“How did I let you talk me into this?”

  “Seriously Sellie? You’ve got a perfume model on your shoulders. I got Takahashi to serve us sushi all night. This is your kind of party!” She says from a footballer’s shoulders as she plays aggressive patty-cake with Luna, the stunner on my shoulders. Sturdy Latina for the win. She’s right though, if Kavita wants to be an ass, that’s on her.

  We win the chicken war, and then the photographer slash server corrals us for volleyball. Luna kisses me and gives me her number, again, immediately after a surprisingly aggressive volleyball match. I look over to see my team-mate flirting with yet another raver cutie that is here for DJ whats-his-name. I notice her, but I don’t stop being affectionate with Sabs friends. Maybe I’m infuriating Choppah? Nah, she would tell me.

  I walk over and kiss her neck, an obvious sign familiarity. “Do you need anything?”

  She kisses my cheek, “Nah, enjoy the party.”

  “But I want to spend some time with you.” I say, a bit whinier than I intended.

  “Zhan, we’re working yeah? Are you sure?”

  “Working? What are you talking about?” I ask.

  “Are you like this with all of your friends? Awfully touchy with everyone.”

  “Gods, Kavita, I’m kind of a hoe, okay?”

  She blinks at me, stares at the crowd and then back at me. “Are you kidding me? All of them?”

  “No no, maybe a third.” I feel absolutely horrible admitting to that.

  “And you have body issues? Like wow. Do they not get mad?”

  “Why would they, I’m a charity case.”

  She pats both sides of my face repeatedly. “You are dumb and seriously have issues. These girls like you. It’s why I’ve been so pissy! I thought you were showing off!”

  “No way. I just . . .”

  “You just need to stop. God, if I have to hear you explain why you don’t think you are worth it, I will fuck you in public and I bet I can get some of these women to join me.”

  Nooo. I convince myself otherwise, then I see Kavita’s face again.

  “Ugh, there’s a reason my dissonance is so high, okay!”

  Luna comes back and pushes Kavita away. “Is she harassing you, Sellie?”

  “No sweetie, she just thinks that I’m blind or whatever.”

  Luna smiles at me softly and wraps me in a hug, “You are, and most of us want to help you through it.” She kisses me briefly then looks to Kavita, “None of us could reach her, so good luck.”

  We both watch Luna walk away.

  “Zhansta, you are so fucking clueless it’s painful.” She cups my waist and pulls me to the lounge area. “I would be honored to assist you in your recovery.”

  She doesn’t leave my side again for the rest of the night and it feels good because the contact shows she wants me in a way that I can’t ignore. The other girls seem to have mixed feelings about it, but I’m sure Sabs can clear up what’s going on tomorrow.

  It’s not that they’re rude, but they don’t seem to trust someone they’ve never met before. I explain that I’ve known her for like nine months at this point and they seem to calm down a little.

  After midnight, the DJ starts packing up and Sabrina and I are on trash patrol. Kavita and a few of our dissonance group help to make quick work of it. Takahashi greets Sabs and me, offering a card to each of us before walking off with his hand cart loaded with empty containers.

  I look at the card, black with white calligraphy script: ‘Thank you for the Opportunity.’ On line one, ‘Feel free to call on me again,’ on the second and a contact ID on the third. As soon as I scan the ID it his name pops up in my contacts and the number disappears from the card. “Okay, that’s cool. Where did you find this guy?”

  “Montague recommended him. Apparently he thought the party was okay. I would have liked a bigger pool area, but people seemed to like dancing outside in the courtyard.” Sabrina shrugs.

  “It was a great party, Sabrina.”

  “Mm, I liked that there was a limit slash invite only into the pool area. It was nice not being hip to hip the whole time,” Kavita agrees. “The attractive women didn’t hurt either.”

  Sabrina scoffs and lightly shoves my teammate. “Says one of the few that didn’t wear a swimsuit.”

  “I grew up in a house where showing knees and elbows before you’re married is taboo. I think I’m doing pretty good in capris and a tank top.” I grab her arm and squeeze in what I hope is a comforting gesture.

  Sabrina looks at Kavita for a moment, then cocks her hip to settle into her stance. “New girl, you here for a while?”

  She scoffs, “I’m auditioning for a few jobs, and if I get any of them I’ll be moving to actual London, and working here about half the time. I’ll know more in a few weeks. Are you going to shovel talk me or something?”

  “Not even a little. She’s a big girl, but kind of a useless lesbian.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Hey!” I protest.

  “Agreed. But I hit her with bluntness and it was super effective. My only concern is how she flirts with everyone.”

  I cross my arms and frown at her, “I’m just being friendly.”

  Sabrina flicks my head, “Emulating how ‘friendly’ Maddi is with you is flirting, honey. Speaking of, I think we’re going to the Holo-cade after group session next week, new girl, you should come.” She hugs me and gives me a kiss on the forehead before heading over to the ladies she rooms with in a hostel-like building a dozen stops away on the tube.

  “Best friend?”

  “Yeah. She’s usually the one responsible for taking off my blinders or rose-colored glasses depending on the situation.” I sigh and lean into the tall, skinny woman and rest my head against her shoulder.

  “At least she’s not the nagging type.”

  “Oh? Is that the role you’re going for? Or are you going to shot-call our time together,” I say, poking at her in what I hope is a teasing tone.

  “Yeah, I didn’t agree with you at first, but after our interview and tonight, a lot of the reasons I fought with you just aren’t true. You have different problems than I do, and I had it in my mind that you didn’t have any and your life was just something the rest of us could only dream of.”

  “Yep, that’s me! Gaming success, personal, Mess.”

  “A hot one though.”

  “Aww th . . . hey! That’s not better!” I realize a second late that it was a veiled insult.

  Kavita chuckles, puts an arm around my shoulders and starts heading back to the tube and my condo.

  ***

  To my surprise and mild consternation, I wake up alone in my bed to a notification that morning in Marcrest is a few hours away. With a stretch and a yawn I slide out of bed, check that I’m at least half covered and wander out to my kitchen where the coffee lives.

  The door to my second room is closed, which means Kavita slept in an actual bed this time instead of on the couch like yesterday. Good. Until she figures out what she wants to do for a residence in the ATC, I’m more than happy to let her use it.

  Items required for pancakes, eggs, and sausage appear on my counter as I stage pantry items to make breakfast. Savoring a cup of coffee while I putter around with breakfast is surprisingly enjoyable. It may or may not have a little to do with cooking for someone instead of just myself. I smile into my cup and wiggle a little with the feeling.

  I hear a door open and see a mass of hair with legs zombie shuffle into the room. A chuckle escapes me at seeing someone who seems so aware of everything being practically somnambulant. I pour her a cup of coffee and put it in her hands. She grunts in response and parts her hair to let the cup in.

  What a cutie.

  Eggs sizzle in the sausage grease causing my stomach to growl in anticipation. It’s funny that it does that at all, seeing as we’re in a simulated environment, but like I was telling Kavita, now that I’m a resident I actually have to eat. I pull the pancakes out of the oven and plate our breakfast.

  She peeks out of her hair covering, sees the meal and pulls her trusses up into a loose bun. “This looks pretty good, thanks Zhan.”

  My smile cannot be contained as I settle into the seat next to her and bump my leg against hers. She raises an eyebrow and looks at me but I shrug unapologetically then tuck into my breakfast. We eat in a companionable silence until she gets up to get more coffee.

  “I know it’s not necessary here, but it was really nice to have breakfast with you in the morning.” She squeezes my shoulder as she walks by, her touch trailing across my arm as she sits. “Though this confirms I will require coffee or simulated caffeine of some kind to wake up in the ATC just like I do in the real.”

  “It’s funny how that happens. But it’s the same brain processing much the same things, so if you get nerdy about it, it makes more sense.”

  About a minute later, my breakfast companion kicks me lightly. “Get nerdy about it and explain it to me.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, the reason why Orion’s protocols are so unbelievably real is the same cause of the dissonance problem that I suffer from: It uses your brain to process much of the sensory input. Especially with the harder senses to simulate like smell and touch. So, if you normally need stimulus to waken quickly after sleeping, you’ll likely benefit from simulating the activity so that the ATC can initiate the response in your brain.

  “Hearing and sight are more of a mixed approach from what I am told where they do display images and produce sounds to augment the cortex stimulation, but the specifics are obviously proprietary and not for random tester and special needs case to know.”

  “That’s more than they tell the rest of us. The pamphlet talked about their special encoders that transmit signals that the brain more readily understands, but they conveniently skip over that they are making the consumer do a considerable portion of the computing.”

  I shrug at that. “I guess I just thought more about it and asked more questions once I had one on one time with Orion’s medical researchers. Very few users will get that opportunity, and I’m pretty sure they would bury me in lawsuits if I mass released the information.”

  “I’m not really using my brain for anything else when I’m here, but now I’m worried about the influence they could have while I’m up and about on Earth.”

  Now that’s something I haven’t had to worry about. “Huh, you have a point there. If you’re worried, just disconnect your encoders when your out, but put them in like a safe or something. They have a learning algorithm that learns your brains specific patterns, so you don’t want to leave those around. If you lost them it would likely be a fiasco.”

  “Damnit, Zhan! I wanted reassurance, not for you to freak me out.”

  I put my hand on her knee and squeeze, “Sorry. I worry about things that have never come up sometimes. At the same time, I’m stuck in a pod and Orion could literally do anything and I wouldn’t’ be able to do anything about it. And yet, I don’t worry about that.”

  She stares at me for a moment before putting her hand on mine. “I won’t say that doesn’t freak me out too, but why aren’t you more worried?”

  My laugh is sad, “Many reasons that combine. First, they’ve compartmentalized my memories so they can’t rush back in all at once. I get ‘vibes’ of what my past was like and how it influences me, but I’m told that the details may crash my dissonance and cause permanent damage.

  “Next, the vibes that I get tell me that I wasn’t terribly happy in real time, but I know for a fact that I’m happy here. I have a good job, supportive friends, and the world here is clean and mostly orderly—having this be my ‘real’ life is almost ideal. The main drawback being that people I care about will go missing for weeks at a time because they don’t live here. With my new job, I’ll be doing the same to the people I meet in the other environment, I suppose.”

  “I know it’s not why you said it, but I’ll be here as often as I can, okay? Can you send me a message from your other immersion game so that I can try to deconflict my away time for when you’re gone too?”

  Suddenly my chest is all fuzzy and it trickles up to my brain, causing a blush and a giggle. “You know, for a rage gamer, you are surprisingly sweet.”

  She scoffs and stands up. “Now it’s ruined.” She shakes her head while picking up our plates. She rinses them and puts them in the dishwasher—a very considerate gesture that has me smiling some more.

  I tell her that I’ll be diving into my other immersion in about an hour and set up her having access to my condo, and some guest amenities. She makes the obvious u-haul joke and I see her nerves ratchet up a few notches. Must be some ex-girlfriend drama, but digging into that is not a ‘now’ prospect.

  Kavita dresses in a pair of tidy jeans, a sleeveless jersey and skate shoes to go to work. I expected a ballcap to corral her hair, but the ATC did some magic on her as her hair is down and bouncy in styled whorls. Damn that’s a good look on her. She smirks and winks at me before she shuts the door on her way out.

  I want to kiss that smirk off her face.