“Let’s head to the mall and play some arcade games. How does that sound, Brooklyn?”
“Yay! I pway games!”
I head up to the counter to pay the bill as Avery slips coats onto Brooklyn and her. For the first day of November, we had a fairly mild day weather-wise, but tonight, that’s a different story. The temperatures have dipped down in the low thirties already giving the Midwest a taste of what is sure to be an early and long winter this year.
The drive to the arcade doesn’t take us too long. As we walk the mall heading towards the arcade, Avery’s hand in mine and Brooklyn in my arms, we browse at all the different shops doing a little window shopping. Brooklyn points out a pink and purple dress hanging in the window of a children’s store. Avery lingers in the window of the lingerie store checking out sexy night gowns, bra and underwear sets.
“You would look amazing in that black one,” I whisper against her ear.
She gives me a half smile. “You think?”
“Oh, yeah. Fucking hot.” I have to walk away from her because thinking of her wearing that black, lace corset with matching thong panties has me about at full mast in the middle of the busy mall surrounded by families with children. Avery joins us as we continue our leisurely walk towards the arcade. It’s store after store of clothing for women, men, and children, but eventually we come upon a jewelry store. Big sparkling diamond necklaces, earrings, and engagements rings fill the windows. Avery slows down to look which doesn’t freak me out as much as I thought it would have. As Brooklyn sings a song in my arms, I watch Avery’s face light up as she gazes at the exquisite gems.
“They’re so pretty,” she mumbles to no one in particular. I watch her entire face light up when she sees some big, dark brown stone surrounded by smaller diamonds. “That one’s gorgeous!”
My throat tightens and I can’t seem to get words out. The ring is beautiful; breathtaking in all its sparkling glory. Probably does cost two months’ salary like those old commercials used to say. But that ring holds nothing compared to Avery’s beauty.
She straightens up with a big smile on her face and grabs my hand again. We walk side by side to the arcade. As we approach, you can hear the sound of parents everywhere losing all their hard earned money at the hands of their excited kids. We walk inside and Brooklyn points at every machine with their bright lights and loud noises. “I want to pway dat!”
I kiss her on the forehead and set her down. “Stay here with your mom and I’ll go get us some tokens.” It doesn’t take too long at the token machine, and I’m back to my girls before I know it.
“Come on, girls. Let’s play some ski ball.” We head off towards the ski ball games first, but it proves to be too complicated for Brooklyn’s little arms. So we let Brooklyn pick the games from here on out. We play a few arcade games, and a bunch of games that just involve hitting a button to hopefully land tickets. And tickets result in prizes.
An hour and a half and fifty dollars later, we’re heading up to the ticket booth to trade our tickets for prizes. When it’s all said and done, we leave with a plastic tiara and wand set, a decent sized stuffed monkey, and a coloring book with crayons. The smile on Brooklyn’s face is worth every cent, even if the stuff she won wasn’t worth a quarter of the money I spent there.
We’re heading home after our date night, Brooklyn starting to doze in the backseat, when Avery’s phone rings. “Hello?”
“Good. How are you?”
“Yeah, I still want to go. What time are you thinking?” Avery says into the phone. It must be Holly since Avery mentioned earlier they were planning to go shopping on Sunday before family dinner.
“That sounds good. We’ll be ready.”
“Okay, I’ll try to be ready,” her tone dripping with sarcasm.
“See ya then. Bye.”
She ends her call and drops the phone down in her purse. “That was Holly. She wanted to confirm our shopping trip on Sunday.”
“I figured. What time are you girls heading out?”
“Eleven. We’re gonna grab lunch before we hit a few stores.”
I grab a hold of her hand again, stroking the softness on the top of her hand. I continue to watch the road as I flip it over and gently continue to stroke her palm. When I hear her sigh, I bring her palm to my lips, first kissing it several times, and then running my tongue along the lines of her palm. I glance over at her when I hear her gasp; her eyes go wide and dark. I can tell that the touch of my tongue on her hand has turned her on. I focus my attention back on the road as I link our fingers back together and set her hand on my leg.