Page 299 of Well Played

“Cheater!” he yelled, leaning forward in his seat. “We never said we could use shortcuts!”

“Never said we couldn’t either,” she replied, her toon catching more air. “Hey, hey, pay attention to your boy,” she growled as Nando’s toon ran into hers, sending them both to the snow. Lila recovered faster and quickly retook the lead. The end of the course was in sight, and Nando felt the rush he usually felt during his ball games. He felt nervous and excited at the same time.

There was no way he’d beat her on this run. But he wasn’t disappointed if he was honest. It had been a while since he’d had this much fun and felt this at ease with a woman. And he liked it.

The crowd noise from the finish line roared out of her entertainment center speakers. Lila shouted, “YEAH!” and slapped her leg, grinning widely. Nando started laughing, her joy contagious.

“Hey, best two out of three,” he teased.

“Nah, poser. I’ll race you again, but you still owe me dinner.”

Nando nodded. “Ok,” he agreed. “But I demand a rematch.”

Lila set her controller on the couch with a smirk. Then she took the plates into the kitchen and brought back dessert. “First cream puffs, then rematch.”

Nando put down his controller. “You’re really good. I thought you said your games were mostly RPGs.”

“They are,” she replied. “But back in school, I wrote game reviews, so I played all kinds of games. This was one of the few non-RPGs I really liked.”

“What other games made the cut?”

“Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, Celebrity Deathmatch, Street Fighter…”

“Now we’re talking. I love fighting games. Do you have Darkstalkers?”

“Dude,” she drawled, standing and walking over to the shelf. “Disk or download?”

He set his cream puff aside and wiped his hands on his jeans before picking up the controller again. “Your choice, but I get Jedah.”

She snorted, taking the disk case from the shelf. “You can have that loser.”

“Let me guess, you play Morrigan.”

“Please,” she huffed. “Anakaris all the way.”

Setting the game up, they finished off their desserts and trash talked a bit more before starting it up. She seemed impressed with his knowledge of the character moves, and when she lost the first round, she shifted in her seat, ready to play again.

The second round when to Lila, when Nando slipped up, allowing Lila to send a mummy drop out to win the round. The final round went long as well and when the time ran out, the match was a draw. Nando started laughing, Lila quickly joining in.

“You weren’t lying,” she said. “You’re good with fighting games.”

“They’re my favorite.” He smirked then. “We still play them in the clubhouse before games.”

Her jaw dropped and she growled, “And you call me a cheater!”

Nando laughed. “You never asked if I still play them.”

She shook her head as she brought up the player select screen. “One more for the night?”

He nodded, moving his cursor around the screen. “Calling it early?” he mused.

She rolled her head from side to side. “Have to. I have work tomorrow morning.”

Nando was instantly apologetic. “Shoot, I’m sorry, Lila. I can go now.”

“No, no,” she protested. “Once more match. Loser buys pizza for game night tomorrow.”

Her tentative grin made him feel a little giddy, like he was back in high school, flirting with the head cheerleader. “Ok, but one of these nights we play ‘til at least midnight. And this Saturday, you need to decide where I’m taking you to dinner.”

---