Page 41 of Return on Love

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The entire week just flies by. Everyone has been working for hours in office and then again at home. I’ve had a look at the characters of the game. They’re still modifying the world and coding out a part of the storyline. Ryan ensures he drops me and doesn’t stay on for even a minute after I reach the apartment building. We’ve pretty much been avoiding each other as much as possible.

“I have a strong feeling that this is gonna be the best RPG out there,” Steve says when we all meet on Friday evening for an all-hands. He looks at me. “I mean Role Playing Game.”

I shake my head. “I know what RPG is. Don’t take me to be a novice. I might just beat your ass up in a game.”

“Ooooh,” the rest of the team goes on. I see Ryan standing in front of the room. He lifts his eyebrows and smiles. His smile is almost a constant with me now. I wonder how I didn’t see it before.

“You think you can beat me?” Steve goes on. “Challenge accepted. When d’ya want to do it?”

“Now. Unless you’re scared.”

Another ooooh fills up the room.

“Sure missy. I’ll go easy on you, don’t worry.”

“Beat his ass, Eva.” I hear Nora’s voice from the back of the room. “Women power. Women rule!”

I give her a thumbs-up and follow Steve into the game room. The room is tiny, but everyone tries to find a place to squeeze inside. We play Moore. Hah! He doesn’t know how good I am! Plus, he’s overconfident. Though that’s not gonna last.

He goes easy on me and in round one I beat him. “You took advantage of me. You said you weren’t good,” he cries out as his own team boos him.

“I never said that. You assumed and so you made an ass of you and... well not me.”

The second round is tougher, but I win again. I can see I’ve earned the respect of the entire team. But I have another ace up my sleeve. Few people use this technique. In the third round, I don’t attack him; I run away. “You’re scared, missy?” He says, all excited, thinking he has an advantage. How I hate this ‘missy’ word. I don’t think he’ll be using it for me again after today.

As I run over the mountain, he understands what I’m about to do.

“No, you don’t. How do you know that? Barely anyone knows this.”

There’s a diamond, and with that I get a diamond armor and a diamond bullet. The next second, he’s dead, as his avatar bursts into a million pieces on the screen.

“Take that! Who’s missy now?” I scream, jumping up and doing a winning dance.

“GG,” he says, standing up and shaking my hand. “You’re good, Eva. Not many people can defeat me.”

There are rounds of back thumping as if I’m one of them—the first time in any office that I feel like I belong. I look around to see Ryan’s face, but he’s gone. I check my phone.

There’s a message from him. “Come to my office when you beat the shit out of Steve. Call with Weber. I don't want to reveal anything to him just yet.” I smile. He knew I’d beat Steve. He believed in me! Other than Bernard, he’s probably the only one. Lily doesn’t count. Her trust and faith in me come from love.

I leave the room, promising everyone a round of beers at the nearby pub after the call. Ryan is looking a little tensed as I enter. He puts a finger on his lips as I take a seat, then writes on a sheet and turns it to me. “He thinks you’re not here.”

Okay, so today I’ll get to see Weber playing behind my back, except that I’m playing his own game against him now. A wave of excitement runs through me. This is my first time doing something like this.

“I’ll send you the revised financials tomorrow,” Weber says. Ryan has put him on speaker.

“Great. Eva and I will look into it on Monday,” says Gabriel. He’s probably logged in from his own office.

“Well, you might wanna reconsider that. I mean, not to speak anything against her, but one of her clients is having some sort of trouble. So she might not be the best person to help you. And I’ve already looked into the numbers. They’re good to go.”

“Sure,” cuts in Ryan, before Gabriel can speak up. “You’re the boss.”

“Yeah,” Weber replies, a little smugness clear in his tone. “You send me the screenshots of the updated game and the presentation by the end of next week.”

“So, what do you think, Weber? Does MooreGames have a chance of getting the funding?”

“Well, it’s not really up to me. It’s all the partners and senior partners, you see. But you have a fighting chance. I know Eva has been of little help because she lacks industry knowledge. I can give you a discount on the consulting fees if it comes to that.”

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