Mercedes looked out at the dreary night. “You have no idea how ironic that wording is right now, here in Cali.”
“Wait, sunny California got rain?” Jasper said.
“I live in San Francisco.” Mercedes ate the last of her sushi. “What is ‘sun’?”
Shira laughed, knowing exactly where she was coming from. Whereas Narissa lived in Los Angeles, Mercedes and Shira hadn’t chosen such a “sunny” location to live.
“Anyway, I’ll take you up on the offer, Takashi. Just give me a few minutes to clean up.”
“No rush.”
“Guess we’ll go back to kicking people’s faces in,” Jasper said. “Shira, you joinin’?”
“As long as I can pretend it’s the arschloch that stood Mercedes up,” she replied, a bit of her German upbringing seeping into her irritated words.
“I was gonna do the same.” Jasper’s smirk was evident in his voice.
“Well, that’s fine for you two. I’m going to have a field day pretending they’re our sheisty manager,” Zach muttered.
“She causing you two more problems?” Shira asked.
“Yeah, complaining we’re not entering enough twos tournaments, instead of trying to convince you to join us for threes tournaments, trying to claim it’s going against our contract and all that bullshit.”
“You’re wasting your time on that one,” Shira muttered.
Jasper laughed. “We’ll win out eventually.”
Mercedes rolled her eyes at the three’s banter and went about cleaning up. She kept up conversation with her guildmates, when three of them weren’t locked into verbal trolling matches with other teams… or trolling each other.
Mercedes headed for her game station, only to be distracted by her phone again. Looking at it, she found a message from Narissa.
Testing results are in and they’re better than I could have hoped for! Can you meet me in L.A. next week so we can start implementing?
Mercedes tapped the screen and sent back a message.
I think so. I’ll get back to you once I check the work scheduling and see if they guys will be okay without me for a few days.
A moment later she received a response.
Okay, let me know. Btw, you okay? I saw the messages Shira sent and your brief reply. I’m guessing your date didn’t go well.
I’m fine. Date didn’t show. Had a chat with the guild and now I’m feeling a bit better. Sting won’t last forever.
All right. If you need someone to talk to though, you know I’m here.
Thank you. Btw, you’ll be proud of Shira. She sent Jasper and Zach a recent photo of herself.
WHAT? YOU NEED TO TELL ME EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED. LIKE, YESTERDAY.
Mercedes couldn’t help but chuckle.
Hard to over text.
I’ll call you in a bit then. We can also discuss the experiment.
Sounds like a plan. I’m going in game, so I hope that won’t be an issue.
Nope, I’ll private chat with you remotely in a few.
Mercedes couldn’t get rid of the smile on her face as she continued to her game station. She really hoped this would work. If it weren’t for the game, she’d have forgotten what it was like to feel with that arm. I miss it…
“Okay, I’m switching to my station.”
Mercedes disconnected before anyone in-game had the chance to say anything. Hopping in, she preselected her game and character, and prepared herself for a much better night.
Takashi sat in the back of the crowded tavern, mug in hand, watching the front door. His free hand rhythmically tapped on the wooden table, his anxiety rising. Mercedes hadn’t shown up yet, and she’d logged into the game forty minutes ago. She private massaged him to say she needed to take care of something, but he was starting to worry.
It wasn’t like her to do this, but he knew she was also hiding how much this failed date affected her. She may have felt pressured to say yes to him when she still needed a bit more time to compose herself.
His grip on his mug tightened. The thought of that guy standing her up sent anger boiling to the surface. She deserved better than that. She needed someone like—he sighed and created a white rose in his hand—Me.
There was no way for him to keep running from this. After last night, being able to enjoy time with her doing something as mundane as business calculations, the accidentally-long good morning text he’d sent for when she woke up this morning, and the anger he felt about someone standing her up, when she deserved to be treated so much better, he couldn’t tell himself he wanted things to stay this way between them. The flower’s color changed, slowly turning red at the tips and flowing all the way down the petals until they were all a deep crimson. Just how I want things to go, if I don’t ruin things between us.
The door to the tavern swung open, and Takashi quickly dissipated the rose when Mercedes entered the building, Kumar by her side. He rose from his seat and abandoned his half-consumed mug of ale to meet her.
Mercedes met him with a smile. “Sorry I’m late. I needed to get a few timed quests done that I forgot about, and then Narissa needed to talk to me a bit longer than I had expected.”
Takashi conjured up a white rose and offered it to her. “It’s okay. I hope your talk with Narissa was a good one.”
She nodded and accepted the rose, but instead of speaking, she stared at the flower. He hoped the new color wouldn’t alarm her.
Mercedes inhaled its sweet scent and then eyed him. “White?”
“Uh, yeah, I thought it’d make you feel better.” He didn’t want to lie, but he also didn’t want to scare her, either.
“How did you know I liked white roses?”
He shrugged, able to tell a truth now. “Overheard Shira saying something to Zach that you liked white flowers. Figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot. And, it’s me, so of course it had to be a rose.”
She smirked. “Of course.” She then tapped him in the nose with the flower head. “Thanks.”
Mercedes spun on her heels and exited the tavern. Takashi couldn’t help but watch the way her hips swayed. So tempting. But he kept himself controlled, for now, and followed her out into the bustling city of Algona.
“So, where is this hunt?” Mercedes asked as they wove through the crowd.
“Tigarma Jungle.”
She snickered. “Of course you’d pick a jungle adventure.”
Takashi held up his hands. “They pay the most, okay? And this one is no exception.”
Mercedes scratched Kumar behind the ear. “Yeah, yeah.”
Takashi had a habit of picking the jungle adventures for them. He liked those areas in the game, and they really did yield some good currency. Loud bells in the town square rang three times, indicating the in-game time of three in the afternoon. That late already? The time difference between South Korea and California messed with him. Especially since he also had to juggle in-game time. Maybe I shouldn’t have picked this hunt. He had wanted to cheer her up, and spend time with her, but he hadn’t accounted for her time zone or the fact that jungle hunts tended to take longer than other hunts.
The pair made it to the outskirts of the city. Mercedes pulled out a small orb only several centimeters in diameter from a pouch on her side. Holding it out to Kumar, she squeezed it. The orb glowed brightly, and then her pet did as well. In a blink of an eye, the large cat vanished. She tucked the orb away and pulled out a larger one.
Before she could use it, Takashi stopped her. “Hey, Mercedes?”
She tilted her head as she looked his way. “What’s up?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I forgot about the time difference for you when I picked up this hunt. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Mercedes smiled and squeezed the orb in her hand. It f
lashed, and a large being was released from it. Once the glow around the creature dissipated, it was revealed to be a wyvern, equipped with a saddle and riding reins. “Yeah, I’m sure. I planned to go in late. Kinda expected it to go wrong and all.”
Takashi frowned. He didn’t like that she acted like her situation wasn’t a big deal. “All right. If you say so.”
He pulled out an orb from a pouch and performed the same action as her, summoning an undead flying horse. The two mounted and took to the skies, heading south for the Tigarma Jungle.
They switched to a party chat, to allow them to make casual conversation that wasn’t drowned out with the wind, though the conversation was stilted. Mercedes struggled to hide how distracted she was, but every time he’d ask, she’d dismiss him with, “I’m fine, really.” Takashi wished she wouldn’t internalize her problems. He understood it was something she’d always done, something to do with her past, and home life, according to Narissa, but he didn’t like it. It wasn’t healthy. And it kept a barrier between the two of them that he didn’t want. It felt like she didn’t trust him to help.
He and Mercedes made it to a thick jungle and descended. Once on the ground, the two dismissed their mounts. Takashi checked all his spell reagent pouches to be sure he had everything, while Mercedes summoned Kumar again.
“So, what do we have to find?” Mercedes asked.
Takashi pulled out the quest scroll and unraveled it so she could take a look. “A tablet that should list information on the old gods. It’s located at some old forgotten shrine.”
Mercedes rubbed her hands together. “Oh, goodie.”
The next expansion for Lusara Fates revolved around these mysterious old gods, but since the expansion wasn’t going to be released for a few more weeks, the treasure hunts were the only lead-in quests available at the moment.
Takashi read some of the hints out loud, and Mercedes picked the best direction to start moving in.
CHAPTER THREE
Two hours had passed, and Mercedes and Takashi hadn’t finished the quest yet. Mercedes sat down on a tree root with a sigh. They had to be missing something—besides the fact that everything Takashi did distracted her. This quest had been the best thing for her, after her failed date. Takashi focused so hard on getting her spirits up and she appreciated it.
He had been insistent on figuring out what was bothering her earlier, but she didn’t want to talk about it. She knew she shouldn’t bottle it all up, but after her mother’s death in her teenage years, she didn’t really have anyone to talk to.
It forced her to learn to rely on herself. So when Narissa and Shira came into her life, and then the guild, she struggled to adapt and open up.
Mercedes could see how her dismissive nature upset Takashi, but she didn’t want to burden him with her problems. He had enough on his plate with his business and family.
Takashi looked at one of the clues carved into the tree they found. True to his actual self, his avatar wasn’t overly muscular, like some of the warrior classes. Many women were attracted to that muscular physique, and Mercedes wasn’t much different. But Takashi had witty charm and intelligence to make up for his lack of physical prowess, making him appealing to her.
Small talk wasn’t something either of them was good at. It made for mundane, pointless conversation. But deep conversations were something the two of them could hold together. Topics from geek culture to psychology, to the meaning of life. Answer is always forty-two. None of the conversations were boring, even repeated ones.
She pulled out the white rose from her inventory to look at. He’d given her a reason for it, but something told her he’d lied a little. What she never told him was that her mother had been a florist. She knew a lot about flowers, and when she wasn’t at the shop with her dad, she’d be at the flower shop her mother co-ran with a friend.
Mercedes knew every flower that was appropriate for expressing different feelings. And a white rose… that flower was a bit more complicated, due to the many accepted meanings. There were two most common meanings that were vastly different from each other. One meant, “thinking of you,” and the other, “I care for you, more than friends.”
Mercedes smelled the rose. Logically, Takashi had given it to her to show he cared and wanted her to smile. It did help that she really did like white flowers, so she understood that he was giving her one because he knew of her favorite types, and it would make her feel a bit special. But the more common reason for giving these flowers was the other meaning. Of course… I could just be projecting and grasping at imaginary straws. We are just friends after all.
She jumped when Takashi plopped down next to her. “All right, spill. You’ve been staring at that flower for five minutes now, not hearing a thing I’ve been calling out to you.”
Mercedes avoided eye contact and her shoulders sagged. She knew she should have been more aware of her surroundings. With Takashi doing his search, and hostile NPCs—non-player characters—roaming about, she needed to stay alert. And now, she couldn’t keep things from him.
Takashi reached out and grasped her hand. “Please, Mercy.”
She looked at him, surprised. He’d never called her anything but Mercedes. Her father, Narissa, and Shira called her Cede, but her mother had been the one and only to call her Mercy. It became something special between the two of them that she’d never wanted to hear from anyone else. Until now. The way Takashi said it, she liked it a lot.
Takashi’s face twisted with concern. “Do you not trust me to help?”
The accusation hurt. “It’s not that.” She looked at her lap, wrestling with the words. She didn’t want to bother him, but he was insisting so much. Maybe it couldn’t hurt to tell him. Just this once. “Growing up, it was just my mom, dad, and me. I have no siblings, and we’re estranged from the rest of the family for various reasons. But my father was never good at showing feelings—or helping when we need the support. So I just had my mom. Until she died.” Pain gripped Mercedes’ chest as she remembered seeing her mother in the hospital bed, her eyes closing for the last time. “I lost the only person I could talk to, so I internalized. And after my accident, it only got worse.”
She’d said more than she’d intended, but the way Takashi looked at her, he clearly didn’t mind. His grip on her hand tightened. “I’m sorry. I never knew you lost her.”
Mercedes shrugged, trying to brush of the feelings raging inside her. “I don’t like talking about it, so you wouldn’t know.”
“But you don’t have to internalize anymore. You have us. Me.” She looked at her hand as his thumb caressed her skin, sending electrifying jolts through her. “We’re all here for you.”
Mercedes allowed her gaze to meet his, and the sincerity in his dark eyes snared her. She felt compelled to spill everything. How the loss of her mother and her arm affected her. How she wanted someone treat her as well as he treated her. For him to tell her he harbored these same secret feelings and desperately wanted to try to be that guy who finally didn’t let her down, promising their friendship would never crumble even if they didn’t work out.
Her eyes fell back on her lap and the white rose, doubt suffocating her. “I just… don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
His grip tightened. “Don’t think that. You’ve done nothing wrong in any of these situations.”
She shook her head. “That can’t be true. Jasper is right. I’ve had way too many back-to-back failed dates. I’m lucky to get through the first one, and haven’t gotten to a second one. The only common factor is me, so I have to be the problem.”
“No.” Takashi cupped her cheek and made her look at him. “It’s their loss for not appreciating you like they should have, not yours. Any guy worth his weight in coin would be lucky for you to give them a moment of your time, let alone a date.”
Mercedes’ mouth ran dry. The wa
y he looked at her, her mind melted to mush. This allowed a question to tumble off her tongue before she could think to stop herself. “Do you feel that way?”
“Yes.” He didn’t skip a beat in his response.
Mercedes’ cheeks warmed. He doesn’t mean that. He’s just trying to make me feel better. But the longer the two held each other’s gazes, the harder it was to convince herself.
The eye contact broke when their quest logs sounded with a ping. Activating their menus, they found their hunt only had an hour left before the quest expired.
“Shit, sorry, I forgot about the timed aspect of these,” Mercedes said. “Here I am causing us to start it late and blabbing on about my issues, wasting even more time.”
“It’s not wasting time.” Takashi said. Mercedes opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “Are you having fun?” She nodded and he smiled. “Then it’s not wasted time. Even if we don’t complete it. I’d rather spend three hours with you and accomplish nothing, than catalog stock and play the auction house for hours.”
The warmth in her cheeks spread through her entire body. “You mean it?”
“I couldn’t have said if I didn’t.”
A small smile spread across her lips. “Me too.”
Takashi stood and held out his hand to her. “Let’s get back to this hunt. I think I deciphered the clue on the tree.”
Excitement rushed through her and she jumped to her feet. “Let’s do this, then.”
Stone ground on stone as Takashi watched Mercedes figure out the puzzle door before them. The clue on the tree led them right to some ruins, and after taking on some hostile NPCs, the two stumbled across a building in the center. Both were pretty sure they’d found the shrine, but getting into it wouldn’t be easy. Luckily, Mercedes loved puzzles.
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