Helplessly in Love: A Taylor Lautner Love Story

Chapter Twenty-Two - Memories

My morning consisted of sweeping floors, cleaning tables, and stocking the vending machines before we actually got some business this afternoon. In a way, I was glad. We had no customers, so it was basically just a staff party for the most part. I was also glad that Patrick seemed to be in a better mood now since he’d moved me to assistant manager. I wondered why that was.

I debated on whether or not to start my own game of bowling. There were no people here, and the alley was basically dead. A little fun wouldn’t kill anybody. 

“You wanna bowl?” I ask Ryan shyly as he polishes a pair of shoes. He looks up at me immediately with a twinkle in his intense blue eyes, a smile played on his lips. 

“Seriously?” he asks, his voice high from excitement. I nod with a smile as he stands up, rolling his shoulders and smiling widely. “Now just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean I’m going to take it easy on you.”

“Great. I could use a good challenge,” I tease. He shakes his head playfully and starts fitting his fingers for a ball. I do the same, a smile never leaves my face.

“Do you want to set it up?” he asks, practicing his swing.

“Sure,” I say, heading over to program our names for one game. “Alright, it’s all ready to go,” I say, peering over my shoulder to glance at Patrick’s office door, relieved that it’s closed. I hope he stays in there for the duration of this game. When I turn back around, Sarah is glowering at me. A few other employees are also watching us, for lack of anything better to do.

“Ladies first,” he offers, raising a thick eyebrow. I narrow my eyes and head up to the lane with my hot pink bowling bowl, and end up scoring a strike.

“Your turn,” I say breezily, heading over to take a seat. I see the competitiveness in his eyes, accepting the challenge I’m presenting him with. 

He carefully bowls, the ball moving blindingly fast down the lane and only hitting four pins. My eyes pop out of my head and I try to keep from laughing out loud. He doesn’t look worried as he retrieves his ball again, carefully taking his second turn, and hitting all the remaining pins. 

“That’s how it’s done,” he says with a cocky grin, taking a seat next to me. I roll my eyes and take my turn, hitting all the pins once again with precision. When I turn back around, he is staring at me, dumbfounded. 

“Correction: That’s how it’s done,” I say with a wink, a smug smile on my lips. 

He shakes his head defiantly and takes both his turns, only hitting seven pins total. This was too much fun.

So the game went on in this fashion with my smugness growing while Ryan became more irritated and angry with each turn. I saw the determination in his eyes every time he was up, only to turn into confusion when he wouldn’t make a strike, and I’d end up hitting every single pin, every time.

“You cheated,” he accused when we were through.

“What?!” I exclaimed.

“You heard me. You cheated,” he says again, smiling playfully.

“I won fair and square, you know it,” I say, heading back to my counter. He’s quiet for a moment, taking it in.

“How’d you get so good?” he asks, as if I have a secret method. I don't.

“It’s a long story,” I say, not really wanting to go into detail. He motions a hand around us, referring to the empty, lifeless bowling alley.

“I think I’ve got time,” he says while hopping up on my counter, looking down at me with a twinkle in his light, electric blue eyes. I found myself looking at them longer than I should’ve, and snapped out of it almost immediately.