Begin Again | ongoing

twenty-three

Viv groans when she realises what the second part of the date entails. She covers her face with a laugh when Sunny pulls her through the door to the board game café, where a clutch of people sit in small groups around tables covered in boards and cards and playing pieces, their drinks and food off to the side like an afterthought.

"Dear god, not the Monopoly again."

"We're recreating our first date," Sunny says stubbornly, "so yes, the Monopoly again." She checks her watch again because she knows she's liable to forget that she has a job to get to. It's one thirty-seven, more than three and a half hours since they met at the pier, which gives them a bit less than that time again to start and finish a game.

"It got so vicious!"

Sunny ignores that as she finds a table for two and says, "I checked and apparently, the average game takes anywhere from twenty minutes to one hundred and eighty minutes, and I have to be at work in two hundred and three minutes, so that's pretty perfect."

"Babe, it took longer than that last time," Viv says, eyes crinkling. "I'm pretty sure we sat here for a solid four hours."

"I can't believe you tolerated me that long when you didn't even know me," Sunny says. She spots Monopoly on the game shelf and pulls it down. There are a few versions available to play, including the kids' edition and the American version, but the original London edition is the only one she has ever played, and Sunny likes what she knows. She likes collecting the stations and the second side of the board, where the properties are pink and orange, and she refuses to play as anything other than a vehicle or an animal. Why there are tokens of an iron and a thimble and a top hat, she has no idea, and she staunchly refuses to use them: the Scottish terrier is her favourite piece; the ship or the race car are acceptable alternatives.

"When I told Stella that our first date involved a ridiculously long game of crazy golf and an even longer game of Monopoly, she was horrified," Viv says.

"How rude."

"She thought it was a bit intense for a first date," she says. "I mean, Stella's idea of a first date is, like, a bar. Alcohol and sexy dresses."

Sunny wrinkles her nose. She can't think of a worse way to try to get to know someone than somewhere dark and loud and filled with alcohol. "Ew," she says. "No, that's not my style. Not that I have a style, considering this is my first date, but ... yeah. I'd much rather do something than be somewhere."

"A hundred percent." Viv leans back, one arm slung over the back of her chair. The shirt is back on now since the physical activity is over and it drapes over her shoulders like she's a queen, and Sunny thinks she might be a little bit whipped. "Right, you get that set up and I'll go and order us something to eat. What d'you want?"

"What is there?"

"A lot of finger food and sharing plates. Want me to find a menu?"

"Do you remember what I had last time?"

"We shared the everything nachos and the barbecue brisket tacos."

"Were they good?"

Viv groans her appreciation. "Fucking amazing."

"Then let's have that again. Unless you want something else?"

"Nope, I'm good. Love me some cheesy nachos. The guacamole here is the best I've ever had outside of Tijuana."

"Where's that? Is that a restaurant?"

Viv laughs and shakes her head. "It's a city in Mexico, right on the border to America."

Sunny's eyebrows shoot right up. "Holy shit. You've been to Mexico? When?"

"When I finished uni, about, god, five years ago now? A few of us flew to New York, hired a car and drove to California. Once we got to San Diego we were like, well, might as well go to Mexico, right?"