I Heart Geeks (18 page)

Shifting my gaze up her body, I took in her face. The green of her eyes was mesmerizing, setting off the little of her red hair that I could see. Her lips looked soft and inviting, though, they were starting to turn down into a frown. Right. Strange, silent man was staring.
Say something, you moron
. For a moment, the entire concept of how words formed sentences left my brain, but I at least managed a smile. The small frown that had appeared on her face melted, and one side of her lips turned up into a smirk. My knees nearly buckled; only the armor strapped around my legs kept me upright.

“Dean?”

“Rose?” When I said her name, she beamed at me.

“I’d recognize that armor of yours anywhere.” She laughed.

I held out a shaky hand. She stared at it a moment then closed the space between us, wrapping me in an armored hug. It should have been awkward; it was anything but. She was real. We were both in the same room, and, better, she was hugging me. I wrapped my arms around her and rested my cheek on her head. Her scent was intoxicating. Thank the gods there were a few layers of armor between us or I would’ve made a poor first impression. It took all my self-control just to release her from my arms.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you. Thanks for telling us about this. It’s barely been a day, and I’m already having the best time.” Her voice was more tantalizing than I remembered. “Come on, this way. I left everyone else over by the FWO display.”

Taking me by the hand, she pulled me through the crowd. I was so surprised by the actual touch of her skin that I didn’t even think to offer to walk in front. People had a tendency to get out of my way when I wore my armor. But as we walked, the crowd parted in front of her, and my worry dissipated. They found her armor as impressive as I did. She looked beautiful, mysterious even, but not intimidating. At least, not to me.

All the indecipherable chatter around us quieted until all I could hear was her soft, sultry voice, humming. It was her most endearing nervous habit. I was compelled forward by the feel of her hand against mine and mesmerized by the slow sway of her hips. I was in absolute awe of her. Every time she looked back at me with that halfcocked smile, her green eyes glowing from under her hood, my pulse quickened.

Not one iota of what I’d written about her had done her justice. In fact, I wasn’t sure if I even knew the words to fully capture her on paper. Though, as I watched her, I knew I was cursed to spend a lifetime trying. We came to a sudden stop in front of a group of impressively decked-out cosplayers. Sound came back in a sudden rush, all the voices in the hall combining into a muddled mess. It took me a moment to realize that Rose was talking to me again.

“…is Kyle and the summoner is Janis.”

I smiled at each of them and shook each of their hands in turn. I hadn’t zoned out so badly that I missed either of their names. Kyle was dressed in healer’s garb as far as I could tell, log robes and a slew of potion bottles hanging from his belt. When we’d played together they both had different class types, so it was a bit off-putting to see them in this gear, but, as I’d never met them in person, it would be an easy enough adjustment.

We’d barely said our hellos and started some awkward small talk when someone ran up to us asking for a picture. Thus began the onslaught of photos. Some wanted one of our costumes, some wanted all of us together, and still others wanted us to pose in mock battle. All in all, it was a good time. Though, it felt like a whirlwind. We got to pose with cosplayers from other games and met a lot of other interesting people. At one point some of the official photographers for GameCon asked for our picture. That was pretty cool, I had to admit.

Kyle and Rose made the night, though. Somehow, they managed to make everyone laugh during and between photo ops. The initial nervousness I had upon meeting them was gone by the second picture. I made sure, before we got too sweaty, to get someone to snap a photo or three on my phone. Now, having all of us as my screen saver wouldn’t be creepy. Sometimes, I could be clever. Rose managed to stand next to me in every pose, pulling me by the hand when someone got between us. We shared quick smiles as we inched closer between each photo.

Two hours later, we decided to call a halt on the photos. There were a few shows I wanted to check out and several other events that everyone else had heard about. I led the way across the floor, pausing for the last few photos. I fought the urge to look over my shoulder to make sure she was all still there.

When I stepped outside, I let out a groan. The rain had stopped some time ago, and it was crisp and cold outside. It made me realize how hot I’d been in there. My t-shirt and workout shorts beneath my armor were soaked through.

“Oh, hell yes. Thank you weather gods for your mercy.” Rose stepped through the door behind me and pulled off her cloak. “Hold this for me, big guy.”

She threw her cloak at me as I held the door open for Janis and Kyle. Rose pulled off her greaves and a couple other detachable pieces of her armor. I did a piss poor job of keeping composed as she peeled off the main chest piece to reveal a
very
fitted undershirt.

“You might want to reattach that jaw, D,” Kyle said under his breath. He patted my shoulder as he walked through the door.

Behind him Janis giggled and shook her head at me.
Thanks guys, you’re really helping
. I could feel blood rushing up to my face from its previous home down south, as I diverted an unnecessary amount of attention to closing the door.

“Oh, leave him alone. Y’all can’t let me have any fun, can you?” Rose stood facing us now with her hands on her hips. Her half smile had spread all the way across her face, and she winked at me.

“What? It’s not my fault the guy’s a lovesick idiot when he’s around you,” Kyle said as he put an arm around Rose and continued down the sidewalk toward our hotel.

Janis ran after them and smacked Kyle on the back of the head.

“Ow! What?” he yelped, rubbing the back of his head.

Taking Kyle by the arm, Janis whispered something in his ear that made him yank his arm away from Rose and shrug. They both smacked him this time. I had no clue what the hell was going on. Lingering a few steps behind the group, I realized that this was the first time tonight that I felt apart from them. They had a longer history together and that would leave me out of the loop. But, so far, I’d felt at home with them.

Funny, I hadn’t even thought about making friends this weekend. The idea of meeting Rose in person had consumed the entirety of my limited brain capacity. Well, that, and figuring out how the hell I was going to explain the short story competition to her, but I had all night to figure that out. Right now I just wanted to be able to put my arm around her shoulders without worrying about her looking at me cross-eyed. Hell, if I had it my way, I’d never let go.

Once back at the hotel, we decided to go back to our rooms to clean up. I struggled out of my armor for a quick shower. The plan was to meet back in the lobby dressed for bar hopping or casual gaming, or whatever shenanigans we landed on for the night. For me, that meant some nice jeans, a polo, and combing my hair. I threw on a little cologne for good measure. When I got back down to the lobby, Kyle was the only one there, and he had a drink in hand. Maybe Rose was still getting ready.

“Hey, man. There’s a roving bartender around here somewhere if you want something,” he said as he lounged in the middle of one of the lobby couches, drinking something that smelled like whiskey. That piqued my interest. I looked around the room for said bartender, keeping an eye out for Rose. After a moment, having spotted neither, I turned my attention back to Kyle.

“A whiskey guy, huh?”

Lifting up his drink and inspecting the glass, Kyle raised an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, good nose. What’s your poison?”

“Whiskey for sure, but I also like a good beer, sours most of the time.” I smiled at him, then felt it falter. That was strange. I had no idea what Rose liked to drink. And here I was thinking that we’d already covered most of the everyday stuff in our conversations.

He smiled at that and moved over on the couch, offering me a seat. “We’ll get along just fine, I think,” he said, then raised his glass and took another sip.

It was nice to finally rest my legs. Standing in all that armor for any length of time was exhausting. The night was far too young to be that tired already. I rubbed at the angry part of my left quad.

“So you’re from around here, yeah?” Kyle asked. “Somewhere outside Atlanta? I think that’s what you said during the last raid.”

“Yeah, my folks used to live here. They live a state over now.” I tried to turn and look over my shoulder at the elevator. As much as I wanted to like the guy, I wasn’t here to spend time with Kyle.

“Sorry about disappearing on you, by the way. We got a little too into the costuming and, then, you know, school stuff.”

Getting the knot in my thigh to calm down, I turned and leaned back in the seat.
Still no Rose.
I’d figured that something like that had happened, but somehow, hearing one of them say it was reassuring. “No problem. School kinda swamped me, too. At least your time was well spent. Y’alls costumes look awesome.”

“Rose did most of the designs, you know. Janis took care of the paint, and I, well, I just sewed a lot.”

I looked over at him, confused. Why would he sew the costumes together? Not that I hadn’t learned a thing or two about it while crafting my costume.

Kyle chuckled and took a swig of his drink. “I forgot we hadn’t gotten that far in the intros. We’re all in the Art and Design School with Rose. That’s how we met, Intro to Art and Design. Janis is into painting and all the abstract stuff. I am trying out fashion design, for now anyway.”

So, they were all creative types; no wonder I got along with them so well. Though, I don’t think I would’ve ever pegged Kyle for a fashion design guy. He did seem a bit more put together than most, which was about as much design knowledge as I had. Still, it was nice to meet some similarly minded people in game; most that raided that were either in high school or cooling off from a forty-hour workweek.

“That’s really cool, man. It must’ve been like a whole other project, though, to pile onto your—”

“Well, well, well. You two clean up nice,” a familiar voice piped in.

Kyle rolled his eyes and lifted his chin to indicate the source of the voice. Looking over my shoulder, I spotted Rose walking up in a sexy outfit of high heels, jeans, some sort of shiny shirt. It was all rounded out with a black leather jacket. She’d remembered my weakness for leather; I was in so much trouble.

“Decide to take your monthly shower, Kyle?”

“Well, I didn’t want to scare away your boyfriend with my end of month stink. The armor could only hold back the horror for so long.”

It was too good to pass up. I turned back to Kyle and shook my head. “Now why would you go and do a foolish thing like that?”

“What?” He blinked at me a few times.

“How are we supposed to find you in a crowd if we can’t follow the stench?” I said, letting a grin spread across my face.

I avoided the slosh of whiskey that spilled out of Kyle’s cup as he clapped me on the shoulder, laughing. “Yep, we are definitely going to get along.”

The sound of heels clicking against the tiled floor drew my attention back to where Rose had been standing. For some reason, she was walking back toward the elevators. Maybe she was ready to go. Trying to follow after her, I stood and knocked Kyle’s hand that had been resting on my shoulder.

“Hey, man. What’re you doing?”

Across the lobby, Janis stepped out of the elevator and struck a few poses for Rose. They spoke for a moment, then walked arm in arm back over to us. Feeling like an idiot, I tried to come up with a reason for my sudden need to stand. A waiter carrying a small tray of drinks stopped at a table not far from where we were sitting. I’d catch his attention.

“The beer gods have answered my prayers,” I spoke over my shoulder as I waved the waiter over.

“Well, next time don’t use my whiskey as the sacrifice,” Kyle said as he shook the spilled liquor off his hand.

Muttering an apology, I tried again to get the waiter’s attention. He seemed to be looking everywhere but at me. My plan to play it cool was failing. Heels clicked up beside me, and I looked over to see Rose, with Janis in tow, shaking her head. She put a hand on my raised arm and pulled it down.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll all get drinks at the bar before we hit the first party.”

“First party?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. I was trying not to smile like a dope at the fact that she still hadn’t moved her hand.

“Yep. I have a list. There are three parties I want to check out, two concerts, and lots of smaller stuff. So let’s go.”

Rose slid her hand down into mine and led me over to the bar. We both ordered with our fingers still intertwined. She let go to grab her drink, an extra dirty martini. Well, that was one drink preference down. Maybe at the next bar I’d surprise her and order a drink for her. Rose pressed closer into my side, her lean curves sending all my blood south. I took a long drink of my beer as soon as it hit the bar. Being this close to her was making it hard to keep up casual conversation.

Someone bumped my arm, and I had to break contact with her to avoid spilling what was left of my beer all over her jacket.

“Hey, watch it,” I called out as I brushed the beer off with a napkin from the bar. My shirt was definitely stained.

“Damn it.” Rose shook her arm.
Frack.
I hadn’t been quick enough. “I’m going to go clean this off.”

“I’ll come with you. It looks like you got some on your back, too,” Janis said, then led the way to the bathroom. Rose groaned out her frustration as she followed.

We’d been in the bar for ten minutes, and I’d ruined another shirt, not to mention pissed off a girl I wanted to like me. I grabbed another bunch of napkins and wiped at the mess on my shirt. To no avail, unfortunately, the stain was as good as it was going to get. This person better have a great fracking apology.