Page 11 of Now Streaming

“Liar. He was rubbing up against me before he ran into you, and now he won’t even look this way.”

“Did you want him to look this way?” Hayden’s voice went dark, a flicker of something in his eyes that Min couldn’t identify.

“Of course not.”

Hayden’s shoulders relaxed, almost imperceptibly. But Min was staring at him, tracking every movement no matter how small, so she saw. And wondered.

Hayden went back to trying to ignore her. “Then what do you care that he wanted to switch seats?”

“I don’t care about that. I care that you’re lying to me.”

Finally, Hayden turned to her, his eyes burning as they met hers, and Min was suddenly overwhelmed with how much space he took up, how he encompassed everything.

“What do you want to hear, Minerva?” he asked, his voice soft. “That I followed him to the cafe car? That I told him if he didn’t keep his fucking hands off you for the rest of the ride that I’d make sure he would never be able to use them again? That if he didn’t find another seat, and quickly, that I would not hesitate to completely destroy his entire life piece by piece?”

She was breathless, staring at him, their eyes clashing with an electric pulse that hadn’t been present before. She wasn’t sure what surprised her more, the thought of him threatening some guy for being a jerk to her, or hearing him say her real name for the first time.

It had to be her name. Had to be. She licked her lips, realizing that her breath had become erratic. When did that happen?

“It’s Min. I go by Min.” There was a tense moment between them, something that was hard to define but that she knew meant something. She just didn’t know what. And Min, coward that she was, turned away first.

“There’s no way you threatened him. You don’t even like me.” Her voice wavered, and she hoped he couldn’t hear it. He had to be fucking with her. There’s no way this man who had done nothing but accuse her and antagonize her since she had finally met him had done anything as bold and, well, nice, as confront some asshole on a train just because he touched her.

Hayden’s mouth twitched, almost smiling, before he turned back to his laptop.

“You just can’t believe you’re so annoying, someone would switch seats to get away from you.”

She couldn’t think of a reply, and she hated that, so after a moment of gaping at him, she reached out and pinched his forearm. He yanked his arm away from her, rubbing the spot.

“Would you stop doing that? You’re too small to be so violent.”

It was something he had often said to her when they were competing online against each other, and she fought the sudden urge to laugh.

She turned to her own laptop before he could see.

“Shut up, I’m trying to work.”

She ignored his deep chuckle, flipping back to her panel questions as he settled deeper into his seat, going back to the document he was working on. She told herself it didn’t matter that he had clearly made the guy switch seats, that he must have seen how annoyed and bothered she was even with his headphones on and his face buried in his computer. And it certainly didn’t matter that he was now right next to her, their elbows touching on the armrest, the heat from his body radiating into her side as he completely ignored her.

It didn’t matter. She had a tournament to win.

She closed out the document for the panel questions and pulled up an internet video from a previous tournament. She had been slowly studying streams from all her competitors, learning their favorite tactics and moves. One of the participants was Fannibal, a fellow streamer who Min knew was also participating in the Bleeding Sword tournament. She watched Fannibal for a while, studying his gameplay, lost in her research, when Hayden leaned over, staring at her screen.

“He likes the shotgun.”

Min frowned, throwing eye daggers at Hayden before focusing back on the screen. It was true, Fannibal always traded for the shotgun, loving the wide spread it gave him for damage.

“Easy enough to counteract,” she said. The shotgun did solid damage when your target was in range, but it wasn’t good for much else. Min preferred to keep her distance, sniping from afar, so the shotgun with its shorter range was less of a worry for her.

“Maybe you’ll be safe from Fannibal, but you won’t be able to hide in the buildings forever. It’s too easy to sneak up on you while you’re sniping.” He said it idly, more conversational, but she felt her spine straighten in defense anyway.

“As opposed to just scooping up the baseball bat and running headfirst into a firefight?” She let her irritation show, and she hated how amused he clearly was by her annoyance.

“Baby, the point of games is to have fun. If you’re not having fun, then why are you playing?”

She glowered at him. “Lose the ‘baby.’ And maybe I have more fun when I’m winning.”

“Maybe I run headfirst into firefights because that’s where flame throwers tend to be.”

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