Page 21 of Late Nights

He pushed off his headphones, exposing one of his ears so he could hear me. “Call of Duty.”

I chewed my bite of cereal, swallowing before I spoke. “I’ve never really seen the appeal of video games.”

He chanced a glance at me before looking back at the screen. “Have you ever played before?”

“Not really,” I hesitantly admitted.

He walked over to the TV stand, pulling out another controller and bringing it back with him to the couch.

“Come here.” He patted the cushion next to him.

I set down my half-eaten bowl of cereal on the end table and joined him on the other couch.

He handed me the controller. “You can’t make a fair judgment about video games until you give it a try.”

I looked up into his blue eyes and was surprised to see an openness there I hadn’t seen before. He was trying to hang out with me, be friends, maybe let me in just a little.

“Now, use this button,” he said, pointing to one of the buttons on the top, “to aim. And use the other one to shoot.”

He continued to point out what all the buttons were and what the swirly stick thing did. I tried to memorize each one—jump, crouch, move forward, move backward, look around, change your weapon—repeating them in my mind.

“It will take a few minutes to get used to,” he said. “But then you won’t even have to think about it. Your fingers will automatically know what to do.”

He joined a new game for us, explaining to me what to do, step by step. Our objective was to capture all the control points on the map. This game had three control points scattered around the area, with two teams working to dominate by changing the flags of the control points to their team color. Whoever had the flags their team color the longest during the timed session was the winner. Sounded simple enough.

Yeah, simple was not the right word for this game. Within the first ten minutes of playing, I’d died at least thirty times. I was pretty sure I was not our team MVP at the moment, but Cannon had muted the other players so we couldn’t hear what they were saying. Probably a good idea since I assumed they were cursing my name. I was definitely a weak link on the team, and by weak link I mean we were losing because of me.

During our second game, I went a little longer between dying and respawning, which shouldn’t have made me as happy as it did, but I was proud of myself for slowly getting better.

Sometime while we’d been playing, we’d slid closer together, our shoulders pressed together as we leaned back into the couch. The heat radiating off him and the smell of his cologne were enough to make me want to curl up in his lap. I refrained, though, since that would have been extremely awkward and inappropriate. Instead, I forced myself to keep my attention on the game and not on the sexy guy I wished I was cuddling with.

I aimed my gun at a guy on the other team and shot.

“I got him!” I yelled. “Did you see that? I totally killed that guy on my first shot.”

“I did see it. Nice job.”

I’d learned that I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for a second, otherwise I was dead, but I could hear the smile in his voice.

“I might have to take back what I said,” I admitted. “I’m surprised to say it, but I’m actually having fun.”

He nudged my arm. “See? Video games are more appealing than you thought.”

That, or the man I was playing video games with was extremely appealing.

“So if I wanted to play again, you’d let me?” I asked hesitantly.

“Anytime.” The low, smooth tone of his voice washed over my skin.

“Even though I’m awful and am more of a hindrance to the team than a capable, helpful teammate?” I chuckled.

“Yes,” he chuckled too, before adding quietly, “It’s nice having someone to play with.”

His voice was so low, I worried I’d misheard him. I looked over at him, surprised he’d said something so unlike him, so vulnerable. Cannon never acted like he needed anyone or cared that he was alone. But maybe there was some small part of him that longed for connection, for someone other than West to be in his life.

And then I died again.

“Dang it,” I exclaimed.

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