Chapter 42

April and Zara came back from wherever they’d disappeared to, April looking mildly annoyed and Zara as if nothing had happened. They both came straight into your lane’s little sitting area and April sat down and gave you a reassuring little smile and then leaned in to give you a kiss on the cheek. Then she pressed her lips to your ear.

“Thanks for being a gentleman, baby,” she whispered. “You’re the best.”

“Everything’s good?” you asked, putting your hand on her knee.

She nodded, then glanced across at Zara where she was tying up her other shoe and smirked a little. The redhead had her knees pressed together as she was doing it. “It’s fine,” April said.

You’d had plenty of time to lace up your shoes, so you got up, settled in front of the little computer system, and started inputting names into the score tracker. “Who wants to go first?” you asked.

“You do,” Zara said a little snarkily.

You sighed softly and shook your head. “April?”

“You go first, I’ll go second,” she said. “Zara can bring up the rear.”

“More like kick your asses,” Zara teased.

“Gotta catch us first,” April teased right back. “I seem to remember the last time we played-”

“We are not talking about that,” Zara said.

April laughed and then grinned at you. “She pretended like she didn’t know how to bowl and had never done it before so that the guy she was on a date with would teach her. It was a little embarrassing.”

“He was that dumb sort of macho whatever,” Zara said dismissively. “It made him feel important. Plus he had those big muscled arms; how could I not want them around me?”

“Yeah, right up until you had to bowl granny-style the whole time. Real attractive,” April snorted.

“Fuck you,” Zara laughed. She’d gotten her second shoe on. “Now are we bowling or not? I’m planning on wiping you both out.”

It was only five-pin, so the balls were small and fit with a nice heft in your hand. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d been bowling, but you knew the mechanics of it well enough. Your first ball went soaring down the lane and punched two of the pins spinning.

“Nice start, baby,” April called loudly. It wasn’t like she was shouting, or overly loud compared to the rest of the active place, but she was definitely speaking at a volume that people in other lanes could hear. And that ... was really nice. It put a heat in you that reached your cheeks a bit; mild embarrassment, but also pride. Pride that a woman like her was with you, calling you a pet name. Making it clear you were hers and she was yours.

You turned on your heel and grinned at her as you went to fetch another ball, and she flashed you two thumbs up as she scrunched her nose and grinned.

“You’re gonna put it in the gutter this time,” Zara jeered. “Right in the left gutter. Nothing you can do about it.”

“We’ll see,” you said with a shrug, grabbing your next ball and spinning it in your hand for a moment as you lined up again. Step-step-step-swing and release, sending the ball.

It didn’t go in the gutter, so that was good. It also sailed straight through the hole in the pins you’d already opened. “Agh,” you said, snapping your fingers as you turned around and shook your head, grinning. April was giving you a ‘You got this’ supportive look and winked at you, while Zara had her hands cupped to her mouth. “Gutterbaaall,” she called. “Gutterbaaaall.”