“Are we going to this ball, too?” Beckett handed me the card back.
I hadn’t read to the bottom yet, still stuck on the first half about my nominations. I read through the details of the masquerade ball happening the night before the award ceremony. It was in full honor of not onlyLeague of Witches,like the rest of the awards were, but Odette Reign, herself.
Odette.
“Do you think she’ll be there?” I asked, my hand slightly shaking, holding the card now.
Beckett raised an eyebrow at me.
He knew exactly what I was thinking.
We’d been friends since we were Juniors in high school. Almost twenty years, and he knew my whole life, my schedule, where I went, and what I did. And when it came to my obsession with Odette Reign, he knew every detail about that as well.
“Do you think the creator ofLeague of Witcheswill be at the Gamer Awards and masquerade ball that is in dedication to her?” Beckett’s tone had turned sarcastic.
I glared at him.
“Not what I meant.”
“Oh,” Beckett took a seat on the couch in my office. “I know it’s not what you meant, but I’ve got to give you some shit when you read her name on a single piece of paper and clearly start to lose it.”
He pointed to my knee, which was bobbing up and down. I put my hand on it to stop the bouncing. He wasn’t wrong. The second I read her name, something in me picked up. It did every time I thought I’d see her.
“Do you think she’ll be there, though?” I ask again.
“I hope for your sake she is.” Beckett rolled his eyes at me, clearly joking, as we never attended these types of side events.
“I think we should go.” I blurted out.
Beckett’s eyes went wide, and so did mine as I realized what I’d just said.
“Look,” Beckett leaned forward, his hands running through his shaggy hair. He normally looked put together, sitting there in his jeans and button-down shirt, but he looked frustrated now. “I know you’ve followed this woman around for years. You’ve gone to book signings for her, brought your mom even. You’ve played all her games and even invested in her newest one. But what you’ve never done in your whole time being CovertRetriever, was willingly go to an event and participate in anything that didn’t involve accepting an award.”
I pulled my hair into a bun and leaned back in my chair, letting Beckett’s words sink in.
He was right.
I’d followed Odette for years, secretly watching and being there for her in ways she never knew and probably would neverknow. But I had never risked my anonymity for her before. The thought had crossed my mind a few times, but it was never enough to make me go through with it.
“I know.”
“Then what’s going through your head?” Beckett leaned back on the couch, waiting.
What was going through my head?
I ran my hands through my hair and took down the bun I’d just put up, then redid it. I moved my hands to my thighs, running them over my gym shorts I hadn’t changed out of from yesterday. I needed to get it together because, as much as I had always wanted to meet this woman, I’d always been too shy, worried about what she might think of me.
But there was a part of my mind that thought with a masquerade ball, there might be the slightest chance I could meet her.
Where I could bemebut not beme.
That was another problem in itself.
“It would be a masquerade ball. No one would know who I was.”
“And you’d expect to know who she was with a mask on?” Beckett countered with a laugh.
“Yes,” I said instantly, sending him another glare. I would know who she was. I’d been paying attention to her for years. No mask could stop me from recognizing her.
