I Heart Geeks (12 page)

But he was wrong.

There she stood, her eyes widened and fixed on him with recognition in her gaze. She had heard Jim call him and from the look in her eyes, it was Kendra.

And she remembered exactly who he was.

Gorgeous blue eyes. Clean shaven. Dark brown short cropped hair and an athletic build with a sturdy torso. Her brain raced to put the pieces together.

This was Jordan.

Wow.

She had to pull herself together or else he may think she was nuts. Maybe he already thought she was nuts for coming down here. After all, he had invited her.

If this was
her
Jordan.

Kendra watched him break his gaze from her and carry the large boxes to the front where he unpacked them. She walked to the counter and stepped aside, waiting until the line cleared and all the customers had checked out. Now and then as he worked, he turned to look at her. A small smile creeping onto his lips and reaching those bright blue eyes. Her stomach did backflips and she tried to remain calm and cool as her own smile kept falling upon her lips.

Once the line cleared, his co-worker busied himself explaining an RPG game to a curious customer. Jordan walked over to her and leaned on the glass countertop.

“Can I help you?”

That voice. She struggled to remember the voice behind the suit and match it. It came dangerously close.

Kendra cleared her throat. “Um yeah. Actually, I was wondering…well, I was looking for someone. He said he games here and I was hoping to find him if he was gaming here tonight. His name is Jordan.”

“Kendra?”

It was him! What are the odds?

She broke into a large smile and found herself fidgeting and shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “Jordan. Hey.”

“Hey.” He grinned. “Nice to see you here. I wasn’t sure you’d come, to be honest.”

“Yeah, well. I figure why not give it a chance. I’m sorry I ran off earlier today. I didn’t know what to say or do. This is all new to me.”

“Yeah, me too. I’m used to meeting most people here, through friends or online during a game. None of them were really into the GrimDark FutureWorld games like me. I was pretty jazzed to see you were.”

“Same here.” She broke his gaze and turned to look around the shop. “I didn’t realize you work here. You said you gamed here a lot.”

Jordan chuckled and hung his head. “Yeah, well. You can’t be too careful when meeting people. It’s true I do game here a lot when I’m not working or gaming at home.”

Kendra looked around the spacious yet cozy store with stacked shelves and tables. “Wow, you guys have a lot of good stuff.”

He circled the counter and stepped down to join her. “You play anything else other than GrimDark?”

Kendra shrugged. “A few online RPGs. They’re my fave. I never really got into RTS until a friend introduced me. I hated it at first then I got hooked.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit different than RPG and takes some getting used to. How about the tabletop version?”

She looked over at the front display where boxes of GrimDark figures stood along with their vehicles and some buildings to match. They would make a great display but she had no idea how to play them in the games.

“Um. Never played.”

“I can still teach you. I don’t mind. Then maybe we can go out for dinner or something? I get off here in about an hour or so and my night is free. Besides it’s usually pretty slow here this time of night.”

Kendra looked at the door and then raised an eyebrow at him.

He grinned again then stuffed his hands into his pockets to give her a shrug. Man, did he have a nice smile.

“All right. Besides that last crowd, it stays relatively empty.”

“I don’t know.”

“No strings attached. Just two people gaming and having a good time.”

Kendra pulled her shoulder strap up on her shoulder and then exhaled slowly. What did she have to lose? Other than the nervous flopping in the pit of her stomach, she tried to play it cool as if it didn’t matter. “Well, I suppose.”

“Let’s do it. I’ll teach you a little bit about the game and then we play. You win and I will back away and not mention going out ever again.”

Kendra folded her arms. “Oh now that doesn’t seem so fair. What happens if you win?”

“Well, I win and we can go out.” He smiled. “Who knows maybe we’ll have a good time. Either way, let’s see what happens. What do you say?”

“I’m hearing Admiral Ackbar in my head telling me it’s a trap.” She laughed and shook her head. “That’s an easy win because I’m a total newbie at this. How about this. I give you a chance, we can maybe go out to grab something to eat tonight. I lose, I’ll be happy to pay our meal. If you lose, you pay.”

“You sure? The odds are still there.”

=Sure.” She shrugged. “I’m pretty good at picking up things. I think I may have a fair chance.”

She smiled, proud of herself. This way she would be giving him a chance but at the same time, they could keep this on the side of friends and not a
date
date. It was a fair deal and it would let fate determine the outcome. Now she would gladly follow whatever the cards put before her.

“All right,” he said with a nod. “Let’s play.”

The tabletop game proved to be a bit more complex than the online Real Time Strategy game Kendra was used to. She kept her eyes and ears open, watching carefully as Jordan showed her all the character stats and points that would add up if she were to place certain units into her team. He set up a nice playing area behind the counter so he can keep an eye out for any new customers and to also give them some privacy while they played. The large board resembled a row of rocky plains with lightly grassed terrain and a forest of trees on each of the corners. The point system started at one thousand points to give Kendra enough leg room to add what she wanted. Thankfully, he had a few starter sets available for display in the shop so she didn’t have to buy and assemble the characters. After all, this was just a beginner’s game…albeit one that would determine both of their fates together.

“Okay, now we can roll to see who takes what side of the board.” Jordan placed a boxed set of dice in front of her. Purple, gold, and red. Nice.

She grabbed one of the die, a purple one to match her favorite color, and rolled. Six.

“Already off to a great start.” Jordan grinned at her. “Okay you take that side and I’ll set up on this side.”

A few units made up her team: an HQ unit, a few Elites and some Heavy Support units. In the online game, the goal was to defend your post while gathering as much resources to upgrade the strength of your team. In the tabletop, Kendra was quickly catching on to the new goals. Beef your team up enough to deliver hard attacks while trying to stay alive until the end. Although she missed gathering resources and building her units, the new goal version of the game intrigued her. Even more so, she wanted to know how it all would end.

“Now you can go first.”

Kendra nodded. “Okay.” She rolled a six and immediately got first go.

“Go ahead and set up.”

She set up her fast attack squad up front and her heavies on the side with her power units in the back. Once she was done, she watched Jordan set up his knight’s squad.

“You ready?”

“Yep!”

Jordan grabbed a handful of colorful grey and gold die. “Okay, I attempt to seize the initiative to roll six.”

He dropped all but one and rolled. Three.

“Fail. I do not seize so you go first. We start in the movement phase.” He pointed out each unit that can move and how many inches.

The game was on. Jordan explained the different phases of the game. After the movement phase came the psychic powers phase, then the shooting phase and, finally, the melee phase. Kendra chose to attack and eliminated three Knights in one of Jordan’s units. On his turn, Jordan jumped his Dreadwalker unit three inches to stand in front of Kendra’s front units. He employed the psychic phase and gave Kendra a chance to negate his hits.

Her head spun with the many rules and attacks he gave, absorbed and employed. Although she was still new to the game and grasping what exactly was going on, she watched and listened closely as he explained the minimum amount of hits she needed to send out and actually wound. From the strength, power, and boosts of Jordan’s people, he took few hits and lost a few units here and there.

All of the phases equaled one turn and by the fourth turn, an hour had already passed. Wow. She didn’t realize how much time had flown. Between rolling dice, checking the lore book for her team’s stats and Jordan using his own powers, everything was going by in a whir.

Soon she was left with two units, an HQ leader unit and a heavy HQ. Jordan still had his walker and a small heavy squad. It took a few roll of the die for Kendra to lose her heavy. A single HQ leader remained.

“Wow. I thought my people were pretty heavy duty but they are nothing compared to your Knights.”

Jordan grinned. “I boosted them with some powers so they had a few nice armor saves in there. Otherwise you would have definitely bested me. You can choose to charge in on my guys if you want.”

She shook her head. “No way. I know my leader unit isn’t that strong and he has no melee left. Just range units. At that close range, you can practically beat me to death. Looks like you win this one.”

Jordan puffed out his chest and pulled his shirt out to give a little manly stance. “Well, then. Go me. Looks like we get a nice meal tonight.”

Kendra shrugged. “And it’s all on me. You won fair and square and I’m a woman of my word.”

Silence fell in the room as they began to clean up their pieces. A few cheers and taunts erupted from the back room and true to Jordan’s word, the storefront remained relatively quiet with sparse amount of customers.

Kendra wondered what Jordan was thinking. As he cleaned up, she watched him out of the corner of her eyes. He was handsome and the more she got to know him, the more attracted she was to him. Did he feel the same toward her? Or perhaps he was just being a nice guy keeping his word? One thing she had to admit, she was glad he won the wager.

“If I may be completely honest, Kendra,” Jordan began, breaking the silence.

Kendra nearly jumped toward the ceiling at the sound of his voice filtering into her thoughts.

Jordan laughed soft and deep. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare ya there.”

She grabbed her die and slipped them into their box case before looking up at Jordan with a smile to soften the moment. “No worries. What’s up?”

“Forget the bet. Dinner’s on me.”

“No way. I lost and I’m not a sore loser.”

“Which I appreciate, but…” He waited a beat, trying to gather the courage to speak his words. “I like you and I’m attracted to you. I don’t usually feel drawn to many girls as most I meet aren’t really what I’m looking for, but I feel drawn to you and I think something good could happen to us. If you’re anything like me, you’re nervous about putting yourself out there and getting hurt. Believe me, I know. It’s happened way too many times than I like to count which is why I stay pretty guarded. But something about you makes me want to trust you. What do you say? Let’s get to know each other and see what can come of this? Friendship, or more.”

Kendra smiled and then giggled softly.

“What? What’d I say?”

She shook her head. “And here I am so afraid that I run away and guard myself too much. At least you were brave enough to stand your ground and really speak your mind. I admire that.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you came back, by the way.”

The way he looked at her made her melt. It was as if he saw her, really saw her.

“Me too,” she said softly.

“Hey, lovebirds.”

Kendra turned toward the voice. Jordan’s work partner that night wore the same black shirt and khaki shorts. His nametag read “Scott.”

Jordan quickly cleared his throat and stood. She didn’t realize how close they were drawing toward each other until he moved a few inches back.

“Hey Scott. I was just teaching Kendra here to play.”

Scott grinned. “Oh, I bet. I can see you both were really into the game. Listen, why don’t you two head on out of here. Jim and I can clean up.”

“You sure?” Jordan asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah. You got a lady friend to entertain. Don’t keep her waiting.” With a parting wink, Scott disappeared to the back to clean up before closing.

Jordan turned to Kendra. “Well, I guess that’s our cue. You wanna head out of here?”

“Sure.”

“Great. Let me grab my things.”

She waited while he grabbed his jacket and keys from the back room and rejoined her out front. They bid everyone goodnight and Jordan made sure to turn the ‘Open’ sign off before he stepped out. The night air was cool and the sky was clear of any clouds, allowing the stars to sparkle brightly along with the crescent moon. This city was perfect to night gaze. The sparse amount of blaring lights and more trees on the blocks allowed amateur astronomers to pick out their favorite constellations on an evening like this.

Kendra stuffed her hands in her pockets and waited for Jordan by the curb. The plaza was already emptying out except for the late night fast food places around the shop. The highway sat beyond the way and the sound of scattered chatter mixed with the distant sound of rushing cars.

Kendra was ready to go but stopped when Jordan slipped his jacket on and waited. The curious gaze in his eyes told her he wanted to say something.

“Jordan? What’s on your mind?”

When his eyes met hers, he smiled. “How can you tell I had something to say?”

Good question. Usually she was pretty okay at reading people but with Jordan it came much easier than most. “Just a hunch I guess. I can tell from the look in your eyes.”

“Well, I just wanted to say something. I meant what I said earlier. I want to get to know you and I want you to be comfortable getting to know me. I don’t want to take you out because I won a game or you feel obligated to go out with me. I want you to do it because you want to as much as I do. I’m not going to pressure you into anything. So, if you want to part ways now, we can. I just wanted to let you know that.”