Accidental Christmas Miracle

36.

Christi

The next place was Boards 'n' Books, which is a mixture between a bookstore and a place with games--board games, card games, etc.

We walked in, instantly being greeted by the warmth of the place. In both ways.

First, it was actually warm in the store, cause you know, it was still winter outside and the winters here tend to get cold enough for snow. Then, the other way was that it was so inviting and warm.

"Oh my god. This place is so cute!" She squealed, jumping up and down a bit.

"Just like you." I winked at her, grinning as she blushed.

"So," She quickly turned away from me, as if she was trying to make sure that I didn't see her blush but it was too late. "What game do you wanna play?"

I shrugged. "Which one do you want to play?"

I immediately regretted ever saying those words when she beat me at chess for the third time in a row.

"How are you so good at this?!" I asked her, frustrated at not winning. "I swear this is rigged," I muttered.

She just sat there grinning at me. "It's all in here." She tapped her temple.

I huffed at that answer. "Let's play a different game. I don't like this game." I told her.

"You aren't a sore loser, are you?" She asked me, giving me a smirk.

I faked a laugh. "What? Me? Never." I said, waving my hand at her. I stood up, stretching my legs and looking around for another game.

"How about-?" I started to suggest but when I turned to look at Miracle, she was gone. After looking around a little more than frantically, I quickly located her.

She was putting away the chess game. Okay, I probably should've thought of that as I was literally just talking about changing games but I didn't.

She studied the games for a minute before choosing one--that one being just a deck of cards but apparently it was a difficult decision to pick between the ten plus decks of playing cards.

"You got the one you wanted?" I asked her when she came back over.

"Huh?"

"The deck of playing cards." I clarified. "Did you get the deck you wanted?"

"Oh, yeah. Why?" She asked as she took the cards out of the box or whatever it was.

"No particular reason other than you seemed to take a while contemplating which deck to grab." I told her.

"That was 'cause there were multiple colors." She held up one of the cards that was part of our deck of cards. It was a dark blue. "This is the choice I finally got." She explained.

"Ah, gotcha. What game are we playing?" I inquired of her.

"Have you ever heard of Slapjack?"

I scoffed. "Have I ever heard of it? Of course I've heard it! I'm the family champion of Slapjack." I paused. "Well, I'm the second best if you include Gabe."

"Really? Gabriel's the best out of everyone in your house?" Miracle asked, almost surprised.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" I asked her. "He has pretty good reflexes."

She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I didn't think he'd be interested in a game like that." She told me.

That was understandable. Gabe comes off to people as a smart kid who only liked logical things--which I guess he was to an extent--but he was much more than that. He loved card games, especially slapjack.

Now that may be due to the fact that he won a lot but still. I told Miracle this.

She then grinned, "Well, I hope he trained you well because I just so happen to be the slapjack champion in my family." Her eyes glimmered with a competitive gleam.

I found myself grinning back. "We'll see who's really the champion." That being said and the game having been set up, we started.

I cheered when I was winning and then whined when I started losing. What can I say? I like winning.

In the end--after three rounds of slapjack since we decided we would do best out of three--Miracle won.

I sighed. I was doing terribly at these games. First, I lost at chess and then I lost at slapjack. However, on the bright side, Miracle looked like she was really enjoying herself, which made me happy--even if I lost games to her.

She gave me a smug grin. "Guess we know who the champion is, don't we?"

I pouted. "I think you're cheating somehow," I proclaimed. "Like, picking games that you're extremely skilled in playing where my playing abilities have no chance in helping me succeed."

She raised her eyebrow. "Is this your way of saying that I'm really good at chess and slapjack but you don't want to admit it because of your game pride?"

I said nothing,

"Well, in that case, compliment accepted but you're a great player. I'm just, you know," She shrugged. "A better player than you." She grinned at me cheekily.

"Sure. Whatever makes you sleep at night." I told her, even though she was completely right in saying that she was a better player than I.

"Sorry, my memory's a bit foggy but if I remember correctly, I beat you with the last two games, yes?"

To that I asked, "How about we get lunch?"

She laughed. "'I'll let you hook off the hook for now but.." She looked at the time. "It's almost twelve thirty already?!"  She exclaimed.

Several people looked our way, making me shush her.

"If you're going to yell something loudly, could you do it a bit quieter?" I asked her, putting the cards back into their box--which we hadn't done yet.

She laughed, then gave me a funny look. "That doesn't even make sense."

"You just realize that I don't tend to make sense?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.

She sighed, making me grin.

I stood up and handed her the deck of cards that were finally back in their box. "Put these back and meet me by the door." I told her, before heading towards the door to wait for her.