“It probably worked as well as the shotgun my father used. My sisters despaired of ever having a boyfriend,” Eamon replied offhand. “So what brought you to Kansas City? It’s a long way from the Coast.” When Sarah blushed, he said, “Sorry. Touched a nerve there?”
Sarah bit her lips. “It’s okay. I met a guy; we were going to get married, so I moved back here to be with him and he called it off. By then, I had a job, a place to live, and I was on my own which I liked. So I stayed.”
“Sounds like he was really stupid,” Eamon quipped. He was rewarded by Sarah’s delighted smile.
“I like to think so.” Sarah took up her fork again. “You know, this Chicken Gorgonzola is delicious!”
Eamon turned the conversation to great local Italian restaurants as they finished their meal and people began leaving.
“I should be going,” Sarah told him softly.
“Okay if I walk you to your car, Sarah?”
“Yes. I’d like that.”
Eamon stood and helped Sarah with her chair as she said goodnight to everyone. He escorted her to the parking garage; his hand lightly cupped her elbow as they made their way through the mall. When they reached Sarah’s car, he took out his business card and wrote something on the back.
“I’d like to take you out next weekend. I’m sure you need to check your calendar, so here is my cell phone number. If you want to go out, call me and we’ll figure out which evening, okay?”
“All right.” Sarah took his card hesitantly.
“Look Sarah, I had a great time tonight. I’d like to see you again.” Eamon debated whether or not to kiss her. He didn’t. He contented himself with taking her hand. “Call me.”
“Thank you for coming. It was nice to have someone in the audience.” She shook his hand and Eamon opened the door for her. He couldn’t resist; he brushed her cheek lightly with his fingers and found her skin to be warm and smooth.
“Goodnight. Call me,” Eamon insisted. He stepped back from the car so that she had room to get in.
Sarah buckled up and turned her attention to backing out of the parking space. When she was out and ready to pull forward she looked his way. He was standing there, watching her. She raised her hand and gave a small wave. He simply nodded his head and watched as she drove away.
Chapter 2
Sarah debated whether or not to call Eamon to arrange a date. Curious, she put his name into her search engine and was startled by the number of entries that came up. His picture appeared in the society pages of the Star and he was mentioned in business articles. His company, Gryphon World, Inc., was in direct competition with her employer, Rainwhite Games.
That could be problematic. Sarah knew that she would never reveal any of her firm’s work product, but there was always that pesky “appearance of wrongdoing” to worry about. Sarah went back and forth on the wisdom of seeing him again, but her curiosity got the better of her. She called his private number on Wednesday half hoping he had already made other plans for the weekend.
“Byrne here,” His voice sounded sharp, businesslike.
“Eamon? It’s Sarah? Sarah Adams?”
“Sarah!” His voice changed. Now, he sounded eager. “You called! That’s great! So when are we going out?”
“How about Saturday? Around seven?”
“I’ll be there. What’s the address?”
Sarah gave him her address and he hung up. She tried not to think about the fact that she had just called a virtual stranger for a date. Instead she focused on the mountain of pleadings she needed to draft.
Eamon hung up the phone, glad that Sarah had called. He’d gone to the Evensong, expecting nothing more than a pleasant Sunday concert and a chance to satisfy his curiosity about Sarah’s reading list. He’d left her that night wanting to know more about her. Now he’d have that chance.
When Saturday night came, Sarah settled on a plain sweater dress in a soft caramel color that matched her hair, a dress style in keeping with her mother’s admonition that simple was best, It was short enough to showcase her legs but long enough to be modest. She debated whether or not to put her hair up but decided to leave it loose. The doorbell rang just as the phone rang. Eamon was at the door, and she let him as she held the phone to her ear.
“I’m almost ready,” she whispered as she covered the handset. Then she walked into the kitchen with the phone. It was her father calling about the upcoming holiday.
“Sarah, you are coming home for Memorial Day aren’t you? “
“I wasn’t—“
“If it’s money, I will buy your ticket.”
“I don’t need—“
“Your Mother and I are glad to help, Sarah. We miss you.”
“It’s okay Dad. I can afford the plane ticket. ”
“Sure, but then you won’t have any money to go shopping with your Mom. You know she hates that.”
“Daddy—“
“We love you Sarah. Say you’ll come for the holiday.”
“Yes. Yes, of course, I’ll see you then. Love you, Dad.”
“You too, sweetheart. See you soon.”
“Bye, Dad.” Sarah clicked off her phone.
Eamon tried not to listen. Instead he looked about Sarah’s living room. She had a sophisticated media set-up complete with two separate gaming consoles, a PC and an HD flat screen. He wandered over to peruse the games she played. There wasn’t a single sports game among her titles or any first person shooters but there were a lot of role playing games, from dark medieval fantasy to futuristic space opera. A number of his company’s titles graced her shelf. He found her book and CD collection fascinating as well. Her library included original source history books, science fiction and fantasy, philosophy, psychology, and shamelessly titillating bodice rippers among other subjects. Her taste in music was just as eclectic
“Silly, isn’t it.” Sarah walked into the living room and saw him studying her video game collection. “I spent biggest bonus I’ve ever received buying the second console and the TV. I should have saved it for my retirement, my father told me, but I couldn’t resist. I love playing video games.”
“So what’s your gamertag? “
“Elaine Everhome.”
“Really?” Eamon laughed. “As I recall, you ended up in a very contentious discussion as to whether or not Duke Rulan was an evil villain or a misunderstood patriot.”
“You visit Mirrored Nation’s Forum?”
“I troll there a lot, but I seldom post. I find the discussions very entertaining. It keeps me up to date on our hardcore fans.”
“I’d forgotten. It’s one of your titles, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is. One of our most successful. So is Mirrored Nation your favorite?”
“It is. I like the way your writers always manage to incorporate some interesting dilemma into the game.”
“And you prefer to be—what? A mage? A warrior? A rogue?”
“I love playing a rogue archer or a controller mage. I live to hold the enemy helpless with my gravity spell and paralysis glyphs while my tank and damage dealer destroy the enemy mightily!”
“I, on the other hand, prefer to be the tank or a nuker mage. Heavy armor or really badass fire spells are my preference. We’d be a good team in an MMORPG.”
“Now you know my secret. I am a Gamer Girl. I should stand up at GA and say, Hello, my name is Sarah and I am a gamer!”
Eamon’s eyes lit up with appreciation. “Hello Sarah, my name is Eamon, and I am a gamer, though not as much of one as I used to be. Too busy with business these days to play much.”
Eamon’s delight in her video game interests put Sarah at ease. People expected kids to play video games, not adults. When she worked at a regular law firm, she let it slip that she played video games. From then on, she was teased about it by others at the law firm. Sarah took this in good grace; it was her experience that good people usually teased people they liked, but it was a little wearing.
“So are you eagerly await
ing the sequel?”
“I’ve preordered.”
Eamon laughed hard. “You do have it bad, don’t you!”
“I do.”
“What are you playing while you wait for our sequel to come out?”
“Wickerworld.” Sarah handed him the game box.
Eamon studied the cover. “I’ve seen bits and pieces of this and saw the demo, but I haven’t had a chance to sit and play through it yet. What do you think of it?”
“The game play is fun and easy to learn. The world is beautiful but believable, and the character models are nice with a lot of modifications possible. And you have a lot of choices. You can be a man or a woman, elf or dwarf, whatever.”
“What about ownership? Do your choices matter?”
“Not really, and there’s no real ongoing development of non-player characters. NPCs are very one-dimensional.”
Eamon handed Sarah the box. “Well, this I have to see. Do you mind?”
Sarah fired up her console and put the game in. “Do you want to see my current character, or do you want to create a new one?”
Eamon took the controller. “Let’s start from scratch.”
He began building his character. “Wow, I see what you mean about the models being nice. Man, I like the hair. Hair is really difficult to get right. Their game engine is fantastic. No wonder the models work.”
Sarah watched, bemused, as Eamon played. Clearly he had been at this a long time for he figured out the combat moves very quickly. As he played, he commented on the game mechanics, what worked and what needed improvement. Sarah sat beside him, amazed, as he went through the tutorial and through one of the quests finding things on his first run that she hadn’t realized were there. Suddenly, he put the controller down.
“Wow. Their game engine is a beast!” He looked at his watch. “Damn, I’m sorry, Sarah. I promised you a night out and here I am caught up in the game.”
“It’s all right. You saw things your first time through I haven’t found yet and I’m on my second character.”
“That’s because you don’t build games for a living. I just know where to look and I do this every day, most of the day—did do this for most of the day. My crew gets to build the hands-on stuff now.”
He stood up and took her hand. “Come on. Let’s go grab some food.”
“Let’s call for a pizza,” Sarah suggested. “We’ve got really good local delivery nearby.”
“You sure?” Eamon asked.
Sarah laughed. “I’m sure. What kind of pizza do you like?”
Eamon gave her what Sarah thought of as a guy look that said, What? You have to ask? Sarah took pity on him. “They have a sausage, pepperoni and hamburger combo.”
“Sounds great, but you don’t look like a meat lover girl. Let’s get a veggie pizza as well,” Eamon told her. “You got wine? Or beer?”
“No beer, just a bottle of sweet wine.”
Eamon cringed. “Order the pizza, I’ll be right back.” He threw a couple of twenties and a ten on the coffee table. “Just in case.” Then he left.
Sarah called in the pizza order and took out some plates, silverware, glasses, and napkins. Eamon beat the pizza delivery guy back to the apartment with a bottle of good Chianti and an excellent Moscato in tow.
“Okay if I open these?” Eamon asked her.
“Sure.” Sarah watched Eamon as he searched for the corkscrew and opened the wine. He moved with unconscious assurance. He didn’t intrude; he just seemed to belong. Sarah realized he demonstrated this same quality at the Evensong and Milano’s. He seemed a person at ease with himself and his place in the world.
“Dry or sweet?” Eamon held up the bottles.
“Sweet.”
Eamon poured the wine as the door bell rang. Eamon paid for the pizza and they sat down at the table and began to eat. In between bites, Eamon asked, “So what’s it like growing up a California girl?”
“I didn’t live on the beach, and I don’t surf. We lived in a community near the HMO hospital to which my Dad was assigned. Their neighbors are interested in horses and golf, neither of which appeals to me. Once I could drive, I would go to the La Jolla coves at low tide and study the creatures that get trapped in the tide pools, or I’d go to the main library downtown San Diego.”
“So no surfing. What about sailing?”
“Dad used to sail, but his career kept him busy. By the time he was ready to teach us, neither David nor I were interested. There is one sport I love. We discovered it on a camping trip.”
“Now that sounds promising. What sport did you discover camping?”
“Whitewater rafting. Daddy didn’t get to take many vacations, but when he did we usually headed out to one of the National Parks to camp. When I was about ten, we rafted the Kings River near Sequoia National Park. The Kings isn’t a very challenging river but it was a great ride, particularly for newbies. We had a great time. After that, Dad would book a day of rafting whenever we went on vacation. When my brother David was old enough to drive, we’d find some tour group who needed some extra rafters and glom onto their party. Our favorite river was the Tuolumne in California. Back in the day, you had to do an overnight because it’s a wild river. It’s a challenge and a fantastic ride!”
“You surprise me, Sarah. Have you ever gone out on your own; you know, with your own crew and no professional guide?”
“Dad told us not to do that until we were adults. David snuck off with friends a time or three, but…”
“But you didn’t,” Eamon finished for her.
“No, actually, I did. My friends and I skipped school and went up to raft the Merced. It ended badly. I went out of the raft onto one of the rocks and broke my arm. I was wearing a helmet and good life vest or it might have been worse. Fortunately, the fracture was a clean break and didn’t need surgery. Mom and Dad met me at the ER. On the way home, I was grounded for a month and my car was taken away until school started the next fall, and my parents told the school I ditched. That was a three day in-school suspension. I was sixteen.”
“Way to go, Sarah! Every sixteen-year-old should rebel a time or two.”
“Well that used up all of my rebelliousness. I stayed on the straight and narrow after that. Did you raise any hell during your high school days?”
Eamon absently twirled his fork on the plate. “I was pretty wild for a time, drinking, partying; my parents were quite concerned. But a friend of mine drove drunk and was killed in a car accident. I was passed out on someone’s back lawn; otherwise, I would have been in the car too. Carrying my friend to his grave at the cemetery woke me up. I got my act together, quit partying hard and started studying harder.”
Sarah’s voice was filled with compassion. “That must have been sad.” To change to a happier subject, Sarah asked, “You said your Dad worked at the Ford plant?”
“Yeah, he did. I never understood why he stayed on that miserable line. But Dad saw his work as a means to an end. It was the way he provided for his family. That mind numbing job put food on the table and clothes on our backs. He is a naturalized citizen who emigrated from Ireland as a young teenager with his father. He still speaks the Irish when he’s really angry. He was so damned glad to come to the USA, still is.”
“And your mom?”
“She’s a Midwestern girl born and bred. They met in church. The rest is history. Six children, four boys, two girls.”
“That must have been fun, all those brothers and sisters, I mean. David and I wanted another sibling or two just to balance things out and take some of the heat off because my parents were über focused on the two of us. David, the only son, I the only daughter; we were scrutinized for each and every action, thought, and emotion to be certain that we were on the path to a healthy, well-rounded adulthood.” Sarah laughed, took a sip of her wine. “It was a pain. I often wonder if David became a doctor because he likes the work or if it was just easier than fighting Father’s expectations. Me, I just opted out all together and ran
away from home at the earliest opportunity.”
Eamon carried his plate to the sink. “I don’t know about it being fun. As the oldest, I was often deployed as the nanny, babysitter, hall monitor and referee in our house. I can change a diaper with the best of them, and make kids behave, but I got really tired of being the “go to” child in the family. Mind, as an adult, I understand why. My parents couldn’t afford outside help; hell, they could barely afford clothes some years. But as a kid, I resented it a lot!”
“So the grass is just as weedy on the other side of the fence!” Sarah teased.
“You got that right! Now, let’s clean up this mess and then we’ll see some more of what Wickerworld has to offer.”
They straightened up the kitchen and took their wine into the living room. They played Wickerworld for another two hours. Eamon had Sarah bring up her character and watched her play.
“I see what you mean,” he said as she finished a quest. “It’s a shame. This game just misses being really great, and it’s because of the writing. The game play is there, the loot is great, the inventory is fun and the quests have real potential, but it doesn’t pull you in. You don’t care about the characters you meet and ultimately, the quests themselves get boring.”
“Exactly,” Sarah said. Then, she placed her hand over her mouth to cover a yawn.
Instantly, Eamon put down the controller. “It’s almost midnight. I should be going.”
Sarah started to protest, but Eamon just took her hand. “I had a great time tonight, Sarah. I’d like to take you dancing tomorrow if you’re free.”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday. I usually try to get to bed at a reasonable hour—you know, work on Monday.”
Eamon chuckled. “I promise, I won’t drag you to a club and keep you out all hours. If you say yes, I’ll pick you up around four and have you back here by eight.”
Intrigued, Sarah agreed. “Okay. What should I wear?”
Gamer Girl Page 2
