Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body (A Page Turners Novel) (13 page)

“Tim’s character is this little gnome that looks kind of like him.” Jeremy razzed his friend. “His name is Bankerboy, which is clever because he is a loan officer at the bank, and he’s a warlock. In the game, not at the bank. So he creates soul stones to give you so you can come back to life if you die.”

“Good to know.” Sunny was a bit overwhelmed by all the information, but loved how they were so into the characters and the game setting. She tried to keep track of the names and the traits of each player.

“Nick’s character is a Night Elf Druid who can change into different animals. He’s our Tank so he’ll change into a huge bear, go into the fight first, and start killing everything in sight.”

“Okay. I think I’ve got the gist of it. Who is this other woman?” Sunny pointed to a blonde woman dressed in blue and purple. She was holding a bow, and a white tiger prowled near her.

“That’s Kynsya. She’s a human hunter, and that’s her pet, Chaos,” John explained. “We don’t really know who she is. Anyone can join your raid if you don’t have enough people, and she asked to play with us tonight. I hope she knows what she’s doing.”  He looked pointedly at Jeremy. Sunny got the feeling not everyone was overjoyed at her joining the fun tonight.

“John’s our group leader so he can let other people into our raid,” Jeremy said. “Kynsya is good. I’ve played with her before.”

“Are we ever going to start?” Mike asked.

“Let’s do it,” Jeremy said. “It’s on like Donkey Kong!” he cried to the others in the room before quietly telling Sunny, “I’ll help you as we go along.”

The characters all grouped together, stepped through the portal, and the raid began. Jeremy showed her how to move forward and shoot her weapon at monsters. Mostly she just wandered around lost trying to figure out how to move her character. Sunny’s pet killed more monsters than she did.

“Hey, look, if you press the space bar, you can jump,” Sunny said, excited with her accidental find and pressed it to jump her character up and down several times. Evidently, everyone else in the room knew this trick because no one seemed to achieve the same level of excitement she did.

They spent the next two hours strategizing their game plan, going on quests, fighting different battles, and moving their characters from place to place.

Sunny spent most of her time trying to find the battles, figuring out how to shoot her gun, and getting herself killed. The healers spent a lot of their time restoring her health each time she died. Jeremy tried to help her, and John and Rachel gave her a lot of helpful tips. Most of the others tried to pretend they didn’t know her.

In the battles, Jeremy’s character tried to protect Sunny and so did, surprisingly, the new character to their group, Kynsya. She stepped in and saved Sunny several times, including once when she was facing the wrong direction.

The game had a dialogue box in the corner where people could talk to each other and none of Sunny’s comments were flattering.

As a grade school teacher, she was used to comments like, “You gave it your best!” and “I can see you’re really trying.” And simply “Good job!”  The comments Sunny got were, “Why do you keep *#!*#! jumping up and down?!” and “Try not to get killed this time!” and “Fight or get out of the way!”

The only ‘good job’ Sunny got was “Good job getting yourself killed
again
!”

She was repeatedly called a Noob and Sunny leaned over to Rachel to ask her what that meant. “Do they think I’m playing like a girl
?
Is Noob code for Boob?” she asked.

“No.” Rachel laughed. “Noob is short for new-bie because they can tell you’re new to the game.”

“Basically, it means you suck,” Mike said.

Rachel elbowed him in the side. “Be nice.” 

“Well, she does,” he mumbled. “You shouldn’t have shown her how to tell a joke. I was fighting three monsters and she was right beside me and all she did was jump up and down and tell me a knock-knock joke.”

It was a fairly complicated game, and Sunny couldn’t remember all the keys and functions to fight and do damage.

“I swear I don’t even know how I caused an ‘aggro’,” she said, but evidently her actions drew the giant dragon they were battling to attack and kill their whole raid, including the healers.

“Well, that was just great,” Bill grumbled.

“Sorry you guys,” Sunny said weakly. “You all were doing a really good job.”

Her positive reinforcement comment was met with grumbles and sighs as they all began to shut down and pack up their equipment.

“I think we’re gonna head out.” Jeremy guided Sunny toward the stairs before a lynch mob could form. “I’ll come by and pick up my stuff tomorrow.”

“It was really great meeting you all. I had fun playing your game with you,” Sunny called as they headed up the stairs.

John followed them up, and Sunny thanked him and apologized again for the whole dragon killing them and ruining the game thing. She had a surprisingly good time tonight. She loved watching the interactions of the friends in the room and how they worked as a team in the game. Her ego was a little bruised at how poorly she had played, but she
was
a World of Warcraft virgin, and the others had been playing for years.

“Don’t worry about it. You added a whole new level to our game, Sunny.” He smirked at Jeremy. “See ya Monday, Bro.”

The ride back across town was fairly quiet. Sunny tried to reassure Jeremy what a fun time she had, despite her obvious lack of gaming abilities. She thought he must have had a whole other idea of how this night was going to go in his head.

They pulled up in front of her house, and Jeremy looked at his watch. “It’s only eight-thirty. It’s still pretty early if you want to do something else.”

In all honesty, the allure of going into her house, taking a hot bath, and curling up on the sofa was pretty strong, but Sunny felt like Edna had tried so hard to set up this date the least she could do was give it another few hours. Plus Jeremy was kind of cute, and he seemed like a nice guy.

“Okay. What did you have in mind?” she asked.

“How about we go back to my house and watch a movie. I have a big screen TV and a pretty extensive movie collection. I think I even have some popcorn.”

“Sure, let’s watch a movie.” That’s probably what she would do at home anyway. “Why don’t I get my car and follow you over so you don’t have to drive me home again.”

“I don’t mind at all.”

“It’s silly for you to leave once you’re already home.” Sunny pushed open the door and climbed out. “I’ll just follow you.”  This also worked better for her, so if the date started to go south, she could make a quick getaway.

Sunny got into her car and backed from the driveway, giving a longing glance to her house and the comfy afghan she could be curled under. Gazing at Walter’s house, her thoughts suddenly had Jake curled under that afghan with her, and they weren’t watching television. She envisioned that hot bath and leaning back into Jake’s soapy slick chest.

Sunny followed Jeremy’s truck out of the neighborhood and tried to refocus her thoughts on her current date. She didn’t want to disappoint Edna, who had been really excited about Sunny meeting the grandson of one of her oldest friends. Jeremy had certainly been a huge step up from the last two dates she had been on, and he was trying.

Besides, who knew how long Jake was even going to be in town
?
He could go home to wherever, or he could be going to prison for murdering her neighbor. Sunny resolved to put ‘dangerous’ Jake out of her mind and focus on ‘safe’ video game guy, Jeremy.

They had driven into a newer, upscale neighborhood, and Jeremy pulled into the driveway of a large, beautifully landscaped house. Sunny parked on the street and met him at the front door.

He ushered her into the foyer of a large living room tastefully decorated with man-sized, comfortable-looking furniture, nice artwork on the walls, and a thick Berber rug on the floor in front of an immense gas fireplace.

Jeremy led her through the living room into a huge kitchen decorated in shades of maroon and gray, with gleaming black appliances and shiny Corian counter tops.

“Wow! You have a gorgeous home,” Sunny told him as she planted her rump in one of the stools pulled up to the center island.

“Thanks. My mom did a lot of the decorating.”

“That’s nice. You two must be very close.”

“Oh, we are. My parents divorced when I was in grade school, so growing up it was just my mom, my brother, and me. My mom is awesome. You want some wine?”

“Sure.”  She watched him smoothly slide wine glasses from a rack under the counter and pull a bottle of wine from a small wine cooler. He poured two glasses and set one in front of her.

“So, action-adventure or chick-flick?” he asked. “I’ve got a ton of movies to choose from.”

“Comedy.” She picked up her wine glass and followed him into the living room. A large flat screen television covered one wall and recessed shelving flanked either side of it. He did have a huge selection of movies, and she poked through his section of comedies and chose one with Hugh Grant. His dry sense of humor could always make her laugh.

Setting her wine glass on the coffee table, she surveyed the room. Plush throw pillows and blankets dotted the sofa and loveseat. Jeremy turned on the fireplace and dimmed the lights so they had all the ambience of a romantic mood.

They sat next to each other on the sofa, and Sunny pulled off her boots, curled her feet under her, and dragged a throw across her legs. “This is nice.” She smiled at Jeremy.

“Yeah.”

They settled in to watch the movie, and it only took Jeremy about half an hour to awkwardly get his arm around her shoulders. She snuggled into his side. This really was nice. Romantic lighting, a little wine, a flickering glow from the fireplace, all the right setting, so when Jeremy leaned in to kiss her, she threw caution to the wind and leaned right back.

“Ouch. Sorry.” Their noses collided as their exuberance resulted in a facial collision.

He smiled apologetically and came toward her again. This time Sunny held still, and his hand came up to hold her face as he gingerly kissed her. He tasted like wine as their lips parted and his tongue explored hers. Sunny eased back on the sofa and his arm that had been around her got pinned between her shoulder and the cushion.

He groaned as he pulled his arm free, and she shifted to give him more room. Her legs got tangled in the throw as she shifted again to push the blanket to the floor. He continued to kiss her, and his left hand moved slowly up her leg, across her hip and grazed the side of her breast before circling behind her back and cupping her shoulder. His kisses moved from her lips down to her neck, and Sunny sighed with pleasure.

“Jeremy, when did you get home?” a female voice asked from the hallway as the light snapped on.

“Mom?” Jeremy croaked.

“Mom?” Sunny asked. “You live with your mother?”

“No. She’s just…staying with me, I guess.”

“Yeah, right.” Sunny quickly readjusted her blouse and grabbed her boots.

“No, really…” Jeremy stood and tried to do some readjusting of his own.

Meanwhile, his mom had fled back into the kitchen, and Sunny thought she could hear her laughing as she called out, “Sorry, honey. I didn’t know you had company.”

“I’d better go.” Sunny made her way to the door, boots in hand.

“Sunny, let me explain…”

But it was too late. She slipped through the door, calling, “I’ll see ya, Jeremy. I really need to get home to check on my dog anyway.”

Sunny ran barefoot across the grass, threw her boots in the car, and started the engine. Pulling away, she took one last look at his beautiful home, and shook her head.
No wonder he has such a great house. He lives with his mom.

* * *

Sunny pulled her car into the driveway, got out and headed for Walter’s house, still barefoot. She hit the top step as the front door swung open to Beau and Jake, one holding a beer and both wearing sloppy grins.

“I’ve heard of a guy knocking your socks off before, but I’ve never actually seen it happen.” Jake passed her the cold bottle as he looked down at her bare feet.

“Thanks.” She took a long pull and wondered how she could feel so relaxed around Jake. “It’s been an interesting night.”

“C’mon in. I’ve got to hear this.”

So, once again, Sunny found herself on the sofa with a drink in hand and a cute guy sitting next to her. But this felt different. She was comfortable with Jake on one side of her and the dog curled into her other side.

Sunny didn’t know why Jake was so easy for her to talk to. Was it the fact that he was a stranger and she knew he wouldn’t be here for long? Or was it a deeper connection that she felt for this man? What drew her to him despite the danger that oozed from his every pore?

And he was dangerous. Whether he had killed Walter or not, this man had seen danger. His cool surfer boy attitude didn’t mask the keen intelligence in Jake’s eyes.

Sunny didn’t fill him in on every aspect of the evening. She kept the part where she made out with Jeremy on the sofa to herself, but she told him all about showing up at this strange guy’s house and how this group of people were playing an online game together.