Page 40 of Second Down Fake

She grinned, standing up. “Good point. As long as I’m special, I’m in.”

I followed her to the front door, unlocking and standing aside. Cassandra didn’t wait for the guided tour. She tore through the ground floor, remarking on the faucet by the oven, the breakfast nook, and the dining room that seated twelve.

“What’s in the basement?” Cassandra asked, standing in the hallway with her exploration of the ground floor complete. Her hand rested on the banister, flitting toward the upstairs before resting on downstairs.

I hesitated. The women who’d been to my house before preferred the showroom ready upper floors of the house. They viewed the basement with its ratty college furniture and obvious bachelor vibes as a project, a place to plant the flag of a committed relationship.

“Just computer stuff.”

“Computer stuff…” Cassandra pursed her lips. “That’s pretty vague. Sex dungeon?”

I barked out a laugh before composing myself. “No, that’s upstairs, of course.”

She turned, leaning against the banister. “Of course? What kind of crappy sex dungeon is above ground?”

“My interior designer said basement sex dungeons were passé. All the celebs have a sex spare bedroom now, next to the master.”

“Well, far be it from me to pretend I know the latest in sex dungeon trends,” she said with a lifted eyebrow. “Can I go see?”

“The second-floor sex dungeon?”

Blotches of red bloomed on her cheeks. “No. I meant the basement.”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

I wiped my damp hands on my pants as she went downstairs and reminded myself this was Cassandra.

“What is this?” Cassandra reached the bottom step, and her jaw dropped. I winced, pausing halfway down the stairs and waiting for…a laugh, a joke. “This is amazing!”

“You think?”

She made her way to the pinball machine in the far corner, touching the glass before fluttering over to the Pac-Mac arcade game. “We’re playing this. All of these. I might never leave your basement.”

“Better than a sex dungeon?”

“Please tell me you have an N64.” She flitted away from the arcade games and toward the projector screen against the far wall.

“I have pretty much every game system ever created. Genesis, Atari, Teleco, Odyssey.”

She crouched down to view the row of consoles just below the screen. “I don’t know what half those are, but if you have a PlayStation, I’ve got some chocobo breeding to attend to for the foreseeable future.”

“Final Fantasy?” I asked, surprised. “You strike me as a Mario Party girl.”

She grinned. “My dad got a PlayStation when Bec and I were kids and the only game we had was Final Fantasy VII. Becca always wanted to go on missions, but I just wanted to breed a golden chocobo.”

I laughed and opened the game cabinet. “I have Final Fantasy VII. Isn’t that console a little old for you?”

Cassandra waved a hand. “Probably. We were always three consoles behind. We even had an Atari gathering dust in the kids’ room for a while.”

“I owned a Super Nintendo. It was out of date and the games sucked compared to my friend’s consoles, but Mom couldn’t afford anything nicer.”

“Does she live around here?” Cassandra stood up from the ground, turning to face me.

“No. I’ve tried to convince her to move to Virginia, but she’s been in Mississippi all her life. She’s got a husband and a job. Besides, I haven’t lived at home for years.” I busied myself with searching for the game, distracting myself.

“For years?”

“After eighth grade, I went to boarding school.” I pulled out the game, and Cassandra’s eyes lit up as I placed it into the console.

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