I was sure the TSA was having a field day with this particular crowd. Some people were walking around with obvious prosthetic elf ears on. Others had their convention badges out already even though we weren’t anywhere close to the convention center.
“Were not in Wisconsin anymore,” Samantha said.
I shrugged. “We’ve replaced one state covered in cornfields for another,” I said. “Not much difference as far as I’m concerned.”
Samantha smacked my shoulder. “Come on Jess? We’re two girls in the big city!”
“The big city?” I asked, looking around. Outside the windows there seemed to be a whole lot of nothing except for planes and runways. No tall buildings or anything in evidence.
“Well big enough,” Samantha said with a shrug. “Definitely bigger than anything we have in Wisconsin, that’s for sure!”
“I suppose you have a point there,” I said.
Samantha looked around. “So I know we’ve been busy trying to figure out how we’re going to get to the airport back home and everything, but it did you ever stop to think about how we were going to actually get to the hotel from the airport?”
I stopped and blinked. “No, actually I hadn’t thought about that at all.”
“So you mean I’m going to be getting a cab for us?” Samantha asked.
I turned and smiled. “I’d be ever so grateful if you did, because I definitely don’t have that kind of cash.”
Samantha rolled her eyes. “Well it’s not like I’m paying for it either if it’s my dad’s credit card. I don’t suppose he can be too mad anyways. His little girl being stranded at the airport sort of qualifies as an emergency, right?”
“Something like that,” I said.
We made our way out of the baggage claim and luckily nobody lost our bags on the flight down. That would have been a real pain in the ass, especially considering I’d stuffed my old con costume in there. Conlan and I were planning on going out in costume together and I don’t know what I would’ve done if they lost that bag. Not that I’d ever actually been in a situation where an airline lost bags. There were times that I wondered if that was just a contrivance from Hollywood writers that painted the airline industry in a bad light.
When we got to the airport there was one thing straight out of Hollywood. A line of people holding up signs, just like in the movies.
“Look at those high rollers!” I said. “Wouldn’t it be nice to get to the hotel in a limo?”
“Easy there girl,” Samantha said. “I’ve got money for a cab, but dad’s definitely going to be pissed off if I spring for a limo!”
I sighed. “I know. It’s just nice to dream.”
I glanced past the row of people holding up signs and sighed. There was a glimpse into a world I was probably never going to experience. Sure there were super rich writers in the world. Stephen King. JK Rowling. Sean Taylor. Writers who pulled the kind of money that got them the royal treatment wherever they went. Only I had no illusions about my own prospects of getting a book deal that’d ever be able to pay for the whole “limo waiting for me at the entrance” treatment.
Samantha slapped my shoulder. I kept walking. She slapped me again. I turned and fixed her with an irritated glare. “What?”
“That limo person over there is holding up a sign with your in-game name!” Samantha said.
I followed her finger to where she was pointing. I squinted at the sign. I blinked. Sure enough, she was right. The guy was standing there with an iPad held up with my name on it. Well, with my character’s name on it. There it was, Maia, plain as day. Okay, so it was a rare name but that couldn’t possibly be for me.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“Maybe it’s part of the VIP package?” Samantha asked.
It was a very nice package. It included airfare, a stay at the hotel for the entire time we were at the convention, admission to the convention and all of the after parties, and VIP access to everything. We checked on the Elassa Con website and the total cost would’ve run in the thousands of dollars if someone tried to buy it all, but it couldn’t be bought in one package. As far as we could tell our package wasn’t for sale. It made me wonder exactly who Conlan was that he could swing that package.
But it didn’t include transportation from the airport which is why I didn’t have money for a cab. Why bring money if everything was paid for?
“I don’t think so. That has to be for someone else. I don’t remember reading anything about a limo in that package,” I said.
Only that didn’t stop Samantha from walking over to the driver. I rolled my eyes and followed, and to my surprise his face lit up when he saw me. “Maia?”
“Yeah? How did you know?”
“Let’s just say my employer provided me with a picture,” he said. He leaned in and whispered. “It was actually quite funny to see a lady of the Bendai Sisterhood sticking her tongue out and grinning like that.”
I rolled my eyes and groaned. Someone had been into my Elassa profile. And I had no idea of knowing if that somebody was Conlan or somebody from Elassa Corporation. Obviously they had to know something about my profile if they set me up with the VIP package. So I guess it stood to reason that somebody would pass on my information. And yet I still didn’t remember anything about a limo when I read over the package, and I’d read over it quite a bit in the past week.
“Are you taking us to the hotel?” I asked.
“Sure thing!” The guy said.
“Is it a long drive?” Samantha asked.
“Not really,” the driver said as he took our bags and led us out to the arrival area where a limo was waiting. “That’s the nice thing about Indianapolis. No matter where you’re going it usually only takes thirty minutes. Unless you’re driving in rush-hour. Then it takes forty-five minutes.”
And so I found myself being loaded into a limo and driving down the interstate in style. The driver was friendly enough and pointed things out to us as we approached downtown. The buildings were appropriately tall enough, though nothing compared to when I visited Chicago. Basically it seemed like your average Midwestern city, maybe a little bigger than normal.
“I can’t believe this!” Samantha said drumming her feet against the bottom of the limo. She looked over and saw that there was alcohol set out. She turned towards the driver. “Is this stuff free?”
“Not free ma’am,” he said.
“Oh,” Samantha said.
“But it is included in the cost, and I’m sure my employer wouldn’t mind if you enjoyed yourself. Especially since you’re not paying for it,” he said.
Samantha squealed and poured herself a drink. I smiled and figured what the hell. I might as well enjoy myself if it was paid for. Besides, everything was working out strangely well, and so I figured I should probably get some alcohol for when the other shoe inevitably dropped.
We had another surprise in store once we got to the hotel. The place was a huge blue glass monstrosity, but apparently it had a connection to the convention center and was one of the nicest places in the city. The lobby was definitely pretty intense.
The place was full of people who were obviously here for the convention. There was a wide variety of ages, gender, and body types on display. I even saw a couple of people wearing ridiculously elaborate costumes which made me blush as I thought of my own costume packed away in my luggage. Another reason why I was glad the luggage hadn’t been lost. I’d spent more time than I cared to think about putting the thing together for a smaller regional con, and I was damn proud of it. If the airline lost the thing I might’ve killed somebody.
The only problem was I got ridiculously embarrassed every time I thought of actually putting the thing on it. It was, how to put it, just a little skimpy. An armored a bikini, definitely not the kind of thing that you’d wear out to dinner and drinks with friends, but as I had a look at the convention people in the lobby I felt better. I had a feeling I was going to fit right in.
Most everybody alr
eady had their convention badges out and I wondered if there was some sort of early registration that I wasn’t aware of. I’d have to look into that, maybe mosey over to the convention center and see what was going on.
Samantha was staring wide-eyed at the hotel.
“Damn,” Samantha said. “We’ve made it!”
I felt my phone buzz as she said that and I stopped and reached down to fish it out. Our driver stopped with us and waited for a moment. I pulled out my phone and glanced at it. It was a message over Elassa chat. I pulled up the app and had a look. I smiled. Conlan.
“Enjoy your surprise at the airport?”
“It was nice,” I said. “But you’re being too nice.”
“Just wait.”
“What do you mean?”
Only it appeared the messages from Conlan were done for the moment. I glanced around the hotel and wondered what fresh surprise could possibly be a waiting for us, but there was nobody holding up a picture with my name on it. Whatever. Time to check in anyways. I had a feeling the rooms at this place were going to be pretty swank.
I moved up to the desk and gave the receptionist my name. The girl was nice enough with the same checked out vacant smile on hospitality workers around the world. Only her eyes grew wide when she typed in my name and she looked up with a genuine smile. I blinked. I wondered if this was the next surprise Conlan had been referring to.
“Welcome to the hotel ma’am!” she said. “It looks like you’ve been upgraded to our rooftop suite!”
I blinked. “Is there an extra cost associated with that?”
“It’s all been paid for and taken care of ma’am,” she said. She pulled out our key cards and handed them over. Samantha looked down at the thing as though she couldn’t quite believe it.
“To use that you’ll have to use a special elevator. Take the express elevators up to the top floor, and then go down the hall to the dedicated elevator for the suite, the girl said. “That elevator is keyed to only open with your cards, so you’ll be the only ones who can get up there.”
“We’re the only ones staying in the suite?”
“The only ones ma’am,” she said.
I was just a little irritated by the ma’am thing. After all, I didn’t think I was much older than her. In fact as I looked her up and down it was entirely possible we were the same age, or I might even be a little younger. But apparently finding out that I was staying in the suite was enough to upgrade me to ma’am, and I wasn’t in the mood to get in an argument with someone on hotel staff over something that stupid. Especially when she was apparently giving me an upgrade to the nicest room in the whole place!
Of course I also smelled a rat.
“You’re absolutely certain nobody else is booked up there?”
“Only one booking, and that’s for you,” she said.
Samantha elbowed me in the ribs and I let out a yelp of surprise. “The nice girl said we were upgraded to the rooftop suite,” Samantha muttered under her breath. “Why don’t you just let her go ahead and upgrade us and not look a gift horse in the mouth!”
I sighed but decided to go along with it. A limo driver meeting us at the airport was bad enough, but I was starting to think that somebody had really gone above and beyond! My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out.
“Surprised?”
“When do we get to meet? I have a few questions for you mister,” I said.
“All in good time,” he said. “I’m a little occupied right now, but I should be available for lunch in about an hour or so. Sound good?”
“That’s fine with me,” I tapped into my phone. “Where?”
“I’ll tell you,” he said. “Just keep an eye on your phone.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. I was really starting to get tired of all this cloak and dagger stuff, but if he wanted to play mysterious then I guess I go along with it for a little longer. Especially considering the ridiculous VIP treatment we’d been getting so far. Not for the first time since we started this trip I found myself wondering exactly how much this was costing Mr. Conlan, and exactly what it was he did for a living that he could afford all of this stuff!
I was starting to wonder if I hadn’t inadvertently run into a multimillionaire while I was playing that videogame. I knew stranger love stories had happened, but I still couldn’t believe it would happen to me. Not that I particularly cared if somebody had a lot of money anyways. I was so used to living the life of a poor college student, and before that my parents hadn’t exactly been rich, that the idea of spending all this money almost felt wasteful to me. Samantha seemed more than happy though.
She threw herself down onto the massive bed in her room once we got up to suite. The place really was impressive. It had a view of the entire downtown Indianapolis skyline, and as I looked down I thought I could I could make out to the convention center which wasn’t very far away at all. I could even see some of the skywalks leading from our hotel to the center.
“This place is incredible!” Samantha said.
I turned and smiled at her. “Yeah, it’s something all right.”
It really was impressive. There was a massive living area that was bigger than our entire apartment. At least it felt bigger than our entire apartment. There were two rooms off to either side, and as I walked into my own I realize that I’d been wrong about the main area. My bedroom was bigger than our apartment! Hell, the bathroom alone felt like it was as big as my room. Samantha came in behind me, a whirlwind of excitement and smiles.
“When we meet this guy you’ll have to make sure to give him an extra special thanks,” she said.
“I’m definitely going to something with him,” I said, looking around and still not quite believing it.
Apparently Samantha took that the wrong way because she squealed and started laughing. I smiled, but I wasn’t so sure of myself. Who was this guy, why was he acting so mysterious, and how the hell had he been able to afford all of this? For that matter, why would he ever spend all this money on me?
My phone buzzed and I pulled out again.
“Ready for lunch?”
I tapped out a response. “Where did you have in mind? And nothing expensive!”
“I know the perfect place. Called the St. Elmo’s. Nice and cheap so it’s my treat, and also a pretty quiet this time of day,” he responded.
I shrugged. I’d never heard of the place, but then again I wasn’t exactly up on local cuisine in downtown Indianapolis. I figured one place was as good as another as long as they had a food.
“Looks like it’s lunchtime Samantha,” I said.
“Oh! We finally get to meet your mysterious guy?”
“Yup.”
I was excited and terrified at the same time. Excited because I was still feeling that strange mix of emotions, that strange schoolgirl giddiness that I felt every time I saw his name pop up on my screen. I was also terrified at the same time though. I had the same worries that anyone has when they’re going on a blind date or meeting someone from the Internet for the first time. What if he didn’t live up to expectations? For that matter what if I didn’t live up to his expectations?
And on top of all that there was one hell of a price tag associated with him flying me out here which made me more than nervous. What if things didn’t work out and he still expected… Things?
I shook my head. That was the worst-case scenario voice whispering to me. I was not going to let that ruin my trip. We were going to have a nice quiet and cheap early lunch at this St. Elmo’s place and then I was going to enjoy the convention. Hopefully with this mysterious man, a man whose name I didn’t even know yet! I hoped he was going to turn out to be everything I imagined.
It was time for lunch, and to meet Mr. Maybe Right.
13: Lunch Date
“This doesn’t look like a cheap place for lunch,” Samantha said when we walked through the door.
I couldn’t help but stare with my eyes and mouth wide open. No, this definitely didn’t
look like the kind of place where you could have a cheap lunch. This didn’t look like the kind of place where you could have a cheap anything. This looked like it was one of the most expensive damn restaurants in the entire city!
“Can I help you?” A pretty hostess asked.
“We’re supposed to meet…” I stopped. I didn’t even know his name. All I knew was his screen name. “Conlan?”
The girl’s face lit up and she gestured for us to follow. “Right this way ma’am.”
There we were with the ma’am thing again. I wasn’t sure I liked that. We made our way through a sea of empty tables and then she led us into a small alcove set back from the main room so that nobody in the restaurant proper could actually see us, though we had a good view of the restaurant from where we sat. Assuming there were actually people in the restaurant.
I stopped as we reached the table. My breath caught. Someone was sitting there.
A man.
Conlan.
And goddamn was he every bit as gorgeous as his picture made him look! He looked to be somewhere in his early to mid thirties though it was hard to put an exact age to him. He had the same tousled hair, though it was cut a little shorter. He had a strong jaw line, and when he looked up at me and smiled I nearly fainted. He wore sunglasses in that picture so I couldn’t see his gorgeous deep blue eyes but damn were they worth the wait. Those were eyes that sent an icy chill running down my spine and straight to my pussy. He had broad shoulders and every muscle in his body was outlined in a tight polo shirt that had the Elassa logo on it.
Samantha elbowed me in the ribs and I jumped. “Damn!” she whispered.
I couldn’t help but smile. It was a goofy smile. A lovesick smile. It was a relieved smile more than anything else. I saw him and he was exactly as I’d imagined. He was exactly as gorgeous as I could have hoped for. A great writer, a great role-player, gorgeous, and it appeared that he didn’t have any trouble with money either. What other surprises did this man have in store for me?
The surprises seemed to get bigger and bigger each time. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to survive the next one, whatever it was!
Boy Meets Geek Page 10