Page 59 of Game On

She shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re Ginge! We’ve been playing together since high school.”

“It makes sense, though, huh?”

“How so?”

I rubbed a hand down my beard. “When I met you at Blaise’s last summer, it was like I already knew you. I didn’t understand why, but now it all makes sense.”

Her lush mouth turned up into a smile. “It does.”

“Come on, wood elf princess. Let’s game!”

“Okay, ginger warrior.”

I ran a hand through my red hair. She was totally teasing me about my redheaded warrior character I played in Dragonspire. Now that we knew, it couldn’t have been more obvious. I played as a tall, hulking giant with bright red hair, and she played as a tiny blonde elf.

Lily hopped out of the car, and I’d be lying if I didn’t notice how her skirt flipped up, giving me a flash of black fabric underneath. Her legs were bare, but those boots on her feet made me imagine the heels of them over my shoulder as I railed into her.

Focus, Logan!

I got out of my car, locked it, and followed her inside the bar. The interior of the bar was all brick walls and wooden beams, with rows upon rows of old-school arcade cabinets along the back wall. The place lit up in bright lights from the machines, and Lily’s eyes sparkled as she spied a popular fighter game.

“Game or eat first?” I asked.

“Game!” she cheered.

God, she was so damn cute. With that bright smile and cute outfit, I couldn’t help but want to give in to her every desire. “Want to grab a drink first?”

“Oh, yes, please!”

I tried not to bite my fist at that sentence. I’d definitely have her saying that again later. We walked over to the bar, and she scanned the long line of taps against the wall. “Oh, they have MacGregor Brothers Brewing Company here.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s a local brewery. Well, sorta, they’re out in the suburbs. Veronica used to live in the town where they’re located. She got me hooked.”

The bartender came over and asked what we wanted. I gestured for Lily to start. “I’ll take the Drakesville Lager.”

“I’ll do the Area 267,” I said after scanning the board and reading it was a hoppy IPA. I was all for local beer. I handed the bartender my card and asked him to keep my tab open while Lily dragged me over to one of the cabinets.

She gave me a daring look. “You ready for this, Ginge?”

I barked out a laugh. “Oh, it’s on Flower!”

I went over to exchange cash for the weird bar tokens the machine took instead of quarters, and we each put tokens in and started up Street Fighter. We were total nerds picking our characters, her going with one of the few female playable characters and me going with the most popular male one. When the infamous music came on for our first round, it was on.

At first, I went a little easy on her until I noticed her fingers flying across the buttons in time with her other hand jostling the joystick. Her tongue stuck out, and she glued her eyes onto the screen, calculating my every move. It was when her character slammed mine on the ground and knocked me out to win the first round that I realized I had to step up my game. She was kicking my ass and had a gleeful look on her face while doing it.

And she had never looked more beautiful to me. Where had this sexy and smart gamer girl been all my life? Oh, right, staying home playing a nerdy fantasy RPG with me on the other end.

“You’re good at this,” I muttered as I tried a combo move but missed her.

“What, you think I’m a fake gamer girl?”

I shook my head. “Def not. Didn’t know you’d kick my ass in an arcade game, though.”

“Ha! Arcade was how I got my start,” she explained. Her hands flew over the controls as we jabbed and punched at each other in the game. “Spent the summers at my grandparents’ place down the shore. My sister would bathe in the sun, but my nerdy butt was in the arcade until I ran out of quarters.”

“Damn, where have you been all my life?”