Page 28 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
Maggie had never heard of Wingspan. “That’s a boardgame?”
“Yeah, it’s been popular recently. I’ve played it online, but I’ve heard it’s better in real person.”
“So you’re into more games than just RainQuest,” she surmised. Perhaps that fact shouldn’t surprise her, yet somehow it did.
He shrugged, hooking his thumbs on the pockets of his jeans. “RQ is definitely my favorite, but I like all kinds of games. I’ve played mostly online, though, which is why I’m so psyched for this place.” He smiled wryly, seeming slightly abashed, which Maggie realized made him even more appealing.
“I have to admit, I’m not much of a gamer myself,” she confessed with a laugh. Even if Ben loved them. “I didn’t grow up playing games, so maybe that makes a difference, but I’ve got only the basics—Monopoly, Scrabble, that kind of thing.”
“I didn’t grow up that way, either,” Zach told her with a smile. “My parents were too busy with the store, and Jenna was very driven with her schoolwork, and I was too into baseball. I didn’t start playing any games until I was eighteen.”
“So what made you start?” Maggie realized she was truly curious; she wanted to get to know Zach better, just as he wanted to get to know her. As friends, of course, but still… it was nice.
He hunched his shoulders, digging his hands deeper into the pockets of his jeans. “Remember what I said about having only six months of college?”
She nodded. “Yes…”
“Well, I came home in February of my freshman year because there was something of a crisis at home. My mom got diagnosed with breast cancer, and my dad needed help with the store and stuff. It ended up being a lot more complicated than I expected, and it was kind of lonely, just me and the parents for such a long time. All my friends from high school had gone to UConn, pretty much, so…” He shrugged. “I ended up gaming. It was pretty much my whole social life, for the better part of a year, while my mom did her chemo.”
So he could relate to Ben much more than she’d realized, Maggie acknowledged with a prickle of shame. She really should not have judged him the way she had. “And you never went back to college?” she asked.
“Nah. By the time my mom was better, and I could have gone back, everyone was midway through their second year, and it just felt… I don’t know… pointless. Everyone had moved on, and I had too, in a different way.”
Maggie supposed she could understand that, but it still felt as if he’d missed out, and she wondered if maybe he thought he had, too. Still, she was glad they’d had this conversation. It was a start of getting to know each other, and that felt like a good thing.
“I keep telling Ben I’ll learn how to play RainQuest,” she told him with a wry smile. “But the few times I’ve watched him, it’s all seemed super complex, to put it mildly. I’m not sure I could ever get the hang of it.”
“I bet you could,” Zach replied, grinning. “You could join our team. What do you think your character would be?” He scratched his chin, his face screwed up in thought. “I’m feeling like it could be an aasimar,” he told her. “Or maybe a shadar-kai.”
Maggie gave a little laugh as she shook her head. “A what or a what?”
“An aasimar is a planetouched humanoid with celestial lineage,” Zach explained. “And a shadar-kai is an elf who was blessed by the Raven Queen and transformed by the Shadowfell.”
Maggie shook her head again, laughter bubbling up. “Sorry, you have completely lost me.”
“They’re species types from the original Dungeons & Dragons,” Zach explained. “A lot of the new roleplaying games use D&D as their template.” He gave her a slow, knowing smile that made her toes curl up and her stomach fizz. “Look them up online and tell me if you think I got it right.”
“Okay…”
“Aasimar and shadar-kai,” Zach confirmed. “I want to know what you think.”
“Okay,” she said again. She was both curious and bemused; he was acting like he’d made some kind of pronouncement on her personality, and she had no idea what any of it meant.
Just then the door burst open and Ben came in, faltering in his step as he saw the two of them standing together. “Hey, you got the sofas and stuff arranged,” he remarked as he looked around. “Cool.”
“Yes, we did. Well, Zach did.” Maggie took an instinctive step away from him, needing that little bit of distance. “Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Ben nodded in approval as he looked around. “Yeah, it does.” He turned back to Maggie. “Can we have pizza for dinner?”
“Oh, well, I suppose?—”
“And can Zach stay?” He beamed at Zach. “I have this new plug-in I want to show him on RQ. It’sinsane.”
“Ben,” Maggie began in gentle reproof. “Zach probably has plans?—”
“Actually, I don’t.” He raised his eyebrows, a glint of both humor and challenge in his eyes. “I can stay if you don’t mind an extra for pizza.” The teasing look on his face made her suspect she knew what he was thinking.This kind of counts as a date, doesn’t it?
“Sure,” she relented. She felt she could hardly say no without a good reason, and the truth was, she realized, she wanted him to stay.
