Page 32 of The Player Next Door
It was a shame he wasn’t interested in anything more, and neither was she, because Logan Walsh would be an excellent boyfriend.
The campaign was not going well. The Dragon Army had them on the ropes, and it turned out an un-cursed Ildash was significantly less powerful than he had been. Toni’s elf paladin—Degar, an expert swordsman who still didn’t trust Ildash—had taken heavy damage. Vaildra, Annie’s demon rogue, had been caught behind enemy lines and was trying to talk her way out of execution for espionage, while Yaen was bogged down with Ildash, who had been overcome by guilt for his previous actions and was refusing to join the battle for fear he would accidentally hurt someone on their side.
“Does Ildash have to have so many feelings?” Toni grumbled. “I’m basically fighting this war on my own right now.”
“As this game is our chance to escape from toxic masculinity and have men take responsibility for their actions for once, yes, the feelings are necessary. What’s your move, Degar? Healing potion or keep fighting?” Devi prompted.
“Healing potion, do you think?” Toni asked the group. “I feel like that has better odds, and I’ve been getting my ass kicked over here.”
Annie nodded sagely. “I agree. Healing potion.”
“Healing potion,” Toni repeated, rolling the dice.
“It works, but you have to retreat from the front lines while it takes effect. The Dragon Army is pressing in on your left flank, and the vanguard is taking heavy losses. And then suddenly, time stops. The armies freeze where they are, stalled mid-charge. A lone butterfly is suspended in the air in front of Vaildra between her and her interrogators.”
“Wait, are we about to meet—” Annie started.
“Shush. Patience,” Devi said. “A column of purple flame appears in the center of camp and Ildash leaves Yaen’s tent, approaching it cautiously. The flames solidify into the form of a woman, ethereally beautiful with glowing brown skin and thick, curly black hair. Finally, Ildash speaks. ‘. . . Your Majesty?’ ”
An explosion rocketed around Toni’s table. “The Amethyst Queen?” Annie screeched. “She came to help us?”
“She came to see you,” Devi qualified. “Help . . . that depends on next week.”
Clare pumped her fist, and Toni and Annie high-fived.
“Cannot believe we’re finally meeting her,” Clare said, sweeping up the crumbs of her seven-layer bars and dumping them onto her plate. “How was work this week, Devi? Any more run-ins with that lady?” she added.
Devi reached for the chips and guac Toni had brought. “You mean the professor who wants me to find that book that might be blue and maybe was published in the last ten years? And who thinks I’m incompetent for not producing it immediately? Now she says the cover was ‘maybe periwinkle,’ like that is at all helpful. What about you? You still pretending you aren’t into that dreamboat you banged?”
“I’m not,” Clare said with a casual shrug.
It wasn’t really the truth—Logan was quickly getting under her skin—but she couldn’t explain why she was holding back without having to explain the situation at work, and she knew how the girls would react to that.
What they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them. Devi and Annie especially still had a grudge about the time Craig had her try kayaking, and admitting this would probably end up with them trying to convince her to quit, and Clare couldn’t face that. This was her dream job and Craig was just trying to make her a better writer; she just had to prove herself, that’s all. Once she did that, he would back off. She was sure of it.
“You haven’t seen him at all?” Annie asked.
Once again, Clare shrugged. “I have, a bit. We hung out on the roof last night, but that’s it. It was all totally casual, no romance.” Admittingwe stayed up there all night talkingwould have raised way too many questions she didn’t want to answer.
Devi narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. He’s been clear he doesn’t want anything serious and anyway, we have like, nothing in common. He likesbasketball, for Christ’s sake.”
“Ew,” agreed Toni.
“Exactly. Which is why we’re just friends.”
“Okay, but you should know I’ve totally read this fanfic, and it ends with an epilogue where you’ve got a baby and another on the way,” Annie said.
“I guarantee that’s not what’s happening,” Clare said, just vehemently enough to make the rest of the group exchange looks. Clare decided it was time to change the subject. She asked Toni about her horses—Wayne and Garth—and fortunately, once Toni got going on her boys, literally nothing on earth could stop her.
But while Toni launched into a long story about the barn where she boards them and the owner’s insistence on being called Mama Horse, which was very unsettling, Clare let her mind wander back to Logan.
Saying that there weren’t feelings involved wasn’t exactly true, but it was the safest thing for her to tell herself. She was determined not to repeat old patterns, and her old self would have already been practicing signing her name asClare Walsh. Well, she probably wasn’t that bad, but she was, by definition, a girlfriend-girl.
The smartest thing to do would be to slowly disengage with Logan; let their bond gradually wither into nothing more than friendly elevator banter. It would suck, but it was necessary.
Chapter Sixteen