Looking calmly at Cesar, Arthur waved his left hand. He had just swallowed a piece of cake and said, "Oh, wassup?"
All he got was a cold look from Cesar.
"What a graceless face. But hey, was the food good? By the time it took you, you must have eaten a lot!" Arthur spared no space for Cesar to have any dignity.
He actually wanted to say more, but Emily patted his leg under the table, and Arthur saw that she was holding back her laughter. As someone who was part of the plot, she knew what he was talking about.
He also noticed that she left her hand on his leg a little longer before pulling it away, but he just smiled at that.
"We ended up getting lost and went up here. Since you were with your friends, we thought it was fine." Emily was quick to give Cesar an answer. She was feeling a little guilty, so she spoke up. But it was precisely that guilt that made her want to laugh at the situation.
"It's okay, since I found you! Have you finished eating? We could go to the games ro-" Cesar managed to control himself and decided to ignore Arthur. As it was Emily who spoke to him, he felt confident and even looked at Arthur condescendingly.
"We still haven't eaten. We ordered and stared at the plates and can you believe the food started to disappear? I'm really shocked by these things!" Arthur interrupted Cesar with a sarcastic comment. Their plates were all empty and Arthur ate the last piece. This guy thought they ordered a buffet? Stupid questions, rude answers, simple dialectics.
A knee squeeze later and Arthur realized that Emily was already red from holding on. Sara and Madison also had small tears, but they were composed. This time, Emily's hand remained on Arthur's knee, as if ready to squeeze again.
Deciding to ignore the extremely angry Cesar who could hit him at any moment, Arthur blatantly asked, "Do you guys want to go to the game room? I hear it was great!"
He had already got up and, as he had already paid the bill, he just called one of the attendants to signal that they had already eaten. If there was one thing he hated about working at the kioske, it was that there were a few people who always ate and left, while he was too busy to notice the dirty table. Sometimes lazy Silva helped, but then he stopped.
"Do you want anything else to eat on the way?" Arthur asked as he looked at them.
"No need, i'm full for now." Sara replied as she took another look around. The store was really delicate inside.
"I think I'll have a latte." Madison spoke up after some more consideration.
"Will you want anything?" Arthur asked Emily, as she was silent. He looked at her and saw that she was looking at the giant menu on the wall. Her hands were clasped behind her back and her feet were crossed. Her white teeth were lightly biting her red lips, the almond-colored eyes bright.
'Okay, fuck it. What the fuck was I thinking when that girl dumped me? Look at this! Okay, okay, I think I got too carried away...' Arthur's thoughts raced to when he felt his heart break earlier with Patricia. But who can control the one day no-strings-attached relationship of a young man in love? Childishness has gone into space.
Now, seeing how beautiful Emily is, Arthur really was feeling some turmoil in his heart. Not to mention that she was not only beautiful, but intelligent, hardworking and had a great personality.
But nothing a cold and strong young man couldn't control to not look like Cesar right now.
His eyes were glued to Emily, with obvious desire in his eyes. His hands were constantly squeezing and his mouth would open at times. But he soon recovered, with even Arthur's anger fading. Until he saw the object of his hate meet the object of his love.
"Really, there are many options to consider... could it be the strawberry one? I was thinking of asking one to me too." Arthur pointed to a name on the list. 'Strawberry Frappuccino Blended Beverage. Apparently this store tried to copy from Starbucks, I remember seeing something like this.'
"Oh, can be this one!" Emily's eyes lit up as she saw the image together. 'He's obviously already figured out that I like strawberry, and he's only asking for the same as mine! He is so cute!' She looked at Arthur beside her, her heart pounding. When she saw him stare back, her heart nearly leapt out of her mouth and she looked away, blushing.
Arthur went to the counter again with a friendly smile and asked for the girls' and his. Money wasn't an issue anyway, and since he had legs, he didn't mind doing some things for such beautiful girls.
They waited a while and the order was finally ready. Cesar didn't ask for anything, with some excuse that he was lactose intolerant and wasn't on his diet to drink coffee.
Arthur even went back to the counter to order him a glass of latte, drawing some extra laughs from the girls. Cesar obviously didn't like it, and his anger was already almost puffing out of his ears.
The four, along with one more nuisance, headed for the games room. As Arthur had no idea where it was, he didn't dare stand in front of the group. Cesar saw this as an opportunity and stayed ahead so he could show off a bit.
Arthur was by Emily's side the entire time, and as much as Cesar hated it, he couldn't show it, as it would look desperate. 'He just had more chances, that's why he's like this with her!' He thought this to comfort himself.
As soon as they reached the game room, Arthur walked up to Cesar, put some money in his hand and patted his shoulder. The girls had already entered and were seeing the giant place, and they were the only ones at the door.
"Thanks for everything, now you can go! Go Go. Don't spend it on drugs!" Arthur then headed towards where the girls were. But before he could go, a hand went to his collar in fury.
"Get back here you piece of shit!" Cesar couldn't take it anymore and exploded at Arthur. He still kept his voice low so the girls wouldn't hear.
Arthur just pushed his hand to the side before grabbing Cesar's collar as well. His eyes were sharp and looked deep into Cesar's eyes. The smile on his face disappeared, revealing the anger he was feeling.
"Look here, you shit! I don't care what the fuck you're doing here, and I don't even care about you. But if you want to play the tough and rich papi's son on my side, I'll give you a tip: Reconsider." Arthur then pushed Cesar back. He almost lost his balance, but with an awkward movement, he managed to get to his feet. "And there's something else. If you think I'm playing some game with you to see who gets Emily, then you're very wrong. Your vision of a woman is truly frightening."
After saying these things, Arthur soon returned with his smile when he saw the girls in front of a game machine. It was stressful dealing with these crybaby boys, but it was worth it for him to have fun.
Cesar just stood at the door as he glared at Arthur's back. He really let his guard down now, leaving Arthur with the upper hand. Arthur's warning didn't frighten him, but it only put a fighting spirit on him. He realized that Arthur was strong and he was competing for Emily.
'You may have won now, but tonight I'll still get what I want, and I'll humiliate you in front of everyone!' With that in mind, he straightened his clothes and pulled out his state-of-the-art phone.
"What's up man? I hear there's an event at the mall today. Could you make some extra changes? I'll pay you that nice money..." He continued talking as he walked out of the room.
As Arthur got close to the girls, Madison asked, "Where's Ceasar?"
"He said he needed to go to the bathroom, looks like he's allergic to onions. I could feel his allergy from afar!" Arthur shrugged as he looked at the machine.
"Disgusting!" The girls yelled at him, with Emily patting him on the shoulder.
"I didn't even do anything. But ok, what's the deal with this machine?" Arthur asked as he looked at the teddy bears and the metal claw.
"I think you already know how it works. But it's very expensive, it has to be R$5 per play, and the odds are low."
"I've heard that they're set to not catch for a few tries and it's hard to know when."
"We were just waiting for you anyway, let's do something else!"
Arthur just nodded, as that would be a waste of money. He was rich, not dumb! But the good thing is, these teddy bears reminded him to bring Julia a gift. He didn't want to come back empty-handed, so he decided what the gift would be.
They soon started hanging out and having fun in the game room, winning tickets and spending money. Arthur even made the games room card, since the machines only activated with the credit on the card. They played Dance Dance Revolution and even some table games. The duos, purposely, were always Arthur and Emily versus Sara and Madison.
Sometimes, when the two of them were very close together, their hands would touch without meaning to. This was always accompanied by Emily blushing and Arthur just smiling. But this soon became more frequent, and they tried to do it hidden from the girls, with Arthur getting more brazen and holding Emily's hands for more than an adequate amount of time.
Soon, Emily kept pulling Arthur by the wrist sometimes, and not to seem too obvious, she did it with the girls too. There was even a time when Emily hugged Arthur after they won another mini competition at Dance Dance.
Their hearts beat faster with each touch, and their gazes became more than obvious for both of them to see that they were enjoying it.
When they were a little tired, one of the staff in the hall came up to them and spoke politely.
"Good night! We've seen that you've played a lot, but it turns out that our game room has organized an event now at 9pm, which will be held on the third floor. Would you mind take a look at it?"
Arthur looked at the girls and, after seeing no disagreement, he nodded.
"OK, let's go!"