The Arcade

"An arcade?" Lisa asked when I pulled into the parking lot.

"Trust me," I replied. She looked very hesitant. Luckily the rain had taken a break and we were able to make it inside without getting wet. Lisa followed me to the counter, eyeing up the place. It was large and packed with games of every kind. Just from the entrance, I could see shooting games, racing games, lines of skeeball lanes, as well as air hockey and a few different pop-a-shot basketball games.

"I'll take the 1 hour time limit card," I told the cashier. She handed me a card that we could use to start the game and which would also keep track of whatever points we accumulated.

"So what's your game?" Lisa asked as we began walking through the arcade, scoping out each individual game.

"My game?" I questioned.

"Yea, like, which game would you to go if I wasn't here?"

"Probably this shooting game over here," I replied, pointing to a game called Crisis Protocol.

"OK. I want to watch you play."

"You want to watch me play?" I asked. "I'd rather play something with you."

"No, I want to watch you play."

Shit, did I really make that bad of a decision? I can't just play an hour of arcade games by myself, that would be a disaster.

"OK..." I said. "It's two players. You can play with me."

"I'll watch you play first so I can see how to do it."

I swiped the card to start the game then rattled through the prompts. The screen gave way to the main game and I began blasting away, taking down mercenaries left and right.

"You're really good at this game," Lisa complimented. "Do you play a lot?"

"Haven't played in years," I said as I shot an explosive container to blast away a dozen enemies at once. I breezed through the first level without getting hit once.

"Come on, jump in here," I encouraged. "It's not hard. You just step on this button when you want to pop out, pull the trigger to shoot people and there are things marked with fire that will explode.

"I don't know..." Lisa said.

"We have unlimited games for a whole hour. Give it a shot and, if you don't like it, we can move on and I can crush you in air hockey or something."

"Oh, I'm very good at air hockey," Lisa said. "I had a table growing up. I used to beat my brother all the time."

"Well, I can't wait to humble you," I said with a smirk. Lisa gave in and joined the game. Within one minute she had died and also got completely hooked. Before I could tell her we could give it up, she had swiped the card again and was back to blasting away next to me. She caught on quickly after that and soon we were on a roll, directing each other to shoot certain spots and enemies.

"You go ahead, I'll cover for you," I told her as we found ourselves ascending up a ramp toward the end of Level 02. She proceeded forward while I took out various armed men on balconies and rooftops that were trying to stop her. Eventually, I got tagged right as Lisa's character made it to the end and the LEVEL COMPLETE graphic displayed on the screen.

"Oh no, you didn't make it!" Lisa shouted. "You sacrificed yourself so I could get to the end. How sweet of you." She smiled and kissed me on the cheek. My face went flush and my mouth went dry.

"It was nothing," I said. "I'll cover your backside any time." Lisa smiled and kinked her hip out toward me.

"I feel like Double O Seven right now," Lisa said, pretending to fire around the arcade.

"More like Double D Seven," I joked.

Lisa giggled. "That one was terrible."

"Do you want find another game?" I asked.

"No way!" Lisa shouted, turning back at the game and shooting the screen to trigger the start of the third level. "Come on, get in here! Don't leave me hanging!"

I laughed and swiped myself back in. We continued on, laughing and joking around as we worked through the levels, trading off on the lead and covering each other's backs as needed. I couldn't believe how quickly Lisa picked the game up and how into it she got, especially considering her initial hesitation. Chelsea would play games with me to humor me but she didn't enjoy it and she was quite terrible at them. Not that I held it against her, it was just one of those things about our relationship. She tried, and that was enough for me, but it never translated into any kind of activity we could enjoy together. Here with Lisa, though, it felt different. It felt natural and effortless.

Eventually we reached Level 10 and an area that we just could not get past. By that point, we had been playing for close to 45 minutes.

"We've only got 15 more minutes on our card," I said as Lisa lost another life. "Do you want to play something else?"

"No way, we can't quit now!" Lisa said, swiping her card again.

"OK! Then, next time you die, run and add more time to the card. Here, take this." I handed her my credit card. She took off across the arcade to the machine that allowed her to add more time to the card then raced back to swipe herself back into the game as I held on for dear life, fighting off hoards of gunman.

We battled our way, little by little, across the final level. It took us 25 more minutes and at least ten more lives each before...

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Holy shit."

"Wait, we won? "

Our final blasts struck, sending a massive, overdesigned futuristic tank careening into the enemy base.

"Did we win?"

"I don't know, I've never beat it before."

"Really?"

"Holy shit."

The base exploded, piece by piece. Towers broke off and slid down the mountainside. The walls caved in and went up in tremendous fire as our heroes paraglided away through the snow covered valley.

GAME COMPLETE

"Holy shit."

Lisa nearly tackled me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed me tight, burying her face into my shoulder as she screamed in triumph. Her entire body was buzzing with energy.

"Holy shit. Holy shit! Holy shit!" My chants rose in volume and pitch as I realized that we had, in fact, beaten the game. I noticed the other people in the arcade start to look at us, mostly parents with their young children and a few groups of teenagers, so I lowered my voice as I hugged Lisa tight. Her large breasts crushed to me, sliding up and down my chest as she jumped up and down in joy.

"That was so much fun!" she exclaimed. I let my grip up, allowing her to pull from me. We looked at each other, my arms still gripping her waist, hers gripping my elbows. My heart began beating out of my chest. All the suspense and excitement of the game seemed like nothing compared to this moment where every cell in my body seemed to gravitate toward Lisa.

Kiss her

Kiss her you fucking idiot.

Kiss her!