Filed to story: Outplayed Story (Brooklyn & Ethan) Book PDF Free
‘Well, I’ll be coming in at half seven this whole week, so if you want to join me for a porridge fest tomorrow morning, you’re more than welcome.’
She glanced at her watch and sighed. ‘I’d better get back to work.’
‘Working on your pitches?’
Brook nodded, wearily. ‘Plus, I’m still putting together my slides for my presentation in two weeks’ time. I keep moving stuff around.’
‘I’d be happy to take a look at it for you, if it would help,’ he said.
‘That’s very kind, but you’re doing so much already. I couldn’t possibly-‘
‘I don’t mind,’ said Ethan.
‘But you just said you were busy enough that you had to come in early.’
Damn. He stared at her, frantically thinking of a way out. ‘It would … be nice to think about something else from time to time, just for a change.’
Her expression changed for a second; she looked worried. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I can see that.’When Ethan got back to the office, Pete was there. To Ethan’s surprise, he could see a SyrenQuest gameplay on the screen. Pete seemed to be watching one of last night’s games at triple speed. He leaned forward to see which team it was. Pete noticed him, started, and closed the browser.
‘Sorry, boss. I was just checking how my guys were doing on SyrenQuest.’
Ethan noticed that his satchel, which he’d thrown under his desk when he came in, had flopped open. The post, which he’d shoved into it on the way out of his apartment, was peeping out. He reached down and flipped the bag shut before he sat down. ‘Your guys?’
‘From the sweepstake.’ Pete gestured in the direction of the office opposite.
‘Oh yes. The sweepstake.’ Ethan himself had drawn FlickNife’s team in the sweepstake. Flick had been highly amused when he told her. ‘I should see how my team is getting on, too.’
The recordings had gone up on Syren’s website last night as soon as all the players finished. He had meant to look at a few of the other people’s plays to see if he could learn something that would be tactically useful, but by the time he’d done a short commentary for his YouTube channel, he had been too exhausted to do anything but collapse into bed and dream of murder sloths.
‘Who’d you get in the sweepstake again?’ asked Pete.
‘FlickNife. Who did you get?’ Flick’s newbie partner was 19 and very good. It was no surprise that they had got through with one of the shorter times.
‘Blaze and Bravura,’ said Pete.
Ethan had to work hard not to let anything show on his face. ‘Was that them you’re watching?’
‘No. I watched them last night. This is KingDangerous. I wanted to see how different they were.’
This was what he had been planning to do – though for other reasons. ‘Found anything?’
Pete made a face. ‘As far I can tell,’ he said, ‘the world starts off roughly the same, but different decisions give the teams different obstacles. They’re all looking for this key and no one knows whether they’re close to it or far away.’
Ethan nodded. He’d wondered about that last night. ‘That’s interesting. Some sort of branching that changes components as it builds …’
They both looked longingly at Pete’s screen, where the browser window had been.
‘We could check out some of the replays at lunchtime?’ said Pete.
That was a good idea. He had to eat. May as well watch something while he did. He would just have to be careful not to reveal how much he knew about the game. But if he were able to watch some plays with Pete, it would speed things up a bit. He had chatted to a few of his gaming friends. They didn’t have anything new to say about the game, apart from observing that each team seemed to be playing a slightly different version.
‘Lunchtime, yes. That’s a good idea,’ he said. ‘In the meantime, we have work to do.’Brook’s stomach rumbled. She looked at the clock on her computer screen. Lunchtime. Since she’d had breakfast extra early, she was famished. Her back felt stiff. It was probably time to take a break anyway. She stood up and stretched.
It had been a pretty productive morning. All the information and photos that she needed for her presentation for Boutique Belvoir were in one place. She’d written out what she wanted to say. Now she needed to put it into slides. She had two weeks before the presentation, but she was going to the SyrenCon the weekend before, so she wanted to be sure that everything was ready in good time.
She grabbed her bag and headed down to the cafeteria.
Kim was at her desk. ‘Afternoon, Brook,’ she said. ‘What’s the bag today?’
Brook removed the small, underarm bag and showed it to Kim.
‘Late Nineties Calvin Klein?’ said Kim. She turned it round in her hands. ‘Doesn’t hold an awful lot, does it?’
‘Not really,’ said Brook. ‘Just the basics. I wanted to check if the insert works with them. It does.’ She opened the bag and showed her the inner bag, which contained her purse, phone, lipstick, tissues, and a pack of paracetamol. The contents of the Shanthi bag were slightly mushed together, but it still fit.
Kim nodded, thoughtfully. ‘How many bags do you have?’
‘Sixty. Mostly my mum’s – hence the Nineties-heavy collection. That was when she had the most money and the most inclination to spend on bags.’
‘I think it’s lovely that you’re keeping her collection in circulation.’ Kim zipped the bag up and turned it over in her hands again. ‘Didn’t see you come in today, Brook,’ she said, her tone overly casual.
‘I came in early.’
‘Hmm.’ Kim passed the bag back. ‘You know who else came in early? Ethan.’
‘I know,’ Brook said, without thinking.
Kim’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Seriously, what’s going on with you two? You’re both keeping weird hours. You both look exhausted …’
‘I saw him in the breakfast queue. Nothing is going on,’ said Brook. ‘Stop stirring.’
‘He obviously likes you.’
Brook shook her head. ‘I won’t even ask why you think that. You’re going to say something stupid like, “It’s obvious”.’