Page 7 of The Grump I Loathe
“Pretty please with a cherry on top?” Grace said. “This is the only game I want!”
Before I could answer, she’d turned back to Eddie. “I’m gonna pre-order it for sure.”
“You’re so sweet,” Eddie said. “Thanks for dropping by, Grace.”
There would definitely be no pre-ordering of anything—but no need to bring that up right now, when Grace was so enthusiastic. I’d just wait and hope she forgot about it on her own.
I took Grace’s hand again, turning to Eddie. “Good luck with your littlehobby,” I said, pausing long enough to watch an angry, red flush paint her cheeks. “Maybe one day you’ll get to make arealgame.”
3
EDDIE
“What was that?” I shouted through my closed bedroom door. I had a crumpled tissue in one hand and a stack of business cards in the other to sort through while praying to the gods of gaming that my sinuses unblocked themselves ASAP.
“Nothing!” came Cassie’s muffled reply.
“Really? Because it sounds like you just unleashed an entire can of disinfectant into the hallway. You know that stuff is killing the environment, right?”
Cassie mumbled something that sounded like “I don’t want to catch your con cooties.”
“It’s called con crud.” When you jammed that many people into a convention, illness spread faster than word of an amazing game.
“Whatever! I don’t want it. Neither does Isabel or Luna.”
Cassie and I shared a small, four-bedroom place with two other roommates. It kept expenses low enough that I could—just barely—make ends meet. Since I’d graduated from UC Berkeley, I’d been let gofrom three different game companies for being a little too outspoken with my ideas, and finances were a little tight. It didn’t help that way too much of my income went to managing my student loan debt.
“I need one of those white decontamination suits,” Cassie muttered from the hall.
“If you were going to catch it, I think you already would have,” I pointed out. After all, she’d been right there in the booth with me, helping out. And thankfully—plague aside—it looked like our hard work had paid off. Renting a booth at GeekCon had been a spendy decision, but it had been so very worth it. Preorders forAlterbotwere way up, and I’d made some solid connections that could turn into my next job. Things might not have gone great at my workplace attempts so far, but I was willing to swallow my pride for the sake of a steady paycheck. A lot of unpaid time and effort went into creating an indie game, and my crappy room in this crappy apartment wasn’t going to pay for itself.
I choked on my next inhale, trying not to cough up a lung.
“I’m coming in!” Cassie called, shoving my door open and peeking in like a giant booger might launch across the room and smother her. She held a steaming mug in one hand, the other shielding her mouth and nose. “Don’t breathe in my direction.”
“I’m lucky I can breathe at all,” I said, still sorting the business cards into piles. Jasper Dunn, Narrative Lead at Wild Bloom Games. Amelia Chen, Quest Designer at NovaTales. Darius Thompson, Human Resources at LockMill. Ahmed Noor, Creative Producer at Codee Interactive. The next phase of my gaming career was in this pile. I could feel it. Or so I hoped.
“Special delivery.”
“Oh my God!” I cried as Cassie put the mug down on my desk and awave ofsomethinghit me. It reeked like garlic and vinegar and spice. Ew, was that cinnamon? “What is that?”
“Better if you don’t ask. Just drink it. If you go fast, you won’t really taste it.”
I eyed the mug warily. “Is this another one of the secret home remedies you’ve found in some sketchy online forum?”
“It had a bunch of good reviews.”
I glared at her, unimpressed. I’d adored Cassie ever since we’d met freshman year of college, but her weakness for snake oil cures was going to be the death of at least one of us.
“What?” she complained. “You look like a steaming pile of?—”
I cleared my throat, hacking on gunk.
“Exactly,” Cassie said, pulling out a jagged purple crystal from her pocket. She waved it over my head.
“What is that?” I said, batting her away. “Now what are you doing?”
“Amethyst. I’m cleansing your aura. I don’t need that nasty con crud escaping this room. I’ve got people to see this week.”
