Filed to story: Outplayed Story (Brooklyn & Ethan) Book PDF Free
Did he have a point? Was she afraid of success? She couldn’t think about this without a decent sugar hit. There wasn’t a queue at the counter, so she went and got herself an almond croissant to eat while she thought.
Logically, what did success mean? It would mean getting a steady supply of orders for her bags. But for that to happen, she would need more people to know about her product, which meant more exposure … which would increase the chances of someone she knew finding out, so she would have to tell her parents. There was an alarming twist in her stomach. Brook lowered the last piece of almond croissant. Her heart rate sped up and her mouth felt dry. That wasn’t indigestion. That was panic. Holy crap. Ethan was right. She was afraid of success, sort of. Because then her father would find out.When lunchtime came round, Kyle and one of the other guys from the office opposite came in. In unspoken agreement, Ethan and Pete stopped work.
‘Er … guys, could we leave a seat free? I told Brook we’d be watching, she said she might come.’
‘Why leave her a spare seat if we’re not sure?’ said Kyle.
Pete rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, leave him alone. He has hope.’
‘Oh. You have a personal interest in the lovely Brook?’ said Kyle, grinning.
Ethan wanted to smack him. ‘She’s a friend,’ he said, tightly.
‘A friend you’d like some benefits with,’ said Kyle, waggling his eyebrows.
‘You know what, forget it. Take the chair. If she comes in, she can have my chair.’
There was a chorus of ‘oohs’ from the other guys.
‘Shut up, Kyle.’
There was further teasing, until Pete put FlickNife’s game up on the screen. A few minutes after the start, there was a quiet knock on the door. Ethan’s heart gave a little flip. Brook!
He stood up from his chair. In his haste, he caught his foot on the strap of his bag, tipping everything out onto the floor. He kicked it all back under the desk and offered her his chair. Behind Brook, Pete rolled his eyes heavenward and shook his head.
Brook gave him a sheepish little smile and sat down. ‘Who are we watching?’ she asked.
‘FlickNife and her newb,’ said Kyle, before anyone else could speak. ‘FlickNife is actually a woman. Not some guy in a female avatar. And in real life, she’s married to Phil_the_Vicar. So if they both get through to the final it’ll be husband against wife-‘
‘Yes, thank you, Kyle. I read the Wikipedia entry too,’ said Brook.
Ethan wanted to cheer. He was now a tiny bit more in love with Brook than before.
Kyle scowled. ‘Let’s just finish watching the video.’
They watched, with the guys occasionally commenting. It was clear to Ethan that their hunch about there being shortcuts at various points was correct. That was interesting to know. Was there a pattern to when the shortcuts occurred? They wouldn’t make it random, would they?
When they got to the end of Team FlickNife’s game, Pete searched for another game.
‘Who are you supporting, Brook?’ Pete asked.
Ethan wished he could be so laid-back around her. When he gave up his chair, he had perched against the meeting table. He leaned forward to hear her answer.
‘I’m not sure, really,’ she said. ‘I guess FlickNife or Bravura, since they’re the only women.’
‘FlickNife is the only woman pro-gamer involved in SyrenQuest,’ said Kyle. ‘In case you were wondering.’
Ethan rolled his eyes. Brook spotted it and smiled at him. The conspiratorial nature of it gave him a warm glow behind his sternum.
‘I should go,’ said Brook. She pushed the chair back.
‘Come join us tomorrow?’ said Pete.
‘Sure.’ She flushed slightly, pink creeping beneath the brown on her cheeks. ‘After talking to you guys, I’m getting into it … a bit.’
The sheepish expression on her face did strange things to Ethan’s chest. He knew that look. That was someone who was falling in love with gaming and didn’t want to admit it. He saw her to the door and waved her off. When Kyle left too, Ethan closed the door and stood there, staring into space. For a wild moment, he contemplated the idea of having a girlfriend who understood his gaming obsession. There had been a few in the past, but not many. The last time he’d had a girlfriend was at university. Once he’d started working, between getting the company started and keeping up the YouTube channel so that he could pay the rent, there hadn’t been much time for dating.
In the office, Pete was tidying up. ‘Man, I wish you’d hang your bag up like a normal person,’ he said. ‘It’s a health and safety hazard stuffed under your desk like that. Look. All your paperwork has fallen out. Seriously, Ethan. You should-‘
The sudden silence got Ethan’s attention. Pete straightened up, slowly, holding a thick envelope. The contents were half out of it. Right on the top was a compliments slip. From Syren.
Pete stared at the SyrenQuest logo. ‘Ethan. Why do you have a parcel from Syren?’
Ethan thought fast. ‘It’s just some information about the new headset. I thought I’d check it out after seeing the gameplays …’
The look Pete gave him was pure scepticism. He pulled the compliments slip out. ‘That’s a great excuse, except on here it says, “Hi Ethan. More fan mail for you this week. Michelle.”‘ He looked down at the handful of still sealed envelopes. ‘They’re addressed to Blaze.’ He stared down at them, as though he didn’t believe what he was seeing.
Damn. How could Ethan explain that? ‘I … erm … know him. So I was taking the fan mail to … give to him.’
Pete’s expression had taken on an almost pleading quality. Ethan sighed. He didn’t like lying. Hiding his alternate identity was fine. But lying outright felt very wrong. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I have no good explanation.’
‘That still isn’t helping, Ethan. Why are you getting fan mail sent to SyrenQuest? And addressed to Blaze?’ He looked down at the envelopes and shifted them in his hands.
Ethan reached forward and took the envelopes from him. ‘Would you believe I was his manager?’
Pete frowned. ‘I cannot imagine that, no. Besides, it still says “for you”. Not for your client.’
Ethan stuffed everything back into the envelope. ‘You can’t imagine that I could possibly be Blaze?’ Hopefully, that sounded too unbelievable that Pete would just laugh at him.
A range of expressions passed across Pete’s features in quick succession. Surprise, confusion, amazement, confusion again. He stared at Ethan for a moment, eyes narrowed. ‘Actually. Yes. I can. I mean, you’d have to be a hell of an actor, but … we never see him.’ He pointed to the envelope. ‘And it would explain that.’
Ethan picked up his bag and stuffed the offending envelope inside. This time he hung the bag up on the hook below his coat, partly to buy himself some time. He could tell Pete another lie, but Pete would always suspect. He would have to second-guess everything Pete said after that. He spent so much time with Pete that it would be exhausting. Besides, he could trust Pete, he was pretty sure of it. Bradley had known for years and never sold him out. And he was the sort who had his price.
He came to a decision. ‘Okay.’ He turned around. ‘Can you keep a secret?’