The casual date was just a leisurely trip to Walmart. Nothing flashy, just holding hands and walking around, pointing out anything of interest and then stopping to examine said thing. It was nice to have someone holding her hand. Pearl had forgotten what that was like. Sometimes, when they weren't walking, Darren pulled her against him, which was different from what she was used to. It wasn't bad, though. Why shouldn't giants be cuddle monsters?
When they were in the electronics section, Pearl pointed up at several video games and said whether or not each one was worth playing. "That game's good. That one's garbage. That's overpriced. That's really good for kids." She knew Darren didn't care, but he listened, or pretended to listen, and that was good enough for her.
"Since you like Xbox," he said as he looked through the glass case protecting the games, "does that mean you think Playstation is bad?"
"Oh no! I love Playstation games!" Pearl hopped a little on the balls of her feet as she said that. "But consoles are expensive, and Jeffery chose an Xbox. We couldn't get a Playstation or anything else." She looked at the PC section, which was pathetic, as it usually was. "The PC stuff is mostly hot garbage in stores. The best PC games are bought online." To be fair, most PC games were bought online these days. "But hey, those seek and find puzzle games are usually adorable."
Darren shrugged as he looked that way. "I don't even know what those are."
"That's okay." Pearl tugged on his sleeve. "Why don't you show me some stuff you like?"
"You'd have to go to my gym for that." He turned his head and looked down at her. With a wink, he said, "but we could go look at some food later. Everyone likes food."
Practically jumping with excitement, she tugged on his sleeve again. "Then let's go look at food!"
He tugged her right back, putting one hand on her back and the other on the top of her head. Pearl didn't even feel offended. She just rubbed her cheek on his shirt, between his coat's open plackets. "That's a good walk away," Darren said as he affectionately scratched her head. "Is there anything around here you want to look at first?"
"Hmmmmmmmm." She poked and tapped at his ribs, not hard though. "Let's go to the toys."
"Huh? You want a Lego box or something?"
In Darren's defense, Pearl did look at the Lego stuff for a while, talking about how she'd never had any growing up but she didn't think she had the patience for it all anyway. Then she they went to the board game stuff to chat about which games were the best. Pearl was convinced that Scrabble, Chess, and god damn Candy Land were the best ones while Darren said he preferred Stratego, Checkers, and Monopoly.
After that they looked at all the dolls. Pearl cooed over the pretty fashion dolls, but she nearly went nuts over the baby dolls, especially the more realistic looking ones. One of the cheaper ones that weren't in boxes had to be held in her arms for a few minutes while Darren snickered behind his fist.
Off to the food, they decided to pick up some snacks and canned goods. Darren was a firm believer of "everything in moderation." He didn't believe in being too strict with his diet. As long as he kept track of what he ate and how much he ate he had no issues with occasional trash. He also loved peanut butter and mixed nuts.
Pearl pretended she was fascinated. Darren had apparently forgotten that she already knew what he liked. She'd been getting his food for him for a long time now. Best not to be a snooty bitch and play along. He'd been so patient with her and she wanted to be patient with him.
They went to the books section, where Darren boldly picked up a political book and showed it to her. Being the opinionated little brat she was, Pearl told him with no shame that she thought that author was full of hot air. Darren laughed at her and said he thought so too. The only books that Pearl had any interest in were the higher quality coloring books. The paperback romance novels were too ridiculous. The children's books were cute but not complex enough. The religious stuff was worse than the romance novels. And the magazines had less text than many of the children's books.
When they were in the truck, Darren asked if she wanted some lunch.
"You have plenty of food at home," Pearl said, "and you have a taco kit I've been drooling at."
"There's a Mexican restaurant not far from the Pizza Hut." His fingers lifted up from the steering wheel as if he was pointing in the required direction. "Do you like fajitas in tortillas?"
"You know what?" Pearl crossed her legs. "If you want to go out, who am I to say no?"
***
"Hey there, Doofy Baby!"
Pearl was kneeling on the carpet, enthusiastically rubbing Baby's Blue big face. He was loving it.
"Did you miss me? Did you, Sweetie?"
His tail was crazy. Pearl had to let him lick her face at some point. Otherwise he'd be very upset. Pearl made sure to give Gunner similar happy greetings, although that German Shepherd seemed much more dignified and was content with giving gentle nuzzles.
Darren was making all the trips, back and forth, to get all her bags in the living room. Pearl couldn't get everything from her parents' place, but she got what she could. Assuming this arrangement went well, Pearl believed she'd get more of her things over time.
Convinced the dogs were fine, Pearl went to the kitchen to wash dog slobber off her body. Then she took a comb from her purse and smoothed her hair out a little. She felt an uncertain bubble in her belly when she went back to the living room, and she sat down on the couch to keep watching Darren.
That man had demanded that he move her luggage without her help. "No, no. You relax!" That's what he'd said.
"Well," Pearl said once all the stuff was in a neat pile on the floor, "thank you for getting my bags."
Darren plopped onto his recliner and blindly pawed a table for the television's remote. "No problem. Mind getting me a protein shake?"
"Okay." She needed to get up anyway. The kitchen had to be cleaned. Plans for dinner had to be laid out, meat carefully laid in a sink of how water to thaw. Then she'd set her laptop on the dining table and play a game until it was time to cook. Of course, she'd put the laptop away when the food was ready.
Everything went on as if they'd been living this way for years, comfortable, quiet, and dull. Darren mostly watched something or read something. Sometimes he'd play with one of the dogs or take them out to see if they needed a quick potty moment.
Pearl was playing an RPG Maker game when he suddenly approached from behind and put his hands on her shoulders, essentially covering them. "Hey, what are you playing? It looks old."
"It was made only a few years ago," she told him as she used the arrow keys to move the sprite around on the map. "There are engines you can buy to make new games with these vintage inspired JRPG graphics."
After a short kiss on the top of her head, Darren asked, "What's a JRPG?"
"Japanese Role Playing Game." A sudden battle was randomly triggered. Exciting music and turn-based combat ensued. "But since the engine has been sold to people around the world, lots of these games weren't made by Japanese people, and not all the games made follow the JRPG style gameplay. Some are horror games."
"Horror?" He wrapped an arm around her front, not restraining her, more like draping his limb over her. "But they're tiny cartoons. What's so scary about them?"
"After this battle," Pearl said once a third of the enemies had been beaten, "I'll show you an old free horror game that was made with an engine similar to this one. The graphics are even less detailed, but I was too scared to finish it."
She actually had him playing the game on his own after three minutes. It was cute. She even lent him her headphones to ensure that he had the best experience. Pearl personally liked the game. Atmosphere and timing were its strengths. Sometimes she wondered if she should make a game. She had a vague idea of someone renting an old hotel in modern-day Yoshiwara, only to learn that building was once a brothel and an oiran's hateful ghost was haunting the place. But Pearl knew she didn't have the patience to do all that.
Occasionally shaking with quiet laughter, which was usually prompted by Darren's surprised little gasps and curse words, Pearl worked on dinner. It was getting darker, especially since it was winter. A nice pot of soup was in order. The leftovers could last a few days. Browning the ground beef wouldn't be difficult. She thought she'd have more trouble scooping it into the broth later. And the vegetable chopping would be a real bitch. She was always afraid of slicing herself, but at least she knew better than to freak out and refuse to do it. She just needed to be a little bit slower, more careful, as she worked with the knife.
