She's Got Game Page 9

  I’m in town for a board game tournament starting tomorrow, and my goal for this evening–other than partaking in the aforementioned BBQ–is to solve the mystery of this head. Is it big AND giant? Why does it exist? What is its purpose?

  The life of a travel blogger is never dull, folks. Someone remind me to come back to Charlotte and make a real Top 10 Things To Do list. But for now, my time is dedicated to defeating the competition and finding the best local game stores.

  Chapter 9

  The average temperature in Charlotte for July neared the melting point of human flesh. Throw in an obscene amount of humidity, and I wondered why I ever left Boston. For the first time in ages, I booked a room at the conference hotel to avoid going outside. Other than a quick trip with Holly to the Big Giant Head, of course. Whatever that was.

  My decision had nothing at all to do with knowing Cody never stayed in the conference hotels, or that refusing to leave the hotel once the competition started helped prevent any possibility of a repeat of our awkward moment in New York City. Nope.

  When I arrived at the room, I called myself a dozen types of coward. It was perfect for the average business traveler: clean, large windows, no soul. The interior looked exactly like every other hotel room I’d ever seen. Five minutes after check out, I’d forget all about it. Even with a dozen pictures, it would be impossible to recall this specific place later.

  Looking around the adequate, devoid-of-character room, I vowed never to stay at a conference hotel again. It made no sense to diminish my enjoyment of the competitions, especially when I had to find things to write about for my blog and expand my audience. This hotel wouldn’t interest my existing or prospective readers.

  In the lobby, I met up with Holly. We went outside, where we asked a very confused driver to take us to “the Big Giant Head.”

  “Wouldn’t that be an enormous head?”

  “Probably,” I said.

  “What’s it attached to?” he asked.

  “That’s why we’re going,” Holly said. “We don’t know.”

  The driver shrugged. “I’ll take you wherever, but I live here, and I’ve never heard of this thing. What’s the address?”

  Apparently, not the thriving tourist attraction we’d been led to expect. Still, I found the address on my phone and minutes later, we were on our way.

  To the surprise of no one, no line of Charlotte visitors ringed the block, desperate to get a glimpse of this creation. In fact, we were the only ones paying any attention to it. The Big Giant Head sat in an office building plaza. Workers wandered here and there, but in the middle of an excruciatingly hot Friday afternoon, no one stopped to look at the head en route to their destination. I didn’t blame them.

  True to its name, the Big Giant Head was quite large. Nothing indicated why the locals felt the need to give it a redundant name. It towered above the plaza, probably at least twenty feet high. Hundreds, or possibly thousands, of mirrors covered the surface of the enormous cranium.

  “Huh,” Holly said. “That’s a big, giant head.”

  “That it is,” I agreed. “Is it also an enormous disco ball?”

  “It might be. It’s certainly shiny.”

  Despite our amusement (and confusion), the Big Giant Head did not disappoint. It was quirky and not something found in dozens of cities across the United States. My readers would appreciate reading about my trip to such a random and kind of cool monument.

  Then it opened its mouth and started spitting water. The stream fell into a pool surrounding the sculpture, missing us by a mile, but Holly screamed anyway. When we finished laughing, we pulled out our phones and started snapping pics, with the help of the driver who had agreed to stay and take us back. We posed as secret service agents, body builders, supermodels, and The Thinker before deciding to move on.

  After leaving the Big Giant Head, we found a barbecue place near the hotel for dinner. Over the years, I’d been slowly comparing the types of barbecue found in different parts of the United Sates. Growing up in New England, I hadn’t realized meat cooked over a fire came in so many varieties, but this was apparently a hotly debated issue throughout the country. Multiple states declared their style “the best.”

  We ordered a sampler to get an idea of the local flavor. As soon as the waitress walked away with our menus, I asked, “So, how’s living on Shannon’s couch working out?”

  Her face turned pink. “Oh, no. Is she complaining about me already?”

  “Nah. She loves having you. I’m just concerned about the roommate. You know how Ellen is set in her ways. But Shannon’s working with her,” I said. “I just meant, staying in a hotel bed for the weekend might be a refreshing change.”

  “It really is,” she said. “Except for the expense. Money’s been tight.”

  “Don’t tell me Lucas is refusing to give you your half the business. You built that place from scratch. There wouldn’t be a company if it weren’t for you!”

  With every word I grew more indignant on Holly’s behalf. The two of them conceived of the company during our second year of graduate school. Holly set up the website and the app–which was most of the business. Lucas handled finding investors and clients to get the company off the ground.

  With a heavy sigh, she took a long pull from her drink, looking like she wished it contained something stronger than soda. “No, he gave me half of what was in the joint account.”

  “So what’s the problem? You guys were doing well.”

  “That’s…unfortunately not accurate,” she said. “I didn’t want to say anything because I was so embarrassed, but I can’t hide this from my best friends. When I went over the books, I discovered Lucas’s been using funds from new investors to pay off the old ones and keeping a chunk for himself. He’s not investing in anything.”

  “What, like Bernie Madoff?”

  “Exactly. He’s been running a pyramid scheme with our business. I had no idea.”

  One hand went to my mouth, and I gazed at her, completely at a loss for words for probably the first time. Lucas seemed like a total douche, but I never thought he was a criminal. Then again, he also never struck me as the type of person who had the brain power required to pull off that type of scam. Since we’d been friends for years, and she wasn’t going to take him back now, I said as much to Holly.

  She snorted at me. “Well, to be fair, he wasn’t smart enough to pull it off. He got caught, and not just by me. One of the newer investors filed a complaint, and now he’s facing twenty years in jail.”

  Holy shit. I’d never liked the guy, but wow. I never dreamed he was capable of something like this. The news punched me in the stomach. Poor Holly.

  Her face was unreadable, and this bombshell required caution. So I went all therapist. “And how do you feel about that?”

  “Oh, I don’t care at all about him going to jail,” she said. “But I’m so angry I could scream. I’m getting nothing from the company. Worse, I’m under investigation by the SEC. Our car is gone, and our condo is getting confiscated by the government to pay back the money he stole.”

  “Why can’t Lucas give it back?”

  “He funneled almost everything into offshore bank accounts. There’s no way to access the money.” She sighed. “Guess he’s smarter than you thought.”

  “Isn’t there anything we can do? My dad’s friends with a couple of cops.”

  “No, thanks. I don’t want to get Nathan involved. Besides, the feds are handling it.”

  “Have you talked to your dad?” I hesitated to ask the question, because they didn’t have the best relationship. Holly’s parents divorced she was a baby. She’d had a good relationship with her dad through high school. Then he met her StepMonster, and everything changed. It was a touchy subject, but her father could help her out financially if she needed him.

  “I was hoping not to have to say anythin
g until it blew over. Hell, the StepMonster would probably use this to ban my visits, and I don’t get home enough as it is.” She sighed and shook her head.

  My heart broke for her. “I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

  “You’ve done a lot by being my friend and making me part of your family,” she said. “It’ll be okay. Honestly, the fewer people who know, the better. This whole thing is so embarrassing. I just want to move on with my life, you know?”

  Her comment struck a chord in me. My mind unwittingly flitted to my run-in with my mother in New York City. I’d kept it a secret from Holly and Shannon because I didn’t want to go into what almost happened after–and how for a moment, I’d wanted to break my rules. Maybe keeping it all inside prevented me from moving on. Maybe that was why Cody took up so much of my mental real estate. Even after weeks of not seeing him, he was tied to what happened that night.

  A thousand times, I’d replayed the scene with Beverly in my mind. What could I have said differently? What could I have done? Should I have followed them outside? Introduced myself to the man with her? If I hadn’t frozen, maybe I wouldn’t have wound up sobbing next to a rack of mascara wands in Duane Reade. Or maybe, if she’d been forced to acknowledge me and rejected me anyway, things would’ve gone worse. I’d never know.

  A tiny, ridiculously optimistic part of me suggested reaching out to her again, in case the whole thing had been a mistake. But I wasn’t up for getting my heart trampled a third time.

  To answer Holly’s question, I nodded. “I actually know exactly how you feel. There’s something I haven’t told you guys.”

  As the waitress set down our food, I spilled everything. Holly’s eyes grew more round with each word, but she munched on her hush puppies and didn’t interrupt. To avoid answering her questions, I stuffed a monster bite of cornbread into my mouth, but she thought for a long time before saying anything. At some point, I had to swallow.

  When she spoke, her train of thought hadn’t gone in the direction I expected. “You really miss her, don’t you?”

  I thought of the woman who constantly barked at me to be quiet, who told me to go play outside, about the air of tension that vanished from our home when she left. “I miss the idea of her.”

  “You mean having a mom?”

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded. “I get it. I’m sorry. I wish I knew what to tell you.”

  “The whole thing makes me feel like crap, you know? Not ‘my mom ditched me,’ which is bad enough. On some level, I understand that she married too young. She wanted to leave my dad. When I was a kid, I let myself believe she couldn’t take me with her. It’s easy to feel bad for her. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if I’d gotten pregnant at fifteen.”

  “Right. If Lucas and I had a child on top of everything else…” She shuddered. “Your dad’s definitely a keeper.”

  “He is, and I’m lucky to have him. But after seeing the way Beverly looked right through me, I know she didn’t want me. No unseen forces drove us apart. Nothing kept her from taking me.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “She was horrified at the sight of me. As if the reminder of my very existence disgusted her. If she regretted leaving me, she couldn’t have pretended not to recognize me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Holly said.

  “And now, I’ll always wonder why I wasn’t good enough, why she didn’t want me.”

  “That’s normal,” she said. “But, Gwen, you were a little girl when she left. You didn’t do anything.”

  “Intellectually, I’m sure you’re right. But on some level…Maybe if I hadn’t bugged her so much while she was studying, she’d have stayed. Maybe I should have been an easier child.”

  “You. Were. Ten. What were you supposed to do, raise yourself?”

  “You’re right. I know you’re right, but it’s tough to keep the thoughts at bay. On top of everything else, I feel disloyal to my dad,” I said. “He’s wonderful. He’s the only parent I need.”

  “But it still hurts.”

  “Yeah.”

  She reached across the table and patted my hand. “It’s okay, you know, to have those feelings. To be sad about being raised without a mother, to miss the idea of what it would’ve been like. Loving your dad doesn’t mean you can’t also miss having a mom. That doesn’t make you a bad daughter. It makes you human. It would probably be much stranger if you never thought or wondered about her.”

  “I didn’t used to wonder. Not much, anyway. Seeing her—seeing how she didn’t want to know me—threw me.”

  “Again, a normal reaction. Anyone would feel that way.”

  “Would anyone have nearly kissed their sworn enemy as a result?”

  She gasped and leaned forward. “OMG, really? You almost kissed Cody? Tell me more!”

  “There’s not much to say. I remembered who he was, my rules, and I pulled away.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have.” She shrugged at my look of outrage. “Come on, he’s gorgeous. I’d think about planting one on him myself if I weren’t an emotional wreck, and if he weren’t so clearly into you.”

  I sighed, stirring the ice in my diet soda instead of meeting her eyes. After the blow my mother dealt me, it was hard to believe a stranger could care about me. “I don’t believe he’s really into me, even though he said it. He’s such a flirt. So cocky. I assumed he was messing with my head, that he talked to all the female gamers like that.”

  “Then why doesn’t he flirt with me?”

  “Probably because of Lucas.” Briefly, I explained his role in discovering her boyfriend’s deception. “Cody’s not a total ass. He wants to win and isn’t above using his good looks and charm to make it happen, but he’s not going to take advantage of knowing you’re on the rebound.”

  “Or maybe he likes you, and is giving you space. There’s something to be said for a guy that respects when a woman says no.”

  After our talk in New York, her words didn’t seem as ludicrous as they once would have. “Maybe. He did tell me he’s not looking for a hookup, but I keep wondering if that’s true. Partially because of the groupie comment.”

  “He said that to get under your skin. Look how it’s working.”

  “Maybe. But then, who’s he texting all the time?” I didn’t mention that every time he sent a text, I envisioned Lucas, picking up women using an app while Holly sat on the couch beside him. But I couldn’t shake that image. If Cody couldn’t be bothered to give me his full attention when we were together, he didn’t deserve my time. “Why doesn’t he ever talk about himself? We spent hours together at the bar, talking about gaming and stuff, but I don’t know any more about him as a person than I did before. If he were interested, he’d open up.”

  “He told you he wanted more than a hookup. That’s something.”

  “Maybe. Then again, that’s exactly what a player would say. If I sleep with him, he’ll probably vanish. Same as Don.” My ex—and I used the term pretty loosely here—inspired the “no gamers” rule when I woke up the morning after our first time only to discover he’d told everyone he banged me to win a bet. Even after a few years, the memory of the way he laughed at me in front of everyone still made me shudder. Later that day, I missed out on moving to the next round of that year’s competition.

  Not to mention the fact that I’d been thinking about his betrayal when my car accident occurred. Dating the competition only led to disaster.

  “Not all guys are like Don. Not all parents are like your mother. Some people stick around. Plenty of people have happy, healthy relationships. I mean, I’ve read about them.”

  “It’s refreshing to see you still so idealistic, after everything.”

  “What can I say? I’m an optimist,” Holly said. “Lucas is screwing up my life in so many ways, I can’t let him make me give up on love, too. I love love.
I want love. I mean, sure, it may be awhile before I’m ready to date again, but I’m still rooting for you to find someone.”

  “Maybe some people want happy, healthy relationships,” I said, “but maybe I’m not meant to be one of them. I’m fine on my own.”

  Something within me twinged at the words, but I ignored it. I was fine on my own. I didn’t need my mother; I didn’t need a boyfriend—or anyone—least of all Cody. Even if I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Chapter 10

  The first day of gaming flew by. I spotted Cody across the room a couple of times, but we weren’t scheduled to play each other. If he wanted to talk to me, he hid it well, thereby reinforcing my belief that he’d only pretended to be interested to gain an advantage. If he wanted more than a hookup, then not talking to me seemed incongruous. However, his behavior made perfect sense for a guy who wanted to get laid and/or mess with the head of his competition.

  Either he’d gotten bored, or he was doing well enough on his own that he didn’t need to seduce me, or he’d decided I wasn’t much of a threat. If it was the second or third option, I’d show him in Vegas.

  I played one game with Holly early in the day. Thanks to some bad luck, she came in third, but I wasn’t too worried about her. Another game or two, and she’d be right back in it. Besides, while I wanted my friend to do well, I still intended to win this thing. Second place got nothing.

  My last game of the day ended before hers, so I waited near her table. Contestants were allowed to watch other games in progress when they weren’t playing, as long as we didn’t comment on the game, interfere, or otherwise help. With a zero tolerance policy and immediate disqualification, no one abused the privilege. Usually, I didn’t even approach other games out of an abundance of caution.

  Holly sat with a girl I didn’t know who looked barely legal, Tom from Boston, and Dustin. The four of them were absorbed in the game, so I texted Shannon an update on the day’s events while waiting for them to finish. I didn’t see Cody anywhere. Not that I was looking.