Boy Meets Geek

by Archer, Arielle

  And I realized something that made me hate him even more. I was never going to be able to read those books again. The son of a bitch!

  I turned and walked out of the convention hall. There was no happy ending waiting for me. For a moment I’d almost hoped like a romance girl, but it was time to face reality.

  Sean Taylor was nothing more than an elaborate player with a lot of money, and I wasn’t Cinderella at the ball. I was a naïve girl who’d been played by one of the best.

  21: Escape

  I was on my computer trying to find the next flight out of this place when I heard the elevator door ding and then open. I turned and looked with hope, and I immediately chided myself for being hopeful at all. Even if that was somehow him I should be angry at him for getting a key to my room and not glad that he’d come to see me.

  Only it turned out it was just Samantha. I let out a sigh of relief and then went back to searching for a flight.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Samantha asked.

  “Nothing,” I said with perhaps more heat in my voice than I’d intended.

  Only there was no getting around it. I was a mess. I’d been sitting up here crying for the past half hour while I looked for cheap flights out of here, only there was no such thing as a cheap flight out of here this weekend. Not with the convention in town. No, there was no way I was getting out of here without putting more money on my credit card than the credit limit would allow.

  I felt two hands on my shoulders and Samantha started massaging. “Come on Jessica,” she said quietly. “Tell me what happened.”

  I couldn’t help it. I broke down again. All of the commotion, all of the conflict I’d been feeling since I we first met up with Sean earlier in the day came crashing out. I told her everything. All of my doubts, all of my insecurities about him with other women. How they were throwing themselves at him throughout the day and I worried I was just a one night stand he was using.

  Samantha started to make comforting noises but I held up a hand to stop her. I went on to tell her about the girl who’d been staring daggers at me. I told her about how he apparently chose a new girl for every convention to wine and dine, made her feel like a real princess, and then dropped her when the con was over. When I was done I looked up at her, tears in my eyes, and she definitely didn’t have the look of sympathy I was expecting.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Jessica,” she said slowly. “That girl was staring at you like she hated you all day. She knew you were with Sean. Did it ever occur to you that she might be trying to sabotage things between the two of you?”

  I blinked. Actually that thought hadn’t occurred to me. I’d been so busy wallowing in self-pity and thinking about how the worst-case-scenario part of my brain had been exactly right all along that I’d never stopped to think of alternatives. Only that alternative seemed pretty far-fetched. A lot more far-fetched than the idea that a fabulously wealthy and world-famous author would fly me of all people out here because he was falling for me. No, the one night stand theory made a hell of a lot more sense.

  “Do you really believe that Samantha?” I asked.

  Samantha shrugged. “Women can be bitches sometimes. Especially if they think you’re going after their man, or if they think you’re going after a man they think should be theirs.”

  “So you think this girl looking to tank my relationship with Sean before it starts makes more sense than the billionaire author falling for a girl he just met playing a videogame and flying her out to have a whirlwind romance and some great sex?”

  A grin split Samantha’s face. “So you got laid?”

  I let out a disgusted noise that communicated this clearly wasn’t the time to talk about that.

  Samantha shrugged. “I didn’t say which I thought was more likely. I was just saying it was a possibility.”

  I smiled and reached out to pat her hand. “Thanks for trying to make me feel better Samantha. But I think the only thing that’s going to get me out of this funk is getting the hell out of this city and getting as far away from the great Sean Taylor as is humanly possible.”

  “Suit yourself. You need help with the plane ticket?”

  I must’ve had a look on my face because she squeezed harder on my shoulders. “Don’t be too proud. I’ve got some extra money sitting around and I can use my emergency credit card. Dad won’t even care about the charge. If you really need to get the hell out of here then consider it my treat.”

  “Let me look for a little longer, but I’ll consider it,” I said.

  “Or you could stay and enjoy the rest of the weekend,” Samantha said. “I mean you are at the biggest Elassa convention in the country and you’ve got this awesome suite.”

  I scowled. “No, no way. I’m not going to stay at this convention. I’m not going to stay in a hotel suite he paid for because he was expecting a booty call.”

  “I’m not going to stop you,” Samantha said. “Just making a suggestion.”

  I clicked around a little more and finally found a flight for several hundred dollars. It was a little more pricey than what I wanted to pay, but at this point I’d be willing to pay whatever to get the hell out of here. Well, I’d be willing to have Samantha pay whatever and then I’d pay her back over time no matter what she said about her dad not caring about the charge.

  “You sure about helping me get the hell out of here?” I asked.

  “Absolutely sure,” Samantha said.

  “Then could you go ahead and order this?”

  So Samantha took a seat and put in the information. I was on a flight out of Indianapolis at noon tomorrow. I’d have to get up a little early to make sure I got a cab, but I shouldn’t have too much trouble getting out to the airport in time. The heavy traffic days for cabs were today and Sunday when everybody was coming and going. I had a feeling it was going to be business as usual with little to no convention traffic tomorrow even if it was a Saturday.

  “You’re sure about this?” Samantha asked.

  “Absolutely sure,” I said.

  Samantha clicked to order the ticket and that was it. It was done. All I have to do was grab a cab tomorrow and I’d be out of here. I’d be away from Sean Taylor and his bullshit for good.

  I sat back down at the computer and sighed. Normally if I wanted to get my mind away from things all I’d log into Tales of Elassa and forget about the real world for a little while. Only as I stared at the icon I realized that the last thing in the world I wanted to do was anything related to Sean Taylor’s cash cow.

  Damn it.

  I really did feel like a hole had been ripped in my life, and not just because of the way Sean had treated me. Not just because of the evening’s drama.

  I was starting to realize just what a big part of my life Elassa actually was. The books, the miniseries, the damn videogame where I did most of my socializing. It was starting to sink in that I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy any of that ever again. Even as I sat staring at my computer’s desktop, stared at the Tales of Elassa icon, I couldn’t bring myself to click it.

  Looking at that icon made me want to throw my laptop across the room. I felt a white-hot rage burning inside me at how I’d been treated. Walking around my favorite in-game environments was just going to remind me of the failed romance with the man who created all of it. With the man who’d just single-handedly ruined any enjoyment of something that’d been a huge part of my life for so very long.

  Damn it. Damn him! And not just for playing with my emotions, not just for treating me like a booty call, but for taking away something that brought so much of pleasure to my life!

  I was about to close down my computer entirely, it looked like the only thing I could do was sleep since my usual evening hobby was a bust, when there was a buzz from the elevator. Samantha looked up from the massive couch in the center of our suite where she was watching TV. She got up and walked to the elevator.

  “Did you order room service or something?”


  “No, what about you?”

  “Nope. I have no idea who the hell that could be,” I said.

  I looked down at my laptop screen and then I turned and held a hand out towards Samantha as she hit a button to let whoever that was onto the elevator. Not the smartest move, but we were from a college town where crime wasn’t really a thing. Not that it mattered. That wasn’t a hardened criminal buzzing us. No, I knew exactly who it would be, and it wasn’t anyone that I wanted to talk to, damn it!

  “Samantha! No!”

  Only the damage was already done. The door swished open and he was standing there. Sean. And he looked pissed off.

  22: Trust Issues

  “You can’t come in here,” Samantha said.

  Good ol’ Samantha. I felt warm and fuzzy all over as she told him to get lost. Only this wasn’t her battle to fight. No, I needed to take care of this.

  “I need to talk to Jessica,” Sean said. He peered past Samantha and locked eyes with me. “Did you hear me? I need to talk to you Jessica!”

  I walked up to the door. “What’s the matter? Upset you didn’t get your evening booty call like you were planning?”

  I put a hand on the Samantha’s arm. “I’ve got this, but thanks.”

  “You sure?” Samantha asked.

  “I’m sure. This won’t take long,” I said with a pointed look at Sean.

  Samantha shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’ll be in my room. If you need me to call the cops just yell.”

  I turned back to Sean as Samantha made her way back to her room. “What do you want?”

  “I just want to talk to you,” Sean said, pleading in his eyes. Pleading that almost made me feel sorry for him. Almost. “Can I come in?”

  “No,” I said. I’d done it. He could fuck off now as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t interested in anything he had to say, only he insisted on continuing to talk.

  “I was terrified when I saw you sitting with Carrie,” he said.

  I arched an eyebrow. “Oh? Afraid I’d learn the truth?”

  “What you heard from her was a version of the truth,” he said.

  “A version of the truth? She said you had some fun with her over a convention weekend a couple of years back and then you left her high and dry. That seems pretty cut and dry to me.”

  His shoulders slumped and once more I felt vindicated. I felt like I’d been absolutely correct. And at the same time I hated that I was absolutely correct in my assessment. It was silly, but there was still a part of me that very much wished I’d been wrong.

  “Okay, so I know that looks bad. And what she said was more or less what happened. We had a little fun at this convention a couple of years ago, but I decided things weren’t going to work out between us. I broke things off on the last day and she’s never been happy about it. It’s always made coming to the convention here a little awkward because she always uses that bullshit story to gain sympathy with some of the volunteer organizers and get a spot close to me,” he said. “And when I saw her talking to you…”

  “You mean when you saw her telling me the truth about who you are?”

  “That’s not who I am!”

  I heard a door open and turned to see Samantha sticking her head out. I shook my head slightly and waved her off, let her know that everything was okay. That he hadn’t gone completely crazy.

  “I tried to explain this to you earlier,” he said. “You have no idea what this can be like. What people act like around me.”

  “Oh yeah,” I said. “Poor little rich and famous boy. Life’s so hard you can’t even finish the latest book in your series.”

  “Yeah, that’s part of the reason,” he said. “I deal with this all the time. All she was interested in was Sean Taylor the famous writer. Sean Taylor the rich guy. You’re not like that! You’re different!”

  I couldn’t help but laugh as he said that. “Different? I’m different? Why would you expect me to actually believe that line of bullshit?”

  “Because it’s true!”

  I felt lightheaded. I felt darkness moving in and around the edges of my vision and I was falling forward. I managed to throw my hand out to steady myself against the door frame even as his hands reached out and encircled my waist causing a weird conflicting mix of emotions to wash over me.

  Oh how I wanted what he said to be true. How I wanted to believe him. For that matter how I loved the feel of his hands wrapped around my waist holding me there. It was almost enough to make me forget everything that had happened, but not quite. It was too much. The damage was too great.

  And so that mixture of longing, of wishing he would finally tell me the truth, was replaced by something else. By anger. White-hot anger. I looked up and locked eyes with him.

  “Get your hands off of me,” I growled.

  His own eyes widened and he took a step back. His hands left me and I felt a pang of disappointment even as I felt satisfaction.

  I poked him in the chest and he took another step back. “You don’t understand. Carrie is crazy! “Did she tell you everything? Did she tell you how she spent the entire weekend gushing about how she couldn’t believe she was with Sean Taylor? Did she tell how I took her to dinner on Friday night and the next day she tried to use the fact that she was my “girlfriend” to bully people in the dealer hall into giving her free stuff, and when that didn’t work she tried to get them to expense it to my account? Did she tell you how I didn’t find out about any of that until I discovered her trying to break into my laptop so she could get at my notes and figure out what was going to happen next in the story? I can’t even bring my laptop to these conventions anymore because of her! We didn’t even have sex! She’s a crazy who meant nothing to me!”

  I took a deep breath. He might have a point. I could understand where he was coming from after everything that had happened to him. But it still didn’t change one simple fact.

  “She sounds crazy. I could tell from talking to her,” I said.

  Sean breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled at me as though he thought that made everything better. But it wasn’t. How I wished it was, but it wasn’t.

  “But none of that changes the fact that you lied to me. You’ve lied to me at every step of our relationship. Most of them have been good surprises, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve lied. Well no more lies. No more bullshit. I’m done with it. I want to believe you, but what makes you think I would after everything you’ve done? You’ve lied to me since the moment we met each other and I’m supposed to believe that I’m different from another girl that you brought to a convention, banged, and then tossed aside when you were done with her?”

  “I didn’t bang her!” Sean said.

  “Yeah, the jury’s still out on that. Why should I believe you there given all the other crazy lies?”

  “But this is different…”

  “Different? I don’t think you’ve told me a single true thing the entire time we’ve known each other! And you expect me to start believing you now?”

  His mouth worked silently for a moment but he obviously couldn’t think of anything good to say. Obviously couldn’t think of a good defense.

  “My biggest regret is that I think I was really starting to fall for you,” I said. “But after all the lies and half-truths I don’t think I could believe a thing you told me. I don’t think there’s a genuine bone in your body. So I’m leaving tomorrow. You won’t have me to kick around anymore.”

  And then I hit a button and the elevator door closed in his face. I heard one last “Jessica, wait!” but that didn’t stop me. I leaned against the door and slid down. I felt tears come to my eyes and then I was sobbing. How I wanted to believe him. How I wanted him to be telling the truth. Only I was completely right. How could I believe him when everything he’d told me the entire time we’d known one another had been a lie or a half truth?

  I’d have plenty of time to think about that when I got home. Right now I just needed to cry.

  23: Leaving
/>   I sighed as I got everything together in my backpack. It was amazing how everything I’d planned on wearing for the convention could fit into one oversized laptop backpack. Oh well. I always traveled light. And I suppose that was a good thing and this time.

  I briefly considered going down to the dealer hall to get a souvenir, but ultimately I decided against it. Anything I bought down there would be related to Elassa. Even if I could find something that wasn’t related to the books in any way it’d still have the taint of this trip. No, better to just cut ties completely and get the hell out of here.

  I paused in the suite wondering if I should bother Samantha, but decided against it. I wanted her to enjoy the rest of her weekend. I wanted her to have a good time even if I couldn’t. At least somebody should get some enjoyment out of that suite and VIP tickets.

  Of course she was waiting for me when I stepped off the elevator.

  “Trying to sneak away?” she asked with a grin.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “Not happening,” she said. “Now let’s go get you a cab.”

  We stepped out of the elevator and I went for the hotel lobby but Samantha grabbed my arm and pulled me towards one of the sky walks. The sky walk that led from the hotel to the convention center. I stopped.

  “I’m not going to the convention,” I said.

  “Of course you’re not going to the convention. You’re going to the front of the convention center to get a cab. Have you ever tried getting a cab at a hotel first thing in the morning when all the business types are trying to leave? It’s not fun,” Samantha said.

  I rolled my eyes but followed her. She had a weird way of being right about that sort of thing. Maybe I would save time by going to the convention center. I still had plenty of time to get to the airport, but I didn’t want to cut things too close.

  And so I found myself walking through the elevated tunnels to the convention center with Samantha walking in silence beside me. The convention center was last place in the world I wanted to go right now with all of its reminders of yesterday and how wonderful that day had been before everything came crashing down around me. I wiped moisture away from my eyes. Damn it. I didn’t want Samantha to see me like this. I wasn’t going to think about that. I wasn’t going to think about him. I just needed to get the hell out of here before I lost it.