Page 57 of Off Her Game
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Going home? Nope. Not when she was hurting and bitchy. She’d lash out at one of her roommates. Then they’d tease out of her what happened. She’d never hear the end of it for being so gullible about Noah.
After sneaking out of Noah’s place to avoid goodbyes, Tori did the only thing that didn’t make her feel powerless. Computer research. She stretched her neck as she leaned away from the computer. The computer lab at NYU reeked of Indian takeout, but it offered easy twenty-four-hour Internet access that was free and virtually untraceable to her. Alex, her roommate, attended a night class here once a week. He’d given her his password months ago when her laptop had gone on the fritz and it’d taken her weeks to earn enough money to get it repaired. Neither of her roommates were good at fixing hardware.
Two hours of digging and she wanted to say she was a lot closer to IDing Symphis, but she wasn’t. If he lived in Jersey City his place would use a higher than normal amount of electricity from computer usage than other residentials. That data wasn’t public. She’d have to beg for hacking help to get into the electric company’s database. Alex or Quan might do it, but the help would come at a price. Last time she’d asked for hacking help Alex demanded her framedFireflyposter, the one signed by everyone in the original cast. Parting with it hurt. A lot.
No giving up.Not yet. Her only hope was to get to Symphis first, but her eyelids drooped.
Noah switched off the gaming system and turned up the overhead lights. A second time around and it still rocked.
Jake rose from his gaming chair and tossed his gamepad on the sofa. “Needs tweaking. The AI is okay but needs work. It’ll need a soundtrack and better voices…packaging. I like the ability to customize whatever avatar the player wants and that everyone gets the same starting weapons.” He tapped a finger against his lip, lost in thought. “I can sell this.”
Noah grabbed his and Jake’s gaming pad and returned them to the storage shelves. “Can we do it in five months? Use it to launch the virtual reality goggles?”
Jake sucked air through his teeth. “Tight. We’d have to pull teams off other projects. Get marketing on it now. Do a full press junket within the next two weeks to get buzz started. That means mock covers, casting and interviews.” He glanced up to make eye contact. “My end’s doable. How about yours…the tweaking?”
He cringed. “It’s a lot of work, but pretty sure we can do it.”
“It’s going to make her career.”
“You agree, then, that it’s exactly what we need to branch into fantasy. Tori’s game is eons better than theOrc Zonewe reviewed last week. It’s next level with avatars that aren’t predictable or formulaic. ”
“The game is right, but this isn’t simple. The game we already own. That’s easy, although I’d renegotiate her contract. Her, though. Noah, man…” Jake scratched his scalp. “I’m worried about you. You’re not the kind of person to do a fake relationship.”
“Tori is…something else. She’s talented and funny and badass.”
Jake said, “Dating Tori isn’t fake, is it? You and she—”
“I never said Tori and I slept together.”
“I didn’t. You did.” Jake punched him in the shoulder. “Happy for you.”
“We kissed. We’re going to leave it at that.”
Jake emitted a sarcastic snort. “If you say so.”
Noah wondered if Jake planned to make a play for Tori. “It’s real.”
“You cut me deep. You know me better than that, Noah. Don’t look at me like I’m going to sneak in and make her my next weekend fling. She’s only got eyes for you.”
“You made eyes at her?”
“Look at you getting territorial. Never seen you like this. Are you actually going to hit me?” Jake threw up his hands. “Chill.”
“Hell.” Noah cast himself onto the leather sofa and threw his head against the back to stare at the ceiling. He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “We probably would never have met if it hadn’t been for the FBI case…Kaleb’s death.”
“You might’ve eventually met her with Emma as your assistant and Jason working for us. Maybe a year from now. ’Course, we might not’ve been looking for the game next year. We might’ve jumped behindOrc World.All that aside, I don’t know if you making it a real thing is the best idea, if we plan to produce her game for real.”
“Why can’t it be simple? She’s smart…a Trekkie. I like her, we date, and then whatever. Why can’t we have normal relationship problems? But, no. She has to be the ticket to all this FBI shit. And she designed the answer to our professional problems.” He covered his face with his hands and sat on the sofa. He slammed his fists into the sofa. “Damn it.”
“I’m sorry, man.”
“Symphis phoned her yesterday. Threatened her and messed with Emma’s bank accounts. When I told Tom he said no one else he’d had infiltrated had ever been personally called. That means she’s special to the psycho. I don’t like it because I don’t know what it means.”
“She’s okay?” Jake asked.
“She came over. Things got intense. I must’ve done something or said the wrong thing because she left without a goodbye or anything. Now she won’t answer my calls or texts. Hell if I know what I said.” He wrung his hands. “I’m shit with reading people and always say the wrong thing.”
