by Lee Kilraine
“Anyone show up for the class?”
“They sure did. We even had to turn some away. Hawk is already in there.” Gage nodded his head toward the room beyond the plate-glass window wall. “This was a great idea, Kaz.”
“Not actually mine. Barbara started it.” His gaze landed on Delaney, sitting on a stool next to Gage. “Then Delaney started the sign-up sheet. And what are you doing here again?”
“They’ll only let me volunteer at the clinic two afternoons a week and I was going crazy sitting around the house so I came to bug Gage.” Delaney stood up to lean against the desk and stretch her back. “You have to admit this class was a good idea, even if you have to put up with Barbara.”
Gage smirked across the counter at him. “And you and Hawk are teaching? Two of Climax’s most available bachelors? Oh, this is going to be fun to watch. No wonder you showed up, Delaney.”
“I’m no dummy.” She winked at him. “I tried to sneak into the class for a front-row seat, but my doc wouldn’t sign off on your dumb physical form.”
“I’d really like not to have to deliver your baby here in the gym.”
“That hurts my feelings, Gage.”
Mira reached out and patted her hand. “I’d help you deliver your baby. I mean, it would have to be in an emergency and I’d have to be the last person alive on the planet, but I’d help.”
“That’s very sweet, but how about I put you down as the backup plan to my backup plan? I remember how you react to the sight of blood.”
“Oh, perfect, because I was totally just being polite.”
They moved into the exercise room, where Kaz introduced Mira to Hawk Savage, a local cop and co-owner of the gym. Then they gathered the class of women together to start.
Hawk and Kaz stood in the front of the class and Hawk took the lead by presenting the most recent crime statistics and why it made sense to learn to fight back. “Every ninety seconds, somewhere in this country, someone is being assaulted.”
“All those lessons drummed into you growing up—be polite, be courteous, smile, it’s rude to blow someone off—remember those?” Kaz moved his gaze over all the faces. “Stop it. The criminal element looks for opportunity and victims, the weaker the better. Don’t be the victim. Don’t give them the opportunity.”
“Kaz is exactly right.” Hawk raised his hand. “Show of hands . . . how many of you rummage around for your keys when you’re standing next to your car? That many? Congratulations. You just gave your attacker an opportunity and gave up a valuable defensive weapon.
“I want every one of you to have your keys in one hand and phone handy before you head out of a building.”
“Because we have a big class, if everyone is okay with it, we’ll break the information into three or four sessions. That will give us time for everyone to practice each of the defense moves and get some personal input from Hawk or myself.”
Barbara raised her hand. “Kaz? I’m looking forward to every bit of personal input you give me, but I can already tell I’ll need some extra one-on-one tutoring.”
Kaz didn’t know how to deflect that. Luckily, Hawk did.
“Not a problem, Barbara. We’ve asked Sergeant Raney to handle the extra tutoring.” He nodded his head toward the back wall, where the sergeant was standing. She was a no-nonsense former drill sergeant turned cop.
“All right, let’s start with the first demo.” Kaz stepped up, and together he and Hawk demonstrated the first maneuver step-by-step.
“Questions? Everybody see how that was done?”
“I really think it would help to see how a smaller woman handles those moves, Kaz. I volunteer.”
Kaz ran his hand over his mouth. “I guess I see your point, Barbara, but Mira’s right here up front. Mira?”
“Me? Oh no.” Mira shook her head and grabbed onto the T-shirt of the woman next to her. “Cheryl’s in better shape and said she’d like to take you on. Isn’t that right, Cheryl?”
With pink cheeks and a dazzling smile, Cheryl nodded. “I did say something to that effect, yes.”
Why did Cheryl look familiar . . . oh, Cheryl the-waitress-at-the-diner Cheryl. He narrowed his eyes at Mira before giving a quick nod. “Sure. Okay. Are you ready for me, Cheryl?”
“I am. I really am.” She turned her back on Kaz and waited for him to make his move.
He wrapped his arm around her neck from behind and together they demonstrated each step of the defensive maneuver. They broke the class up into pairs while he and Hawk walked around giving advice and making corrections, jumping in for a quick demo as needed. When Barbara asked for her second demo because she just wasn’t getting it, darn it, Kaz signaled over to Sergeant Raney to handle some one-on-one tutoring.
As the class wrapped up, Mira halted Kaz’s plan to make a quick exit when her gaze speared his from across the room. A challenging look that spoke volumes. Mira’s eyes cut over to Barbara, then back at him, her head jerking in Barbara’s direction. Ask Barbara on a date? No, thanks. He looked around until he found Cheryl.
Cheryl was definitely nice; why shouldn’t he ask her out? He was hesitating because he’d been out of the dating scene too long. There was only one way to solve that. Dive right in.
“Cheryl? I’ve heard some good things about the Yadkin’s Depot trivia night. I was wondering if that’s something you’d like to do? I mean with me.”
“Oh goodness, I’d love to.” She smiled up at him. “Trivia night’s tomorrow, yes?”
He hadn’t been on a first date in so long he couldn’t remember if women preferred to drive themselves or to be picked up. “I’ll pick you up. How does seven o’clock sound?”
“Perfect.” She gave him a quick hug before backing away with a wave and a giggle. “See you tomorrow.”
Something about her giggle made him a little less enthused about the date, but he chalked it up to being out of the dating scene for too long and pushed it away. No, a date was a good thing. It was too easy to let himself get wrapped up in work, leaving him isolated. He loved his work, but he wasn’t a loner by any means.
Mira stood leaning against the front desk talking to Gage.
“Looked like a great class.” Gage leaned a hand on the desk. “And you managed to escape you-know-who. Good job.”
Great job. Kaz left the gym with Mira and made a mental note to drop a six-pack of his newest home brew at the station for Hawk. He’d damn well earned it with the foresight to ask Meg Raney to help. Genius move.
“See? That wasn’t so bad.”
He glanced over at Mira. “The class went very well.”
“I was talking about asking Cheryl for a date. How did that go?”
There went Cheryl’s giggle through his head again, and he shook it off. “Good.”
“So where’s the first date?”
“Trivia night at Yadkin’s Depot, a local bar.”
“Hey! Great idea.”
“You don’t have to sound surprised. Just because I miss social cues and maybe work too much doesn’t mean I’m hopeless.” He grinned. “I mean, I passed your kissing test.”
“You sure did.” She frowned, her gaze on his lips. “We should go over the first date checklist.”
He threw a quick glance over at her but moved back to the road in time to slow his truck for a deer darting across the road. “You have a list for that too?”
“Of course. A first date should be short and sweet. That way if there’s no chemistry between you and your date, you’re not stuck with each other for hours. If you do click, keeping it short will leave her wanting more.”
“Makes sense.”
“Hey, is that an arcade next to the tire shop?”
“Yeah, Dexter’s. You want to stop in?”
“Can we? I’d love to! My sister and I used to play Crazy Taxi all the time. She swears that’s how she learned to drive.”
“Well, it was a fun game, but the real geeks knew Space Invaders and Tetris was where it was at.”
Mi
ra ended up in a duel with Marcus, a local high school senior. Good kid and luckily a good sport because Mira did a heck of a celebration dance when she beat him at Super Mario Bros.
“Sorry about that, Marcus. This is my friend Mira. I’m working on her social skills.” Kaz clapped a hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “Aren’t you graduating this year? I thought Delaney mentioned it the other day.”
“Yes, sir. I’m hoping to head to East Carolina University and join AFROTC. I’m thinking either a pilot or cyberspecialist.”
“Whoa, air force, huh? That’s great. I’m more than happy to talk computers with you if you need more information.”
“I’ll definitely take you up on that. You know what? I was just thinking how weird it is that one chance meeting with someone can have this ripple effect and change your whole life.”
“How’s that?” Kaz saw Mira flinch at that and figured she was thinking about her ex. He reached over, took her hand in his and gave it a light squeeze.
“Well, if I hadn’t met Delaney two years ago and she hadn’t pushed me into running and getting fit, I wouldn’t have dared to set a goal like yeah, maybe I can fly a plane.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. The way I remember it is, you two pushed each other into running.”
Marcus’s eyes held his and then a grin spread big and wide on his face. “Yeah, we did. I guess we’re both lucky our paths crossed.”
Delaney and Marcus had definitely changed each other’s lives. Lucky our paths crossed. Lucky? Kaz didn’t believe in coincidence and he wasn’t sure he believed in luck, but he did believe in karmic energy. Like the butterfly effect. How good energy—and bad—could ripple out into the world and create change. His gaze moved over to Mira, who cocked her head and blinked up at him.
“I’ll take a rematch, Mira. Any time.” Marcus threw down the challenge with a smile.
They said good-bye to Marcus and headed back to Kaz’s.
“Should I feel guilty about how much fun I had beating that sweet kid? Because I don’t. Booyah.” Mira laughed at herself as they made their way into the kitchen and washed up. “Now, how about you cook that dinner you promised me while I get back to the first-date checklist? Rules actually.”
“There are rules?” Kaz opened the refrigerator and took out the fresh vegetables and shrimp he needed to make dinner. “Who tells us guys all these rules? Because I don’t remember getting the memo.”
“Well, it’s probably not fair, but it’s a secret test you guys have to pass. Some men are blessed and are in tune with women’s needs and preferences and they just know. I have yet to meet one of those men. I think they’re like unicorns. We women always search for them, but they might be pure fantasy.”
“Nothing like making it challenging for us.” He rinsed the bok choy, scallions, and edamame and turned to deveining the shrimp.
“If you’re lucky, some nice woman like me will give you the cheat sheet.”
“Do you like spicy food?”
“The more the better.” Mira settled onto a stool at the island and watched him work. “Like I said, you totally scored points with your choice of location. Trivia is a perfect first date. It’s fun yet not intimidating. It breaks up those awkward getting-to-know-you silences but still gives you a chance to talk and to find out each other’s interests.”
Kaz hoped so, because his first dates were rife with awkward silences. He pulled the wok forward onto the front burner of the cooktop and then drizzled in grapeseed oil and fired up the burner.
“So, first-date rules: No potentially controversial topics like politics, religion, or which mathematician made the most important contribution to the world.”
“What?” Kaz laughed. “How is that controversial? Everyone knows Leonhard Euler was the greatest mathematician ever to have lived.”
“Ha! Wrong. He’s up there, I’ll grant you, but what about Descartes, who provided the foundations of modern calculus and Cartesian geometry? Or Pythagoras, who began mathematics as we know it, or Hypatia, the first female mathematician, or, right up your alley, Alan Turing, the father of computer science?”
Kaz looked over his shoulder at Mira as her voice grew more passionate with each name she added. He knew exactly how she felt. “Okay. I see your point. It’s a pretty polarizing subject for some of us.”
“Although I’m not sure Cheryl will have such strong opinions on the topic, so never mind.”
“One can only hope. And now I have a burning desire to find out where Cheryl stands on the greatest mathematician debate.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“No. I never mock.” Turning back to the cooktop, he scraped the vegetables into the wok and stirred quickly. When they achieved a bright green color, he added the shrimp while he continued stirring. Next he dropped dried banh pho noodles into a pot of boiling water. “Dinner’s almost done. There’s iced tea, a batch of my home-brew pilsners, or wine in the fridge.”
Mira opened the fridge to consider her drink options. “What would you suggest?”
“The pilsner goes especially well with this dish. Would you grab one for me?”
She grabbed out two beers and sat back at the island, watching him dish up their meal. “You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever dated a guy who cooked from scratch.”
“Well, I’m a single guy who likes to eat good food. Learning to cook seemed like my best option. Cooking is really a science experiment anyway, right? You’re experimenting with temperature, time, and changing the variables until you get the result you’re looking for.”
“I didn’t recognize anything you put in except for the shrimp, but man, it smells wonderful.”
He slid a plate in front of her along with a set of chopsticks and took a seat next to her. “Dig in.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice.” She managed the chopsticks pretty well, taking her first bite. “Mmm. Mmm. Oh my. Dios, this is good.”
“Told you you’d like healthy food.” He winked at her and took a sip of his beer. “Bok choy, Chinese broccoli, zucchini, cabbage—”
Mira reached over and placed a finger over his lips. “No. Don’t spoil it. It tastes sinfully delicious and that’s all I want to know.”
It was an enjoyable meal. They each had a second serving while they discussed favorite arcade games, threw a few more candidates for best mathematician ever onto the list, and eventually ended up at his RPG game. Why couldn’t his first dates flow this smoothly?
“So I have questions about Zero Point. Lots of questions.”
“Fire away.”
“First of all, thank you. Your game kept me sane when my world was falling apart around me. It’s been a place to escape each time I lost another job. Then, when I moved and didn’t know a soul, I turned to the friends I’d made in your game and it took away much of the loneliness.”
“Good. Glad it helped.”
“Do you ever play Zero Point?”
He’d been so focused on helping Mira, he forgot to consider all the angles. If she’d been playing his game for a few months, he’d seen her. He entered the game fairly often. Not to play but for research and also to handle the basic maintenance and any underground contacts.
None of the players knew his gamertag. Anonymity was a small protection when he went into the game to get any of his research done.
But he kept an eye on the game. Knowing the regular players made it easier to detect someone new. And he knew right away who she was. Damsel in Distress. He’d been damn near fascinated with her progress through the levels of the game.
“I don’t play, no. Not anymore. I go in for research, but that’s it.”
“The game has been seriously helpful. I actually feel calmer after playing for an hour.” Mira sat back, tilting her head to the side. “Why is that?”
“Some of the worlds and levels within were designed for a specific purpose. Not all, but I used scientific information and the principles of biofeedback in a few levels. Every time a player enters the game y
ou make choices that provide very different experiences for your brain. Choose the Church of Crystal Palace and it takes you on a spiritual path of your own making. Pick the Psychedelic Panda and you end up on creative exploration.”
“So cool. Okay, I know the Garden of All that Ails is for meditation; at least it feels like it. But my favorite is the Rubik’s Cube. I love the puzzles and trying to solve the mystery.”
“The game has evolved over time. Less in the last few years as my own work has taken me in a different direction. Every once in a while I’ll make changes when I want to experiment with some new technology. But the beauty is, each individual player creates their own self-evolving game.”
“What’s in the Blue Room?” She tilted her head, watching him. “I tried to go in, but I don’t know the passcode. Other than the yellow door, it’s the only other locked door I’ve encountered and I’m dying to know what’s going on behind it.”
“It’s actually a place to experiment with virtual reality. I hid the room a few years ago as things were getting a little . . . I guess explicit is a good description.”
“Explicit how?”
“Sexually.”
Mira blinked her big green eyes at him and her cheeks flushed a pretty pink. “Oh.”
He couldn’t help the grin that formed. “I already mentioned the research using VR for PTSD, right? I opened the room two years ago because I’d read about new advances in using virtual reality as a tool for helping people with debilitating conditions and diseases reclaim a semblance of their sexual life. But the minute I reopened the room—well, let’s just say it’s a popular place. The passcode is an attempt to keep players from entering by accident. I want everyone heading in there knowing what they might find. It’s basically a VR-MMORPG.”
“Translation, please?”
“A Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.”
“What is virtual reality?”
“It’s a combination of head-mounted display, input, and audio devices that help a player achieve a deeper level of play. It immerses more of your senses.”
Mira tilted her head. “I’m having trouble seeing how this would work. I mean, if I’m watching my avatar—”