The Dating Game

TWENTY-NINE

Never in my life did I ever consider it would take twenty minutes to get down one slide. But I suppose when you drop a grown man on one meant for children, things don't tend to go the way you imagined them.

"Hell yeah!" Chase exclaims as soon as his feet hit the floor. I'm hardly able to hold in my laughter after the scene I just witnessed for the past twenty minutes, but his overexcitement over it makes everything just so much funnier.

"I'm the man!" He shouts again, starting a lap around the park as he sprints with his fists thrown up in the sky like some childish version of the end credits scene of The Breakfast Club. I continue laughing despite his overly masculine celebration until he calms down after an entire minute of running around. This short amount of time I'm spending with Chase is making me second-guess about having children. If he's this annoying, I can only imagine how horrible actual kids would be.

Finally, after Chase's concerning burst of energy comes to an end, he takes a seat on one of the swings at the edge of the park. I make my way to sit beside him on the next swing over where he just looks up at me, completely out of breath, and smiles.

"You must be so in love with me after that, huh?"

All I can do is laugh out loud. "What did you eat before coming to my house?"

He takes a moment before responding with what I hope is a joke, "About seven Snickers bars."

I just shake my head as he gathers his breath in the silence that quickly surrounds us. Almost instinctively, I begin rocking my legs back and forth, ever so slightly, and before I know it, Chase joins me. Of course, at this point, it is now a competition.

So I swing faster. I watch my legs sway back and forth under me while Chase struggles to keep up beside me, his chest heaving as he still tries to catch his breath from earlier. I let out a soft chuckle while I watch him try his very best to catch up with me.

"Are you really trying to be better than me at swinging right now?" He asks suddenly.

I shake my head with a smile. "Did you expect anything less?"

As soon as I break eye contact with him, I glance down below my feet, terrified of what I see underneath. The ground is way too far up, and I'm seriously at risk of making a loop around the top of the swingset right now. My heart starts to race and I can feel my hands slip from the chains because of the sweat, and suddenly, I'm not having the best time anymore.

"Fuck," I whisper under my breath, not wanting Chase to hear me hyperventilate over a swing and then make fun of me because of it. Instead, I just stop my legs and try my best to start slowing down.

"Wait, why'd you stop?" Chase asks with a disappointed frown.

"I, uh—" I try to come up with the least lame thing to say. "It's making me sick, that's it."

"You looked like you were having fun, though."

"Yeah, I was," I continue. "I just— It's—"

"Oh, shit, are you afraid of swings?" He asks. I just squeeze my eyes shut and try my best not to get angry with him.

"No. I'm afraid of heights."

"Oh," He says, almost sounding disappointed. "Didn't expect that."

I just roll my eyes at him, not sure what else to say. I can't exactly comprehend what he means, especially since I feel like if anything, heights are exactly the thing I'd be scared of. I'm not sure why I think that way, but I also can't fathom what he thinks I would be afraid of, if not heights.