Takashi sat up. He liked the idea she presented.
“I need to re-log so I can get my avatar back.”
“I prefer you like this.”
She chuckled. “That may be, but”—she pointed to her missing arm—“I’m no use with a bow without that.”
He sighed. “Fine.”
Armor collected, Mercedes logged out and he went about gearing back up and formulating a way for them to get this hunt done quickly and efficiently. The better he managed that, the more likely he’d get more time with Mercedes without interruption.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The coin flipped three times in the air, letting out a small whistling noise, and then landed in Mercedes’ hand. She clamped her hand into a fist around the small piece of metal, and her eye twitched as the touch sensation signaled her neuro-mod to react. Today the new nerves were doing better. She didn’t wake up in pain or overwhelmed with sensations.
But it may have something to do with her distracted state. She couldn’t get her time with Takashi last night out her head. It had been so… amazing. His attentiveness to her—his way of drawing attention away from areas she’d rather forget existed—the way he brought out that side of her after so long.
Mercedes flipped the coin again. Why had she waited so long to do this with him, again?
“Mercedes,” Narissa said, extending out her name in a sweet tone.
Mercedes caught the coin and looked at her friend, well, friends. Shira was video chatting with them today for a bit before going into the game. Narissa had wanted to reveal the new cybernetic plans and Shira received it with great enthusiasm as they’d both hoped.
Narissa chuckled. “About time you heard me.”
Mercedes frowned. “Sorry. Lost in thought.”
Shira rested her hand under her chin. “Yeah? What’s on your mind? You’ve been awful quiet today.”
Narissa’s brow furrowed. “Did something go wrong with your date?”
Mercedes’ eyes widened. “What? No. It was nice.”
Shira looked between the two. “Date? What date?”
Narissa grinned. Ah shit. “Mercedes went to a dinner party with Takashi. She got all dolled up and his eyes nearly fell out of his head.”
Shira leaned closer to her camera. “Details, details!”
Warmth flooded over Mercedes. She didn’t want to go into all the details. “It was a nice party. I learned about more of what Takashi does, as well as many of the other seminar attendees.” She grinned. “I even got to prove I know my shit with some of the changes coming to game businesses soon. Didn’t make those people happy since they were trying to show off, but I felt good.”
Her friends laughed.
“So, what happened after?” Narissa asked.
“After?”
She leaned on her elbows. “Yeah, after the party.”
“He brought me back to my hotel.”
“Oh c’mon, Cede,” Narissa said. “It’s obvious you’re trying to hide something. You’d be more forward if you weren’t. You can tell us. We’re your friends. We share all kinds of personal stories with you.” She chuckled. “God knows we’ve listened to enough of Shira’s hook-up stories.”
“Hey!” Shira shouted. “You wanted to know those stories.”
Mercedes laughed. She knew she should be more forward, but it was a little weird talking about her personal… escapades. “It’s nothing big. He just kissed me goodnight.”
Narissa slammed her hand down on the desk. “Just kissed you? Just? Girl, don’t play that off like it’s nothing. You let him kiss you and you didn’t go running for the hills! You can’t be hiding that stuff from us.”
Heat rushed to Mercedes’ cheeks. If this is how she was reacting to a kiss, how would she react to finding out that’s not where it stopped later that night? Or the fact that Takashi and I are—
She swallowed and took a quiet, calming breath. “It was just a kiss goodnight. He went back to his hotel after that. I didn’t think it was such a shocking thing for a guy to kiss me.”
Narissa’s excited reaction dropped. “That’s not what I’m saying and you know it.”
“Wait, that can’t be all that happened,” Shira said. Shit… “I know for a fact you two were in-game playing. I was on when you both logged in and went on your weird treasure hunting. And, after I got off because I wasn’t feeling well, Jasper sent me a text saying the game glitched and everyone got stuck for about an hour, many people without access to their character skills. So what are you hiding?”
Mercedes help up her hands. “Business transactions?”
Narissa sputtered a laugh. “I should have seen that one coming.”
Shira narrowed her eyes. “Don’t play coy. He said something about the avatars getting all jacked up.”
Mercedes’ eyes squinted as she grinned. “Has anyone ever told you, you’ve started to talk a lot like them?”
Before Shira could spit out a reply, Narissa held up her hands. “Wait, back up. What about the avatar situation?”
Mercedes took a deep breath. “The game glitched last night and the avatars everyone used disappeared, leaving players with their real selves out for viewing.”
Narissa’s eyes widened, and Shira’s hands flew up to her mouth when she gasped. “He saw you…”
Mercedes nodded and looked down at her cybernetic arm. “Without this, since the game can’t simulate it.”
Narissa reached for her computer. “Do I need to worry about this?”
“No, it’s fine actually.” Mercedes smiled. “He reacted better than I could have ever hoped for. It… was amazing.”
“It was amazing?” Shira’s eyes narrowed as she scrutinized Mercedes. “Did I hear you right? You could have said it was ‘a nice relief’ or ‘he took it well,’ but ‘amazing’?” She sat up, something dawning on her. “Oh my god, you didn’t.”
Narissa looked between them as Shira freaked out, and Mercedes swallowed. She figured it out.
“Oh my god you did! You fucked him. You fucked him and weren’t telling us. You bitch.”
Narissa looked at Mercedes wide-eyed, and she hid her face in her artificial hand. Jig was up. “You did what?” Narissa’s phone rang and she clicked the speak button, her demeanor changing. “Yes?”
Mercedes and Shira snickered.
“Dr. Narissa.” It was Amy from the front desk. “I just sent Kiara up to see you. She has a delivery.”
“Oh good, right on time. Thank you, Amy.”
“What? You get Kiara’s delicious cupcakes?” Shira groaned. “Not fair.”
Kiara was yet another guild member of theirs and ran a business from her home in Santa Monica. She sold some of the best cakes in the area. The new shop she and Takashi went to, Those Buns Dough, came close, but even they couldn’t compete, especially with some of her specialty cupcake flavors.
“Well, if you were here, you could have them,” Mercedes teased.
Shira’s eyes narrowed. “If I were there I would be smacking you upside the head for keeping this huge secret from us. You can’t fuck a guy, especially not one who is your friend that you’re considering having a serious relationship with, and not tell your best friends! That’s Girl-Code Ethics 101.”
Before Mercedes could say anything, Narissa held up her hand to tell them to hold off on the conversation and looked out her glass walls. Mercedes turned to see a short, fair-skinned woman in her mid-twenties garbed in shorts and a tank top approaching. Her curvaceous hips swayed back and forth, and her long red hair bounced about her shoulders and large breasts.
A full-sleeve tattoo covered her right arm, depicting a dice set, symbols from World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, and Lusara Fates, a Rathalos head from Monster Hunter, and other varied nerdy imagery, and a
small hoop ring pierced the side of her nose. She also had a number of piercings in her ear. In her hands she carried a small white box and a cup of hot coffee.
Narissa got up from her chair and opened the door for her, greeting her with a smile. “It’s good to see you, Kiara.”
Kiara smiled back. “You too, Narissa.”
Her words held a trace of a Scottish accent. While she hadn’t been born there, her mother was, and immigrated over when she married. Kiara picked it up that way, but tried to keep it tempered. She didn’t like the attention that came with it. But she had no control when she got heated.
Kiara looked to at Mercedes and then Shira. “Hey, girls.”
The two waved, Shira excited to see her. Mercedes found it interesting that Shira didn’t have a problem meeting Kiara in person or over video chats. It was just certain people, mostly men, she tried to avoid the situation with.
She wished her friend would handle this better. If she could handle women seeing her, or people seeing her in public, then she should be able to handle guys seeing her without freaking out. The memory of Shira sending over that photo of her reluctantly the other week when Mercedes had that failed date came to her mind. I understand her fear, though…
“Kiara, please tell me you can ship some cupcakes out to me too,” Shira said.
Kiara chuckled. “I just need to know what you’re after and I can get them over the next day.”
Shira’s hands shot up in the air. “Yes!”
Kiara handed the box she carried to Narissa. “Here are those experimental flavors I wanted you to try out. Darius loves them, but he’s a guy and eats everything I make.”
The four ladies laughed. Darius was their guildmaster, one of Kiara’s best friends, and her roommate. He’d rave about her cooking when he had the time to get on, and bragged about how often he got to eat her sweets since he was her guinea pig.
“I’m not sure whether he’s smitten with you, or your cooking,” Narissa teased as she took the box.
Kiara laughed. “Most definitely my cooking.”
“Uh huh.” Narissa headed back for her desk, and Kiara followed. “I have another story plot for you, by the way.”
Kiara rubbed her hands together. “Oh, tell me more. You give me all sorts of fun ideas.”
“One orc, one human, and a long night in the Alavera Woods.”
On top of being an amazing pastry chef, Kiara also wrote novels—fantasy and romance, though lately she’d been on a romance and erotica kick.
Mercedes snickered. “Are you talking about Shira’s little escapade with that orc last week?”
Shira gasped. “You tell her those? You traitor!”
Narissa laughed. “Well I wasn’t giving names or anything. Just situational prompts.”
“You’re breaking Girl-Code!”
Kiara laughed. “I already figured they may be coming from you, Shira. You’re not shy about your in-game sex life.”
“Yeah, so?”
Mercedes laughed, realizing why this was such a big deal. “This orc one, don’t tell me, Jasper and Zach were upset you went with this guy instead of teaming up with them for matches, weren’t they?”
Shira’s face reddened. “Yeah, so what? Like I told them, I can do as I please, and if I want to have sex with some random guy instead of beating the snot out of people in a match, then I can.”
Kiara’s lips spread into a sly grin and she tapped them with a finger. “Are you sure that’s how it went down? Or were they more upset they weren’t invited to join?”
Mercedes’ eyes widened. She hadn’t thought of that. And by the way Shira’s cheeks were reddening, it may have been true. “That most definitely didn’t happen.”
Kiara chuckled. “I think I have a great story now. One orc, one sexy human woman, and two elves. Maybe they’ll just watch, or maybe they’ll join in. Who knows?”
Mercedes and Narissa laughed, while Shira’s face flushed more. “Stop it, all of you. It’s not like that.”
Mercedes looked at her friend. “How can you say that? They openly flirt with you all the time.”
Shira’s gaze faltered. “They’re just being them. They act like that with other women, too.”
“Oh, please. Then explain why they try so hard to get you to go to tournaments?” A smirk spread across Mercedes’ lips. “No better place to tag team a sexy woman like you than in a hotel room.”
Kiara and Narissa laughed, and Shira’s face, neck, and shoulders turned scarlet. “Even… if it were true, I don’t screw guildmates like you do.”
“Shira!” Narissa shouted. “Now you’re breaking this Girl-Code you keep talking about.”
“Wait, hold up.” Kiara looked at Mercedes. “You slept with Takashi? About time, girl, jeez.”
Mercedes threw her head back and groaned. “Can we stop making a big deal out this? Yes, I had sex with Takashi. And yes, it was amazing.”
“Well don’t hog all the details, share, share!” Shira urged.
“I’m not sharing details!” Mercedes shouted, her face red.
Shira winked. “I’ll share some of mine.”
“Oh, please do,” Kiara said. “I need story material.”
Narissa held up her hands. “No, no, no. We’re not going into details about all that.”
Shira grinned. “Aw, does someone feel lonely?”
Kiara crossed her arms. “I don’t know. I’m still convinced she’s getting shagged by my best buddy Ajax after hours.”
Kiara, along with Darius, had been best friends with Ajax since childhood. She apparently was the reason he even called himself Ajax, and no one would tell how it came about. She learned to hold her own against them as kids, and when they got older, learned she could bribe them with food quite efficiently.
“We are not,” Narissa said. “I swear to all of you, that’s not going on.”
Kiara shifted her weight to one side. “Then why is he always here?”
“Because—”
Her door flew open, and Ajax suddenly entered the room. “Narissa, I need your handiwork.”
All four women looked at his mangled cybernetic. Narissa’s eyes darkened and her upper lip pulled back. “Because he keeps blowing up his damn arm!”
“Ajax,” Mercedes warned.
He nodded. “Yeah, running.”
Ajax pivoted and rushed down the hall. Narissa, eyes locked on her target, jumped to her feet, but Kiara held her back. “Easy. As fun as it would be to see you tear him apart, I think it may be best if I talked to him. Maybe I can get some answers.”
Narissa let out a long frustrated sigh and sat back down. “If you can, I’d be more than appreciative. I’m tempted to ban him from repairs until he tells me. He’s going to blow his neuro-mod and seriously harm himself at this rate!”
Kiara gave her a thumbs up. “I got this.”
Taking a sip of her coffee she left on her mission, her back now to them, allowing Mercedes to notice she’d gotten a full back tattoo since the last time she’d seen Kiara. Darius must have loved that. From what Ajax told her once, Darius liked a creative woman with “artistic” skin. Kiara fit that bill quite well.
When the door shut, Narissa and Shira focused on Mercedes. She swallowed a lump in her throat. “What?”
“You and Takashi,” Narissa started. “Where do you stand?”
Mercedes took a deep breath. She wasn’t ashamed to say. She was just not convinced this wasn’t some long, drawn-out dream. “We’re… we’re a thing.”
Narissa let out a sigh of relief as she sat back in her chair, and Shira threw her arms in the air. “Hallelujah, finally!”
Mercedes’ face warmed. “No need to make such a big deal out of it.”
Narissa pointed at her. “This is you we’re dealing
with. Miss ‘I haven’t gotten very far with a guy in years.’ Miss ‘I think I’m going to give up dating.’ Miss ‘I’m not good enough even though I am.’”
Mercedes threw her hands out at Shira. “And what about her? She’s just as bad, if not worse.”
“Don’t go shifting the attention.” Shira wagged her finger. “You’re our current topic, so we’re going to get excited for you.”
Mercedes crossed her arms. “I don’t want you to. I don’t even know if this is going to work out.”
Narissa frowned. “Don’t be like that, Cede. This is Takashi we’re talking about. He’s not like the others you’ve dealt with.”
Mercedes’ phone rang and Tasha’s voice spoke, “Miss Mercedes, Takashi is calling you.”
Mercedes smiled and then answered the phone, this time not on speaker. “Hello?”
“Mercedes,” Takashi said.
Her brow furrowed. It sounded like he was in a crowded place. “What’s up?”
“I need to cancel plans today. And, well, the rest of the week,” he said. “I’m really sorry. I have to take an emergency flight out to San Francisco. Something came up with the family I need to help out with. I can’t talk about it now, but when things calm down, I’ll call you and tell you everything.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Oh, okay…”
Narissa and Shira became concerned, honing in on Mercedes’ mood shift.
A woman’s voice projected over an intercom, mentioning flight boarding.
“That’s my flight. I have to go. Again, I’m sorry, but I will explain everything. I promise.”
Mercedes tried to smile, but failed. “Okay. Good luck.”
She pulled the phone away from her ear when the call ended. Narissa’s brow creased. “What’s going on?”
“Some sort of emergency happened with his family. He had to hop on a plane just now to help out.”
“Oh, that’s not too terrible. Well, the emergency part is, but it sounds like it’s a legit reason,” Narissa said.
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