/Selena, you absolute twat, you owe me a hug and some drinks./

  \Fuck, Sabs, let a girl materialize first, bitch.\

  /Café or sushi?/

  \Buh, sushi at my place. You caught me barely resurrected. I’ve got the coffee and sake.\

  /Bet./

  I stagger out in my brown-ass legs to the kitchen in my London condo. The junior espresso machine beeps as I glare at it, knowing my order already. I look down at my compression shorts and sleep shirt and shrug at my pre-coffee attire. If Sabrina shows up before my first cuppa, this is on her.

  I’m holding my mug in one hand and comparing tops in the other when the door rings. A groan seeps from me and a frilly sleeveless crop that matches my skirt wins the day. I decline both socks and shoes as I move to the door with my zombie resurrection liquid.

  “Damn, Sellie, you were not joking about the resurrection.”

  “Fuck off Sabs. Come in, get comfortable, and feed me.” She chuckles and closes the door behind her.

  “Did I catch you first?”

  “Yeah, hon. My alerts send you a text immediately when I arrive. I sent Kavita a message . . . Earth hours ago, so she won’t be here for a bit.”

  “Yeah, whatever about your goth bae, I want advertising, chica.” She cracks the seal on the plastic platter of sushi. I’m slightly offended at the basement quality of her offering.

  “I only have genuine sports, or leisure wear that I’m eligible for without Ophelia crushing your dreams, so which is it?”

  “Active wear. The girls and I want a campaign together.”

  I groan and slam a few roll sections into my mouth. Yep, bargain sushi. Bitch. “We have to submit the shoot, Sabs. Have you storyboarded, socialized, anything?”

  “I have talent in mind, and I know you can produce—or so I heard—so you’re my first stop.”

  “Yeah, you’re going to need to sit. This isn’t a hi and bye job.”

  She groans but accepts as I talk with her about what she’s looking for. Long distance, but community and support. I send her the image and limited manipulation forms. She argues about those for half an hour before I show her an addendum that she’s happy with.

  “We could film this tomorrow!!”

  “No, you calm the fuck down. These are serious contracts, and I have to pitch this to Ophelia if you want me in the spot, so just put together your pitch with what we’ve organized, put me on as a collaborator and get your people on board. You want to get ahead of the game? We film a few spots and put that in our pitch, with the knowledge she’s going to ask for re-shoots and manipulation if she picks it up. Logos and whatnot.”

  “Jesus, Sellie, you think this will work?”

  “If you can get Lucy onboard, I can almost guarantee we pick up an activewear sponsor.”

  “But it’s Lucy, can you talk to her? She loves you!”

  “Not my spot. She’s also athleisure trending, so she’d be a shoe in with her sponsor on board.”

  “Why can’t you just do this for me!” Sabs whines.

  “Because I have a full day of bullshit already?! I have nothing to show, so I can’t convince shit. I have no athletic deal, no leisure deal. You’re gonna have to do the work, so getting Lucy to help is your big break chica. Tell Lucy that I’m willing to be in the spot, she’ll be more open.”

  “Not the kind of open I need Sellie.”

  I chuckle at that, “You and I both know that if that was the requirement, you’d try to convince me to fall on that sword.”

  She scoffs, “Like Lucy is a burden. She’s all about you too, so tread carefully, Selena.”

  “Uuugh. I know. I didn’t before our pool party, but now I KNOW. Unfortunately, like two days short?”

  “Nope! I will not be involved in your relationship drama unless you are sure about someone. I learned that lesson.” She pulls me into a hug, then swats the back of my head for being a dummy.

  ***

  “Good to see you, Selena. I don’t like meeting in offices, walk with me?” I nod and we walk toward the elevator. “We’ve been storing moments for the Alaris beta, but since we can’t release those yet, we need you back for . . . a week.”

  “Ophelia, a week is like three in Alaris. I, I need a stacked plan to keep me from trying to weave my time.”

  “You have no day that has more than an hour break for the next fourteen days. Unless you want to relax your contract for evenings.”

  “Crap on toast, Ophelia! I thought you said a week.” I complain.

  “I need a week, I want two.” No bargaining, no begging, just expectation. Damn this competent woman.

  “Fine, eight am to eight pm. I get an hour for lunch.”

  “Seven and we get you an OT bonus for two of those hours.”

  “Seven to nine, OT for four, but you have coffee and snacks onsite.”

  “Done.”

  “Fuck.”

  Ophelia cackles and side hugs me. “Don’t complain too hard, you get some sassy wardrobe pieces from this.”

  When the silence persists, I bump her with a glare.

  “Some cosplay items, a sniper outfit for Sniper’s Folley, which will be a limited edition purchase in game.”

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Waaaait. Are we at that popularity level? Any other games on the table that I can play my own LE release?”

  She scoffs and chuckles. “You are on SF. Your rise with a shit pickup squad is viral. Fathoms, which I know is what you’re asking for, is a hard no unless you win a championship.”

  I swear and kick a pebble that was errantly in the hallway. I may have swore and summoned a coffee to throw at a random meeting room wall.

  “I’ll pay for that, but, shit. I would really like a fucking FoF skin.”

  “And Now is where I take advantage of your vulnerability and desire.”

  “Goddess smite you, Ophelia. Get to it please, I have more tantrum to get to otherwise.”

  “For someone that has a multi-million-dollar social media presence, you sure are ungrateful.”

  “Probably has something to do with me seeing much less than half of that. Just a guess.”

  She swats my shoulder and I nod. I know the price, the team, and the leeway it gets me with management as a payoff. Yeah, I know, but getting about a third of my worth from a service grates a little. It pays for her to manage my other leagues and media, so I shouldn’t complain. I ask though.

  “Do you ever want to pass my account to someone else?”

  She snorts, “No. Orion is allowing me to double dip, and I make seven figures on a bad year now. You are not quite half my revenue stream at this point, but close. I will surrender your account when hands are shriveled and cold. That said, Darth Hamster made a request that I think you’ll like. Somehow that gamer knows you better than I do.”

  Is she trying to torture me with that pause?! “Ophelia, get to it chica.”

  “Bah, you have no mind for suspense!”

  “If I have to deal with suspense, ten grand better be on the line!”

  “How about a championship avatar? Hamster offered his up for conditions.”

  “How the fuck? You can’t buy that kind of thing?”

  “Yet he’s selling, and his legal got FoF to agree. If the champion itself was used in the championship best of seven, they’ll make your skin.”

  “Tell me what I’ve agreed to. You knew I was going to take this. You even baited me into this conversation.”

  “Recording it too. With the normal caveats, of course. Hamster wants you to duo with him for the whole season break. We have a schedule. He also wants you to scrim on his FPS games.”

  “Is FoF going to make me an off-set edition? Or collab on the team skin?”

  “Yep, Hamster will endorse whatever skin you want, but it will release as a special edition before the team skin. Gamer was the MVP after all. They just need your key words.”

  “Desolate Phase Hunter Celeste. Custom weapon and animations.”

  She grins and sends a vid. Goddess I’m a predictable bitch. “That went better than I’d hoped. I didn’t realize how hooked you were in FoF. We got a nod to consider your skin for not the next auto chess expansion, but the one after that.”

  “You didn’t save that as a bargaining chip?” I wonder what the catch is.

  “You historically respond poorly to piecemeal packaging, so once you agree to something, I have the team commit to everything that we can commit to. Once Alaris came online, I figured this approach was prudent in keeping you in the ATC when I need you.”

  “It’s moments like this, that I am both glad and angry that you are so good at your job. That said, Sabrina has an active wear pitch she’s working on that I’m onboard for.”

  “You’re not known for it, possibly hard sell.”

  “If I get Lucy onboard?”

  “Easy sell, print money. Are you and Lucy still friendly after you dropped the Choppah bomb?”

  I wince. Lucy was definitely into me, and I was being the hoe that I usually am the last time we were close. I need to talk with her.

  ***

  “Kavita!” I leap at my roommate and current person I am seeing. I hug her and kiss her cheek.

  She turns red and lightly pushes me away. Confusion and hurt pulse through me. “Sorry, Selena, I just. I don’t know? We had one date and this scares me.”

  A concrete pillar pulls at my middles, trying to drown me. “Did I do something wrong? Is there someone in the real that you . . .”

  “No! Shit no. Fuck, Selena, that’s not what I . . . crap how do I fix this?”

  “Kiss me and show me how you feel? Or I dunno, don’t be cold, distant and standoffish?”

  She huffs, steps forward and puts her hands on the sides of my neck. She presses a firm kiss to my cheek and I am disappointed. I wanted to make out and feel like I had a person, my person in at least one world. Fuck hope, right?

  “Like, I can tell that’s not what you were looking for, but, I . . .” she breathes heavy, then hugs me, her head lying on my shoulder. “This scares me Zhansta. I, what if this ruins my career, what if this ruins my mind? Somehow the passion with which I fought you in game is converted to some madness of longing that is . . . hard to manage.”

  Oh, it’s not that she’s confused, she’s just overwhelmed. I can handle that. I understand that pain. “Shh, Chops, I got you.” I start running my fingers through the back of her hair. “We can pause, or we can never start. I would hate that, because I desperately want to make out with you, but I will respect what you need.”

  “Zhantsa. Fuck, you’re not supposed to be nice and considerate. You’re supposed to fight with me until I have no choice but to fuck you or walk away.”

  “Uh, I want more than that bi-polar approach? I want a girlfriend, a partner, someone that I can live with and occasionally share a coffee with while we are both too lazy to exist in anything more than our underwear.”

  “Gods, you are mushy, Zhan. It’s cute, and you’re so damned pretty that I get afraid. You have model friends! What if they want you too, hells, I know they do!”

  I flick her nose. “You can stop that. In the ATC, I’m your girl if you want me. I can’t have an Earth girl, but I also have the new immersive game construct, that I can nix any romantic ties if you need.”

  “Okay, I hate being vulnerable, but I can give this a shot. Selena, Zhantsa, either. Can I kiss you?”

  “Yes please.” I bounce on my toes, impatient as I watch her have second, third and fourth thoughts while I have already committed my mind to kissing her and maybe nibbling on her pouty lip a little.

  She pauses close to me, her hands pausing in a hover. I’m at wits end so I pull one against my waist and guide the other to cup the side of my face. The second hand thankfully continues moving and our lips meet.

  Tentative at first, I allow her to settle in before licking her lips. When I get fed up enough to bite her, she finally gets the message.

  “You impatient shit,” she growls and then finally mugs me with her mouth and hands. Ooh! A knee and a body press against the door, now we’re talking!

  Not talking, making out. Whatever. My hands begin wandering, and over about half an hour she checks my advances to move on to more sexy times, and as a respectful new girlfriend behave. We move to the couch and she presses into me with her body and it is so nice I moan into her lips.

  “Zhan, jesus. That was scandalous.”

  “And yet I am willing to do much more than just moan for you.” I think I am being sexy, and Kavita sits back and grumps at me.

  “Can’t say I’m fond of the pressure. I’m not going to sleep with you today.”

  “I get that, but I can’t help how the things you do make me feel, or how hot I think you are. Despite that, I haven’t gone near your erogenous zones since you asked me not to. I haven’t even been kissing your neck for fucks sake.”

  “Ugh, this was a mistake.” She gets up, runs her hands through her hair and walks to her room, pausing right at the door. “What no comment.”

  “I don’t think your views on this being a mistake has as much to do with me as it does to do with whatever’s been cycling through your mind since you walked in. I thought it was the relationship stuff we talked about. I guess that wasn’t it. I’m sorry if you feel that I’m pressuring you. I can pack my desire away if that’s what you want.”

  “What? Just like that?”

  “Oh don’t you start. You push me away, then you think I’m throwing you away when I want to give you space? If you’re looking to start a fight, don’t meander about it, fucking fight or take a walk.”

  “Yeah, I do want to fight. I want you to yell at me like you do after our matches, I want my team mate more than I want a relationship. I don’t want our dynamic to change, and don’t like the control you have over my life right now!”

  “What control, Choppah? I’ve invited you to be my friend. I’ve tried to ease your burdens. If you want to fucking struggle with everything instead of accept my help, then be my guest, go struggle! Fuck me for caring right? Why treat you like a human right?”

  She stands at the door, not saying a thing, not having the courage to meet my eyes. I stand up and head to my room. “You’re in control, Choppah. Decide what you want to do. I’m going to head back downstairs to get some work done. Message me if you want to have dinner later.”