Gamer Girl

by Carmen Willow

  She took a deep breath and bit back the adolescent nasty response that immediately came to mind. Instead, she tried for a more rational approach. “I can’t take the pill, Dad. I get blood clots.”

  “Well, there must have been something—“

  “Oh Ed, stop it! Just stop it!” her mom jumped up and got in her husband’s face. Sarah and David looked at one another, shocked. “Damn it, can’t you see what you’re doing? You keep telling Sarah that she’ll never measure up and you keep telling David that he has to measure up. Just stop!”

  “But this, this mess Sarah’s gotten herself into—“

  “I seem to recall a smart physician who got himself into messes when he was younger!” Janet said.

  “Janet, don’t—“

  “No! You need to come down off your high horse. I seem to recall some pretty big screw-ups over the years, Ed, so get off Sarah’s back.”

  “And what about you, Janet?”

  Sarah slid out of bed and, unnoticed by her parents, made it out the door and down the hall. David followed close behind. Sarah got almost to the visitor’s lounge when she stopped, took a deep breath and marched back down the hall to her room.

  She flung open the door, marched into the room and yelled, “Get the hell out of my room, both of you! Just get out and don’t come back until you can treat me with a little respect!” Sarah pointed to the hall. “Out!” Sarah didn’t know who was more shocked, she or her parents.

  “Excuse me, am I late?”

  They all turned to the sound of a new voice. Eamon walked into the room and came to Sarah’s side.

  “Who are you?” Edward Adams asked.

  “I’m Eamon, Eamon Byrne,” Eamon replied as he stuck out his hand. “David went down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee. I passed him in the hall on my way in.”

  “Dr. Edward Adams,” The two men shook hands. “This is my wife, Janet.”

  Eamon shook Janet’s hand as well. Then he came over to Sarah, ran his hand along her cheek, cupped her chin and looked her in the eye. “You okay?” He said, low enough so that only she could hear. She nodded, and Eamon kissed her softly on the lips. Then he slipped his arm around her waist. “Have you seen the doctor yet?” He asked in a normal tone.

  “She plans to release me in the morning once she’s made rounds.”

  “Just so you know, your purse is locked up at work. I can bring it in the morning so you’ll have your stuff.”

  “What about the DLC?”

  Eamon’s lit up with glee. “We have a big hit on our hands! Sales are way up on the vanilla game as well as the DLC. Martin is ecstatic and we are definitely talking about a second DLC or a second game in the series.”

  Sarah hugged Eamon tight. “That is the best news I’ve had in two days.”

  “It’s your success; Sarah; you and your team pulled this off. Don’t forget that.” Eamon kissed her again.

  “So, how long have you been dating my daughter?” Ed asked.

  “On and off for almost six months now,” Eamon said, “though I have to admit, I’d been studying her book reading habits for a long time.” Eamon looked down at Sarah. “She used to frequent a downtown restaurant I like, and every time I’d see her, she’d be reading some weighty tome. I became curious and started buying the books she read. I have to say, she never bored me. Her reading list was always a blast.” Eamon kissed her again. “And then there’s her singing.”

  A wave of dizziness swept over Sarah. “I have to lie down.”

  Eamon was all attention. He helped Sarah into bed. “You tired?”

  “Getting there,” she told him.

  Eamon turned to Sarah’s parents. “Have you all eaten yet?”

  Janet replied, “No. We didn’t have time during the layover.”

  “Well, why don’t you let me take you both out to eat? Sarah can take a nap and we can come back later after we run by the condo so that you can unpack.” Eamon looked from Janet to Edward. They looked at one another and nodded.

  Janet kissed Sarah’s forehead. “That sound good to you, sweetie?”

  “It sounds fine,” Sarah assured her mother.

  “Okay, we’ll be back later.”

  Sarah watched them go and went to sleep. She woke up about three hours later to find David sitting by her bed reading.

  “Have you been there all afternoon?” Sarah asked him as she sat up.

  “Nah. Eamon and the parental units found me in the cafeteria and took me out to eat. I followed Eamon in the rental and came back to see you while he took Mom and Dad to the condo to unpack. The limo will bring them back later. I have to tell you, Sarah, he seems really fond of you. He told us you met his family?”

  “I did. But it was…look David, Eamon may like me, but he doesn’t want anything serious. I’m sure he’d be okay with a, what do they call it? He’d be fine if we were friends with benefits, but I don’t want that.”

  David was puzzled. “Sarah, if you know this isn’t going anywhere, then why—”

  “Haven’t you ever wanted something so bad that you made up your mind to have it even though you knew you couldn’t keep paying the price and, that, one day you’d give it up?”

  Their eyes met. “Yeah.” David’s voice grew soft, sad. “I felt that way about Claire.”

  “Well, that’s why. I wanted to be with him even if it was never going to be permanent,” Sarah explained. “He’s a great guy, and I could love him with all my heart. But I’d break my heart trying to get him to love me back. Believe it or not, bro, you’re the one who taught me to walk away.”

  “Yeah.”

  David was sitting beside her on the bed. Sarah held out her arms and she hugged him tightly. “But now there’s Margaret and unless I missed my bet, I think you’re pretty stuck on her.”

  “I am.”

  Sarah leaned forward. “So tell me about your first date and when you knew that you loved her. Tell me everything!”

  He smiled. Once again, Sarah was weaving her magic, stepping into his world to be there with him.

  An hour later, David left to go back to the condo. “I’m going to try and sleep, sis. I’ll be back in the morning.”

  “See you then.”

  Sarah buzzed the nurse and asked where the clean gowns were, then took a shower and washed her hair. She stepped out of the bathroom about the time Eamon walked back into the room carrying a bunch of discount store bags.

  “Eamon, what are you doing back here?”

  He held out the bags. “I thought you’d like something more comfortable to wear than a hospital gown.”

  Sarah looked in the bags. There were pajamas and street clothes and a pair of flip-flops. “Impeccable timing! Thanks. I’ll be right back.” Sarah quickly changed clothes.

  “You look better already.” Eamon said when she returned to his side. “There’s some color in your lips now. Not much, but some.” He touched her face. “You scared the hell out me, you know.”

  “It wasn’t my idea,” Sarah told him, trying to smile.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m just saying I wish you didn’t have to go through this. Hey, do you want me bring your purse in the morning?”

  “That would be great.”

  Eamon wanted to take Sarah in his arms, hold her and tell her that it was all going to be okay. He wanted to…what? Instead he said, “Your mom and dad will be here in a little while. They’ve got a limo at their disposal. Unless you object, I told them you and your family could stay at the condo until they’re ready to go home. I just figured the extra space would be good for all of you.”

  Sarah wished Eamon wouldn’t be so kind. It made it so much hard to detach. “After what happened here earlier with them, it’s probably a good idea.”

  “So, anything else, Sarah? A milkshake, ice tea anything?” he asked.

  “No, thanks. You’ve been very kind. I’m good.”

  “I’ll see you then. Call me and let me know when you’ll be back to work, okay?”

 
; “Eamon?”

  “Yeah?”

  “This is pretty common, you know? One in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage. It’s just the way it is. Don’t blame—”

  Eamon came closer. “I would never blame you, Sarah.”

  “I was going to say, don’t blame yourself.”

  “Good night, Sarah.” Eamon left the room, got halfway down the hall, stopped and turned around. He hesitated and then turned around once more and left.

  Chapter 28

  Sarah girded her loins mentally and waited for her parental units to reappear, but when they returned, they were much calmer and happier and they left her alone about Eamon. She gave her dad permission to read her chart, which satisfied him as to her care and the next morning, Dr. Antoine released her. David stayed long enough to hear the news and then left for the downtown airport where his corporate jet waited.

  Sarah and her parents stayed at Eamon’s condo for the rest of the week. She’d been given the go ahead to return to work on Monday and Sarah sent an email to Eamon and her team. She spent the rest of the weekend with her folks, showed them around town and took them by her apartment so they could see where she actually lived. By the time she saw them off for the airport on Sunday, she and her parents were doing okay.

  When she walked through the door of the sixth floor on Monday, she was greeted with a bunch of get well balloons tied to her mobile command unit, cards all over the keyboard and a bunch of chocolate brownies and bagels with cream cheese waiting on the conference table.

  Nicole was the first one to greet her.”It’s good to see you, Sarah. We held down the fort.” Nicole hugged her close and said softly. “Don’t worry; the guys think it was a ruptured ovarian cyst. Nobody knows your business that doesn’t need to.” Then the guys surrounded her. Sarah learned that the brownies were from Brad’s wife and the bagels were from the rest of the crew. They had a total munch down while holding the Monday morning meeting. The team had prepared a complete presentation on the DLC and games sales.

  Hank got up and flipped to another slide. “Here’s something else. The soundtrack from the DLC has sold like hotcakes all weekend. A soundtrack hasn’t done this well a long time.”

  “Wow!”

  “Here’s the best news, Sarah. Eamon’s asked James and me to start working up a proposal for a second game in the series,” Tammy told her.

  “Yes! Yes! Guys, that’s the best news I could have to come back to. You all are totally awesome!” Sarah shouted, happily fist-pumping the air.

  “You’re pretty awesome yourself, Sarah,” John said.

  “Oh yeah!” Brad said.

  Sarah laughed. “Okay guys. Enough of patting our own backs, let’s get back to work. Nicole? John? Could you stay a moment?”

  “Sure,” they both answered.

  When they had privacy, Sarah gave them each a gift. “It isn’t much. I just wanted to say thank you. I know how close I came, and you two saved me.”

  “No, John saved you,” Nicole insisted, “I panicked.”

  John’s forehead got all wrinkled as he gave Nicole an I don’t believe you just said that look, “That’s not true, you marshaled the troops, made sure that the paramedics found us quickly, got all the hoodies and stuff. You were great.”

  Sarah put her arm around both of them. “You both were great. Thank you for my life.”

  “No thanks needed.” John gave her a squeeze and then went back to work. Nicole stayed.

  “You have it bad for Eamon don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I do. But you know our boss. That’s not going anywhere,” Sarah told her.

  Nicole gave her another hug. “Look, you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to eat ice cream with, I’m your girl. Just give me a call, okay?”

  Sarah hugged her back.”You don’t know how much I need a friend right now. Thanks Nicole. Hey, I saw that look you gave John. Isn’t he a little quiet for you?”

  Nicole’s expression went soft. “He doesn’t need to be noisy. Sarah, he’s the genuine article, the real deal. He doesn’t need flash.”

  “You look gobsmacked, Nicole.”

  Nicole laughed happily. “That pretty much covers it.”

  Sarah headed for the door. “We best get out there and prove to our boss that we’re worth the money he pays us.”

  “Right!”

  The two women headed back to their desks.

  Upstairs Eamon was having a different sort of meeting with Martin.

  “What is it, Martin?”

  “You want to tell me what happened while I was in Aruba?”

  “Sarah had a nasty miscarriage. She almost died before they could get the bleeding under control, but she’s okay now,” Eamon told him.

  “Any of that on you?” Martin asked.

  Eamon looked away. “It’s all on me.”

  “Geeze, Eamon, how long have you been sleeping with her?”

  “Just the once.”

  “How can you be sure I mean—”

  “I’m sure I was responsible. It was my fault, I got careless….” Eamon didn’t finish the sentence.

  “Are there going to be consequences?” Martin asked him.

  “You mean is Sarah going to sue me? I don’t think so, Martin. She wasn’t even planning on telling me.”

  “Right!”

  Eamon got mad at that point. “Don’t even go there, Martin. Sarah is the truest, kindest, most loving person I have ever met, and she would never, ever blackmail someone that way!” He stood up. “But I want you to talk to her. I don’t want her to have to pay a damn penny for this. Pay her co-pays, her prescription meds bill, whatever there is. Pay it out of my personal account, because I want to make this as painless as possible for her. She’s hurting enough already.”

  Martin stared at his friend a long, long time and then he said, “You love her.”

  “No! No, I don’t. But this was an accident that cost Sarah a hell of a lot more than it did me,” Eamon insisted. “I don’t…just do it, Martin!”

  “Right.” Martin wasn’t convinced. He went back to his office and asked Sarah to drop by at her convenience.

  Sarah showed up about ten minutes later.

  When she walked through the door, Martin said, “Hey Sarah, have a seat. I understand that you had a medical emergency this last week and that it involved Eamon—”

  Sarah cut him off. “Relax counsel. I have no intention of filing a Title VII or any other claim against the company or Eamon personally.”

  “No, no Sarah, that’s not it, Eamon wanted to pay any out of pocket expenses you suffered—”

  Sarah gasped and bit the inside of her cheek to keep her cool. “Tell Mr. Byrne that I don’t need his financial assistance in any way. I may not be a multi-millionaire but I have a trust fund. If it comes to it, I’ll pay the damn bill out of that.”

  Then, Sarah stood up and leaned over the desk. “And this is for you, counsel. Get ready so that if I ever change my mind and try to file a lawsuit, you can have this as evidence, okay? I came on to him! You understand me? I came on to him! He did what any normal, heterosexual male would do when a woman grabs his penis and rubs her breasts all over him! Got that? You want it in writing? I’ll have it notarized!”

  Sarah slammed out of the office.

  Martin stared at the closed door. “Oh shit!” He took a deep breath, picked up the phone and called Eamon.

  “Yeah?”

  “Eamon, I think I just really screwed things up.”

  “Tell me.”

  From Bad to Worse

  Sarah made it back to six. She thought about going up to eight and clocking Eamon. How dare he treat her like his boy-toy? There was no difference in paying her medical bills or buying a Versace wine coaster and sticking a flower in it. She knew how he bought his way out of relationships. She’d purchased the gifts! It was just Eamon acquiring his exit visa. Well, she could buy one too!

  Around five thirty she got a call to go up to eight. When she entered the office, b
oth Eamon and Martin were waiting for her. “Miss Adams, please have a seat.” Eamon indicated a chair.

  “I’d rather not, thank you anyway.” Sarah looked at the two of them.

  “Martin has something to explain to you, Miss Adams. I hope you will hear him out.”

  Sarah turned toward Martin. “Of course I will hear you out, counsel. Please tell me what you want me to know.”

  “When Mr. Byrne asked me to pay your incidental expenses for your medical emergency his exact words to me were that you had been through enough and shouldn’t have to worry about anything more. He did not, in any way insinuate that I was to…to try to—“

  “Buy me off?” Sarah said in a level and reasonable tone that belied the words she used.

  “Something like that.” Martin said, shamefaced. “I’m afraid my zeal as an attorney got the best of me. I apologize. I didn’t mean to—“

  “No apology required, counsel, you were just doing your job.” Sarah tone remained reasonable. She turned away from Martin and toward Eamon.

  “Mr. Byrne. While I thank you for your…generosity, I wish to make it clear that I neither need nor desire your help in this matter. A few days ago, I had an extreme medical emergency and I needed a rescue. And you were kind enough to help me. For that, I thank you. But that situation is resolved and I do not need rescuing now. As you no doubt noticed, I have too many people who treat me like a defective child. So, if I don’t have your confidence that I am a capable adult, then you should discharge me immediately.” Sarah tried to keep her voice level and professional but her fury made her cadence clipped and tone acidic.

  The muscle in Eamon’s jaw tightened, but other than that, Martin could see no reaction to Sarah’s statement in Eamon’s body language. The tight jaw, though, that was a huge tell. “I have every confidence in your capability, Miss Adams. Your point is taken.”

  Sarah turned to Martin once again. “Counsel, I made you an offer of a written statement earlier today. That the offer still stands. Just let me know.” She turned back to Eamon. “May I go now, sir?”

  “No. Not yet.” Eamon walked over to his conference table. “The DLC is going really well, but you’ll need to stay on staff until mid-December to see it through to completion, just in case something comes up. If you don’t mind taking on a project during the interim, I’d like for you to finish up the plans for our annual Christmas Party, find entertainment, choose the menu....Emily has the files and Nicole can fill you in on anything she didn’t get. You can resign after the December nineteenth, pursuant to our agreement.”