Lost in the crowds gathered on the beach on the last weekend of summer, Damon and I were finally free to do whatever we wanted, in public. It was blissful. Of course, we couldn't just totally start making out. That would create one too many stares. But hand holding was perfectly okay. Here, with all the other couples walking up and down the pier, it just seemed natural.
"I am going to win you something," Damon said, looking down at me. Dozens of other couple shifted by us without even recognizing us or anything we were doing – the way we held our hands or stared at each other. It was just people walking around on a pier that stretched out into the lake. No one cared and it was amazing.
"You already did," I laughed. "Remember that Grammy we won ? for our duet " It has been just four months since the win, but it felt like a lifetime ago that we were running ourselves to exhaustion with flights and singing.
"Nothing is ever enough for you, babe," he whispered back, kissing the top of my head. "Now, where should we go first?"
Damon looked around at all the booths with their blinking lights and stuffed animals hanging from the top of the tents. He pulled me down the end of the pier to a red and white striped booth where a man dressed in bright red and green suspenders stood, waiting for the beginnings of a crowd to form. We stepped right up and Damon threw down his money, earning him six plastic rings in bright colors.
"Now all you need to do, sir, is just throw those up onto any of these colored pegs. You need three of the same color to win," he explained. The board was filled mostly with plain white pegs, but there were a couple of colored ones.
"Don't worry, I've got this," Damon said, laughing.
"You obviously don't have much experience with fair games," I watched him. He lined up and threw, landing on one of the plain colored.
And again…plain.
Finally, he got one on a green peg. The other two matching were much farther away and on different sides.
A red peg. He only had two rings left and they both had to land on either green or red.
One landed on blue and the other on white.
"Sorry! Try again?" The man behind the booth offered. Damon scoffed, clearly upset with his lack of winnings. He threw another dollar on the counter and another six rings were handed his way.
No luck this time either – an assortment of colors that didn't match. He did match two blue pegs though at the very end, probably on accident. Every time a game ended, the man kept baiting for more money, and Damon, unable to back down from a challenge, kept paying forward.
There was a line gaining behind us, some more couples and families, and it was getting a little darker. I pulled at his arm, indicating that it was almost time to go.
"C'mon Damon. We still have a whole pier left to discover. And aren't you almost out of money?" I asked. He sighed, waving at the man that he would take no more, and left the booth. We walked back out to the middle of the pier, but Damon looked as frustrated as ever.
"We are playing something else," he said, speed walking over to another booth. There was a wall of colored balloons and throwing pins. Of course, another game that was impossible to win. Having grown up surrounded by these types of games as the only source of weekend entertainment, I understood how these worked. They were engineered to make people like him keep paying all night.
More money was exchanged; the rules were explained to match three colors; and the game started again – much in the same manner as the last time. I stood by his side, watching as an assortment of balloons popped, but no game winning combination.
"Why are these games so hard?" Damon said after three more rounds of the balloon game, running his hand through his hair. He popped plenty of balloons, but none in the right colors.
"Here," I said, pushing him to the side and pulling out a dollar from my wallet. "I'll do it this time and I'll prove that these games are impossible to beat."
The lady behind the counter seemed a little entertained by our competition and handed me the five darts with a smile. I lined up with the first blue balloon and hit it right on the dot. The next blue one was a little bit to the left and down. I hit that one too. When I looked at Damon' upset and impressed expression, all I could do was giggle.
Of course, now I almost had to win. I lined up to the very top right of the board and hit the third balloon. The lights went off and the lady handed me a huge stuffed green turtle, roughly the size of me. We stepped over to the side of the booth as I handed Damon the turtle.
"Here you can have it," I laughed. He was unable to get that look off his face, just pure disbelief that I did it on my first try. I kept laughing as I shoved the turtle in his arms and his smile grew across his face.
"How did that even happen?" he muttered, clutching the turtle in one hand, still in utter disbelief. I laughed and walked back to the ring toss booth.
"Well, now let's see if we can get a fish friend for that turtle," I laughed as he shook his head and followed me back down the pier, the sun setting and the bright, colorful lights glowing all around us.