I had texted Renee and asked her to meet me back at the fire pit. I got there first and waited for her. When I saw her coming, she had changed shirts. Instead of her Ace Savvy shirt, she was wearing a bright red tank top that, quite frankly, did a great job showing off her boobs. My god, those boobs! They were like the size of bowling balls with little freckles on them and they bounced with each step she took. I had to take my eyes away and look her in the face. I had a real shot with a smoking hot girl who loves Ace as much as I do and I didn't wanna blow it just because I happened to notice that she has big boobs.

Then again, if she didn't want me to notice, would she have changed shirts like that? Maybe she did it as an excuse to flirt with me. Nah, it must just be because she was hot. Right? Either way, I had to play it safe and look her in the eyes.

"Hey, Lincoln," she said as she waved and smiled at me.

"Hi, Renee. I'm so glad you decided to come."

"Me too."

"So what do you wanna do? I mean, we could just sit here and talk. Unless you had something else in mind?"

"Actually, that's kinda boring. I was thinking we could play a little game."

"A game? What kind of game?"

"Think of it as a game of tag, except with a twist." She bent over and looked at me playfully. I snuck a quick glance down her shirt and looked back at her face. "I'm gonna run and if you can catch me, I'll answer one question for you. Anything you wanna know."

"Anything?"

"Anything! What do you say?"

The idea did sound like fun. I'm not a very fast runner, but I thought 'Hey, maybe all I need is the right motivation. And she is some pretty great motivation.' So I decided to go for it.

"Okay. I'm in," I said.

"Great. Now on the count of three… ONETWOTHREEGO!" And just like that, she was off like a rocket.

"What?! Hey, no fair!" I called out as I raced after her.

I kept a sharp eye on Renee as I started to think about what question I would ask her if I managed to catch her. I was expecting to get to know her through conversation, but if I only got one question, I had to make it count. Maybe I could ask her if she had a big family like me. That would be a pretty good thing to have in common. Or I could ask her what her favorite song is. That's the kind of thing a boyfriend should know, right? Should I even be thinking like that yet?

I could ask her why she wanted to play this game in the first place. Or would that be wasting my question? I could ask if she'd had any boyfriends before. Someone as attractive as her must've at least gotten offers from time to time. So what could've made her say yes to me? Was it my charm? My wit? My smoothness? My raw sex appeal? Or just the fact that we both happened to love the same comic series?

As I lost myself in my train of thought, I realized that I had lost sight of Renee. I took a moment to catch my breath as I looked around for her. Then I heard a loud whistle and saw her waving to me from behind one of the buildings. "Over here, slowpoke!" she taunted. "Come on! You're not getting winded already, are you?"

"In your dreams!" I shot back. I took off after her again and she ran into the forest. I really had to step up my game now. If she thought I was gonna let her get away that easily, she had another thing coming.

Renee tried to shake me by swerving through the trees, but I stayed hot on her tail. There was no way I was gonna let a sexy babe like her slip through my fingers. She was slowing down. I was finally starting to catch up to her. All I had to do was reach out and- "AAHH!"

She jumped just out of my reach and made me fall face first into a ditch. I laid there for a minute as I waited for the pain to subside. I heard Renee call to me and ask if I was okay. I was banged up, but otherwise, I didn't feel too bad. I looked up and saw that she had landed safely on the other side. Well played, Renee.

I got up and started to chase after her again, but then suddenly, my foot landed in a hole. I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck tight. I called out for help and Renee came running back.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"My foot is stuck in this hole. I can't get it out."

"Okay, hang on. Give me your hand and I'll pull you out." I did what she told me and grabbed her arm with both hands. "On a count of three. One, two, three!" I held on tight as she pulled on my arm with all her might. I pulled on my own leg as hard as I could until finally, my foot popped out of the hole. The force knocked both of us over and we fell into the dust.

My hand landed on some kind of rock. It was really soft, and squishy. Wait a minute. Rocks aren't squishy. I turned my head around to see what it really was. I swear, my face was so hot that I could actually feel steam coming out of my nose and ears.

Not a rock… A BOOB!

I wiggled away as fast as I could. 'WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO, YOU CLUMSY IDIOT?! NOW SHE THINKS YOUR A TOTAL PERVERT! BRAVO GENIUS, BRAVO!'

Renee didn't scream or yell or anything. She just kinda sat there curled up, staring at me. Her face was pretty red, but it didn't look nearly as hot as mine felt.

"I'm sorry! I am SO sorry! I did NOT mean to do that! I swear, I thought it was a rock! I just… oh man!" I hid my face in my hands. I thought for sure it was all over for me.

"Well… I guess this means you caught me," she said with an awkward chuckle.

I lifted my head up. That wasn't what I was expecting to hear. Why wasn't she yelling me? For God's sake, I just GROPED her! She stood up and gave me her hand.

"Come on. It was just an accident. Don't beat yourself up about it. How's your foot feeling?"

I stood up, testing my weight on my right foot. "Uh, it feels fine to me."

"Good. I'm glad you're okay. I'm sorry I got you stuck in that hole." she said with an apologetic smile. "So, now that you've caught me… what's your question?"

I'd been thinking long and hard about what to ask her. There were so many things I wanted to know. But then I realized the one thing I wanted to know more than anything. So that's what I decided to ask.

"Do you like me?"

"Huh?"

"Do you really like me, or have you just been toying with me this whole time?" I can see she's kind of confused. "Because I really like you and I need to know if this is real or not."

She doesn't say anything at first. Just watches me like she's trying to process what I just said. Then she smiles and, to my surprise, reaches up and kisses me on my cheek.

I just stood there, wide-eyed and stunned. The feeling of her lips on my face was so warm and pleasant that I never wanted it to stop. Plus, I could smell her shampoo in her hair and it was absolutely blissful. Then the kiss ended and she looked at me again.

"Of course I like you, Lincoln. You're sweet, funny, clever and you're so much fun to hang out with. You're also really cute."

She winked at me and my face turned red again. No girl had ever called me cute before.

"I wanted to play this game with you because I thought it would be a fun way to see how far you were actually willing to go for me. I knew that if I only gave you one question and then made you work for it just to get it answered, you'd do one of two things. You'd either decide it wasn't worth it and give up, or you'd go all the way until you actually caught me. I'm not interested in wasting my time with some guy who's just gonna lead me on until he gets what he wants, but the fact that you didn't quit means that you really care about me and wanna get to know me."

"I do! I do want to get to know you! I wanna know everything about you so I can make you happy." And I meant it. I was impressed that she came up with something like that. She really is a clever, fascinating girl. Almost as clever as me. Almost!

Then she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me again. This time on the lips.