“You’re not wrong,” Wes said, his lips upturning with his smirk.
“Anywaaaay.” Tai steamrolled back in. “He’s geeky and single, and I promised him I’d help him out.”
“None of this is selling me,” I muttered. “You’d call someone a friend if they gave you a piece of gum. Or could quote Firefly.”
“You can’t take the sky—or my love of Browncoats—from me,” Tai warned, brandishing his pointer finger.
“No one’s trying to,” Wes said with a grin. “We just want to play the new Injustice game. But also, Beck, you should go. You’ve been moping ever since Whatsherface.”
Keira had been my last girlfriend, who left me with a spare Comic-Con ticket just days before we were supposed to go together. I had still gone anyway, despite the nerves and general ennui, and shockingly, I ended up having a great time thanks to a Batman cosplayer who’d swept me under his wing.
“I haven’t been moping,” I shot back, fiddling around with the game controller as the title screen music blared on the screen. “Just haven’t been all that interested in investing in another relationship, only for them to turn me down.”
“Investing,” Wes teased, settling back into his spot on the couch. “You’re such a finance guy. But seriously, this is the longest you’ve gone without even trying, so just go on the date. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“All three of them escape out the bathroom window?” I suggested. “Though maybe I could preempt them and plan a getaway myself.”
“Come on,” Tai argued, nudging his bedazzled jean knee against mine. “The people I pick out are going to be a thousand times better than dating app randos.”
I met Tai’s wise-ass smirk with a look. “Bethany. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Look, I found her crystal-cleansing ways charming.” Tai lifted his nose and let out a sniff.
“When she showed up at the restaurant, she told me I had negative energy and spent the first half hour shaking rocks at me to try and ‘clean the energy in the room.’” I didn’t waver as he arched an eyebrow. That had been mortifying as fuck, just sitting there half-frozen while this chick pulled out an arsenal of different rocks from her purse and tried to fix me because clearly she couldn’t even sit in the room with me as I was.
“Look, she’s not wrong about all the negative energy, Grumpy Face,” Tai teased. “Though maybe the crystal approach was a stretch.”
“Shaka, when the walls fell,” Wes responded. “Let’s put those in the past, okay? This is a chance to meet someonenew. And who knows, if your date sucks, maybe the other two there will be cool to hang out with.”
“Maybe your client will be my new gym buddy,” I said, glancing at Tai. “Since you’re allergic to working out, and Wes is too busy murdering his body for ballet.”
“Or maybe Maisie is your soulmate and will respect your comic book collection.” Tai fluttered his lashes.
“Are we going to game or not?” Wes lifted his controller.
“Fine, whiny,” Tai responded, loading the screen for Injustice.
We’d played the crap out of the old ones, since most of our friends were comic book junkies. And I had an undying love for fighting games, dating back to my arcade days when I’d spend time there with my younger brother, Emery. There was still a massive arcade right outside of Chicago that I liked to hit up for old time’s sake, but my brother was all married and settled in the suburbs and tougher to get out to just hang.
Meanwhile, I was going on another date with a random, nowhere close to settling down.
And not for lack of trying.
Tai picked his fighter first, and I chewed on my lower lip, mulling over the prospect of the date. Truly, I was sick of going out to meet strangers who might seem to be fine with me at first but would eventually end up judging me. Time after time, each woman wanted to changesomething about me, whether it was my realistic attitude they dubbed pessimism or the hobbies they viewed as immature.
“Fucking Aquaman, really?” Wes said as if he was shocked that Tai would make the choice. The dude was obsessed with Aquaman, less because of any actual powers Aquaman had and more just because he was hot.
“Whatever,” Tai said, flipping Wes off. “Go ahead and choose the fastest man alive, which—sidenote—is not something you want to be bragging about in the bedroom.”
I snorted and scrolled through the selection of superheroes. I normally varied it up, sometimes playing Green Arrow or Green Lantern, but today, I found myself straying to the choice of Batman.
Batman had never been one of my favorite superheroes, probably because the dark cynicism felt a little too real for me, but ever since the Comic-Con six months ago, thoughts of the character kept popping up.
More like thoughts of the guy who’d cosplayed Batman.
I was still kicking myself for not getting Cay’s number. Not that I needed more friends–the ones I had already dragged me out to socialize far too often, thank you, Tai. Yet I’d been so grateful for the way Cay had swept in and made what had started as a hellish day easier. One snap decision from him had turned the con around. Since I’d been cosplaying Superman, he’d decided we had to be friends.Plus, the man had been so easy to hang with, which was a rarity for me when it came to people I didn’t know.
We started into a bout, and the shit-talking began, mostly Wes, who seemed all demure but didn’t hold back for shit when we gamed. I lost myself in the combinations of the fighting moves and the quickness of the rounds, focusing hard, since Wes was giving me a run for my money.
