13
“QUÉLA—SWEAR, THIS ISN’Tme letting you win.” After my seventh try at getting this pinche ball into the pinche hole, only to watch it roll, rim its way around the hole, swerve and come back toward me, and stop right back at my feet, I can’t rule out that I’m cursed. We’re at hole number six of eighteen and I’ve got to be solidly somewhere in the thirties already compared to Leana’s— “What are you at again?”
“Ten,” she says with a really amused and proud-of-herself smirk.
“That’s …how?! And with those nails too?”
“The realhowis how is the math major having a hard time with this?” she teases, walking over to me, taking an easy, soft swing at my ball. I watch as it, almost magnetically, rolls and curves right into the hole. “It’s basic addition, Pineapple. Just ones and twos.”
“Wow,”I reply, my free hand coming up to my heart, grabbing my shirt. “Going for the kill shot tonight.”
She grabs that hand, taking it to her waist as she tells me, “That’s what you get for being such a smartass at cornhole.” I take her invitation, reaching around to the small of her back. And when she looks at me, her eyes at my lips, I take that invitation too, kissing her, hoping maybe I’ll steal some of the luck she’s having tonight.
“Pull out some of that A-squared plus B-squared shit. That might help you. Length times width times height or something like that. The square root and cosign equalsxplusy—”
“You’re just saying words now.”
“Mm, pretty sure I just solved algebra, actually. I think the school’s about to call me, offer me an honorary PhD in Mathematics. Nobel Prize and all that.”
I laugh, going in for one more kiss. “Okay.Well, while you’re busy with that, I’m going to get back to this game now. Watch. I’ll catch up to you by the end of this.”
“No, you won’t. But it’s okay. I like watching you try.”
“I’m going to start adding a day of training at Neon Moon Mini Golf. Become a pro. And then we’ll have a rematch. Won’t be so easy to beat me then.”
Leana lets out a soft laugh, her face looking at me like she clearly sees the disaster I’ve become after the devastating loss. I didn’t catch up. It wasn’t even close.
“If that’s what you think you have to do, then go right ahead,” she says with a smirk I want to kiss off her.
“That place was alsosoglow-in-the-dark. That’s really what it was. My eyes were having trouble adjusting and focusing in the dark with all the weird bright blues and yellows. If it was Top Golf on a sunny afternoon? Would’ve run laps around you. Promise.”
“Whatever you have to tell yourself.”
Regardless, the loss doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a pretty A-plus date. The way she held my hand in between holes. How her teasing and getting all big-headed was actually really cute. Winning this purple teddy bear for her on a crane machine that I knew she’d love because it’s the color of the sorority she really wants to get into. Spending a solid five minutes making out in my truck before leaving Neon Moon for food. The forty-five minutes we spent in her room using up a couple condoms before we took off for the night because she wanted to congratulate me on the tie that was basically a win in Arizona, but, obviously we couldn’t do that with clothes on.
She looks happy. She lets me pull her hand up to my lips to kiss it every time we hit a red light. And, when I’m not doing that, she seems really comfortable with my hand resting on her thigh. I’m thinking all the signs are there. That she’s just as into something official between us as I am.
And now, pulling into the parking lot where my favorite Tex-Mex food truck hangs out, Grupo Frontera playing from their speakers, I can’t think of a better way to cap this off. Good food, a party lined up after this, back to our places, walk her up to her room, and maybe get back to mine officially having a girlfriend.
“So, what do you think?” I ask Leana, watching as she holds on to a piece of quesadilla, bites into it, and slowly chews. I know she doesn’t hate it. The way she nods while putting a hooked finger up to her mouth tells me that much at least.
“It’s alright.”
“No mames.It’s better than alright. It’s the best quesadilla you’ve ever had in your life.”
Leana’s lip press together, like she’s about to give me some terrible news. Her free hand comes up and shakes back and forth a little, that universal sign forit was so-so. “Mm, top five, maybe.”
“No te creo. You’re messing with me.”
She laughs, putting her plate in between us on the tailgate of my truck bed and switches it for her grapefruit Jarritos. I watch as her lips go to the bottle and, for a second, can’t help the flashbacks that play in my head of what we were up to just before we left her room for our date.
Cálmate, Gabo.
“It’s good,” she tells me. “I promise. Probably the best thing I’ve eaten so far in Corpus. And I’m going to keep coming back just for the Takis and cheese.”
“It’s probably because you got the carnitas. Still great, but you got to try the al pastor next time.”
“Is that what it is?”I give her a playful glare as she grins back at me. “Then let me try your burrito.”
