I Heart Geeks (11 page)

“Ah man. Always a day late and a dollar short.”

Kendra giggled at the Knight’s change in voice. “Seems that way.”

They stepped away from the oncoming crowd ready to watch the contest. Although it was tough to be inconspicuous with such a huge imposing Knight next to her, Kendra focused her attention on him.

“Listen, would you like to join me around the con?” Jordan asked, lowering his voice. “I can change and move more easily. I think there may be some guest speakers from Star Trek starting in room twenty-two.”

“The Original Series?”

“And Next Gen.”

Oh, the temptation. Alarms blared in her mind, reminding her of the trap she always found herself in. This could turn out bad. And then if they ended up clashing, she would be reluctant to return back to this con for fear of seeing him again. No, better not to even start. This the perfect cue to leave. She didn’t know who the guy was underneath and before things started and came to an eventual end, it was best not to let them start at all.

“You know what? I need to get going. It’s getting pretty late anyway. Thanks for helping me earlier.”

“Wait, Kendra.”

She turned and disappeared into the huge crowd filling the convention hall. Part of her wanted to stay but after so many heartbreaks, she couldn’t risk another one and not from her favorite game fandom. Deep down she hoped it was the right choice.

Jordan’s mind spun in so many different directions he had a hard time latching on to one. Did he come on too strong? Maybe he said something to upset her? For the life of him he had no idea what it was that made her run away so fast. He wished he could have ran after her and asked but with such a large suit, it was darn near impossible. He had to admit, it was pretty cool meeting a fellow fan. The lore was vast and complex yet the fandom was relatively small compared to others. The last thing he expected to see at such a large con was another fan, much less a female that shared in his interest. Bummer that she had to run off.

He never had a preference for the type of woman he wanted but sharing the love of gaming and his favorite game world was at the top of the list. As he watched her leave, he couldn’t help noticing the flash of flaming red hair pulled at the top of her head in a long ponytail that fell down her back. It could have been a wig or a hairpiece. Nonetheless, he wondered what the face looked like to go with the hair.

After posing for a few more photo ops, Jordan started toward his car. Things could have gone better with the girl if he had tried harder. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be anyway. He was a shy guy, mainly meeting girls through his friends or in the occasional game online. When he was online, he didn’t like the way some guys would treat female gamers and often stepped in to calm the jerks of the site or games down. Maybe that was his problem, he was a nice guy.

Jordan sighed and climbed out of his armor piece by piece, then placed each in back of his car. He was careful with the fan unit and speakers that gave his voice a nice boom, matching the Space Knight voice from the games. Soon all that was left was the shoes with extra spring elevation to give him height. Once his armor was off, he took a quick look down at his tee and shorts. A nice breath of fresh air from the huge suit and the cool breeze from the nice early evening Los Angeles weather helped calm him.

A familiar orchestral theme chimed from his phone and he quickly reached on the dashboard to grab it and answer.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Jordan! Glad I finally got you. Things are pretty packed here at the shop. Can you make it down to help us with extra shifts?”

Jordan checked his watch. It was almost five by the time he left the con and he was already going over dinner plans in his head. His friends would probably call him up to bring the pizza over for some late night tournament gaming. Then again, he could use the extra cash for rent coming up in a week.

Might as well take the extra cash where he can get it. “Yeah, man. Tell Jim I’m on my way now from the con.”

He grabbed his sandals from the floor of the driver’s side and tossed them down on the ground to step into them. In moments, he was behind the wheel and revving up the car. Fun time was over. Now it was time to work.

“Sharon asked about you the other day.”

Kendra racked her brain to put the name to the face. She bit on a fingernail while listening to her old friend Terri from high school and college. “Sharon…Sharon…”

“Tall brunette that used to play chess with us during lunch.”

“Oh, right! In Mr. Daly’s room. I think she had a crush on him like you did.”

“What?” Terri squeaked over the phone. “Yeah right.
You
were the one who had the crush, woman, and you know it. I remember you used to go in his classroom every chance you got and make googly eyes at him. When he opened his classroom up for us to hang out at lunchtime, I knew you were a goner.”

“Okay, okay. Yeah it was me.”

Kendra leaned back in her living room chair and rested her arm on one propped up knee. As soon as she left the con, she came home to change clothes and kick her feet up. Aside from the con, it was another boring Saturday in her apartment. She didn’t feel like hopping on voice chat to see which of her gamer friends were online. Good thing Terri had called to see how she was doing. She needed the distraction and a familiar voice from back home.

“So how are you liking L.A.?” Terri asked. The sound of munching blared from the other side of the phone between her words.

Kendra’s stomach rumbled. A snack sounded pretty good right about now. She couldn’t even remember the last time she ate. “Well…” She stood and headed to the kitchen to grab a bag of popcorn to toss into the microwave while balancing the cell phone on her shoulder. “I like it. I just miss San D. If everyone didn’t move away, I’d probably still be there.’

“Oh, come on. You
did not
leave because of all of us. You needed a change of scenery, too. Plus, you don’t have to travel so far for the con now. Big plus.”

Kendra leaned against the counter. She had a point there. “I just came from the big con, too.”

“Ooooh. Jealous! How was it?”

“It was actually pretty cool. My costume held up pretty well and people seemed to respond nicely to it. I met another GrimDark cosplayer. He was a Space Knight.”

“Whoa. Whoa. I hope you got pics.”

“I was in costume and in character, Terri. I couldn’t just bust out a camera and start playing tourist.”

Terri giggled. “Space Elf Enchantress Photographer. Simply epic. That would probably get you a bunch of pics on its own.”

“Maybe. The cool thing was that he
RP’d
with me right then and there. He saved me from some jerks who were following me and giving me a hard time.”

“Sounds like a true knight to me. You get his number or email? Something?”

“Just a name. Jordan.”

“What?” Shuffling sounded on Terri’s end as if she were moving her sitting position. “Oh, come on Kendra. You are
still
afraid to take a chance, aren’t you?”

The microwave finally beeped. She yanked open the door and reached in with eager hands to pull out the steaming bag. “I’m tired of falling for a guy who seems one way and then turns into something else when I get to know them.”

“That’s because you fall for their
character
before getting to know the guy behind the mask. Besides, you’re not even going to give this guy a chance. Him not his character. That’s fair, Kendra.”

Was she being too harsh? He sounded nice when he offered to teach her to play. It didn’t sound like he had an ulterior motive, even though her cynical mind had convinced her of such. She dipped her hand in the bag, then quickly retracted it when it was too hot to touch. “I was being careful.”

“No, you were being scared. How many times have you said you wanted to find a nice guy to get to know who shares in the same interests as you? This guy can be a start to that. And if anything, he could become a good friend.”

Kendra shook the popcorn bag to air it out a bit. Terri wasn’t much of a gamer and since she got married, they’ve been trying to have a kid which made her time even sparser. She didn’t know that Kendra was more comfortable talking behind a computer than in person. Terri definitely wouldn’t know that’s the way Kendra preferred it. Not face-to-face when so many more emotions were riding on live words. “I hope you’re right.”

Terri giggled. “Well, get used to it cause I’ll be pushing until you find the guy to make you happy. You deserve it, Kendra and I know there’s a guy out there who will recognized how awesome you are.”

Kendra dipped her hand back in the bag and popped a small, greasy handful in her mouth. “Well, he did offer to teach me to play. No strings.”

“There, you see!”

“That was before I cut him off and took my exit.”

Terri clicked her tongue. “Kendra, you have to give the dude a little slack to get to know him. Then if they act like derpy jerks, you can drop them. First, you have to let them through the door, first.”

She had a point.

Kendra wasn’t sure to rejoice or hate the fact that she did. Since leaving the con, her mind ran over the other possible outcomes that could have come from different answers. What if she said yes? Would she be down there at the shop having a great old time learning and playing the tabletop game with a nice guy? Maybe go out for pizza afterward? The idea was kind of nice.

She sighed and set the popcorn bag down on the counter. “You’re right. I should at least give him a chance.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“But I’m not getting my hopes up.”

“That’s a smart idea. Too late now though. You don’t know anything about the guy and I’m sure he’s not still at the con.”

“Well, I do know his name and where he games.”

Something scratched over the phone. Did Terri nearly drop it on the other end?

“Thanks so much for telling me, Kendra. Where does he game anyway?”

“At The Workshop near downtown.”

“What? Go down there now!”

“I don’t even know if he’s there now, Terri.”

“What’d I say? You won’t know unless you try. Go!”

“All right. All right. Going.” Kendra wiped her hands on the wet dishcloth draped across the sink, alternating between holding the phone. One last swipe on her jeans and dashed into the living room to grab her car keys.

“And let me know what happens.”

Kendra’s heart raced on the drive over to the shop. She had no idea what she was going to say or do when she arrived. Maybe he won’t even be there. Disappointment ran through her at the thought. Maybe she should turn around.

No. Better to see for herself and make sure, or else she’d be wondering for the rest of her life.

The game shop was in a plaza near the downtown art district. Kendra pulled in to the parking lot and found the place nearly packed with nary an open parking space available. She circled around a few times more. Everyone and their mother must be out shopping or gaming tonight. As she drove by the shop, she slowed down to take a peek inside. The store was divided into two parts. The front where the store held boxes of RPG and tabletop games with accessories. The second part was a large open space with rows of tables on each side where groups sat playing tournaments and mini-games. She surveyed each guy there. Was one of them Jordan?

A honk alerted her to the line of cars that somehow formed out of nowhere behind her.

“All right. I’m going,” Kendra mumbled to herself. She stepped on the gas and turned at the next open row. A spot!

Right away she turned and took the closest open space which was thankfully across the way. She killed the engine, took a breath and then snuck one last peek.

Baby steps. You’ll never know what’ll happen unless you try.

Okay.

Here we go.

“Hey Jordan, can you get the new dice shipment from the back?”

“You got it.” Jordan jogged to the back, dodging the crowd of tables, players and customers perusing the shelves. A new shipment of customer orders came in earlier that afternoon and they had yet to look through all of them. Much of their time was spent satisfying the normal Saturday rush of gamers and new customers. Right now the back employee room resembled a warehouse of boxes stacked on top of one another like pillars to the ceiling. All of the boxes practically looked the same. This was going to take a while. A sigh escaped Jordan’s lips as he dove in to read the labels, one by one.

After a few moments, he found some boxes with an address that looked familiar. He began unpacking. Sure enough there were boxes of dice inside. Nice! He hauled up the boxes and carried them out. The air filled with chatter and it looked like the amount of players and customers grew. He crossed the game room with a slew of ‘excuse me’ and ‘pardon mes’ on his lips. When he stepped into the storefront, the front door chimed. A new customer. It was getting late in the evening when things would slow down but still a few spilled in from time to time. He was ready to welcome the incoming customer when he froze. His breath nearly caught in his throat.

Dark red hair fell in wavy locks around her shoulders. He knew that familiar shade of red. She stood at medium height and had alluring grey eyes that nervously looked around the area. She wore a black Space Elf tee with snug fitting jeans and open-toed sandals. As her gaze roamed the area, she nervously pulled her bag over her shoulder and almost looked like she was ready to run anytime.

What if it was Kendra? Would she even want to see him after running away earlier?

No matter. She was a customer and everyone who walked through that door was treated like family at the shop. It was a store motto.

As he darted between the rows heading toward her, she still hadn’t seen him even as he grew closer to her. She turned around to leave.

“Jordan!”

He turned to Jim at the counter who waved him over. “Got the dice boxes?”

“Yeah, right here.” He lifted up the boxes in his arms.

“We got some customers who ordered a few. Bring ‘em on over.”

As he started toward the front, Jordan turned toward the door expecting to see the girl already gone.