Five Over Par... Chapter Two: Glow-in-the-Dark Lies
The ongoing adventures of Matt and Nikki continue
Nikki cheated on hole three.
It was the kind of cheating that would have embarrassed a raccoon, assuming the raccoon had any sporting honour.
Her ball rolled past the cup, bumped a fluorescent asteroid, and came to rest against the base of a three-eyed moon creature. Nikki glanced at Matt, then nudged the ball with the toe of her boot.
Matt folded his arms.
She looked up. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re making an accusation with your eyebrows.”
“My eyebrows are disappointed, yes.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Matt pointed at the ball. “That moved.”
“Gravity.”
“Sideways?”
“Space gravity.”
He stared at her. She stared back with the confidence of a woman prepared to lie in court.
Finally, he nodded. “Fine. Space gravity. Put me down for a stroke of emotional damage.”
Nikki smiled, bent over the ball, and sank the shot. It should have been ridiculous. It was ridiculous. That was the problem.
She had expected drinks somewhere sleek, or dinner at a place with napkins folded like tiny judgmental swans. She had expected polish. Performance. The usual choreography of a man trying to impress her hard enough that she’d forget to notice the effort.
Instead, Matt had brought her here.
To blacklight carpet. To plastic aliens and a fake volcano that rumbled every three minutes with all the menace of an upset dishwasher.
And somehow, annoyingly, it was working.
By hole six, they had invented an entire mythology around Kevin the alien. By hole seven, Nikki was laughing so hard she missed a two-foot putt. By hole eight, Matt stood behind her, not touching, just close enough that she could feel the warmth of him through the space between them.
“Lower your shoulder,” he said.
“I know how to putt.”
“You’re aiming at Saturn.”
“Saturn had it coming.”
He laughed softly. And Nikki realized she liked the sound far more than she wanted to.
Love it!