Page 49 of Level Up

I gave a loud belly laugh at that. “You’re so dumb.”

And I love it.

It was still relatively early—only eight o’clock with the sun having recently set—so we didn’t have to wait in any lines. We walked down the slightly faded red carpet and gave our IDs to the leather jacket-wearing bouncer, getting a stamp on the back of our hands and walking into the dimly lit entrance. There was a bar directly ahead, backlit by deep red lights. The shirtless and hairy bartender shot us a wink as we approached. I got myself a vodka pineapple, and Ryan got himself a beer.

Of course. “You’re such a bro,” I said as we walked over to a standing table pushed against a window. There was loud music playing and the smell of cigarettes coming in from an open door that led out to the patio.

“You don’t like beer?”

“Not really, unless it’s like an IPA.”

“Try this one, then.” He slid the bottle to me. I picked it up and took a sip. Surprisingly, it was good. I checked out the bright orange label.

“Okay, fine, you have good taste.”

“Obviously. I like you, don’t I?” My cheeks got all hot. I gave him a wink and handed him his beer. Our fingertips touched, sending tiny little bolts of electricity shooting through my hand, past my wrist, up my arm. I could trail the sensation all the way straight to my heart. I took a chug of my drink.

“This was a good idea,” Ryan said. He leaned on the high-top table, his forearms looking delicious. He wore a dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up. A silver Cartier bracelet shone on his wrist. “I needed it after today.” That’s right. The fight with his dad. He hadn’t really talked much about it, but it was obvious he was thinking about it.

I decided to try my luck again. “Want to talk about it?”

He rolled his head, exposing his neck. Gah damn he was hot. I really wanted to kiss that spot between his jaw and throat.

“It’s okay if you don’t,” I quickly added. “I don’t want to pry or anything.”

“You can never pry, trust. It’s… I dunno, it really surprised me. My dad and I always got along. I know he’s done things that are shitty, but he was never a shitty father. I could genuinely say that. So him kicking me out of his office today really fucking sucked.”

I reached over and rubbed Ryan’s shoulder. He was normally such a smiley guy. I’d seen him frustrated over tests for his classes or exhausted as hell from rowing practice, and yet he always managed to wear a smile. I wasn’t sure where he got the endless well of positivity from, but I loved that about him.

Seeing him this tight-lipped and stern-faced made it clear that this really affected him.

“What was the fight about?” I asked.

He took a big gulp of beer. His emerald eyes drifted over to the television hanging in the corner. It played a mix of music videos from the early 2000s. “I love the Gorillaz,” he said.

Damn.

So he wasn’t going to open up to me. I stuffed away the sting of disappointment. That was fine. He didn’t owe me any kind of information, whether we’d been dating for a few hours or a few years. I was happy to give him his space.

“So did I,” I said, looking at the music video. “They’re a great band.”

“You know them?”

“Duh,” I said. “I’m a theater gay. I know almost every band in existence.”

Ryan chuckled at that. “They had a song in one of the first video games I was ever obsessed with. It’s what got me into gaming, actually. Made me really love video games as an art form. I thought it was so impressive how you can blend so many different aspects of art using code in a computer. There’s so much storytelling involved.”

There was that smile of his. It lured me in like a moth to a campfire. I leaned closer to him, fascinated by this side of him.

“Why didn’t you go into game development?”

“That’s what the fight was about. He wanted to bring me onto the—onto a project he’s working on. I told him no. And I told him how I didn’t want to follow in his footsteps. I wanted to follow my passion instead. He basically called me a failure and told me to get out.”

The split of emotions I was hit with was severe.

On the one hand, I was proud as hell to hear Ryan trying to forge his own path, and on the other, I felt sad for the pain it clearly caused him. “I’m so sorry,” I said, reaching out for him. He looped a thumb around mine. “That’s so shitty. You don’t deserve that kind of treatment, and I know it hurts so much more coming from your own father.”

“It does. It sucks. And it doesn’t help that I’ve been stuck on the same concept for a game since last year. I feel like I’m failing my dad and myself, and that shit sucks.”

---