Two Bits

Zoe helps Cash celebrate his birthday at their favorite restaurant

“So is your ex going to stop messaging you or am I going to have to cut a b***h?” Zoe questioned as she banked the puck off of the side of the table, toward Cash’s side, maintaining a tight grip on her paddle. The table clinked and clanked underneath Cash after the puck slid into his goal and dropped to the bottom for him to collect.

“Hold on, hold on,” Cash protested, “The game just tied. No conversation until we’re done here.”  

Zoe stayed leaning over the table, focused, covering her goal with paddle in hand.  “As if I needed the extra motivation,” Zoe sneered.  Cash placed the puck on the table, allowed it to glide slightly toward the center of the table before launching a straight shot right at Zoe’s goal. The puck nicked off of her paddle and squeezed into her goal and could be heard rattling down in the table.  The air from the table top had now turned off but Zoe kept her defensive pose, staring down at the table, wearing a dumbfounded look. “That definitely played out differently in my head,” Zoe admitted. “I hate that sinking feeling of being scored on in this game.  You thrust your arm outward where the puck used to be, just to hear it crash into your goal.  You DO know that we have to rematch, right?” she verified.

“Babe, have you ever lost and then just left it at that?” Cash chuckled.

“Nope, not starting today and I can’t begin to understand how others do it.  You do have a stay of execution though.  What did you tell her?” Zoe stood upright and tilted her head, awaiting a response.

“Tell who?” Cash wondered in a shrug.

“Karen,” Zoe replied, mocking the name of Cash’s ex in a high pitched tone.

“Oh. Nothing. Just told her ‘thanks,’ ” Cash explained.

“She has some nerve messaging you, ‘Happy Birthday’ after everything she did.  What else did she say?”

“That was it.  She didn’t respond and then I blocked her,” Cash recalled.

Zoe responded with a disgusted sound and added, “I wish I could be as chill as you about stuff like that.  She knows what she was trying to do.  I’ve already had some friend requests from suspicious profiles that I’m vain enough to believe are fake profiles she made to stalk me,” Zoe joked.  

Cash grinned, “Maybe, but I’m still wondering why you were going through my phone.”

“I definitely wasn’t! It just went off in front of me and I looked over,” Zoe stammered.

“Uh uh,” Cash nodded playfully in disbelief of her explanation.

“Where are we going next, anyway?” Cash inquired.

“Pretty much wherever you want, birthday boy,” Zoe winked, “I do have plans for us in the evening, but that’s a surprise”.

“Is it sex?” Cash asked. “You can just say sex, babe.”

Zoe was shocked, “What? No.  It’s your birthday! If there’s ONE thing guaranteed it’s sex!” Zoe proudly asserted.  She continued, “Even if it wasn’t your birthday, natural redheads are predicted to be extinct within 100 years.  We have a duty to make more of ME.”

Cash chuckled and hushed Zoe, reminding her they’re in a public place.  “Thanks again for my book, babe,” said Cash.

“Of course, cutie,” Zoe made her way over to Cash and pinched his cheek and added, “Can’t believe you hadn’t read The Devil in the White City with you and your unsettling interest in serial killers.  If you ever decide to take me out, just make it quick.  You can do anything you like, as long as it’s ‘postmortem’.  I don’t want to feel a single thing!” Zoe jokingly warned.

Cash quietly exhaled a burp with his fist up to his mouth, “I’m glad we got those retro burgers,” he acknowledged.

“Right? Good call, love,” Zoe agreed, “those Hawaiian buns!”

“Just tell me what the surprise is! I can’t stand it!” Cash demanded.

“Fine,” Zoe rolled her eyes. “We’re going to the Dyer Observatory, where I may or may not propose to you,” Zoe jested.

“Awesome!” Cash celebrated, “But then tomorrow it’s just going to be all about Zoe again.”

“Awwww.  See? One day the whole world will know that it’s all about ME.  You’re just ahead of the curve,” Zoe leaned upward to kiss Cash before punching in the coin slots on the side of the table to start another game, then asking, “Did you think after all that I’d forget about our rematch?”