As I follow him to the prize counter we receive a lot of stares from passersby who weren't present for his spectacular performance at the basketball shooting game. There are tickets hanging from Mekhi's arms and children eyeball them enviously as these are probably the most tickets they've seen at one time for one person. I make a mental note to give the rest of our tickets to the first two kids we come across so as to spread the arcade wealth and make someone's day a little brighter. Finally arriving to the counter, the associate's eyes bulge as they see the amount of tickets in Mekhi's arms.
"Wow, it looks like you've cleared the machine," the associate says in wonder.
"Two machines actually," Mekhi says smugly and I shake my head.
"Cool, are you the guy that destroyed the basketball shooting game," he asks as he feeds the tickets into a machine.
"Guilty," Mekhi says with a half-smile.
"Wow, what an honor! You remind me of someone I've seen before,�� the associate praises.
"That's interesting, I get that a lot," Mekhi says smoothly.
"Do you play basketball? For you to be able to destroy the machine like that, I imagine you have to be someone popular," the associate scrutinizes.
"I play for fun, I'm no one special. Just a man trying to impress his girl on vacation," Mekhi says and winks at me.
"I understand, you're a lucky man. Your lady is beautiful," the associate says turning his attention to me.
"Thank you," I say humbly.
"Thank you, I dare to say that I'm a lucky man every day that I get to be with her," Mekhi says looking at me with eyes filled with emotion.
"What can I get for you two today? I believe that you can get anything you want with the amount of tickets you have," the associate says spreading his arms to show the prizes along the wall and in the counter case.
"She wants the biggest stuffed animal you have to offer," Mekhi says easily.
"I have a unicorn, bunny, panda, koala, monkey, whale, dinosaur, and dog. Which one do you prefer," the associate asks me.
"Umm, I think I will choose the koala! Koalas are cute right," I turn to say to Mekhi after much deliberation.
"I thought you would pick the unicorn for sure," the associate says before going to the back to get the stuffed animal.
"I thought you would pick the unicorn as well, you surprised me," Mekhi says wrapping an arm around my shoulder and kissing my forehead.
"Well I could put it in the bed with me at my new house so I won't feel so lonely at night," I say to him after thinking for a moment.
"You know I will come over and stay with you, all you have to do is say the word," he says into my ear sending chills down my spine as his warm breath spreads across the side of my face.
"Ahem, here you are," the associate says after clearing his throat presenting a huge clear bag with a three foot koala bear stuffed inside.
"Oh, this is cuter than I expected! It's perfect, thank you," I say after a momentary lapse in reaction.
"Is that everything for you today," the associate asks and Mekhi looks at me.
"Yes, this is all I want," I reply to the associate.
"Then that's everything, thank you sir," Mekhi says stretching out his hand to shake the associate's hand.
"No thank you, you still have a number of tickets left do you want to take them with you," he asks as hands Mekhi the koala bear after shaking his hand.
"What do you want to do with them baby," Mekhi asks me.
"We can take them and give them away," I say firmly.
"Yes ma'am, it looks like we will be taking the remainder of our tickets," Mekhi says.
"Yes sir," the associate says and writes the number of tickets we have left on the ticket he pulled from the feeder.
"Thank you," I say as he hands us the ticket and I place it inside of the ticket bags I still have in hand.
"You're welcome, I hope to see you two again soon," the associate says as he waves to us.
"I think we should head back soon, we've been out long enough and I know you don't want to carry your prize around for the rest of the day," Mekhi says as we walk through the arcade.
"True, let's wait for the others to be finished then we can head back together," I say to him.
"We can see how the next twenty minutes goes and if they're not ready we will go back first," he says reasonably.
"Alright," I concede easily.
"We can give the tickets to those kids over there," he says pointing out three children with their mother.
"Okay," I readily agree and we walk over to them.
"Wow, look at the big koala bear," the only girl says pulling on her older brother's sleeve.
"That is big, I will win one for you Sasha," her brother proudly says poking out his little chest.
"Charlie could you win something for me too," a little boy says who looks like he's barely older than his little sister.
"Yes, I'll win something for you too Thomas," Charlie says.
"Mommy did you hear? Charlie's going to win prizes for me and Thomas," Sasha says with a baby-like voice and pure joy in her eyes.
"Well we can…" their mother begins until Mekhi and I enter her line of vision.
"Hello ma'am, my girlfriend and I would love to give the rest of our tickets to your children if you don't mind," Mekhi says and I nod and wave as he's talking.
"Are you sure," she asks as she scrutinizes our faces.
"Yes, it's fine. We're here on vacation and may not come back here to use them. We would feel so much better giving them away," Mekhi says sweetly.
"Mama if we get those tickets then we all could get a prize," Thomas says tugging on the hem of his mother's shirt.
"Thomas, Charlie will win gifts for us," Sasha says championing for her brother.
"Hi, my name is Lena. What's your name," I say squatting down next to Sasha and sticking out my hand.
"My name is Sasha," she says sticking out her little dimpled hand to shake mine.
"It's nice to meet you Sasha. This big brother and I have already had our fun for today, do you think you could do me a favor and use the rest of these tickets for us," I ask her using my big sister voice.
"What about Charlie? He wants to earn some prizes," she says tilting her cute little head to the side as her clear brown eyes scrutinize me.
"I think we have some tokens left for you guys to have as well. If we give you the tokens will you take the tickets as well," I compromise with her and watch the wheels of her mind work as she scrunches her forehead to think.
"Oh you guys don't have do that! I am grateful for your kindness but we can't ask too much of you," the mother says humbly.
"It's fine ma'am really," I say placating her.
"Okay, it's a deal," Sasha says sticking out her little dimpled hand once more.
"Deal," I say then hand her brothers a bag of tickets and Sasha the pouch full of game tokens.
"Thank you," Charlie says with a grateful smile.
"This is awesome thank you," Thomas says excitedly accepting his bag.
"Thank you big sister Lena," Sasha say taking the token pouch and giving me a quick hug before returning to her brother's side.
"Thank you, Lena and," the mother says unsure of Mekhi's name.
"My name is Mekhi ma'am," he says nodding his head and shaking her hand.
"Thank you Lena and Mekhi, my name is Sharon. I really appreciate what you have done for my children," she says shaking my hand gratefully.
"You are more than welcome, it's our pleasure really," I say humbly and happy that I was able to make someone's day a little better.
"Enjoy the rest of your time here, I hope that we are able to see you again," Sharon says and usher's her kids away from us.
"Bye big sister Lena," Sasha says in her cute little voice.
"Bye Sasha," I say waving to her.
"That made you really happy," Mekhi says wrapping his hands around my waist.
"Yes, I love kids as you know and I love to help when I can," turning my head to look at him.
"I know, it's one of the things I love about you," he says kissing me.
"Just one of the things you love about me? What else do you love," I ask him as my heart drums away in my ears after he kisses me.
"I'll let you know later," he says kissing my forehead once more.
"Okay," I say and he releases me and hold my hand with his free hand and hoists the bag with the koala over his shoulder with the other.
"Are you ready to leave," he asks patiently.
"Yeah we can let the others know that we're headed back," I answer and we walk through the arcade to find our friends.
"Hold on, do you want to take a picture," Mekhi asks pausing and pointing to the photo booth ten feet away from us.
"Yes, I would love to," I say inwardly wondering why I keep saying "love" as I look at where he's pointing.
"Okay," he says pulling me in the direction of the photo booth.
When we get to the photo booth, he pauses to read the instructions and set the koala on the floor next to it. Shortly after, he takes out his wallet and puts a few bills into the money slot and pulls me inside. Inside the booth we look at all the different designs offered for the photo strips, we pick a silly strip first and prepare to take pictures. First, I'm a little nervous but I quickly warm up when Mekhi unleashes a tickle attack and I loosen up immediately. We make silly faces for the remainder four pictures, then pick a different themed photo strip for a new round of pictures. We take pictures for about twenty minutes and only then do I realize that Mekhi must have inserted a significant amount of money for the amount of pictures we have taken. The last pictures are a little spicy, but I love them. We exit the booth and look at all of the pictures we took.
"Are you guys ready to head back," I hear Rylie's voice say from behind me and I look to see Mekhi talking to Isaiah.
"Yeah, we were actually looking for you guys before we got side tracked by this photo booth," I reply to her with a handful of picture strips.
"I don't want to walk back," Naomi says with her own stuffed animals.
"You got that big koala," Nova asks looking at the koala in the bag.
"Yeah," I admit guiltily.
"I don't think any of us are up for walking back. Otherwise how will we party tonight," Melissa says.
"We can take the boardwalk trolley back," Susu says and we all readily agree.
After making sure we have everything we leave the arcade and go back out onto the boardwalk hoping for an empty trolley to stop so that we all could go back at the same time. The first two trollies are full, but the third is fairly empty so we all load onto it. It doesn't take long for us to get back to our hotel. We thank and tip our driver before we take our prizes and tired bodies into the hotel. I stretch in the middle of walking and everyone besides Mekhi continue to the elevators. As I stretch, I notice Jerry entering the lobby and giving Mekhi a quick nod before nodding to another guy that I paid no attention to.