I Heart Geeks (10 page)

“So, you’re asking me out on a date? For next year?” she asked, trying to keep her laughter in check.

“Yes.”

“What are we supposed to do until then? Wait?”

“Well
I’m
going to make sure you keep saying yes.” His smile was suggestive and his blue eyes glowed with mirth.

She pulled him up and rested her hands on his chest, feeling the hard muscle underneath his waistcoat. “And how are you going to do that?”

Dropping his voice so only she could hear, he said, “I know some tricks.”

“Really?” Winding her arms around his neck, she hugged him close “You have better have learned a few new tricks, Speedy.”

He laughed, loudly. Then he kissed her, quick and hard.

Still laughing, he picked her up and spun her, but when he tried to set her down, she nearly fell. Jack tightened his hold on her and they both looked down. Willow picked up the multi-colored bundle. She turned it this way and that, but it didn’t change shape. No, she was really holding a bundle of tampons in a variety of multi-colored wrappers held together with a red satin ribbon—and strategically placed glue.

“Almost forget about your bouquet.”

“My what?”

“You tampon bouquet,” he repeated as if it would make more sense. “You like it? I didn’t know what brand you preferred so I got a few different ones.”

Her brain stuttered to a stop. Confused. It was like her mind was trying to make sense of two vastly different ideas that didn’t quite fit, and because of it, all thought halted.

“Tampon bouquet? You got me tampons instead of flowers?”

In an instant his bravado slipped, his broad shoulders sagged, and he seemed to shrink a whole five inches. “I thought you hated flowers. Said they were a waste of money.”

“When did I say that?”

Without hesitation he answered, Valentine’s Day. Junior year.”

“And the tampons?” she asked calmly, though the fact that he remembered her dislike of flowers made her want to jump him. Crowd be damned.

Jack shrugged stiffly. “I figured I needed to perform one more humiliating act before you could forgive me.”

Willow smiled at his obvious discomfort. “Is that what you’ve been doing all afternoon? Browsing the feminine hygiene aisle?”

“And making the bouquet.”

Looking at the tampon flowers in her hand, she saw that it wasn’t just a hodge podge of tampons tied together. The bundle was an explosion of purple, green, yellow and orange with a few blue and pink cardboard curls.

Before she could ask, he answered, “Midol and Pamprin boxes.”

“You spend a lot of time on this,” she said, her eyes still locked on the colored bouquet. “Didn’t know you were crafty.”

She thought he would’ve shrugged and played it off like it was no big deal, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “You learn a lot of things working in small theatre companies.”

“Tampon flower arrangement?” she asked.

“Glue guns. Fixing broken props, ripped costumes—you know—that kind of stuff.”

“I like a man who’s…handy.”

Smiling a rakish smile full of confidence and—she hoped—love, he replied, “That’s not all the theatre taught me.”

“Oh, really?”

With a whoosh, Willow was suddenly staring at the ceiling. The lights from the chandeliers were blindingly bright behind Jack’s head. Her head was cradled in the crook of his arm while her body was held by the other. He was leaning over her, his body tense from the effort of holding them in this position.

“Jack…”

“Ready to experience the
Gold standard
of kissing?” he asked, waggling his eyebrow wildly.

Trying not to laugh, she answered, “I think now would be a
golden
opportunity to do so.”

Jack kissed her then, smothering any laughter and any more puns. They still had some work to do, but they had time to figure things out. But for now Willow was going to enjoy her big moment.

“Come here little space elf! Why don’t you put your spell on me? In fact, I think you already have.”

Kendra rolled her eyes and quickened her pace away from the sleazy stranger. What started out as a nice compliment on her costume soon turned into him moving into her personal space. As soon as he placed his hand on her arm and edged toward her chest, she got out of there. Although, she wanted to belt him right there, Kendra knew there was no sense in lowering herself to his level. If she really were a Space Elf Enchantress of the Ratheon Order like her costume suggested, a nice mind war spell would set him straight right away. The sound of clunking armor made her heart race. Oh lovely, did he have a friend now, too?

She hurried through the crowds of vendors, other cosplayers and pursuers around the comic convention. There was a strict no harassment policy and she wanted to get near the security booth just in case these jerks tried anything physical.

“Come on, babe!” So, he
did
have another friend. “Put a hex on both of us and get a two-for-one deal, huh?”

Her journey came to a halt when a large clump of people blocked her way. Great. Just great. From the looks of it, they were standing in line for some guest authors’ autographs. Her grip tightened on the large staff she held in one hand while her other hand grabbed the blaster gun at her side. Both lovingly recreated from her favorite game faction. Whipping around to face the two idiotic nerfherders, she raised her weapons. A small sluice of satisfaction went through her when they jumped back a full two feet.

Kendra was ready to put on the loud, yet imposing beastly elf Enchantress voice and say in her enhanced electronic voice ‘do not toy with me, human’ when her gaze caught someone else looming behind them. If she weren’t wearing a mask, her eyes would have been just as wide as the gathering crowd around them. All gazes were on the huge figure dwarfing her two lanky stalkers.

The figure stood about seven feet tall with huge armor that stretched three and half feet wide. A headpiece like that of a helmet covered the guy’s face except for two tiny yellow slits that served as eyes. He looked like he was covered in full dull gray armor with beautiful shiny gold accents. In his hand, he held a huge sword that looked like it was partly made of chainsaw at the blade.

Kendra remembered the armor and who he was supposed to be—a Space Knight in the Grey Warrior faction of her favorite game: GrimDark FutureWorld. Not a bad job on the costume. It was almost as if he stepped right from the lore and into their world.

“Dude! What the he—”

The large Space Knight revved up his sword which sounded like a chainsaw itself. Kendra stifled a laugh to keep from breaking character.

“The Patriarch is not pleased with your blatant display of disrespect to this Xenos.” The Knight’s voice echoed low and deep from the helmet.

Kendra straightened her spine and dropped her blaster down while holding her spear up to give the classic pose of her character. If only there was a nice wind coming from somewhere to blow her satin cape behind her, this would be an epic moment. A small crowd had already stopped to watch the display and take pictures. Even the ones still waiting in lines at the assorted booths cranked their gazes toward them. Might as well roll with the flow.

“These humans deserve their extinction for such disrespect,” she said with extra emphasis. “My reapers will make quick work of them.”

The two guys waved them off with a laugh. The one sporting a small beard and dark unkempt hair with a sallow complexion spoke first.

“Man, you nerds can’t do anything. Who do you think you ar—”

The chainsaw blared to life, louder and louder until it drowned them out.

“Die dissident! The Space Knight moved as if to lunge toward the two and Kendra joined in, raising her spear up high while aiming her blaster.

She had never seen two guys run so fast, nearly knocking each other over and anyone around them as they escaped. The crowd around them laughed like crazy, some turning to watch the guys still running to get away. A little blond boy with a Ninja Turtle mask and a red sash around his forehead held his camera up as he walked around the Space Knight. It was a giant compared to the boy’s tiny stature.

“Wow! That is
so
cool! Can I take a picture?”

“Of course you may, little knight.” He waited for the kid to back up and get a good frame, but from the vast stature disparity, the kid might as well have been taking a picture of the Statue of Liberty up close.

“Here sport.” The boy’s father stepped up and hauled his son up on his shoulders for more height. “There you go. Fire away.”

One picture turned into a few more with people joining in to raise their own cameras and take pictures of the Knight. After a moment, he turned to face Kendra and raise his arm. He wanted
her
to join him?

“Will it not anger the Patriarch to mingle with a Xenos leader such as myself?”

A little more show for the crowd never hurt. He tilted his head slightly to the side.

“The Patriarch makes an exception for such cases.”

Kendra walked over to him and rested against the thick, cold armor. It looked like real metal upon first look and now that she had a chance to touch it, it may have been fiberglass or something like it that was sturdy enough to be close to the real thing.

The large imposing armor was a contrast to her own thin blue satin dress that covered her neck, torso, and arms and draped down to her toes. Gold metal wrist bands covered her forearms with red rune stones, matching the platelets around her shoulders. A light gold satin strip of ribbon broke the blue satin of her dress, delicately embroidered to match the symbols of her faction. It took her months of laboring over each and every stitch from its conception from a sheet of material to a full dress. It was the first time she had dove head first into creating something from her favorite game. She had been a fan of other science fiction and fantasy TV shows and games before—too many to name—but something about GrimDark FutureWorld made her want to represent it at the con this year. What an awesome way to celebrate her achievement now as she stood next to another dedicated cosplayer and fan of the same world. She could barely hold her excitement while still holding character.

After a few moments of snapshots, the knight held up his hands and turned to Kendra.

“The Space Elf Enchantress and I shall depart now for our systems require our presence.”

“You should enter the costume contest! You’d win!” The little boy that first asked for pictures nodded with such excitement that Kendra had a hard time saying no to him.

She turned to the Knight and held her staff up high.

“Perhaps we could stave off battle for a few moments of display.”

The Knight nodded at her then turned to the boy. “Where shall we enter this contest, tiny human?”

The boy’s father pointed to the stage. “I think they’re still taking entrant applications at the front booth.”

“We appreciate your assistance, human,” Kendra said before starting toward the stage.

The large Space Knight took his time with the bulk of the armor around him. Kendra slowed her steps to remain by is side. She coached herself to keep in character as they walked, careful of the curious gazes they gathered their way. No doubt, the Knight himself turned the most heads. What did he look like under all that armor?

“By the way, my name is Jordan.” The voice came out quieter this time, soft and deep, outside of the imposing voice no doubt helped by some internal speaker system. Purely male. Kendra tried to picture a face to go with the voice, then she stopped herself.

“I’m Kendra,” she said quietly. She had been in internet relationships before and this was similar. Back then, she had fallen for characters in online role playing games—RPGs for short—and oftentimes mistaken their character personas for their real life one. She was disappointed when they showed their true colors. Like meeting her favorite actor who plays the dream guy on her fave TV show and turns out to be an egotistical nightmare in real life. She had to be careful not to fall for the cute voice in the large suit.

“You don’t have to do this, you know.” Maybe this was her out. They could part ways now before something came of it.

“No, I want to. I’ve never been in one before and this is my first time cosplaying.”

“Well, you did an awesome job on the costume.”

A deep laugh came from the helmet. “Nice to meet a fellow fan of Grimdark FutureWorld. I like your Space Elf Enchantress costume.”

“Same here.” Her face quickly grew hot beneath the mask. “I mean, your Space Knight suit. I really like it.” Crap, she already said that.

They continued passing through the groups of people, some standing around taking pictures and while others walked on by. The main floor didn’t seem so huge until now when she had to walk clear on the other side of it.

“Do you play tabletop?”

Kendra shook her head. “I started to, but I always chicken out. I don’t really know anyone to play with and I’m not even sure who can teach me.”

“I can teach you. I game at the workshop on Grand if you want to drop by. I’m not sure how long you’re in town, or…”

The widening of his eyes as he waited for her answer made her think he was curious if she was local or an out-of-towner. Kendra opened her mouth, tempted to tell him, but the moment passed when he raised his large hand.

“If you can drop by the store before you leave town, that’d be great. I’m there a lot so I can spend some time teaching you. You can even play the Elves if you like.”

Thankfully they arrived at the contest booth where the stage was already being set up.

“Yeah, but listen…you don’t have to.”

“Why not? I have the spare time. Just two friends playing a game and sharing in a mutual interest.”

The smile was apparent in his voice. Before Kendra could answer, the contest coordinator caught their attention.

“Can I help you two?”

Kendra turned to the organizer sitting behind the booth. “Yes, we would like to enter.”

“Sorry. Entries were cut off at two. We’re just about to set up for display and then voting.” He turned to Jordan and then back at Kendra again. “A shame. You two would have really wowed the crowd.”