Page 17 of Looking for Group

Tinuviel sighed. “Before you went weird, I was trying to point out that the only extra information you have about someone when you meet them in person is what they look like. So, if we’re disregarding the not-hot theory, I don’t see what you’re so worried about.”

“Okay,” he tried again. “But the thing is, if we ditch all the prejudice stuff, there are still things you can tell by looking at someone that you can’t tell over the internet. Like, if they’re twelve or a man.”

“I think you’re oversimplifying gender identity a bit.”

He groaned. “I don’t know why I thought I should talk to you about this stuff.”

“Well, because Sanee would say you were an idiot. Whereas I’ve spent the last ten minutes telling you that it’s probably fine, and you should see what happens. Which is blatantly what you want to hear.”

“Oh.”

She looked up and smiled. “Come on, Drew, if you genuinely like this girl, what’s the harm? I mean, obviously, meet in a public place and tell someone where you’re going, but really, if she turns out to be twelve or a man, then what have you lost?”

Drew thought about it. And, actually, she was sort of right.

Either he would meet a great girl who he also fancied, and that would be cool, or he would meet a great girl who he didn’t fancy, which might be a bit awkward and make him feel shallow, but at least he’d know.

Or none of the above, in which case he’d still know, and that would be better than… than…not.

“Thanks, T.”

“Anytime. I hope she’s whatever you think you’re supposed to expect her to be.”

***

Drew had another medusa date with Solace that night, and told himself very firmly that he was going to take the opportunity to come clean, and ask if she wanted to meet up in real life.

He did not take the opportunity to come clean and ask if she wanted to meet up in real life.

Part of the problem was that there wasn’t a good time to do it.

He kept trying, but it would have seemed really weird to bring it up of nowhere when they were battling crabmen or uncovering hidden demon cults.

But mostly he was just enjoying playing the game and being with Solace so much that he forgot he was supposed to be on a mission.

So, what with one thing and another, both Saturday and Sunday slipped by without him making anything that remotely resembled a move.

As they were wishing each other goodnight and he was kicking himself for not saying anything again , he realised he was genuinely afraid of messing this up.

Because Tinuviel had sort of been wrong.

He did have something to lose, and that was the time he spent with Solace now, which was turning into the highlight of his day.

And if he asked her on a date and she freaked out, that would spoil everything.

And if they met up and it didn’t work out, then that would spoil everything too.

And maybe he didn’t want to know if she was really a twelve-year-old French boy because this was good enough that it didn’t seem to matter.

While he was finishing off his chair on Monday, with Sanee texting Steff at the next terminal, it occurred to him he actually hadn’t had a girlfriend in ages.

It had been the best part of a year since he’d broken up with Abby, who’d been his obligatory disastrous first-year fling.

Admittedly, he’d kind of been busy with other things, but it had been nice having someone who was sort of there for you, and not just in a knocking-on-your-mate’s-door-on-a-Saturday-morning way.

He’d never had the super squidgy twu-wuv-forevah thing that Sanee and Steff had, and he wasn’t sure he wanted it.

His previous relationships—and, to be fair, there were only a couple—had been basically okay, with no expectations that they’d wind up going anywhere.

But he hoped there was some middle ground between that kind of comfortable default and calling each other Smidge.

Of course, he didn’t want to be all Tinuviel about it either, and have some intense passionate affair that lasted about thirty seconds like a not very good firework.

What it came down to was that he wanted someone who he liked being with about as much as he liked being with Solace and who liked being with him about as much as Solace seemed to.

And someone who was into the same stuff he was into—kind of like Solace was.

And if they were clever and funny and probably too good for him, then that was a bonus.

A train of thought that could best be summarised as: just ask her out already.

They’d probably hang out together in Alarion after the raid, so he could do it then.

Definitely for real this time.

He nipped out to the pub for the Monday-night special with the usual crowd, but for some reason it was really busy and his food didn’t show up for an hour.

Which left him minutes to get back to his room, get online, repair his armour, double-check his gems and enchants, and make sure he had plenty of consumables.

He was already halfway to CoT when he noticed the message from Morag:

Guild Message of the day: Tiff has a hot date, booyah, so Solace will be leading tonight’s jaunt into CoT, with Bjorn on loot master, assistance, and sarcasm. Thanks to Sindarella for stepping in with his storm spec. lol. Good luck, have fun, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. xxx

[Guild][Heurodis]: Get your arse in the instance and your ears into mumble noob

[Guild][Ialdir]: See this is why you don’t get to raid lead

[Guild][Heurodis]: it’s so hard when no one else lives up to your standards

[Guild][Orcarella]: sorry i’m late

[Guild][Orcarella]: dinner took ages

[Guild][Orcarella]: won’t happen again

[Guild][Jargogle]: Don’t worry, you’re not technically late

[Guild][Jargogle]: Bjorn’s just having one of his little power trips

[Guild][Jargogle]: Despite having no actual power

[Guild][Heurodis]: hey don’t make me demonstrate my power by gkicking you

[Guild][Jargogle]: You will never gkick me Bjorn. My DPS is too good.

A raid invite came in, and Drew accepted it. He might not have been technically late, but he was the last one in the group.

Ella, still wearing her tuxedo, charged into the instance like she was late for school, and while he waited for the load screen, Drew alt-tabbed and logged in to Mumble.

“—good ship Same Crit Different Day. In Morag’s absence, I’ll be your raid leader tonight, because the last time Bjorn did it, three people gquit.”

“Ah, they were all scrubs and noobs.”

Drew’s brain had gone a bit frozen. He’d heard the first voice before, but he hadn’t managed to place who it was. It was kind of a nice voice—soft, and calm, and a bit laughing and a bit posh—but what it definitely didn’t sound like, was a girl.

At least, he didn’t think it was a girl.

And while Tinuviel would remind him that girls could sound all kinds of ways for all kinds of reasons, sometimes the simplest explanation was, in fact, the correct one.

“Prospero and I will be your life force replenishment facilitation subcommittee, as usual,” Solace went on.

“Dave and Magda will be the ministers in charge of sticking pointy objects into people. Bjorn, Jacob, Ignatius, and Mordant will be the department with general responsibility for fiery death.”

“Shadowy death,” interrupted Bjorn. “Fiery death is for teenagers who can’t play a proper spec.”

[Raid][Mordant]: Hey!!

Solace sighed. “Bjorn, you are why we can’t have nice things.

Ignore him, Mordant, he’s just insecure about having another diabolist on the run.

Anyway, as I was saying—unless there’s anyone else you want to be rude to, Bjorn—Heurodis, Mordant, Ignatius, and Ialdir will be ranged DPS.

Our tanks for this evening will be Orcarella and Sindarella.

Obviously, we’ve only got two melee DPS, and our OT is a storm elementalist, so fasten your seat belts, it might be a bumpy raid.

Remember we’re a good team and it’s a fresh reset and we’ve got a lot of experience with this content, so let’s stay calm, stay focused, and kick some arse. ”

It was a very Solacey speech, and Drew would have enjoyed it if he hadn’t been too busy freaking the hell out and kind of being angry at himself for freaking the hell out.

Worse, he had no excuse for being surprised. Because he’d thought about this probably actually quite a lot. And, as far as he could remember, she’d, or he’d or, for that matter, they’d—he was really trying not to make assumptions—never actually said they were a girl.

Solace hadn’t actually lied or led him on. At worst they’d been slightly evasive and let Drew draw his own conclusions. So he had no reason to feel betrayed.

Except he did. Utterly. 3

What he really wanted to do was gquit, turn off his computer, and go hide in a hole forever, but that would have made him a total dick.

It wasn’t the guild’s fault that he’d broken the first rule of the internet because he was trying to challenge sexist stereotypes.

And also because he’d…really liked someone.

Who seemed increasingly likely to be a boy IRL.

But it wasn’t just about Solace. He’d been getting on really well with the guild.

They were good people, and he was having fun with them.

He was even enjoying raiding again for the first time in what felt like forever.

Except he didn’t know how he was supposed to stick around now.

Maybe Solace hadn’t been deliberately making a fool out of him, but that was basically what they’d done.