Page 50 of Game On

I furrowed my brow as I stared at her. “Are you serious? Every chance you get, you throw all my mistakes back at me. Like I don’t know that I messed up when I got pregnant or when I married Seth. Like I don’t know how much my life is in shambles right now.”

“I don’t want you to be me. Pining over the man who left you high and dry.”

“Who said I was pining over Seth? I’m the one who left. I don’t regret having Rosie. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. But you telling me how much of a fuckup I am doesn’t help.”

“I don’t want you to struggle like I did. I only want the best for you.”

“You have a real funny way of showing it.”

Mom sighed and ran a hand through her blonde hair. “Lily pad, I struggled so much after your father left, I didn’t want that for you, and now the cycle’s repeating itself. I’m so proud of you for starting your own business and working at it, but I hate seeing you struggle like I did.”

“Mom, you were a badass single mom.”

She gave me a hard look. “That’s because you didn’t see the hard stuff. I don’t want you or your sister to deal with that.”

“I’m figuring it out. I met with a new client today, and I have another interview this week,” I insisted.

If I convinced her I was getting my life together, maybe I could convince myself too.

“Honey, that’s great! I’m sorry if you feel like I’m being hard on you. I want a better life for you. You have to understand that now that you’re a parent.”

I nodded. Yeah, I understood that, but she didn’t have to be so mean about it. I let the argument drop and had dinner with my mom. I should have enjoyed my child-free night while Rosie was with Seth, but after dinner, I went upstairs and worked. I applied for more jobs, set up my services on different self-employed work sites, and updated my website.

It was late by the time I got done, and I should have gone to bed, but I eyed my game controller. Maybe one little quest in Dragonspire before bed.

I logged in, and a smile spread across my face when I got a chat invite from GINGERPOWER33. I put my headset over my ears and plugged it into my controller.

“You’re up late!” he said into my ear. He sounded energetic, like he had been running circles around his room or something.

“I could say the same to you.”

“I’m always wired after a game.”

Something in the back of my mind tickled at that. Ginge and I talked little about personal stuff. I didn’t even know what state he lived in. Me telling him about my ex and him telling me about his nephew was the closest we got to personal.

Wait. Nephew. That was too much of a coincidence. But it couldn’t be. There was no way Ginge was Logan. That would be like something out of a romcom. Not real life.

“Game?” I asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.

“Yeah, um…” He trailed off like he didn’t know what to say. “I don’t think you’ll believe me, but I’m a professional athlete.”

“Like eSports?” I asked.

“No. Um…what do you know about hockey?”

My heartbeat was loud in my ears at his answer. There was no way. There were lots of hockey teams, and professional hockey didn’t mean the national league. There were other pro leagues. And it wasn’t like he lived in PA, let alone Philly. He could be on the West Coast for all I knew. But he wouldn’t have made that comment about it being late if he was in a different time zone.

“My ex was a huge Bulldogs fan, so I know a little, but not much.”

On the other end of my headset, Ginge was quiet.

I cringed when I realized my mistake. I shouldn’t have name-dropped the Bulldogs.

“Yeah, I’m familiar with the Bulldogs.”

Hmm, that was an empty response, but I didn’t press him on it. “Cool. Want to do a quest together?”

“Come on, elven princess, let’s do it.”