While my family is eating I explain what I did to keep the food warm, all the while hearing agreeable noises from the taste of the tacos. In the blink of an eye all the tacos are gone. With my family members sitting back in their seats like they had just had an epiphany of some sort. 

“Looks like you all enjoyed it.” Hilda laughs, she’s leaning against one of her cabinets watching the others. 

“It was glorious.” My sister immediately agrees.

“Well you can thank Ami for convincing the guy to even hand them over. I don’t think I could’ve done it.” She smirks at me. 

“Thanks Ami. I will devote even more of my life to you from now on.” My sis folds her hands as if she’d start praying to me. 

“Please don’t…” 

Lise laughs and takes her drink. 

In the meantime Sam gathers all the plates and brings them to the kitchen before joining me at my side. “They were marvelous. Thanks for thinking about us.” She gives me a kiss on the top of my head. 

“I always think about you.” 

Hilda and Nikki giggle as they see us flirt. 

“So, what are we going to do now? Maybe a little bit of a family pool tournament?” My sister proposes. 

“Sounds fun.” Nikki nods. 

“Have you played pool before, Ami?” Hilda asks. 

“Uh, no…” I shake my head. 

“You, Sam?” 

“Mhmm.” She nods. “I’m pretty decent.” 

“Can you two team up then?” 

I look up at my girlfriend with my kitten eyes. 

“Definitely.” Sam gives me another kiss. “Otherwise Ami would be sad and no one wants that. Especially not me.” And then she gives me yet another kiss. Not that I mind of course. 

Hilda chuckles. “Let’s get you all upstairs then, and don’t forget your drinks, there’s plenty of space to put them down. I’ll take care of the snacks.” Hilda gets back into her kitchen and opens one of the corner cabinets. “Nikki and Lise, can you show Ami and Sam the way?” 

Nikki nods, grabs her glass and heads towards a door on the other side of the living room. “This way to Hilda’s womancave.” 

“Oh, I thought that was her garage?” 

“Noone told me I couldn’t have more than one.” Hilda laughs. 

“Fair point.” Sam chuckles as she guides me onward towards Nikki. My hand firmly clenched in hers. 

 

We enter the next floor and get greeted by a new, even more fancy room with lots of knick knacks everywhere. On the far side of the room is a sunken-in, extremely cozy-looking, sofa. Neatly arranged in front of a home cinema with a projector. Closer to where we are standing is a pool table with several cozy looking armchairs and small round tables in between two pairs of them. There are plenty of art pieces against the wall which are meant to look like historical paintings. And a big map of the world, approximately from the 18th century. In the glass cabinets are multiple games from a wide range of video-game eras together with their consoles, which all look, at first glance, to be in working order. 

“Wow. This is even more impressive than her garage…” Sam was standing next to me, mouth open and in awe of what we were seeing. 

“It’s cool, isn’t it?” Kinda makes me want to buy a house in the suburbs too.” My sis admits. “But I love our apartment…”

“Ami, maybe we should get a cabin in the woods somewhere and then expand it!” Sam excitedly pulls my arm.

“What about the restaurants and our friends then?” 

“... Fair point.” She quickly stopped. 

Nikki walks over to a rack on the wall where the pool cues have been hung. “Hmm, let’s see.” She takes two in her hands and then looks at me, then back at the cues, then back at me for one last time. “I think this one is good for Ami.” She places the other cue back in the rack and walks over to me. “Can you try holding this one?” 

I take the cue from Nikki. 

“Doesn’t feel too heavy?” 

I shake my head. “No, it feels pretty okay.” 

“Great.” Nikki pats my head. “We’ll explain how the game works already so Hilda doesn’t need to do so when she gets here.” 

Sam hugs me from behind and guides me towards the pool table. “8 ball pool rules are actually pretty easy so don’t worry too much.” She then kisses me behind my ear. It tickles. 

Nikki explains the basic rules, like how one team has to play the half coloured balls and the other team the full coloured balls, and what the specific rules are considering the black ball, et cetera. She is just explaining the last part of the game when Hilda comes up with an entire plate, laiden with snacks. 

“What have I missed?” She asks. 

“Nikki was just explaining the rules to Ami.” My sis explains, immediately going to the plate to steal a bugle chip from it and dipping it in some cheese. 

“Do you understand everything?” Hilda turns to me. 

“Uh, yeah, pretty much.” I nod. 

“She can learn the rest while we’re playing. It’s best to see it in action anyway.” Sam rubs her chin on top of my head. 

“That’s true.” Hilda laughs. “Why don’t we play a mock round so Ami can see it in practice?” 

Everyone agrees. The mock round is between Sam and I versus Hilda. 

“Ah, and one last thing, Ami.” My sis says while snacking on a different snack. 

“Hmm?” 

“Try not to aim your cue too low so you destroy the table cloth… I know you can repair it but it’s best not to give Hilda any heart attacks.” 

“I’m not that clumsy.” I pout. 

“Eh, it’s fine.” Hilda shrugs. “And as you said, Ami can fix it anyway if anyone messes up so I’m not that stressed out by it. Plus I know how to refabric it myself if need be anyway.” 

“A woman of many talents.” Sam smirks. 

“Indeed.” Hilda smiles. 

 

The mock game against Hilda teaches me practically everything I need to know for the little tournament we are having. It was indeed quite useful to see the rules be played in practice. 

A couple of dice throws later the tournament ladder is decided. First my sister and Nikki play against each other. As far as I can tell they are quite evenly matched. In the end it is a trick shot by my sister that decides the game. Nikki had tried to make the shot as difficult as possible for my sister as she was only a ball behind. But my sister managed to pot the ball with a band shot. 

“Sorry my love, I wish it was the finals but alas.” My sister winks. 

“Oh please.” Nikki rolls her eyes. “At least I can snack at will now.” 

“I have a break now so I can too.” Lise smiles smugly. 

“Drat.” 

Nikki and Lise make way for the game between Sam and me versus Hilda. 

“I won’t go easy on you now.” Hilda says while she’s chalking up her cue. 

“Neither will we.” My girlfriend says, burning with a fighting spirit. 

And so our game begins. Sam and I each take turns for our shots. With Sam mostly directing my shots while she shoots her own. I do not mind though as she clearly knows a lot more about the game than I do. 

Over the course of the game, I do start to notice something strange about Sam. Or about the way she’s playing. It feels like she’s sometimes deliberately missing her shots. And I can’t really tell how I know. 

“Sam?” Hilda turns herself to her. She crosses her arms and tilts her head, just when Sam is about to shoot. “Didn’t you say you weren’t going to hold back?” 

“I’m not.” Sam’s face starts to become slightly red. 

-Oh, babe, you are such a bad liar.- 

“You are masking it by missing difficult shots but I can tell you are deliberately aiming a degree or so off right before you hit the cue ball.” 

“So she’s setting herself up correctly first and then she deliberately overcorrects?” My sister comments while snacking on some paprika covered peanuts. 

“Pretty much.” Hilda nods. 

Sam gets upright and cancels her shot. “I guess you’ve got me.” She rubs the back of her head. 

“Why?” I ask. 

Sam shrugs. “I don’t really know how or why but I can imagine the trajectory of the pool balls way better than I used to in the past.” 

“Like you would do with your arrows in Turn of Destiny?” Hilda continues the interrogation. 

“Yeah, I was thinking about that too. But that wouldn’t make sense, would it?” 

Hilda shrugs. “Do you still know about your survival skills?” 

“Like which plant is which?” 

Hilda nods. “Yeah.” 

Sam nods. “I guess I do, yes…” 

“Then it shouldn’t be weird that you know how to estimate trajectories, right?” 

“Hmm… If you say so.” Sam bows back down over the table and readies for her shot. When she releases, everyone just stands there, looking in awe at what is happening. As three of our half-coloured balls disappear in the pockets. 

“Owkaaaay… Maybe we should look into that a bit more than I thought…” Hilda whistles.