by Natalie Grey
“Stay here,” Chowder weighed in. “We’ll hang out nearby so we can come to keep you safe while you log in again.”
“Cool.” Gracie logged out and left the VR suit on the floor as she walked to Alex’s room. “Okay, did you figure out which shirt you wanted?”
“I don’t knowwww,” Alex said. “The checked one? Maybe?”
“There are, like, three checked ones.” Gracie scanned the rack. “No, four. Some big, some small, some multicolored, some—”
“You’re making it worse!” Alex sounded truly panicked
“Relax! What’s the big deal? This guy a super-hardass about fashion or something?” Gracie flipped through the shirts.
Alex snorted. “Pretty much the opposite.”
“Oh.” It all fell into place. “Oh, I see. You have a lunch date, don’t you?”
There was a guilty silence from the other end of the phone.
“Uh-huh,” Gracie said. “Okay, I’m going to figure out an outfit and bring it, so stop worrying.” She hung up without waiting for another word and sighed as she looked at the rack, then she picked out a shirt she figured would set off Alex’s eyes, grabbed pants to match, and headed to the door before remembering to get an undershirt, belt, socks, and shoes. “I don’t know why men’s clothes have to be so complicated,” she muttered.
The drive to the office was pleasant but annoyingly bright. Having been shut in the apartment for two days, Gracie wasn’t used to the glare of the Las Vegas sunshine anymore.
That, and her skin was getting pale enough to blind people. She looked down at her arms in distaste and wished she hadn’t worn a tank top. In fact… She checked her appearance in her visor mirror as she got to the office. Alex worked in a top-tier tax accounting firm, and everyone dressed well.
Gracie, meanwhile, was wearing a tank top with a stain on it, sweatpants, flip flops, and no makeup. She also had clearly not brushed her hair. She scraped it back into a ponytail, gave a sigh, and grabbed the clothes. She couldn’t exactly ask Alex to come out to the car with coffee all over his pants, but this was not a great look. Her shoulders were hunched as she walked in.
The woman behind the desk smiled up at her. “Gracie, right?”
Gracie stopped dead. “Uh…”
“Alex said you’d be stopping by,” the woman explained. “We met once before.”
“Oh. Right.” Gracie felt bad. She’d recognized the woman as well but hadn’t expected her to remember her name—or know it in the first place. Between that and the other woman’s impeccable dress and makeup, Gracie was beginning to wish she could sink through the floor. “Sorry, I was just kind of hoping to, uh…well, not be noticed in this particular get-up.” She gestured shamefacedly at her outfit.
The woman laughed as she came around the desk to get the clothes. “If it helps, I’d kill to look that good in sweatpants.”
And you’re nice, too? Ugh. But Gracie couldn’t help but smile. Most people dressed like she was looked down their noses at everyone else. It was nice to meet someone who didn’t. “Thanks,” she said with a grin. “Tell him I think this’ll be a good outfit.”
“Will do.” The woman smiled, and as Gracie headed for the door, she said, “Mr. Albright, good to see you. I’ll be right back.”
“Just Harry, please.” The man was looking at the receptionist as he answered, so he didn’t see Gracie at once. When he did, however, he stopped to stare at her curiously.
Gracie had stopped as well. This was the man she had seen a few times before, with a beard and a shaved head. She hunched her shoulders slightly and gave a nod before heading out to the car.
It was time to go home and shower and put on some real clothes. She felt like a slob.
Unfortunately, her phone rang again—and this wasn’t going to be nearly as easy a call. Gracie’s shoulders hunched as she answered.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hello, dear.” Her mother’s carefully cultured voice gave away zero clues as to whether this was a good or a bad call. “I’m so glad I managed to catch you during the workday.”
Gracie felt her hackles rise. Her work hours at the casino had been unusual, and it was something her mother had thought reflected poorly on her, missing no opportunities to remind Gracie of what proper jobs entailed.
“What’s up, Mom?” She knew her voice was abrupt, but she didn’t really care. She was not in the mood for this. She was ashamed enough of herself before bringing all of the usual family crap into it.
“I was just calling to ask you if you had plans for the Fourth of July,” her mother said.
“Oh. Right.” Gracie slumped into the seat of her car and left the door open, her feet out in the breeze. The day was already hot, and the moving air felt good. “What dates were you thinking? Is it like a whole week thing or what?”
This seemed to be the correct question, at least. Her mother launched into a spiel about how they would be renting a house, and people could come and go as they liked. “But you’ll want to be here on the Fourth, Gracie dear, because that’s when Jack is going to propose. It would mean so much to Katie to have you there.”
Gracie doubted that. She and Katie weren’t particularly close, and in fact, Katie was more likely to be embarrassed by Gracie than happy to see her. If Gracie knew her sister, this was going to be a week of immaculately-groomed people in polo shirts talking about their careers and trying to outdo each other by comparing their favorite wines.
Gracie would spend the whole time she was there dodging questions about what she did for a living and whether she was seeing anyone while Katie, who was on track to be the youngest partner at her law firm, was going to get engaged.
She tipped her head back against the headrest and, to her shame, felt tears in her eyes.
“You know what, Mom? I have to call you back.”
“You’ll check on those dates, though, won’t you, sweetheart? Because we have to know how many rooms we need for—”
“I’ll let you know.” Gracie hung up and stared at the steering wheel, fighting not to cry. She wanted to call Jay, but the last thing she felt like doing was showing him just how lost and inadequate she was. She would normally go talk to Alex, but everything in his life was clicking along, and she felt guilty derailing his day.
She hesitated for a moment, then searched her contacts and dialed.
“Hey, what’s up?” Kevin’s voice, without the Piskie filter, was clear and authoritative.
“Do you…have time to talk?” Gracie asked. Her voice sounded very small. “About personal stuff.”
There was a pause. “Sure,” Kevin said. “Give me a moment.” There was a rustle, and in the background, she heard him say, “I need to take this.” A few moments later, she heard footsteps and then, “What’s up?”
Gracie hesitated.
“Gracie? You there?”
“I…yeah.” Gracie pressed her lips together for a moment. “I just feel… I feel… Sorry.” Then it all caught up with her and she leaned forward, tears squeezing out of her eyes. “I feel like such a failure right now, and I didn’t know who to talk to, and I’m so sorry to dump this on you.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Kevin sounded concerned. “Did something happen?”
“No,” Gracie managed. She sniffled. “Nothing new. I just had to go take something to Alex, and I show up and realize I’m in the same sweats I’ve been wearing for a day and a half, my mom calls about my sister’s fucking week-long engagement party—”
“Ugh.”
“I know, right? And I still haven’t told my family what I do for a living because they were already embarrassed that I worked as a blackjack dealer, and now I play video games, and they won’t even get that. And it’s not like I quit, either. I got fired. For bullshit reasons, but that doesn’t make it any better. And I’m single, and I just…ugh.” Gracie slumped forward and jumped when she honked the horn. “Sorry. I’m a mess.”
Kevin was laughing. “How old are you?”
“T
wenty-three.”
“Yep, I thought so.”
“Excuse you,” Gracie snapped, half-annoyed.
“No, I don’t mean to…look, what you’re going through, it’s real, okay? We’ve all been there. Hell, when I was around that age, I was still the black sheep because I’d just come out to my family, and they turned Alan into the golden child and spent years being nasty to me—”
“You two are brothers?”
“You didn’t know? Yeah. They tried to pit us against each other, but it didn’t really work. Anyway, he ended up not getting married and having kids either, and then they decided we were both disappointments. It’s…not important, really. The point is, everyone deals with feeling like their career isn’t where they want it to be, with worrying that they won’t end up where they want romantically, with these bullshit expectations from their family that they know are bullshit but that they can’t quite shake. And that’s not to write it off, Gracie. I don’t want you to feel like I’m minimizing it. It’s just to say that, well, you’re going to get through this. I promise.”
Gracie gave a little laugh. “Thank you. That was exactly what I needed to hear.”
“You know, one of my friends’ moms liked to say that your life had a bunch of aspects: family, romance, health, career, et cetera. She said that not all of them would be in focus at the same time, and I’ve found that’s true. Sometimes they’re all out of focus, and it’s hard, but it doesn’t last forever.”
Gracie looked down at herself. Now she felt stupid. She could change her clothes and shower, after all, couldn’t she? That would take care of her feeling like a slob. And she liked her job. And she could—
Well, she was going to throw up if she thought about the romance aspect of things.
“I can’t believe I freaked out,” she muttered.
Kevin laughed. “Freakouts are good, right? They tell us we’re in the wrong place somehow. For instance, the last time I freaked out, I went and got a way better job. The time before that…well, that was when I realized I had to come out. Right now, I’ve got a good job and I’m healthy, but things really aren’t clicking with finding someone. It’s frustrating.”
“Yeah.” Gracie chewed a fingernail. “Makes me feel a lot better, though, to think of it as a temporary thing, you know? Like, it’s not that I’ll get everything in place and then things will only go wrong if I screw up, but instead, it’s that things will work or not by turns, and I can just expect some chaos in the works.”
“Exactly.” Kevin sighed. “You sound happier, which unfortunately means I have to go back to writing quarterly reports. Are you sure you don’t have any more crises for me to solve? Please, anything!”
“My favorite pizza place just closed down,” Gracie said promptly. “Can you fix that?”
Kevin laughed. “I’ll work on it. See you online tonight?”
“Sure.” Gracie hung up and nearly threw her phone in surprise when it immediately started ringing. She answered, “Son of a—hey, no, don’t you argue, that outfit will make you look great.”
“It’s not that,” Alex replied. He sounded a bit weird. “Outfit looks fine, thanks. It’s, uh…so, that client I mentioned?”
“Yeah?” Gracie decided to stand up and stretch. Her car was by far the most battered and dinged up in this place, and she tried to be amused by that.
“Well, you’re never going to believe where he used to work,” Alex said.
“Oh?” A second later, her jaw dropped. “Oh, my God.”
The man who had shown up very recently, who seemed to be wherever she was. Who had just happened to find himself at her roommate’s tax firm.
Who had said to the receptionist…
“Harry,” Gracie said. “That was Harry.”
Chapter Nine
“I’m coming back in,” Gracie told Alex.
“No!” He sounded panicked. “Gracie, you cannot come in here. I—shouldn’t have told you, honestly. I can’t tell you stuff like this about clients. I mean…there’s a good reason we’re not supposed to share client details. Fuck.”
Gracie groaned. “No, no, that makes sense. I get it. I won’t tell, I promise.”
Frustration was coursing through her, though. Even though he hadn’t known her before, Harry had turned her into a part of something. A plan for revenge, probably. He’d intruded on her life, and it was annoying as hell that she couldn’t confront him about it.
Plus, he’d sought her out. She was sure of it.
That thought made her pause. “Wait. I’ve seen him around, you know. I saw him at our apartment building, and at the mall, and he clearly recognized me when he saw me inside.”
Alex said nothing. Gracie knew him well enough by now to picture his brow furrowing.
“I think my point is,” Gracie explained, “he’s here to talk to me. He’ll reach out.”
“Oh.” Alex sounded troubled. “I just… What do I do?”
Wheels turned in Gracie’s head. She kicked at a loose tumbleweed and looked out at the road, where luxury cars were sliding past. She could see a few people looking at her curiously. This part of town was generally filled with people in suits, not sloppy clothes.
Should Alex mention her? Or—
“Nothing. Do nothing.” She sighed. “Look, he’s trying to be all crazy and make us talk to him instead of just coming out with it and talking to me. He’s talking to Jay and he’s showing up at your work, and now you and I are trying to figure out what to do? No. Screw that. Just do your job, handle his taxes, and don’t spend any time tying yourself in knots over this.”
There was a pause. “I like that,” Alex said contemplatively. “That would be a lot simpler.”
“Then let’s do that,” Gracie said decisively. She got back in her car and turned it on, holding the phone with one shoulder as she put on her seatbelt. “Look, I’m gonna head home. You have a good lunch date, and I’ll see you tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you want for dinner? I’ll order.”
“You’re awesome,” Alex said. “I’m craving something spicy.”
“Roger that.” Gracie smiled as she backed out. “Talk to you later.”
She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she drove. Her worries about being sloppy and disheveled had been replaced by more interesting questions. She was even enjoying the sunshine. She rolled down her car window, shook her hair out of its ponytail, and enjoyed the warmth and the breeze. Her hair was going to be a massive tangle by the time she got home, but she didn’t care.
At home, she put some water on to boil for pasta and took a shower, putting her hair back in a French braid afterward and donning jeans and one of her nicer shirts. She ate lunch curled up on the couch, staring at her computer and knowing exactly what she had to do.
She just wasn’t sure how to do it without getting Alex in trouble.
Jay didn’t pick up when she called, but he called her back a moment later. “Sorry. Heard the beep, but needed to log out. You okay? People said you left suddenly.”
“I’m fine,” Gracie said. “Uh, look. I have to tell you something. I can’t explain how I know exactly, but I’d been seeing this guy around lately, and I’ve found out who he is.”
Jay frowned at her. “Is everything okay? Are you…safe?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Gracie shook her head then, understanding where he was going with this. She paused. “Uh…I mean, I think so. I don’t have any reason to think he would— Well, the point is, it’s Harry.”
Jay’s jaw dropped. “Harry?”
“Yeah. I’d seen him at the mall and near our apartment, and then today, I found out who he was.”
“How?”
“I can’t tell you that,” Gracie said uncomfortably. “It’s not really important. What’s important is—”
“Gracie, don’t talk to him.” Jay’s voice was emphatic. He leaned forward in his chair, his brow furrowed. He reached out as if he wanted to take her hand and then pu
lled back, embarrassed. “Uh, sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Gracie flushed and cleared her throat. “Don’t apologize.” Did her voice usually sound this weird? She cleared her throat again. “Um. Why shouldn’t I talk to him? Our plan was to let him come talk to me.”
“Our plan?” Jay asked.
“Oh, I meant… I figured that would be what you’d tell me to do.” Gracie swore at herself internally. She gave a shrug.
“Oh, right. Uh, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Jay sat back in his desk chair, bouncing lightly. He chewed his lip as he considered. “I’ve been thinking about this lately, and I’ve been wondering something. I wasn’t going to tell you because I wasn’t sure if it would make everything worse—”
“Hell, no.” Gracie jabbed her fork at him. “Don’t start with that.”
“You’ve just been stressed lately,” Jay pointed out. “Starting the guild, knowing there might be people trying to spy on us. I feel like the game has become work, and part of what makes it so difficult is this quest.”
“Maybe, but the last thing I need is people hiding things from me and getting walloped by them later,” Gracie pointed out. “It’s better to know, even if it feels like a lot to handle.”
Jay smiled. “I agree. Well, here’s my thought. Question. Thing. I wonder if Harry wanted to be the person who did this quest? If he meant it for him, like he was going to be the…whatever’s at the end of this quest.”
Gracie paused with the last bite of pasta halfway to her mouth. Her mind was racing. All this time, she’d been annoyed at Harry because he’d made a plan that would rope someone else into his revenge. He’d been loitering, trying to find out information about her, and that took a hell of a lot of nerve…
If that was what he was doing.
What if this hadn’t been revenge at all? What if Harry had created the quest for himself, and he was trying to figure out what kind of person had tripped it accidentally?
“Oh,” she said quietly. And then, “Oh. That changes a lot.”
“I know it’s a lot to handle,” Jay said apologetically.