Page 81 of Ghostly

Perry was staring at him, mouth half-open, one hand supporting his jaw.

“Mr. Huxley?”

Perry continued to stare.

Gabriel cleared his throat. “Perry, you can’t act like this at an interview. I understand if you are in awe of your potential employers, but you can show it in other ways.”

Perry shook his head, as if waking from daydreaming. “Right. Sorry. What was the question?”

“You’d better not do that, either. Stay focused.” Maybe zoning out was Perry’s way to deal with pressure? Had he overdone it with the alarm clock? “Let’s start with the basics. Tell me why you’d like to work for our company.”

“Your game, Galaxy Hopper, is what inspired me to start drawing in the first place. I could spend hours just staring at the artwork—not that the story wasn’t impressive, either…”

Gabriel let out a breath as Perry rattled off a bunch of good, very personal reasons, mixed with some constructive criticism. At least he got over that weird zone-out. And the staring.

“… and so is your jawline. So… crisp.” Perry stared at him again, nearly drooling.

Spoken too soon.“Excuse me?”

“As if it was carved from the finest Carrara marble. And your face is as fine as that of Michelangelo’s David—”

“Perry!”

“Yes?” Sweetness dripped from Perry’s voice.

“Are you messing with me?”

“What? No.” Perry’s voice returned to normal. “Anyway, you’re the leading company in RPGs, and as someone who cares about the nuances of a story as much as the visual factor, I think I’d be a great fit for you. And you for me.”

What game was he playing? Gabriel forced himself to focus on the interview—somebody needed to be professional. “Thank you, Mr. Huxley.”

“No problem.” Perry let out a nearly giggling laugh. “You really are very nice.”

“Ahem, yes. Would you mind leading me through your portfolio? In particular, I’d like to discuss your working process on this project…”

Perry’s chair screeched as he pulled it, still half-sitting on it, closer to Gabriel. They stared at the laptop.

“This was one of my freelancing projects. Yeah, the client asked me to create backgrounds for a platform game. As you can see, the concept itself is simple…”

Perry’s hand landed on Gabriel’s thigh.

It’s just an accident. He’snervous, cut him some slack.

“…a progression from light to dark, to symbolize the inner journey…”

The hand squeezed.

“…so, here’s the beginning concept art, just sketches…”

The hand traveled higher.

Gabriel gritted his teeth. “Perry.”

“Yup?”

“I don’t know how to say this…” He carefully removed Perry’s hand from his thigh and placed it on the desk. “I don’t want to be offensive, or make you think I don’t like you, but… I don’t play for your team.”

“What?”