Isn’t this a little too tacky? In fact, due to his status, Pierre seemed out of place in such a tacky venue.
“You don’t seem too happy about it.” Contrary to Selena, Pierre seemed elated.
“That’s not true.” Smiling dryly, she suggested, “Let’s go check on the list of movies.”
“Sure.”
She walked up to the screen that displayed the movies that were on show. It had been a while since she last watched a movie. The last time she watched one was during Jude Knight’s new movie premiere, which happened two years ago. Memories of Jude reminded Selena that the woman had come to Astoria. However, they didn’t contact each other, so she wasn’t sure what Jude was up to.
“Which movie would you like to watch?” she asked. However, upon turning around, she saw that Pierre was no longer beside her. After scanning her surroundings, she found him engrossed in a game of claw machine.
He had a few coins in his hand while trying with all his might to grab a doll. With every doll he grabbed, he would jump with joy like a child. The sight of it gave Selena conflicted feelings, as she realized that Pierre perhaps never had a go at claw machines. While observing him from afar, he looked like a big boy, which elicited a smile from her.
“Pipsqueak, come on over! This is fun!” He waved at her, so she walked up to her. Within a short span of time, he obtained another four more dolls which he tucked into her arms. “These are for you.” Checking out the dolls she had in her hands, she smiled happily. “Which one would you like? I’ll get it for you.” He rubbed her head lovingly.
Upon checking out the dolls, she pointed at a small dinosaur. “I want that small dinosaur.” Pierre put a coin into the machine and made quick work of grabbing the dino. After that, every doll that she pointed at he was able to grab for her.
“Why does this look so easy? Let me try.” While she’d played with claw machines before, she never once succeeded. It wasn’t until later she found out about the secret behind the mechanisms that she knew the machines could be manually tampered with. The owners already predetermined the winning percentage for each machine, which was always set to a slim margin. In the end, Selena couldn’t get any of the dolls even after multiple attempts. “Pierre, how did you manage to do that?”
Arching his brow, he told her, “I’ve gotten the hang of it after two tries. Do you want to know? If you do...” He pointed at his cheek, indicating that she should kiss him.
She merely cast him a side glance. “Hmph! I don’t want to know!”
“Fine, then.” Once again engrossed in the game of claw machines, he quickly emptied out all the machines.
By that point, they had gotten so many dolls that Selena could no longer hold them, so she chucked them onto the floor while yawning nonstop. “Pierre, the owners are gonna suffer a huge loss if you keep this up. Are we still going to watch a movie? We’re going to miss the good ones if we wait any longer.”
“That won’t be the case. Which movie do you want to watch? I can have them show it right away, since I already booked out the entire cinema.”
Selena stared at him wide-eyed. “You have it all booked out?” Scanning her surroundings once again, she noticed that there were indeed no other people aside from them. While she thought the cinema felt a little empty at first, she figured it was normal considering that it was already midnight. However, she determined upon closer observation that there was indeed nobody else. In fact, the attendant who was selling popcorn behind the counter looked decidedly familiar.
All of a sudden, she felt a sense of dejection wash over her. She liked watching movies in cinemas for its atmosphere, so booking it out for themselves actually made their trip to the cinema pointless. “Pierre, how did you watch movies in the past?”
“I never did. Even if I wanted to, I would watch them in my home theater.”
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