Emline and Aiden continued to stick to them like gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe, even when he tried to lose them at the carnival stalls. Nevertheless, Matteo tried to pretend that they were invisible, choosing to address Alia.
"Alia, would you like a prize from one of these booths?" Matteo asked. There were shooting gas with water pistols, ring tosses, darts, and basketball.
Alia’s eyes wandered around and found a large unicorn plush toy. It was a garish pink and the horn seed liable to poke soone’s eye out if she threw it at soone.
It was perfect. She had always wanted a soft toy as extravagant as that, but toys like that often cost a large amount of money.
"This one," Alia decided, pointing to the large unicorn. Matteo’s eyes followed her finger to the toy in question and he nodded. If he had any opinions about the ridiculousness of the toy, he kept it to himself.
anwhile, Emline let out a loud, unladylike snort. "This ugly thing? Your taste in toys is so abysmal."
"At least my taste in n has improved," Alia retorted without a blink, and Emline could only bite the inside of her cheek. She could not counter it without insulting Matteo, the recipient of her affections.
"Ooh, she’s got you there," Aiden comnted. "Are sharp cobacks a trait only Hawthornes can excel at?"
"You would know, if you excelled at anything." Emline scowled, not liking the reminder that Alia was once again related to her. She stomped irritably on his foot, and he let out a hiss of pain.
The four of them went to the shooting stall and waited for their turn, as the children before them let out screeches of dismay due to their shots missing their mark.
"Brother, what say we have a little competition?" Aiden asked as they took their places. "Let’s see who can win Alia that stuffed toy first, shall we?"
Matteo let out a low grunt, the fire of competitiveness slowly spreading inside him. "Fine. But if I win, you and Emline will leave us alone for our date."
"Deal. And if I win, you will spend ti with Emline alone, while I get so ti alone with Alia," Aiden declared, a glint in his eyes. Emline’s heart raced, as she saw the opportunity dangled right in front of her grasp.
"Hey!" Alia squawked. "I never agreed to this arrangent!"
"It’s alright," Matteo said reassuringly. "I won’t lose."
The vendor manning the booth cheerfully held out a hand, his greedy eyes glinting at the sight of two well-dressed gentlen in front of him. Both of them must be from wealthy families, and their dates were just behind them. Excellent― there was nothing that made n spend more money than impressing a woman they loved.
"It’s a dollar a try, gentlen! If you buy ten tries, I’ll give you a try for free," he said enthusiastically. "May you have better luck than the others!"
"What do I have to do to get that unicorn hanging up there?" Matteo asked.
The man rubbed his hands diabolically. It was ti to leech as much money as he could from them. "This is our grand prize that’s worth five hundred points. To get it, you’ll have to accumulate enough points from all your shots! Each red balloon is worth fifty points, while a yellow balloon is worth five points. Green balloon is worth ten points."
There were only a handful of red balloons plastered on the board behind him, nestled between the green and yellow ones.
Alia frowned as she calculated how much money one needed to spend to even have a chance at getting it. "Never mind then. This toy is too expensive."
"Nonsense," Aiden said, quickly slapping a thick wad of cash onto the vendor’s palm. "Watch succeed."
Matteo also slapped a wad of cash into the man’s hand and readied his shot.
Alia held her breath as they began to shoot. Her eyes were instinctively drawn to Matteo’s form― the strong, yet elegant lines of his muscles captivated her like none other, even when he was wrapped up in winter wear. There was an expression of focused dedication on his face that made her heart flutter.
Aiden was slowly racking up the points, but Matteo was no slouch either. However, they were nowhere close to getting enough points for the toy.
"Gentlen, I’m sorry to say that you’ve run out of tries," the vendor said, half-apologetic, half-amused. "Please make way for the next contestant."
"No! I’m so close!" Aiden exclaid, digging into his pockets for more money. "This fucking ga is rigged, I tell you!"
Matteo was more composed, so he didn’t throw a tantrum like a child. But Alia detected the irritation that was wafting off him at his own perceived failure. Before Matteo could do sothing foolish like hand over his credit card and allow the vendor to slash to his heart’s content, she quickly interrupted.
"Let have a turn," Alia said. Both n turned to look at her in surprise, but Alia was firm. Not only had she observed them while they shot; she had worked plenty of part-ti jobs at the fun fair to know how rigged the ga was.
"Before I start, how about let’s make a wager?" Alia asked. "If I managed to hit all the red balloons in my first ten shots, you’ll have to give this toy."
"Sure thing, young lady! Step up!" the vendor said eagerly. His eyes roved over Alia’s body― she was just a young woman. Most likely her experience with guns was just arcade gas; he had nothing to worry about. "Eleven tries for ten dollars!"
Before she could reach out for her wallet to pay, Matteo imdiately held out a wad of cash to the vendor, with Aiden’s hand just a tad slower.
"This is for her," Matteo said simply, turning back to press a kiss to the top of Alia’s head. "Good luck, Alia."
Behind them, Emline gnashed her teeth at such a display.
"I want to play too!" Emline called out, strutting to the front. "Matteo, would you mind paying for ?"
Matteo rely raised his eyebrow at Aiden, and Aiden reluctantly took out his wallet again to pay for Emline. Emline seethed.
Fine. That didn’t matter. She was bound to do better than Alia Kentwood in this stupid carnival ga― she actually had shooting experience in the country club! What could Alia Kentwood even do?
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