Page 104 of Moonlight Hearts

“Sounds good to me.”

“But—” He reeled me in, prompting a stare from a mom of three who’d rolled out all her pinkest and fluffiest outfits to impress.Soyer caught her eye.He pressed a sweet kiss to my lips.“This is no way to bargain, my heart.”She grimaced, and Soyer looked directly at her and told her, “Careful, your face might freeze that way.”

That pissed off the woman even more, but by the time she had roused her husband, we were already past them.I looked back at him, and there was no vitriol in his gaze, just discomfort and surrender.

“People will people,” I said.

“Which is why I generally say, fuck them.Now, about your non-applicable bargaining skills—”

“All I want is the same rules for you.I think you got lucky when you got Oboe.Or do you think that’s your spirit animal, a giraffe?”

He raised his eyebrow at me.“I don’t get lucky.Except for you.You are the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.Be that as it may, I’ll accept your challenge.”

I clapped my gloved hands.“Do you have coins?”

The arcade wasn’t as empty as it had been the first time we’d come here, but the few people in there were all older, pretty quiet and minding their own business, not that it really mattered with the music coming from all the machines.

Soyer led me around the maze of games, some of which were surely vintage.They were well loved too, the color here and there no longer as bright, the joysticks showing edges smoothed out with use.Still, everything was running.

“It’s strange to think that you had to go to an arcade to play video games back then,” I mumbled, but Soyer heard.

“You could do a lot more at an arcade than play video games, but how would you know that?You missed out on a lot of fun.I think you’d have enjoyed it.”

I realized then that it wasn’t just me who got nostalgic.Soyer did too.But, like with so many things, he hid it better.

“Soyer?”

“Hmm?”

“How do you do it?Always move with the times?How do you go from playing—” I pointed, reading the first machine’s name I saw.“—Froggerto using all the right emojis?”

“Ah.It’s good to know you enjoy it when I text you things.”

His tone of voice made it pretty clear what he was talking about, and it wasn’t the innocent texts.

“That was… Yes.I do.”

He glanced at me before leading me around another turn.There was a counter here, glass encased and with only a small, window-like opening.An older man in glasses sat in the chair behind it, reading a dog-eared horror novel.His dark blue woolen cap was worn and had a small hole in it right above his left temple.He looked up.

“Ah.Shuck.A long time.”

I couldn’t place the accent exactly.Maybe it was Italian, but it wasn’t pronounced enough for me to really tell.

“Yes.This one is new to the many entertainments to be had here.We’ll need coins.”

Soyer handed the man a bill.I couldn’t see how much it was, but the man took it and left through a narrow door behind him.A few moments later, he came back with two large soda cups that had red and white swirls on them and were full of coins.

“There you go.If you want something different, there’s a few new custom games behind the curtain.”

Soyer nodded.“Thank you.”

He handed me one of the soda cups, and we continued on our way through the maze.I did look back at the man.He was watching us, and he gave me a small nod as if he were happy to see me, or satisfied maybe.

“It’s about attachment,” Soyer said out of nowhere when we got to the crane machines.It was brighter here, almost like a zoo of stuffed animals and funny fantasy creatures.

“Huh?”

“You asked a good question.About moving with time.It’s important, but I think you’ll be good at it.”