63. 🌶️🌶️A Common Whore🌶️🌶️

Reaching the amusement center, we get coins to enter a world of arcade games. The bright neon lights of the gaming center invite us and my eyes sparkle with a childlike excitement.
“Let’s start from there.” Dakota points at the punching machine.
“You go first.” He urges me and I swing my hand with all my mighty strength and throw a punch in full force.
*Ouch!*
My hand stings with the hit while the machine blinks with 336 points and I smile embarassingly, looking at the highest points 848.
Then it was Dakota’s turn.
He rolls his shoulder back as he stares at the punching bag before swinging his fist so fast, so hard that the entire machine shakes with the sudden hit of power.
Lights lit up like a Christmas tree as the score flashes a new high score of 969, and my mouth drops in absolute shock.
*Holy Cowgirl!*
“You broke the record!” I gasp with my brain rolling down on the floor.
A lazy smirk plays on Dakota’s sexy lips as he smugly asks me, “First time?”
“Yeah! I have never seen anyone break a record before.” I admit, still amazed by his rocky punch.
“This is nothing. The arcade in Bellingham permanently banned me from entering after I broke their king of hammer and punching machine.” Dakota sneers with a hint of male arrogance.
“Wow! Didn’t know you were such a troublemaker!” I chuckle as I collect the golden ticket dispensed for breaking the high score.
“You have no idea, baby!” His voice flirtatious and I couldn’t help but smile.
Next we play Air-Hockey, Basketball, Space Invader, VR games, then finally stop at the water shooting game.
Dakota confidently grabs a water gun and hits 8 out of his 10 targets, then looks at me with a satisfying smirk. When my turn comes, I remember how my father taught me to hold a gun and lock my eyes on the goal.
With a swift move, I take down all the ten moving targets and watch Dakota shoot his eyebrows in i-am-impressed way.
“I am daughter of an officer.” I sneer with the gun, a playful grin tugs at my lips as I stare at him.
“How can I forget..” He whispers, his tone low and suddenly I remember his past which I painting in the colours of darkness and court cases.
My smile drops and I slowly place the gun, feeling guilty, when Dakota picks it up and raises at me.
“Get the tickets.” He orders me, before squirting water on my face unexpectedly.
“Dakota! You dog!” I gasp in surprise and hear his soft chuckles fill the air, before he gets the winning ticket from the machine.
As we walk, I feel a hand on my shoulder and I look up at the tall man beside me, as he casually walks with his arm comfortably around my neck.
“What else you are good at?” Dakota smirks, glancing down at me.
“You have no idea, baby!” A playful grin forms on my lips, and his smile widens, almost proudly.
We stroll through the arcade, before my eyes stop at the claw machine. *OMG!*
“Lets go try that!” I tug him excitedly towards the glass cabin full of soft plushies. *This is heaven!*
After trying for six times, I scowl when my seventh try goes to waste. “I almost had it!” I scorn defeatedly.
“You spent all the coins and still couldn’t score one.” Dakota scoffs as he stares at me with green chilli eyes.
“I thought you were good at catching softies.” And taunts me of the time I got him caught by the cops.
“And I thought you were a millionaire!” I shoot back at the miser king, with narrowed eyes.
“I am not. My company is.” He corrects me and starts walking silently.
“I see no difference.” I comment, following him to the ticket machine to see how much we won.
“I don’t own the company.” Dakota turns towards me. “I am just a shareholder.”
I pause momentarily, feeding the tickets in the machine and glance up at him with a puzzled look. *What does he mean?*
“The real owner of the company is someone else. He is a silent investor and holds maximum power and shares of the company. Whereas I am the acting CEO, face of the company, but my share is the second-highest, not the first.” He clarifies.
“Oh.. So the company isn’t actually yours?” I look at him shockingly. The revelation catches me off guard, changing the entire picture of him in my mind.
“No. I get my salary, and other amenities, even the car under company’s name. The only major thing I own personally is my home, which I bought this year.” He tells me, when the machine signals the end of the ticket counting process.
Dakota passes me the card with 2800 points, from where I excitedly choose a smiling sloth plushie for myself and a double meal at McDonald’s for both of us.
“But the media says it’s your company. They.. don’t know the truth?” I ask him, cradling my new sloth plushie as we head towards the fast-food restaurant.
“The company is set up on my brain and his resources. All the infrastructure, funds, even the initial clients, they were all provided by him. That’s how HighBar became one of the fastest growing AI companies in 2022. It would be impossible without his grace.”
“And nobody knows him?” I ask Dakota curiously, as I settle the slot on the table while we take our seats in a cozy corner, waiting for our free meal.
“Except me and the lawyers, of course.” He comments.
I feel a strange thud in my heart, knowing I am probably the only unnecessary person in his life who now knows his deep secret. *Why would he even share it with me?*
“That’s what silent investors do. They don’t let their names out for obvious reasons.” He explains further. “But he is a good friend of mine, someone I trust. So, I don’t have a problem if I am working for him. Maybe someday I’ll start my own thing, when my mind will be capable of handling shits.”
Dakota smiles, almost pitifully. His eyes appear gentle, yet deeply mysterious like the sea itself, holding a billion secrets in the darkness.
Meanwhile, our double meal arrives. I couldn’t help but feel conflicted from inside. He is already so smart, so wicked, so powerful to handle any shit. Then why would he say something like that?
My train of thoughts break as I watch Dakota’s strange action of customizing his chicken burger by placing an unhealthy layer of fries and ketchup beneath the bun and packing it back up.
“What?” He jerks his brows at me, before taking a big bite from his burger.
I realised I was staring at him continuously.
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “I am just surprised to see you eating fast-food, considering how strictly you follow your health-conscious time-table.” I say, taking a bite from my own burger.
“Sundays are my cheat-days.”
I look up as I take a sip of my Coke, watching him add even more fries to his already loaded burger.
“I believe it’s essential to break the routine once in a week. It’s like giving your mind and body a mini vacation from the constant discipline and rigors, so they can charge back up. Otherwise, you will feel burned out and eventually, lose your mind.”
Dakota- *Complex* -Black explains to me scientifically, taking more bites from his fried chicken burger, and avoiding his Coca-Cola glass, like it’s invisible.
“It has happened with me a lot in the past. That’s why now I keep Sundays completely off. I relax, do whatever I feel like doing, and eat what I crave. It’s liberating in a way, and helps me stay focused and driven for the upcoming week.”
I nod my head, taking in his words and piecing together the puzzle of his unusual behaviour. However, there is still something, a missing link that I can’t seem to connect with his sudden, unpredictable.. *mind.*
“You don’t like soft drink? Because of diabetes?” I let my curiosity ask him.
“No.” He promptly responds, passing me his untouched cup of Coke.
“Though I used to empty cans and cans of Red Bull, almost daily.” He reveals, with a hint of nostalgia in his voice.
“Really?” I blurt out, not able to mask my surprise.
“Yeah!” He continues with a smile. “I remember, I used to bring a McD cup always with me while dining out, as McDonald’s have a policy of refilling cups and I would get a free soda every time with my burger.” He says, with mischief brimming his eyes.
“You are sooo wicked, Mr. Black.” I tease him, yet genuinely get amazed at his cunning ways.
*Just how much more smart this man can be!*
Dakota laughs, a boyish laugh that makes him look so carefree and handsome. I couldn’t help but smile in return at his jolly personality.
“I agree, Ms. Stone.” He says, pointing a potato fries at me, before biting it.
“But now, I avoid such antics and even free sodas. I prefer staying away from sugar, as it releases unnecessary dopamine, which messes with my brain and course.”
*Course? What course?* My anxieties ask me as well.
But then, visions of pills on his bathroom floor flashes in my mind. Those were psychotic drugs, prescribed by a proper psychiatrist.
He is definitely going through something, for which he is taking all those medications for.
Could it be a case of amnesia? Where he loses track of things he says and does, like hiding my clothes, or worse, like his violent personality, then suddenly behaves normal.
Because the man sitting in front of me, funny and chill, is far anything than the man I have witnessed at night. He was brutal, even his eyes and voice are different than what is in front of me.
It’s like I am living with two different people.
*Then it has to be one thing!*
“Dakota.” I call his name and he looks me in the eye, focused and attentive.
I take a deep breath, before gathering courage to voice my suspicion.
“Are you Bi-” *Polar?*