She's Got Game

by Laura Heffernan

  “He’s not going to reply tonight,” Shannon said. “He’s with Holly. When I left, they were going over their seating chart.”

  Even more reason for us to catch him in the act sooner rather than later. “Give it a few minutes. Why don’t you show me your new game while we wait?”

  I expected her to rebuff my not-subtle attempt to dig for information on her top-secret project, but she didn’t. For the first time in the past half hour, Shannon’s face lit up. “I can’t tell you much, because I want you guys to be surprised.”

  “Aren’t we going to play test for you?”

  “You are, but this isn’t your usual game. It’s a campaign, like Pandemic Legacy. As the game progresses, the board changes, the rules change. You’ll have the same four or five people for each game. It’s intended to take several gaming sessions to complete–some people can play the whole thing in a month or even a weekend, if they’re dedicated. But it can take a year or longer to get through every chapter if you only get together sporadically.”

  By the time she finished, I was practically drooling. “That sounds amazing! Come on, you can’t give me that lead up, then refuse to let me play.”

  “You’ll play soon enough. You and Holly are in my first group of testers, but it’s still in the early stages. I’ve only got a few levels written. If you know too much in advance, it ruins the whole experience, so I can’t show you. You want to help now, share the Kickstarter with your gamer friends.”

  “Already done. You know that.”

  My phone buzzed, and our eyes darted to the screen simultaneously. We had a reply to our message!

  LuckyLucas: Hey there. How you doing tonight?

  While Shannon chewed her lip, I yanked the phone out of her hand and started typing.

  HotBlonde69: Not good. :-(

  “What are you doing? That’s not sexy.”

  “Trust me,” I said. “Guys love to save a damsel in distress. You wouldn’t believe how many guys have offered to show me their lance-a-lot.”

  She burst out laughing. “That’s not a thing.”

  “It really is. I’ll show you the screenshots later.” Before she could answer, a response popped up on my screen.

  LuckyLucas: Oh, no! Y U so sad?

  “Maybe it’s not him,” Shannon said. “The Lucas I know would blow a gasket if someone sent him a message with such poor grammar.”

  Ignoring her, I typed, I’m so horny, and I’m all alone. What’s a girl to do?

  “You can’t send that! What if he wants to sext? I refuse to dual cyber with you and my best friend’s boyfriend. Besides, Holly would never forgive us, no matter how good our reasons.”

  With a sigh, I deleted the message. She was right. Instead, I sent, I’m so lonely. And bored. Where’s a good place to get a drink around here?

  He didn’t even put up a fight. Less than five minutes later, Lucas was begging to meet us at a bar near “my place.” That presented a minor logistical dilemma, since we didn’t want him to guess who we were. He’d been to all the bars by Shannon’s place a dozen times, so I texted him an address of a bar near our grad school. Holly, Shannon, and I hadn’t been back since graduation, but Lucas would know where it was, and it shouldn’t make him suspicious. Perfect.

  We told “LuckyLucas” we’d meet him in half an hour, then headed for the T. The bar was only about fifteen minutes away, but we wanted to get there early to make sure we spotted him before he noticed us.

  “Should we invite Holly to meet us?” I asked.

  Shannon shook her head. “She’s going to be humiliated enough when she finds out. We don’t need to rub her face in it in public.”

  As we walked, I kept an eye on the crowds for Lucas, even though he should be coming from the opposite direction. We needed to be prepared to duck into another business if he spotted us. When the bar came into view, I groaned and stopped short. Cambridge had been the natural choice when looking for a spot away from where any of us lived, but I’d forgotten about another person who lived in this part of town.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Instead of answering, I pointed. A tiny, involuntary growl escaped me. Of course, he would show up here, at the worst possible moment. I didn’t have time to deal with this right now. Unfortunately, there was no way to avoid him. Standing in front of the bar, tapping on his phone, waited the only person I wanted to see less than Lucas.

  Cody McKay.

  * * * *

  For a second, the ridiculous, impossible thought that Cody had used Lucas’s picture flitted through my head. That made no sense for about fourteen reasons, including because Cody was way hotter than Lucas. It would be like Chris Evans pretending to look like Christopher Walken. He’d do way better using his own image.

  Shannon glanced from me to the bar and back. “That’s the guy who walked into you on Friday? From the Championship?”

  Wordlessly, I nodded, feet still rooted to the spot. We needed to get in place before Lucas arrived, but this unexpected development left me wishing instead we could turn around and go home.

  “You like him,” Shannon said. It wasn’t a question.

  “He’s the enemy. I can’t like him.” No matter how sexy and charming he is.

  “But you do.” We were still too far away for Cody to hear us, but I glared at her, anyway. “Don’t look at me like that. I may not feel attraction without a deeper connection, but I can recognize it in others.”

  “You are far too perceptive for your own good,” I complained. “But it doesn’t matter. He’s a gamer. I don’t hook up with gamers. And he’s my primary competition.”

  “What about more than a hookup? The two of you certainly have a lot in common.”

  “Yeah, we both think he’s hot,” I said. “You met him. He’s totally cocky. And he’s swimming in girls.”

  She snorted. “No way. He was trying to push your buttons, and it worked. You’re way into him. You’re blushing.”

  Oh, no. I couldn’t deal with this. The way Cody affected me was bad enough, especially since I could never act on it. Even if he wanted a relationship—which I sincerely doubted—I didn’t do those, either. Relationships ruined lives. Case in point, my dad barely left the house for months after my mom abandoned us, except to go to work. He still rarely dated, and it had been more than a decade. On top of that, we were about to destroy Holly if we got the information about her relationship we expected in the next twenty minutes or so.

  Suddenly, all I wanted was to go home and crawl into bed. Holly didn’t deserve this. There had to be another way to talk her out of marrying Lucas. “This is a bad idea. Let’s get out of here.”

  Before I could move, she grabbed my arm. “No, wait. This is perfect.”

  “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

  The quote normally would make Shannon laugh, but she was on a mission. “I’m serious. Look, I know you don’t want to admit you like the guy.”

  She was like a dog with a bone. I shook my head at her.

  “Hear me out. We go in, we say hi to Cody. When Lucas shows up, we’ve got a perfect excuse for being here.”

  “He’ll still probably bolt when he sees us.”

  “We’ll find a table in the back, just in case. I’ll keep an eye on the door. But at least we’ve got a cover story.”

  I still wanted to leave. Nothing good could come of going inside. This plan sucked. We should turn around, come up with an alternate idea, then go home. There was still time to meet Dad for ice cream.

  My mouth opened to tell Shannon that when Cody looked up from his phone and spotted us. Our eyes met. My stomach lurched, and I fought the grin wanting to spread across my face. When he turned back to his phone instead of acknowledging me, I made a sound of annoyance.

  “Oh, yeah. You’ve got it bad,” Shannon said. />
  “Shut up. Look, he’s not even paying any attention to us. Probably texting his ‘groupies.’”

  If I turned and walked away now, Cody would think he had power over me. He’d use that information to his advantage in New York, and I couldn’t give him any added edge in the next round of the tournament. With a toss of my head, I approached.

  “Hey, Carrots,” he said.

  Beside me, Shannon mouthed the word as a question. I ignored her.

  “Don’t call me that.” The thought of a guy giving me that nickname secretly thrilled my inner Anne of Green Gables fan, but I didn’t want it from this guy.

  He turned to my friend. “Hey, Mr. Williams.”

  Shannon tilted her head to one side and blinked several times while I hid a snort behind one hand.

  When she didn’t respond, he said, “Earlier, Gwen said she couldn’t meet everyone after the contest because she had plans with her dad.”

  Great. Now he thought I lied to avoid him. Which, okay, I basically did. Unsure why it bothered me, I went on the offensive. “Are you following me?”

  “Not to put too fine a point on it, but I got here first.”

  “This is our old spot from grad school.”

  “Something I couldn’t have known,” he said. “I’m meeting Tyler, but got here early to watch the beginning of the game. Hi, Shannon. Nice to see you again.”

  “You, too,” she said. “Want to join us while you wait?”

  Although her idea to use Cody as cover made some sense, the thought of sitting down and having a drink with him sounded about as appealing as removing my toenails. I wanted to protest, but if I said I didn’t want to get a drink with him, he’d only become determined to stay with us. Stupid contrarian.

  Why were so many of the good-looking gamers jerks? Not that it mattered, I reminded myself. His looks meant nothing.

  We’d arrived a few minutes after eight o’clock. The bar didn’t pick up until later, so we found a table in the back easily. I sat against the wall, facing the front door over Cody’s shoulder. Shannon sat between us, with a view of both the front door and the bar. According to my phone, Lucas should show up in about ten minutes. Cody took our drink orders and went to the bar.

  As soon as he turned away, we pulled up the dating app on my phone.

  LuckyLucas: On my way. Can’t wait.

  While I thought of what to say next, Shannon took the phone out of my hand.

  HotBlonde69: Me, too. I’m getting thirsty. Can’t wait for something wet.

  I giggled. “Seriously, where do you come up with this?”

  “You’d be amazed at how many guys in college thought watching porn would make me want to do them.”

  “The sad thing is, I probably wouldn’t.”

  LuckyLucas: I’ll give you what you need, baby.

  Gagging, I put the phone back on the table. Cody returned. I thanked him and sipped my beer.

  Shannon said, “Thanks. I’ll get the next round.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Are you meeting someone?” His eyes darted to the phone.

  Considering he seemed like the kind of guy who’d hate not being the center of attention, I met his gaze squarely. “Yes. Is Tyler running late? You were texting up a storm outside.”

  His ears turned pink, but he didn’t say anything. Not that it was any of my business if he lied about his reasons for being at the bar. He could text every girl in Boston, as long as he didn’t prevent “LuckyLucas” from meeting “HotBlonde69.”

  “We think our friend’s boyfriend is cheating on her,” Shannon said quickly. “We’re here to catch him in the act.”

  “So, you’re conducting a sting?” He sounded a bit defensive, almost as if he disapproved of our mission. Would he prefer we’d been meeting dates? That didn’t make any sense.

  No, if he were upset, Cody must be a firm believer in the bro code. Lovely.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “We want to know the truth before we upset Holly for nothing.”

  “Holly? From this weekend?”

  “Yeah.”

  He shook his head. “What a dick. She seemed like a nice girl. Sorry. I don’t want to mess up your plans.”

  “It’s okay,” Shannon said. “He’s not here yet, and we owe you a drink. Sit.”

  For a moment, I thought he’d agree, but then his phone beeped. He glanced at it for a second before shaking his head. Something flashed across his face, but I couldn’t read it. “Nah, I wouldn’t want to get in the way. Enjoy yourselves. Gwen, if I don’t talk to you again, good luck in New York.”

  “You, too,” I said, barely concealing my surprise when he walked away. I’d been so sure he’d try to talk us out of catching Lucas or give us a lecture or, heck, flirt with us because he simply couldn’t help himself. “That was sudden. Did a wicked hot girl walk in?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Shannon said. “He’s leaving us alone so we don’t miss Lucas while he’s flirting with you. And speaking of…”

  On the other side of the windows, Lucas’s short dishwater blond dreadlocks bounced toward the door. Despite the warm weather, he wore a long-sleeved flannel shirt and artfully ripped skinny jeans. At least he didn’t have a neckbeard.

  This was it. Our one chance to catch Lucas and prove to Holly what a lying, cheating jerk he was.

  With a deep breath, I wiped my palms against my pants, both to dry them and to steady my nerves. “Show time.”

  Chapter 5

  Before the door opened, Shannon and I lifted our menus to cover our faces, in case Lucas looked around. She lowered hers, inch by inch, before nudging my foot under the table and nodding at the bar. Time to make our move.

  Some small piece of me still hoped this was all a big misunderstanding. That Lucas wasn’t cheating on Holly, but I couldn’t ignore the evidence.

  As if the universe knew I wanted a stronger sign, my phone buzzed with a message.

  LuckyLucas: Yo, I’m here. At the bar. U here?

  I typed back a response. I see you. Save me a seat. I’ll come up behind you and give you a surprise.

  Shannon snorted. “You’re so bad.”

  “It’s not like he doesn’t deserve it.”

  We slipped off our stools and melted into the sparse crowd as best we could, skirting the other tables until we stood behind the bar. Lucas sat beside an empty seat with his back to us, paying for a drink. What a gentleman. He wasn’t even waiting for us—er—HotBlonde69—to sit down and order so he could buy hers, too.

  Shannon stole through the crowd, sliding her arms around Lucas’s waist from behind and pressing her face into his back. I rested my chin on his shoulder, my lips inches from his ear. “Surprise, Lucas.”

  At the sound of my voice, he jumped about a foot and spun around. Shannon and I moved out of the way just in time to avoid getting kicked. His eyes darted toward the front of the building. If he ran, I’d take great pleasure in tripping him. The weasel.

  “Don’t even think about it.” Shannon’s voice was the hardest I’d ever heard it, like she’d been watching too many police dramas. “We’d have Holly changing the locks before you made it to the door.”

  “We might do that, anyway,” I added, not sounding a bit nicer. Bad cop, bad cop, that was us. He had no friends here.

  Lucas raised one hand toward his hair, as if forgetting he’d never be able to rake his fingers through it. Then he shrugged, trying to play it cool. His frantic eyes gave him away, resting on the face of every person in the establishment. I didn’t know if he was looking for Holly or still hadn’t figured out we were HotBlonde69. “Hey, girls. What are you doing here? Are you meeting Holly?”

  Since I didn’t really want to play Liar, Liar, I pulled up his messages and turned my phone to show him the screen. At first, disbelief filled his eyes, but when he looked back at me, his face
was red. “You set me up? You bitches!”

  A tremor went through me. At his tone, Shannon stepped back, and I did the same. Lucas stood, his hands clenching into fists as he stepped toward us. In all the ways I’d played this scenario out in my head, it never occurred to me that he might get violent—especially not in public. He was such a mellow, lackluster guy. Besides, we weren’t the ones online trolling for women. We weren’t the ones cheating on our devoted partner. But we’d found him out, and suddenly, we’d become threats to his happy life.

  I spoke quickly, desperate to distract him, but not knowing what to say. “We didn’t do this. I was searching online and happened to find your profile. Geez, Lucas, you even cut Holly out of your profile picture! How long have you been cheating on her?” When he didn’t answer, I turned to Shannon. “Come on, let’s go.”

  Lucas’s hand snaked out, latching onto my wrist. “You two aren’t going anywhere. Not until you let me explain.”

  Panic threatened when his fingers tightened around my arm, but I couldn’t let him see my fear. From my one psych class in undergrad, I knew he’d only get more aggressive if he realized he was getting to me. When I spoke, my voice carried the false bravado of someone who’s never been in a bar fight. “Let go of me.”

  “You’re not going to tell Holly about this. I can’t lose her.”

  “You should’ve thought of that before arranging to meet some random girl in a bar. No hesitation. No thought for her feelings.” No sense of how much he sucked for cheating on the woman who was at home planning their wedding without him.

  My heart pounded as I searched for a way to get away from him without escalating things. Lucas had always been obnoxious, but never struck me as dangerous. Beside me, Shannon spoke slowly and calmly, trying to diffuse the situation. I barely registered her words. I’d become aware of a presence looming behind me. If Lucas brought backup, we were screwed.

  On the other hand, if he and a friend beat us up in a bar, Holly would definitely leave him, so maybe it was worth the temporary pain. She deserved so much better.