Merry-Go-Round Meet Cute(ish)
Two for the price of one
“I’m done with dating. Everyone out there sucks.”
“Yep,” Lena agreed.
Morgan fingered the stiff, painted mane of her plastic merry-go-round mount. Pink flakes separated from the fake horse and clung to her hands and clothes.
“WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!” She yelled sarcastically, one hand outstretched, the other clinging to the metal pole bisecting the worn body of her ride.
“I mean, who do I have to bang to meet someone decent, you know?! Fuck!”
A snort erupted behind the women. They turned in their saddles to see a man too tall for his plastic horse, draped awkwardly over the peeling yellowish animal, rising up and down behind Lena’s steed.
“Well, usually you meet someone decent and then the banging happens…” He offered Morgan a wink and a self-assured grin.
Morgan blinked hard and turned back to Lena with a look that said clearly: oh, boy. Here we go.
Lena returned a subtle head-tilt-eyebrow-raise indicating, in the language of best friends, that even if this guy considered himself a bit of a player, he was still pretty cute.
The ride ended and the horses came to a rusty-metal halt. Morgan, Lena, and the tall man climbed down to the ground.
“It sounds like you just haven’t found the right guy yet,” he said, continuing the conversation with Morgan, “maybe I buy you a drink and we see what happens? No pressure.”
Morgan glanced at Lena again and then shrugged, “if this is what the universe is sending right now, I guess I’m in.”
“Yay! Where’re we going?” Lena chimed in, linking arms with Morgan.
“Uh, right now?” the tall man looked confused that she was inviting herself, “I thought… uh… well, okay, how about The Rose & Thorn on 51st?”
Lena delighted in his confusion. “We like to share,” she informed him with the same smirky wink he had given them on the merry-go-round, “think you can handle that?”
The two women sashayed away without waiting for a verbal response.
Thank you for reading! This story is a response to one of NYCMidnight’s 250-word microfiction prompts. It is more than 250 words, so good thing it’s not actually a contest entry. Constraints — genre: romantic comedy, action: riding a merry-go-round, the word: decent.
