Page 92 of Playing Games

It’s clear I’ve never been an emotional kind of girl, but something about this moment is urging this strange combination of happiness and something akin to melancholy. The happiness makes complete sense, but the glum shadow is something I don’t quite understand.

“So, Lex,” Ace asks with a big smile. “What’s the next big move?”

“Big move?” I question. “As in, where am I going to live?”

“No.” He chuckles. “Where does a big-brained girl like Lexi end up working?”

“Yeah, Lex.” Uncle Remy joins in. “Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

Truthfully, no. I have options. Lots of options that most men and women my age would quite literally sacrifice a lot of things to obtain. But I still haven’t decided what I want to do.

I shrug. “I’m still mulling it all over.”

“As in, my sister has created an exhaustive spreadsheet of pros and cons and statistical analysis of each job choice,” my brother chimes in with a sarcastic grin. “She’ll probably need to create a personalized app that can compute all of her data before she can come to her final decision.”

“You’re a smartass, you know that?” I toss back to him, and he just laughs.

“Does it help that Mom told me I needed to tell you I’m really proud of you?” he questions, and my mom sighs.

“Wesley, leave your sister alone.”

“Yeah,” my stepdad Wes chimes in. “With that pathetic GPA you’ve got going on right now, you should maybe consider trying to learn a thing or two from Lex.”

My brother snorts. “Whatever.”

“Lexi, honey, what are your current choices?” my grandma Wendy asks, and the pressure of having everyone’s attention on me is starting to make my skin feel a little itchy.

It’s not that I don’t like the attention or that I’m not thankful for it, but it’s just a little overwhelming. I swallow against my discomfort and start to answer my grandma’s question, but my brother starts talking before I can.

“Grandma, I think the easier question would be, what aren’t your current choices?” he says and flashes a smile toward me that looks a hell of a lot like a little brother who is actually proud of his big sister. “Pretty much everyone and everything wants Lexi. Google. Apple. Fucking NASA.”

“Wesley!” my mom exclaims and reaches out to tap him on the back of the head.

“What?” he asks, rubbing at the spot she hit. “I’m just speaking straight facts, Mom.”

“I think your mother is referring to the giant f-bomb you dropped in the middle of the dining room,” Thatcher Kelly retorts on a laugh.

“Wait…NASA?” Ace questions with wide eyes. “Fucking NASA wants you, Lex? Holy shit!”

His mom Cassie sighs. “Sometimes I wonder if it was a good idea to combine and unleash our genes into the world,” she mutters to her husband Thatch.

But Ace ignores his parents completely and stays focused on me. “Are you seriously going to work for NASA, Lex? Like, am I actually going to be able to tell people I know a rocket scientist?”

“Doubtful.” I shake my head. “NASA isn’t at the top of my list.”

“NASA offered you a job, and they’re not at the top of your list?” Ace retorts on a laugh. “What else you got going on?”

Julia laughs at his joke and shoves his shoulder—a normal interaction for the two—but Ace’s gaze jerks to her hand, lingering long after it leaves. Blake was right about him spiraling over his newfound discovery that he’s been obsessed with Julia Brooks his whole life. I’ve known him since I was a kid, and I’ve never seen him like this.

I shrug. “A few things.”

“Technically, it’s a fucking ton of things,” my brother corrects, and everyone in the room chuckles. Well, everyone besides our mom.

Frankly, he’s not wrong. I mean, besides the offers from major corporations to be on their payroll, I have a big medical company that’s offered me eight figures to sell them an app I created that utilizes AI to analyze patient medical data to generate potential health risks, along with important proactive measures that can be taken to improve overall well-being outcomes.

Though, I don’t know if I want to sell it to them. My fear is that they’ll end up employing it in other ways that might include increasing financial strain on patients. Which is the last thing I want to occur.

I’d like to make the world a better place, thank you very much. And in order to do that, I need to help people, not hurt them.

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