Sherry

"I didn't have anything better to put. My name is too long," Cherry muttered.

"What is your name? I should have asked that sooner. I'm Scott," he said as she started the game over.

She had used so many names at this point that she wasn't sure which one to tell him. She hadn't planned to use a fake name when she went to the arcade and she did look more like herself than usual right now so she stuck fairly close to the truth.

"Sherry."

Sherry was more of a normal name than Cherry. It was the best she could think of on short notice.

"Nice to officially meet you, Sherry," Scott said.

"Yeah, you too."

Cherry didn't really mean it. She wished she had never gotten involved with him at all but he was trying to help her so she had to be polite.

She needed to focus. Get into the zone of the game. The less times she died, the sooner she would be able to get this over with. She couldn't allow herself to get distracted right now so she forced herself to tune everything else out and become one with the game.

It wasn't until she was on level 121 that she even lost a life. She cursed under her breath and Scott seemed to notice because he stifled a laugh.

He was probably laughing because he thought she was a kid cursing. There were certain disadvantages to looking like this but she had pretty much accepted them at this point.

When the next level loaded, Scott told her that she should have turned left faster in order to avoid being killed. She knew that already so it was annoying having someone tell her what to do but she supposed that was the whole reason he was here.

As things got more dicey on the next few levels, he ended up giving her directions several times that prevented her from losing further lives. She made it all the way to level 130 before she lost completely and was able to input RED in the third highest place on the leaderboard. His backseat driving, so to speak, had worked better than she thought it would.

Cherry eyed him shrewdly. "This is the highest score I've ever gotten."

Scott smiled. "I can see that. You're welcome."

She didn't normally get involved with people more than she had to OR ask for favors but she still couldn't get a read on this guy and she really, really wanted to beat the game. The time may have come to do something outside of the box.

"Can you come help me again tomorrow? Pretty please?" Cherry asked, trying to act shy and giving him what her dad used to call her lethal puppy dog eyes.

"Sure. I don't have anything else going on. What time will you be here?"

She couldn't believe that actually worked. Maybe the puppy dog eyes truly were lethal. Either that or he was a sucker for kids. He had helped out that little boy earlier without being asked.

"I'm usually here for most of the afternoon until I need to go home for dinner," she said.

"Alright. I can be here around 4:30. Does that work for you?"

Cherry nodded and beamed at him, clapping her hands together so she looked like an excitable kid. "Thank you!"

"Sure thing. I need to get going now but I'll see you then," Scott said as he waved and headed out the door. A glance at the clock told her she needed to get going too. Transformations like hers took time.

She didn't manage to get anything from anyone tonight but couldn't be bothered by that since she was still riding the high from getting a new high score on a game that often gave her trouble. She had thought making it to level 125 that one time had been a fluke but now she had made it past that because she had help.

Cherry really didn't understand Scott Harkin. All she really knew about him was that he owned a successful nightclub and seemed to be the helpful type. That wasn't enough information to help her out. What was going on in his head?

===

Scott couldn't believe he had wasted his whole evening before work because of a couple of kids. First that boy who had been bawling his eyes out that no one else seemed to care about on the sidewalk. Then that girl from before who seemed sincerely interested in beating Ms. Pac-Man.

He hadn't been able to go to arcades much as a kid because he didn't have the money for it. But once he got involved with the gangs as a teenager, there was an arcade on their turf where they liked to hang out.

He had spent countless hours trying to master the combination Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga machine and he had. It took him years but he had managed to beat both.

It was surprising that such a young kid had already managed to get so far on Ms. Pac-Man. That game was not easy the higher you got.

Scott hadn't been able to turn her down when she asked for further help because of the way she pleaded with him. For some reason, he found himself unable to say no to those big brown eyes.

Maybe it was because he felt like he owed her after accidentally hurting her the last time they met. He had never liked feeling indebted to anyone. He supposed that was a product of growing up poor. His parents hadn't liked it either and their pride often led to them starving rather than accepting handouts.

Not the best character trait to have but no one was perfect. Especially not an ex-con.

Scott truly didn't have anything better to do so what was wrong with helping out a budding video game aficionado? He had the time for it before going to work and it helped him get his mind off of what was going on at the club with all of those women. He considered that a win-win.