She's Got Game Read online

  Just seeing him again brought a smile to my face. Then I realized he was talking to someone and ducked behind a tree.

  The girl facing Cody spoke animatedly, hands waving in the air. A few words drifted to my ears. “…tell me what to do…Not the boss of me…”

  The wind swallowed Cody’s response, if any, so I examined the girl. Long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, a light tan. She wore an empire-waist sundress. Then she grimaced and doubled over, her hands moving to her belly. As her action brought her into the streetlight’s glow, I realized she was very pregnant. Like, so pregnant, she wouldn’t be in a couple of hours.

  Cody moved toward her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and putting the other on her stomach in such a show of familiarity, bile rose in my throat. This couldn’t be happening. There had to be some explanation for what I saw.

  As he turned, I made out more of his words. “…to the hospital. Come on…”

  I wanted to run, but couldn’t move for fear they’d notice me. The logical part of my mind insisted that she might be a friend. To find out what was going on, all I had to do was walk up and introduce myself. But something stopped me. She might be a friend, but the energy around them suggested a deeper relationship.

  A car pulled up to the curb. Cody opened the back seat and turned back to the girl. “Come on, Tessa. We have to go to the hospital.”

  So that was Tessa. Don’s words came back to me. He has a girl in Boston… ask him how Tessa’s doing. I’d assumed Don was lying, even though I remembered how much Cody texted in the beginning. I’d even commented on it, buying his pathetic excuses. Then, after the two of us spent the night together, I completely forgot about “Tessa.” But, clearly, Tessa existed, and Don knew Cody well enough to know her name. Unlike me, apparently.

  The phone call I’d overheard in the Chicago airport came back to me. Now, it seemed so obvious Cody had been talking to a girlfriend. His agitation and low voice suggested a personal call. The pause before “you, too” was the universal response when someone didn’t want to say “I love you, too” in front of other people. I should’ve put the pieces together earlier, but stupidly, some part of me had wanted to believe in him. Silently, I cursed myself.

  By the look of things, Tessa and Cody knew each other very well. And they met long before he started flirting with me. I should have asked Don for more information. At the very least, I should have asked Cody about Don’s comment. But I let my feelings overrule my common sense.

  As Cody helped Tessa into the back seat, she turned and beamed up at him with such a show of tenderness I felt a pang at intruding. She was heart-achingly beautiful. She was also putting her hand on the face of the man I’d hoped to make my boyfriend. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you, Cody.”

  His word stabbed me in the gut. “I love you, too. Let’s get you to the hospital.”

  I love you.

  Three little words, yet such life changers. I wanted to believe I’d misunderstood something, but the evidence was piling up in front of me. The way they moved, they spoke, suggested a deeper familiarity than mere friends. And most friends didn’t profess their love for each other in the middle of the street. My friends didn’t, anyway.

  “You really are the perfect partner,” she said. “I hope the baby looks like you.”

  Well, shit. That answered everything. Partner. He was her partner.

  The slam of a car door cut off Cody’s laugh, plus whatever he said in response. It didn’t matter. Babies looked like their parents. Mom and Dad. Not a random friend or roommate or coworker or some nice guy who was helping out. There was no reason for her to say she wanted the baby to look like Cody if he wasn’t the father.

  I needed to leave before I screamed. Part of me wanted to throw something at the car, demand an explanation. But there was no point. I’d seen enough. Whoever she was, Tessa needed Cody. They clearly had a relationship. Cody might need her too, but he didn’t need me. He’d been playing me, like I feared all along. Trying to throw me off my game. Worse, it worked. I’d lost focus, lost the competition, lost my chance at getting the money I needed to keep the blog going. None of it meant anything to him.

  I needed to get out of there, but I couldn’t risk them seeing me. My entire body burned with embarrassment. A few weeks ago, we’d been kissing and touching and caressing and whispering sweet nothings, without a care in the world. In his room, nothing else mattered: not my “No Gamers” rule or the competition or…Tessa, apparently. And now, I’d come over here to apologize for our fight and beg forgiveness from a guy who clearly hadn’t spent any time pining over me. Not when he had a girlfriend. A girlfriend who was on her way to have his baby. At least I finally understood why he’d been so vague about his private life.

  What would’ve happened if I’d caught up with Cody outside the store? Would he have accepted my apology, told me he cared, and then tried to get me back to my place? Thoughts swarmed my head until I didn’t know how to handle any of them.

  A car door slammed shut, dragging me out of my stupor. An engine roared to life, and they were gone. The carrots dropped to the ground at my feet. Then everything vanished in a teary blur.

  Chapter 21

  The whammy of finding Cody with another woman right after I’d decided to give him another chance hit me hard. It wasn’t like he went out and met someone new. He’d clearly known Tessa a long time. I thought I’d talked through my issues, gotten over them, but this slap in the face served as an extra reminder that relationships were a scam. Something about me made people want to leave. Sure, Dad stayed, but he didn’t have a choice. Not really. Maybe if he’d ever remarried, he’d have ditched me like Holly’s dad.

  The final weekend of the tournament drew closer. Ordinarily, I’d be excited, reading the blogs, making predictions, even making casual wagers with Dad or my friends. Not this year. I couldn’t even think about the game. When I got home after seeing Cody with that other woman, Dad had to remove our copy of Explorers of Islay–and his expansions, which I never played–from the bookshelves in the living room because the sight upset me too much.

  After about two days of moping and successfully avoiding my friends, Holly knocked on my bedroom door and dragged me into the living room. “You can’t avoid me forever. I live here.”

  Shannon waited on the couch. “You can’t avoid me, because then I won’t let you play test my new game.”

  Liar. I rewarded her weak joke with an equally weak smile.

  “Look, we know you’re upset about the competition,” Holly said. “And we know you miss Cody, but maybe you two could still work things about.”

  Tears filled my eyes at the words. No, we couldn’t work things out. I’d let myself care so much, against my better judgment. I’d truly believed he liked me, that he wanted a relationship with me. Stupid. The whole thing turned out to be a lie. The fact that he pretended to care about my feelings so he could get laid–and cheat on his girlfriend–filled me with HULKSMASH rage levels. Men.

  Anger made me feel slightly better than the sadness. Talking things out with my best friends might help even more. Not caring that it was barely afternoon, I went into the kitchen and grabbed three beers before settling into the recliner and turning to face them on the couch.

  “It’s not the fight,” I said. “I went to work things out, and…there’s no way.”

  The entire story came out. The almost kiss in New York City. His general secrecy, the way he constantly ignored his buzzing phone. The airport phone call. Don’s warning, and how I ignored it. By the time I got to the Tessa’s touching declaration of love in the middle of the street, tears streamed down my cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry,” Shannon said, when I finished. “Is there any chance you misunderstood?”

  “I don’t see how,” I said. “He’s her partner, and he loves her, and she presumably had a baby when she got to the
hospital. The evidence all points in the same direction.”

  “Are all men creeps?” Shannon asked. “Ugh. I want to kick him in the balls. Him and Lucas.”

  My lips trembled upwards, more of an involuntary gesture than a smile. “That might make me feel a little better. But I doubt it.”

  “Yeah, and getting interviewed by police is less than thrilling,” Holly said. “Maybe lay off the assault and battery.”

  “Noted.” I sipped my beer. “It does feel better to talk about it.”

  “You know what feels even better?” Shannon asked. “Games! We could grab lunch, go to the store. Shower, get dressed. You’ll be glad you did.”

  “Not sure I’m ready for that,” I said.

  “Come on,” Holly said. “Carla gave me a job, so I get thirty percent off games.”

  That made my ears perk up. “All games?”

  “Everything.”

  Part of me resisted, because the game store was very near Cody’s house. But he also had, as he called it, “a real job” and should be at work in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. The likelihood of running into him was slim. “I can be ready in fifteen minutes.”

  * * * *

  John came over as soon as we entered the store. “Gwen! How are you?”

  He seemed a bit effusive, since he knew I’d be thinking about the finals in Vegas and how I wouldn’t be there, but John was generally a happy guy. I offered him a small smile. “Hanging in there. One day at a time, right?”

  “Yeah. I get it.” He nodded several times, then glanced over his shoulder. “I’ve got some new games you might like. Put them in the back before adding them to the shelves. Do you want to look?”

  Weird. I was a good customer, and sure, getting kicked out of the contest hurt, but they’d never set random games aside for me before. Once for Dad…around the time my Mom left. Oh, no. Did John somehow find out about Cody?

  I shot questioning glances to both of my friends. They grinned back at me innocently. Too innocently. Something was up. But all I could do was follow John into the back room to find out what.

  Holly and Shannon moved ahead of us, blocking my view of the doors. But I guessed if I were going to use Holly’s discount to buy games, it wouldn’t hurt to let her see them first. Assuming I even wanted it. What if it was a new Explorers of Islay expansion? No, thanks.

  John knew me better than that, though. He walked into the room, and flipped a switch, revealing nothing on the table but a giant cake. Dad waited in the corner. Holly and Shannon turned around. All of them yelled, “Surprise! Congratulations!”

  Someone tossed a handful of confetti in my face. I coughed repeatedly, trying to figure out what the heck happened. Had they confused me with someone else?

  When I could finally breathe, I glared at John. “What’s going on?”

  “As the local tournament chair, I got a call from the national board this morning,” he said. “It turns out, they found a discrepancy in the rankings from Chicago.”

  His words started to fill me with hope, but I quashed it. Things hadn’t been going my way recently. This didn’t mean anything. “What kind of discrepancy?”

  “One of the contestants wanted to ensure he would move on to the final round. Taking the sixteenth and final place. Which pushed you into seventeenth place.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. “What are you talking about?”

  “Someone snuck in extra cards from their own version of the game, and used those to artificially inflate his score in the final round. We didn’t notice until we finished the cleanup. One of the boxes had extra. Apparently, he didn’t think we’d check.” John shook his head. “They opened an official investigation, which takes time, but this person definitely cheated. Obviously, that player has been disqualified and will not be moving on to the final round in Vegas.”

  Each of the words individually made sense, but putting them together left me baffled. How was this possible? I stood there, blinking at my friends, for probably fifteen seconds before Dad swept forward, arms open.

  “You’re in, sweetheart! You made it!”

  My heart pounded. This couldn’t be a cruel joke. I’d actually made it? I hadn’t been knocked out. “Seriously? I’m going to Vegas?”

  “You are!” Shannon and Holly chorused together, then burst out laughing. “I was so worried we wouldn’t be able to get you to the store today. Thank you for playing along.”

  “The two of you planned this?”

  “Absolutely,” Holly said. “I happened to be here when John got the call. Shannon and I convinced him you deserved a celebration after everything you’ve been through.”

  A quick glance at Shannon told me “everything” might include Dad’s injury, but not Cody. Good. I could manage my heartbreak my own way, in my own time, but I didn’t need the whole world to be part of it. Especially after I’d avoided gamers for so long largely to keep my personal life separate from the community.

  “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.” Dad gestured at the cake sitting on the table.

  They’d bought me a cake. A ‘Congratulations’ banner hung across the far wall. Finally, the reality of the situation penetrated my mental fog. I could still win the ten thousand dollars, still pay off Dad’s debt and take him on a vacation and save my blog. This wasn’t a dream.

  I screeched with joy, throwing my arms around both my friends at once in the most awkward group hug ever. Dad and John joined in, all five of us jumping up and down like I’d won the lottery. Not even winning in Chicago could have felt this amazing.

  Then a thought struck me: Who had been disqualified? The first person to pop into my head was Cody, but only because he’d taken up residence in my brain. No way. Not when he was already four-time champion. He’d never displayed the slightest concern about the possibility of losing. You didn’t cheat when you were positive you’d win on your own.

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “Who cheated? Who’s out?”

  “I’m afraid I’m not authorized to disclose that information,” John said. “But there’s a new list of winners online. I can’t stop you from checking to see who’s missing.”

  “Here’s a hint,” Shannon said. “You’ll be ecstatic.”

  Quickly, I navigated to the competition’s home page. Sure enough, the list of Chicago winners now included my name at the bottom. Tears of joy and relief streamed down my face.

  A quick glance confirmed that Cody’s name still topped the list as expected. In all the time I’d known him, I’d never thought he might be a cheater. Not at board games, anyway.

  But who was missing? It took three reads of the list to figure it out, since I didn’t know all the players. Finally, I recalled the one person who gazed at me with such hate in his eyes after our final game together. Who couldn’t believe Tara, Angel, and I ganged up on him. And who I’d been surprised to find in the finals after the last game ended.

  Sure enough, another scan of the list confirmed it: Don’s name was gone. He’d tried to get revenge by taking me out of the competition, and he’d been caught. A squeal escaped me, half laugher and half pure joy.

  I could actually win this thing. I could beat Cody. After everything we’d been through, I couldn’t imagine a sweeter victory.

  Part VI: Las Vegas

  Gallivanting Gwen

  September 15

  You know the best part of travel, dear reader? The variety. Different local specialties every night. Country music in one area, hip hop in the next. Even better is the new, different people I meet everywhere I go: short women, tall men, thin people, fat people, Asians, Latinos, black people…As I roam the world, I get to know so many wonderful souls.

  There’s no time to worry if someone is really into me or just pretending. If there’s no attraction, I keep swiping. None of the dumpster fire of dating. No waiting by the phone. No mind gam
es. I’ll never get cheated on, because relationships are not the way. I’m not desperate to find The One, move to the suburbs, and get a house with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids.

  Good thing, actually, because our grandparents’ generation drove property values so high and wages so low, our generation will never be living that particular American dream. All I want is enough money to eat and for old people to stop blaming millennials for leaving us with no means to clean up their messes.

  Anyway, I digress. The solo life is for me. Never again will I take a chance on a rando, only to find out he’s got a pregnant girlfriend he failed to mention. Nope. I’ll never settle down, never get bored. No cheating. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.

  In that vein, I’m off to Vegas, where I’ll be playing in the final round of the Explorers of Islay Competition and checking out a form of gaming typically ignored on this blog: gambling. I don’t plan to play, not really, but I want to explore some casinos and tap into some of the excitement.

  Chapter 22

  When the final round of the tournament rolled around, I’d turned into a total wreck. After seeing Cody with Tessa, I lost the will to travel for a couple of weeks. I’d spent so much time trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong, but there was nothing. Sure, I missed a few hints: in the beginning, Cody constantly getting texts, which I now recognized as being from the poor pregnant girl sitting home alone while he flitted around, gaming and hitting on other women. The call I overheard at the airport. Rarely talking about his personal life. But that hadn’t added up to anything this bad. I figured he was private. He was, of course. Now I understood why.

  Dad didn’t need me anymore, and the house would be a lot more comfortable for everyone if Holly used my room while I went back to my old travel schedule. Our place was plenty big for me and Dad, but having a third person living on the couch made it claustrophobic.