I Heart Geeks (20 page)

“Hey, lovebirds! Where have you been?” Kyle waved from down the hall, waggling his eyebrows in a ridiculous fashion.

I mean, I could see it twenty feet away. If I can see the movement of his eyebrows from twenty feet away, how stupid must he look up close? Now, he was making kissy faces.
Mature, and really helpful, Kyle. Thanks
. At least Janis was acting like a normal human being. She just waved us over and smiled as we walked up.

“So while you two were taking your time, we whittled the choices down to gaming or gaming, since that’s really the only one that we all know something about. It’s that or split up.” Janis pointed to the schedule board as she spoke. “Either way, gaming trivia is in room three twenty-three.”

“I vote we split up,” Rose said. “The rooms are close enough that it’s not like we’ll lose each other. And the point of all this is to have fun. Let’s just go do whichever we want and agree on a time to move on to the next event, okay?” She ran her hand down my arm and then intertwined our fingers. She had to snap a couple times with the other hand to keep Kyle’s attention.

“How about”—Janis fished out her phone, keying in her passcode—“one o’clock? That should be enough time to enjoy a few rounds and still give us plenty of time to get to other stuff before the LAN party.”

“Great. See you losers later. I’ll be in the best trivia room if you need me,” Kyle said. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what he said. Waving an unsteady hand, he turned and ran into the doorframe. Poor guy; he was gonna have a rough day tomorrow.

“All right, well, I’ll head that way, too. Kyle seems like he might need some help,” Janis said as she hooked her arm around Kyle’s elbow. Before she walked away, she shot Rose a conspirator’s wink. Kyle gave me a not-so-subtle thumbs up.

Maybe I was reading too much into their drunken antics. It was none of my business, but then again, whatever had happened was weird. As soon as they turned off into their room, I leaned down to whisper in Rose’s ear. “Are they—”

“It’s complicated. Well, it’s not that complicated really. They’re just doofuses when it comes to each other. For some reason, they can’t make their minds up about their ‘romantic status.’” She actually air quoted the status thing. “Honestly, it makes so little sense that I can’t even explain it to you. Come on, let’s go kick some Whedon rookie ass.” Rose put her arm across my back, and we walked down the hall together.

Just outside the door, I grabbed her hand. We were alone and there was no excuse not to confess. “Rose.”

“Hmm.” She looked up at me and smiled. I swallowed and stared at the wall just above her head.

“Before, that thing I needed to tell you—”

Someone bolted out of the room, knocking Rose into me. The culprit stumbled as he ran down the hall. At the first trash can he ripped off the lid and threw up. When I looked back into the room another guy stood in the doorway, swaying on his feet.

“Y’all here for trivia?” He cocked his thumb back over his shoulder. “’Cause there’s a spot open.” Patting me on my free arm, he pushed past us and went after his friend.

I stared after them. Unbelievable. The universe hated me. There was no other explanation.

Rose giggled into my chest, then stood back up and waved an arm at the door. “Shall we?”

I couldn’t do anything but nod as he pulled me into the room.

Volunteers handed us a concoction they claimed to be Mudder’s Milk as soon as we walked in. Trivia was well under way, and plenty drunk. Everyone had split into teams, so we found our seats, and formed our own. The ringleader told us that we could join in the next round of competition. That left us about five, maybe ten, minutes to settle on a name and decide who was sober enough to take secretarial duties.

An hour later, three Mudder’s Milks and two graphic novels signed by Zack Whedon under our belts, I hurriedly scribbled our name across the slip of paper for yet another final round. The big one this time. Most of the good names were taken, so we’d settled on Sudden but Inevitable Winners. Corny, but I still snickered as I wrote it down for the umpteenth time. Rose whispered the answers to me rapid fire. I had no idea how she was still so quick. She’d had as many drinks as me.

This round was for the grand prize, a collection of photographs of the casts from
Firefly
,
Avengers
,
Dollhouse
, and
Dr. Horrible
. All signed by every actor in the photo and the man himself, Joss Whedon. They were worth hundreds, easily, probably more. I had no idea how in the world they’d gotten such nice prizes for a small event, but I was not complaining.

When time was up, I walked our answers up to the front, knocking into three people this time. That was the hardest part of the competition: no entries would be accepted unless the most sloshed person in the group walked it up and made it back to their seat without falling down.

“Do you think we got it?” Rose pulled me down into my seat and leaned up against my shoulder.

“I hope so. Did you see the prizes?” I put an arm around her and fiddled with her hair.

As she leaned into me, I hugged her tighter. She let her face rest on my chest and grabbed my free hand. This was so easy. She’d been right about not being so wound up. At this point I couldn’t even remember what I’d been so upset about in the first place. Stressed as per usual. Her grip tightened around my hand as the announcer stepped away from the judges and faced the tables again.

“By one bonus question, the grand prize winner is, appropriately, Sudden but Inevitable Winners!”

We won!
Holy frack, we won
. I jumped out of my seat and punched a hand in the air. Next to me, Rose was jumping up and down, her cheeks rosy from drinking and her hair tussled from where I’d been playing with it.
Gods, she was beautiful
. Lights from the ceiling shone in her bright green eyes. Her pink lips spread into the widest smile I’d seen all night. I could kiss her right now.

Her eyes shifted to meet mine, and she jumped up, grabbing onto my shoulders and wrapping her legs around my waist. And she kissed me. Our lips smashed together with all the anticipation of the previous year. My fingers curled into her hair, cupping the back of her head as I wrapped the other arm around her waist.

It was heaven, perfect. Her scent was intoxicating, like flowers and beer and pure lust. The small of her back felt firm under my hand, as I slid it up and down the deep curves of her waist. Every time we moved our heads, she let out a quiet whimper. All I could feel and breathe and taste was her. Then I heard the catcalls and whooping. I broke away from our kiss and looked around the room.

“You both seem to have your hands full. So, we’ll just have these sent to your rooms then, yes? Sometime tomorrow morning?” The announcer asked, probably not for the first time.

“Sure, um, Dean Flynn, in seven fourteen,” I answered, clearing my throat.

“Seven fourteen, huh? I think we should be delivering ourselves there immediately.” Rose kissed my nose as her eyes glittered and she tightened her legs around my waist. Loosening my grip on her back, I waited a moment, but she made no move to get down. I carried her like that all the way to the elevator and up to my room, alternately kissing and looking where I was walking. The door to my room couldn’t open fast enough.

Our clothes peeled off piece by piece, as we moved our focus down each other’s bodies. I reveled in her, strong and soft, with succulent curves. My hands wandered, exploring every inch of her, lingering when it earned me a groan of pleasure from her. And she was no meek participant. Her mouth and hands and hips licked and stroked and rubbed until they found every avenue of my pleasure.

Once we had removed every scrap of clothing but her heels, she reached back into her clothes and pulled out a condom. Winking at me, she pushed me back onto the bed.
Gods, she was good at this
. The moment my head hit the bed, she took over. And I was one hundred percent behind that. Sex with her was not a spectator sport. We moved easily with each other, alternately taking control when one wanted something the other wasn’t familiar with. She made me stupid with pleasure. And I made her scream with hers, several times. It was the best sex I’d ever had. Hell, it was the most fun I’d ever had with sex, ever.

Rose’s heart beat against my side while she ran her finger back and forth across my chest. As I lay there, stroking her hair and rubbing my hand up and down her arm, I knew. Beyond any doubt, I knew that this woman was going to be the death of me. Either I was going to die of sheer and utter contentment with her, or of a disappointing life without her. I was hoping for the former.
Gods curse me, I love her
.

Rose stretched and yawned, letting out a satisfied groan. Rolling over, she kissed up my abs to my chest, ending with a small kiss on the tip of my nose.

“Alright, big guy, as much as I hate to say this, we better get going. We have to meet the others, and it’s one fifteen already. We got a little caught up.” She winked at me and then pushed herself up off of bed. Humming to herself, she grabbed her clothes, walked into the bathroom, and closed the door. After a moment, I heard the shower running.

Rubbing a hand across my face, I tried to convince myself that I didn’t hate her friends for making us get out of bed.
Stupid other people and their needing of things
. I grabbed a towel off the chair to clean up. I wasn’t sure if we were quite to the point where shower sharing was okay. She hadn’t invited me in. I threw my own clothes back on, except for the stained polo that I replaced with a nicer t-shirt.

I sat down in one of the room chairs when there was a knock at the door. Probably the contest prizes. A little early, but there wasn’t a reason for anyone else to be here this late. Hefting myself up, I walked back across the room, checking my hair in the mirror as I went. When I opened the door, a GameCon coordinator, according to his nametag, stood outside.

He held up a large canvas bag as he read out from a piece of paper. “I have your trivia prize, umm, Dean Flynn.”

“Yeah, thanks, man,” I said as I reached out to take the bag from him.

“Wait, Dean Flynn. I know that name for some reason.” He stood there squinting at me still holding onto the bag.

“Well, it’s kind of a common name, I guess.” Again I held out my hand for the bag.

“No, wait, I remember. You entered a short story competition, right? I’m one of the people that helped sift through the entries for the finalists. Yours is the one about the thief, um, Veridiana Stern. It was really good. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s one of the top three contenders.” He smiled and finally handed over the bag. “Well, good luck tomorrow.”

I closed the door as soon as he turned and rested my head against the door when it clicked shut. Of all the people to deliver this bag, it had to be someone who knew about the contest. The world was not that
fracking
small. Placing the bag in the corner by the door, I admonished myself for forgetting again. At this point, it was ridiculous that I hadn’t told her. It was lucky for me that Rose was still in the shower so I would still have the chance to tell her myself.

The room was quiet. Closing my eyes, I listened for the water running in the bathroom. Nothing.
Oh, frack
. Taking a deep breath, I turned around slowly and found myself staring at a
very
angry Rose.

“You wrote a story about my character and entered it into a contest?” She waved a hand back and forth. “No, let me rephrase that. You wrote about me without even talking to me about it, and then entered it into a contest, again without talking to me, at a conference that we would both be attending?”

I watched her start to pace back and forth in front of me, her hair dripping water down the back of her shirt. She stopped and pointed a finger at me. “You didn’t think that, maybe, just maybe, that might be something you’d want to share with me? Instead I get to hear it from a complete stranger,” she yelled.

Finally recovering, I put tried to plead my case. “It was an accident—”

“How do you write about someone and submit said story to a contest, accidentally?” Her voice grew louder with each word.

“My professor submitted it without my say so, I swear. And I just forgot to take out the names. I’m sorry,” I said, raising my hands out in front of me.

“Say I believe you,” Rose spoke quietly this time, though her arms were now crossed over her chest.
Not good
. “Even if it was a strange series of circumstances outside your control, you should’ve told me as soon as you found out. I trusted you, and, more importantly, I thought you trusted me.”

“Rose, I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t figure out how to tell you without making you angry.” As soon as I said it, I knew it was the exact wrong thing to say. I wiped my sweaty palms against my jeans.

“Oh, I see,” she spoke at almost a whisper.
Oh frack me
. “So you think that I am so small-minded and petty that I couldn’t understand the situation. That I couldn’t appreciate the level of opportunity winning a contest like this might present for you.”

Snatching up her jacket, she moved toward the door. Like a jerk, I blocked her way with my body.

“No, not at all, Rose. I’m—” I was begging, now.

“Yes, I know you’re sorry, but, you know, that doesn’t really fix it, Dean. Meeting you tonight was great. All of it was perfect, and I want to remember it that way. So why don’t you let me leave before one of us does it any more damage?” Her eyes softened when she looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. “Listen, I don’t want to ruin everyone else’s night, so still show up to the LAN meetup. Now, please get out of my way.”

“Rose, please.”

Her anger fell back over her face like a mask as she clenched her fists by her sides. “No, Dean, we’re done.”

Wait, what?
I felt my stomach spasm.

“Now move.”

I racked my brain for something to say. Nothing. What could I say to change her mind? She was right to be pissed. But this? This was ridiculous. A part of me itched to point out that she was getting mad whether she felt righteous about it or not. Clenching my fists, I rigidly stepped aside. She stormed out without so much as a second glance.