Tyler would figure out the how ter.