As we moved deeper and deeper into the crowd, the noise level around us increased tenfold. A group of kids whizzed by us, leaving bursts of laughter in their wake.

The carnival workers shouted the names of their games and advertised how easy it was to win one of the big stuffed animal prizes they held up.

King stopped at a game where the goal was to shoot water from a gun into a hippo’s mouth in order to move the baby hippo up the ladder. Whoever shot their gun the steadiest and moved their baby hippo to the top the fastest was the winner.

“You in?”

“I’m so in,” I answered, barely able to contain my excitement. I bounced up on the balls of my feet.

“Two,” King said He removed a money clip from his pocket and plucked out a few bills, handing it to the man controlling the game. King took a seat on one of the ripped leather stools, and I took a seat a few stools down.

“Afraid to sit next to me?” King asked.

“No, but you’re huge and these stools are small. I don’t want to bump into your arm and lose just because you haven’t missed a workout in three years.” I closed one eye and readied my water gun.

King shook his head, “That mouth of yours,” he said. There are several ways I could have taken that statement, but I didn’t have time to think about it because I had a game to win.

“I’m warning you. I’m really good at this game,” King said to me.

Was he being playful?

“Competitive, are we?” I asked, keeping my focus straight ahead at the bulls-eye.

“Oh, pup. You have no idea.”

The bell rang, and the carnie shouted, “GO!”

I squeezed the trigger. Water sprayed out of my gun and directly onto the target. My little hippo shot up the ladder, and just as quickly as it had started, the game was over. I looked over to King who was sitting back smiling. What was he smiling over? I was the one who won.

“Winner! Winner!” the Carni shouted He unclipped a huge stuffed deer from the top of the tent and handed it to King, who received the prize and then started to walk away.

He’d won? How was that possible?

“Hey!” I shouted, chasing after him. “Why did you get the prize? I won. My hippo was so far ahead of yours that I didn’t even see yours move.” King stopped.

“Pup, you didn’t see my hippo move because I was done before you even began.” He was smiling. A genuine, real–life, swoon-worthy smile that reached his eyes. It was a good look on him.

No, it was a GREAT look on him.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I shouted.

“Competitive, are we?” King asked, mocking me. “I told you I was good at that game.”

King seemed like any other young man who was taking a girl out on a date. Well, any other six-foot-something tattooed wall of muscle who looked like he could be an underwear model.

I liked playful King.

I liked him a lot.

“You must have played that game before,” I pouted. “Unfair advantage.”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that. This carnival has come here every year since I was a kid. Preppy and I used to sneak in the back. Over there.” King pointed toward a gate in a chain-link fence with a huge padlock keeping it shut. “We’d steal corn dogs from the food stands, right out of the fryer. Although the padlock happened only after they found out how we were getting in.”

I knew Preppy and King were best friends, but this was the first time I’d ever heard any stories from their childhood together.

“I tell you what,” King started. “Since this is a date and all, and guys usually give their dates their prizes, I will let you have my deer.” He held out the stuffed animal.

I didn’t know if he was toying with me. If I didn’t know how to handle ornery King, I certainly didn’t know how to handle nice and playful King.

I snatched it out of his hands like he was going to reconsider his offer, and I tucked it tightly under my arm. King laughed.

“What’s so funny now?” I asked.

“Doe…holding a doe.” Okay, he’d got me on that one. I held my hand over my mouth to contain my laughter.

For the next few hours, we played every single game the place had to offer.

I won none of them.

King made a point of handing me each of his prizes. Soon, I ran out of arm space to carry them all.

“I don’t think we can play anymore,” I told him, gesturing to the huge stack of cheap toys up to my chin.

The bell sounded for one of the games, and I was just about to walk away when King stopped me. “No, wait a sec.”

We watched as a tiny boy tried three times to win a prize against two much older teenagers. After a minute the boy’s dad pulled him aside. “That’s enough, Sam. We can try again another time.”

“But I wanted the stuffed alligator,” the boy complained.

“You’ll get it. Maybe, next year when you’re a little bit bigger.” The dad smiled.

King plucked a stuffed penguin from my arms and approached the boy and his father who were walking away from the game, the boy’s bottom lip set in a pout. Tears welling up in his eyes.

“Excuse me,” King said, getting their attention. The father looked alarmed and pulled his son into his leg.

King ignored the dad’s reaction and bent down to the boy, holding out the penguin. “I know it’s not an alligator, but penguins are just as cool. As a matter of fact, they’re cooler. They live in the snow, and they’re the only bird that doesn’t fly. Did you know that?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” the boy said, with a thumb in his mouth.

“They also slide around on their bellies on the ice.”

“Cooool,” the boy said, staring at the penguin.

“Now, you take good care of him, okay?” The boy nodded and took the penguin.

“Thank you.” The boy’s dad mouthed to King.

He nodded, and they disappeared into the crowd.

King made his way back to me. “You’re up next,” he said as he approached.

We stood behind the games and gave out my prizes to kids who lost their games one by one until all I had left was the deer King had given me first.

We ate cotton candy. We ate corn dogs. We ate fried Oreos. We laughed like kids. We rode a gravity ride that locked you to the sides as it spun, and for ten minutes afterwards, I thought all the food was going to come back up.

“Here,” King said, pushing a cup in front of me. “Grace says that a ginger ale is the best cure for an upset stomach.”

I slowly sipped the bubbly drink, and I started to feel better almost instantly. King grabbed my cup and walked a few steps to toss it in the trash when I noticed a nearby woman ogling him.

I looked around, and it seemed like every woman at the fair, whether she was with a man or not, was undressing King with her eyes.

“Do they all have to do that?” I muttered under my breath.

“Does all who have to do what?” King asked.

“Do all the women have to look at you like they want to jump your bones?” I scoffed.

King put an arm around me. His lips brushed my ear when he whispered, “Unlike some people, they aren’t hiding what they want.” I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn’t find the words. “It’s cute that you’re jealous though.”

“I’m not—”

“Time for the Ferris wheel,” King announced. It was getting late, and the crowd had thinned.

“Why did we save it for last?” I asked.

“Because it’s the best part,” King said. “You always save the best for last.”

King helped me into the squeaky cart while the carnival worker closed the little door to the bucket. There was barely enough room on the seat for the two of us. When I shoved my deer between us, King picked it up and handed it to the carnie, along with a bill from his pocket. “Take care of this for me until we get down will ya?”

“Sure thing, man!” He set the deer on the chair next to the ride’s control panel.

King rested his arm on the back of the seat over my shoulder.

Then, we were lifting up into the air. Higher and higher we rose, stopping every so often to allow for other riders to board. Once we were almost at the top, we started to move more fluidly. Round and round we went, watching the city lights beneath us flicker and glow.