Chapter 33 33

• Gemma's laugh - the real one, louder and more boisterous than the one she used in the office - was electric to you. She was always a little playful in the office, teasing and smirking, matching wits. But as you both slowly made your way through your beers and roamed the arcade part of the bar, popping a coin in here or there to play the different games, it was like Gemma came to life.
• First, she was weirdly good at games she'd never played before, but terrible at ones that she knew. This obviously frustrated her, but she took it in stride and laughed her ass off as she fumbled classic Pacman, or went 0 and 10 against you in air hockey despite actually trying. Then she crushed you in Street Fighter 2, just mashing buttons, and she was scary good at the games where you aimed a fake gun and shot whatever was flying at the screen. She was even better at the fake hunting ones.
• Eventually, you ended up at the bank of skeeball machines. You both fed a coin into side-by-side machines, and Gemma gave you one of her patented teasing smirks as the music started playing and the lights started flashing. "So, I've got to admit something," she said.