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She wasexactlythe type of indie game designer I’d been looking for, someone with a passion for the industry, for creating in-depth story-telling, with a flair for world building that sucked players in and gave them the escape they craved. Someone who just needed access to better equipment and a little help to possibly dominate the industry someday.

“Are you still playing Madalena’s game?”

I looked up from my laptop screen, a little annoyed that I didn’t have my gaming rig with me.

“Can you blame me?” I asked, tugging my headset off and hanging it around my neck. “This is better than most of the stuff that’s being punted in the industry right now, and it hasn’t even been rendered yet.”

“I take it you’ve found your gem?” Mia asked, sounding infinitely proud of herself.

As she should.

I looked at her. She buzzed about the hotel room,myhotel room, her indoor slippers shuffling along the tiles. She wore a pair of jeans and a simple T-shirt; the rest of our day was pretty much free, and she’d insisted she wanted to make lunch.

I wanted to tell her I’d found my gem years ago.

“What the fuck,” I breathed, forcing my eyes back to the pause screen. Where the hell had that come from?

I sounded like Hayden…

“You say something?” Mia asked.

“Hm? Oh, right. Yeah, I think Madalena is definitely what we’re looking for,” I said quickly covering up, dragging my fingernail over the length of my space bar.

“Pensei assim,” she teased, and I groaned. “Come on, please?”

My phone vibrated loudly in front of me and Mia looked like she might jump across the table to snatch it out of reach. But she sighed in defeat and I silently thanked Alex for her excellent timing.

“Hey,” I said, excusing myself into the privacy of my room. I knew Alex would bring something up that I couldn’t talk about in front of Mia.

“So,” she said, drawing the single syllable out.

“I’m already regretting taking this call.” I sighed, sitting down on my bed and crossing one leg over the other.

“Oh, did something happen?” she asked, and I could picture her eyebrows waggling villainously.

“Apart from a minor accident the other day and Mia finding out that I learned Portuguese, no, not really.”

“Finally! Wait, what accident?”

“It wasn’t anything major,” I told her. “Just a little fender bender in traffic. But Mia was out of it and this guy was going off for no reason. I kind of just… smoothed things over, I guess.”

“Were either of you hurt?”

“No, we’re both fine,” I said. “But Mia’s been a little different lately.”

“Maybe because you kissed her?”

“Har har,” I drawled. “No, this is something else. Something that doesn’t have anything to do with me. At least, that’s what it feels like.”

“Why do you say that?”

I took a deep breath and picked at the soft silk sheets beneath me. “You know Mia doesn’t drink, right?” I said. “Like, she enjoys a glass of wine here and there but she’s not a drinker.”

“Yeah, she got tipsy on a vodka soda and a tequila shot at Cameron’s birthday party last year,” Alex recalled, and I nodded.

“She went to hang out with her family the other day,” I explained. “That day I hung up on you? She’d dropped a wine glass. Alex, you should have seen her. She was borderline trashed.”

“What the hell.”