TheRealCreator: You hide it well. Just like you hide when you’re uncomfortable. But your voice changes. Just a little, just for a moment.
DakkyDuck: You’re right. This would be a fantastic zone for role players. Sorry, I have to go now, Jackson.
TheRealCreator: Call me Jack.
I log off, lean back in my chair, my head swimming. The creator of Empire’s Fall just asked for my opinion about game development. That’s huge. Oh, and he also wants to have sex with me. Pretty clearly. That’s… just as huge. Maybe bigger.
But what if he’s lying? Using me? Pretending he cares about my opinion just so he can get into my pants?
This has gone on long enough. Almost a week. It’s time for a second opinion.
Mara snatches the phone from me to rewatch the video. I wrap my hands around my coffee cup and take a big sip, letting the caffeine pulse through me. “Hey, Dakota,” Jack Cross says gruffly. “I hope this video doesn’t dwarf what we’ve got going on in the game.”
“What… the…” Mara blinks, handing me back my phone, dumbfounded.
“I thought it’d be easier to show you before I told you,” I murmur.
“Well—uh—I mean…” She laughs, shaking her head. “Speak, woman.”
I laugh, nervous, excited, a mixture I’ve never felt before. When I look at Mara, it’s like looking at her cousin. At Noah. She has the same brown eyes, the same smile. Mara’s hair is dyed pink, which is a major difference, but even her jawline is similar.
I tell her about the messages, the announcement, and the meetings in Empire. Everything.
“Wait a minute,” Mara murmurs. “You were trying to message me, but it went tohim?”
“Yep,” I tell her. “I should’ve just sent him a nude. Would’ve been just as subtle!”
Mara giggles, wiping a tear from her eye. “This issosurreal.”
“Tell me about it,” I say. “I thought it was just some creep at first. God knows, I get enough of those. But there’s no way someone could fake this, is there?”
“No,” Mara says firmly. “Between the videos and the announcement… he’s being about as subtle as a brick through a window.”
“I like that thought,” I say quickly, defending him. “He’s clearly nervous. I can’t blame him. For all he knows,I’mgoing to usehimfor clout.”
“Which would be smart,” Mara says. When I give her a look, she shrugs. “I’m just saying. If Jackson Cross fell head over heels for, say, Tellural, do you think he’d pass up the shot?”
“No,” I admit. Tellural is another Empire streamer, always at the top of the charts, because he uses clickbait, drama, and pulls stunts like camping overnight outside the Halcyon offices. “But I’ve never wanted to be like him. I don’t want drama. I just want…”
“What Noah wanted for you,” Mara says softly.
I reach across the table and squeeze her hand. “Exactly.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“That’s what I wanted to askyou,” I say. “If you were me, what would you do? You go on more dates than me. I feel like a fish out of water. My last date was… three years ago! Can you believe that?”
“I thought you were being picky,” she says, a teasing note in her voice. “Now I know you were just waiting forhim.”
“Mara,” I hiss. “I’m serious.”
“What wouldIdo?” Mara flips a hand through her pink hair. “Honey, I would’ve virtually fucked his brains outlast nightin Emerald Cove.” I must give her another look because she raises her hand. “I’m talking about a hypothetical man, by the way, not Jackson.”
“You don’t need to say that. I’m not jealous.”
She tilts her head at me, raising an eyebrow.
“Okay,” I admit. “I’m alittlejealous.”
