Page 4 of Violet Spark
I snapped out of my daydream. Okay, his voice was a little squeakier IRL than coming through my headset. Kind of a bummer, but not a deal breaker. “Hey.” Well, I sounded a little squeaky too; apparently, we were both nervous. Nervous nerds are the worst. “How many spell points did you use to find me, my lord mage?”
Oh God, did I say that aloud?
He stared at me for a long second, his eyebrows puckered. “I…Googled it? You were complaining about working at a Desert Freeze? And this is the only one? So?”
“Oh. Yeah.” My face was hot enough that I could’ve melted an entire bucket of freezie mix if I stuck my head in. Or I’d drown, which would’ve been fine too. “That’s…the other way to find me.”
Behind the counter, Rique made some noise. If that was a laugh, I’d kill him, I really would.
Brayden shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
In the virtual world of Legendelirium, SunSummoner had a sword, a cloak, a silver stallion, and a spell book stolen from the dark elf high king. This guy in front of me—jaunting about in a faded blue two-door Mazda, sporting the pale blue polo and tidy jeans of a junior tech drone—was just…a guy.
I shoved down the completely unreasonable surge of disappointment. This wasn’t how I’d wanted our first date to go.
This wasn’t how I wanted my damn life to go.
I swear, it took the combined might of a dark elf high king’s spell book and the Desert Freeze’s employee handbook for me to dredge up a cute smile. “So cool to finally meet you, Brayden. If I’d known you were coming by, I would’ve…” I glanced over my shoulder. “Actually, there’s nothing I could’ve done to save this place.” I peeked back at him.
He grinned, just a little flicker of a smile that didn’t quite match mine for realism—which wasn’t saying much. “Yeah, no. I was just driving through, so I thought…”
I waited but he didn’t continue. “Thought you’d get a cold, delicious freezie?”
He slouched, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans, as if recognizing that there was no conceivable good reason for a tall guy from Phoenix to be in Arbolito’s one and only Desert Freeze. “Sure. What’s your favorite?”
We were really going to do this, have our first date, here, between the ice machines and the big front windows? Well, better here than at whatever office he worked at. Something to do with robots or something, if I was remembering right.
“Oh, definitely the pomegranate Freeze-Yo-Mind,” I said. “It’s got guarana, taurine, ginseng, and the same amount of caffeine as a double espresso.” I sauntered toward the counter. Swann would say at least I hadn’t burnedmygasoline to meet up with him. And technically I was getting paid for this date—barely better than minimum wage, but still.
Brayden followed. “What’s pomegranate taste like?”
“Honestly, it’s mostly just purple.” I smiled over my shoulder at him.
And my heart thumped at finding him standing closer than I’d thought. He really was nice and tall… “Rique, take your ten.”
My subordinate edged past me, hissing, “No customers behind the counter.”
I ignored him. What was the point of being manager if I couldn’t break the rules?
While I dispensed a small freezie, I peered into the back, but Amanda wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Probably had slipped out the service door to vape. Suddenly, I didn’t mind her laziness so much. “I can do three pumps and make yours a triple if you’re driving back in traffic—”
When I turned, Brayden was right on my ass. Well, now on my front. The little knot I’d made in the center of my smudged t-shirt brushed his belt buckle. The company logo on the breast of his polo was right in front of my nose: BantaMatrix. It was a whatever design, like something I would’ve whipped out for my 100-level coursework. But even badass EldWitches swooned in the embrace of tall MageLords…
“Unless you’re going to stay,” I breathed as I set the freezie on the counter away from us.
He was staring down at me, that wrinkle in his brow again, as if I was speaking some in-game patois that only half made sense in this world. “I can’t stay.”
“Oh.” Freezies weren’t carbonated; just as well since every bubble in my blood popped. “Yeah, I suppose you’re probably on the clock too.”
He stiffened. Notdown there. His whole body went tight, making him tall again. Even his face was taut, the lines of his cheekbones turning his skin even whiter. “If anybody asks, I wasn’t here.”
I blinked at him. Apparently corporate America in Phoenix was a bit stricter about clocking in than Shirleen in stuck-in-neutral Arbolito. “Uh. Okay?”
He took a step closer to me. There hadn’t really been any significant room between us before that, and now… A zing of unease fell like a wayward piece of ice down my spine.
“Who else comes back here?” This close, his voice didn’t sound squeaky anymore. It sounded kind of…menacing?
No, wait, maybe that was supposed to be sexy? Menacing or sexy, definitely one or the other.
