Rising Shards

Mahina said she wasn't in the mood for men, but she went back on that rule for the first guy that came to our station, but realized almost immediately that she'd made a mistake.

“You have a kid?" The guy asked when Kalei came up. "That’s kind of a total dealbreaker.”

I didn't want to start a fight, but I also wanted to stick up for Mahina.

“Having kids is awesome,” I said. "Like, I get it if you don't want to have kids or date someone with kids, but don't be a dick about it."

I was maybe crossing a line with that one, but I could tell this guy kinda sucked.

"I'm not even being a dick, like I was into this until she started talking about her daughter."

"Well, now you are being a dick, and your reaction is a dealbreaker for me too," Mahina said. "Want to sit here in silence until the buzzer dismisses you or do want to go wander by your lonesome early?"

The guy took the hint and left, leaving Mahina heated and stewing in it for a few minutes before we talked about it.

"Fucking hell," Mahina said. "I'm sorry for not enforcing that rule. No men rule is fully in place now. Please stop me if I see another hot dude and get optimistic."

"I shall try," I said.

"That's my wingman!"

In addition to us wingmen getting stickers saying we were off limits, those looking for dates had stickers signifying who they were looking for. Mahina had a mauve colored one that said she wouldn't be picky, but went back to the start to get a women only sticker.

"I wanted a no men sticker because I don't want to exclude everyone by saying just women, but they said they didn't have any like that," Mahina sighed. "Dating is so difficult."

"I think doing it through a Brambler sponsored event also makes it tough," I said.

"Very true," Mahina said. "But hopefully our next one won't be such a dud!"

The next guest seemed like she'd be a winner to start. She was muscular like Mahina and had an immediately boisterous personality, and I felt like Mahina would be into her buzz cut and tattooed arms.

"Name's Clare," she said, holding her hand out for Mahina.

I thought the two were shaking hands, but they both stood, wordless as they took a weird stance, placing their forward facing feet by each other. The way they flexed said this was some kind of competition.

"Evy, be our ref," Mahina said.

I wasn't sure how to do that exactly, and felt like I was back in high school accidentally hanging out with a group of jocks in spite of me being a huge dweeb.

The two did their arm wrestling thing for the entire stretch of the mini date deal, not saying anything to each other outside of victorious or defeated grunts. They each won the same amount of times, with no one coming ahead as really stronger. They nodded when time was up and Clare moved on.

"So...that was...good?" I said.

"Eh," Mahina shrugged. "You learn a lot about a woman doing standing arm wrestles."

"Really?" I asked.

"Mhm, that woman had no sense of humor," Mahina said. "She could keep up physically, but it'd be a no go as soon as I tried my brand of humor."

"Wow," I said. "Good to find that out in advance."

"Indeedy," Mahina said. "Want me to teach you?"

"I think I'll stick with my usual methods to figure out if someone likes my jokes," I said.

"It would take at least a year to teach you the arm wrestle method, so that's fair," Mahina said.

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