Level Up (6 page)

"I need your help."

He tensed. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She hung up her coat and kicked off her boots, then walked over to him. "Well...first, let me tell you that the girls are awesome. I had a really good time."

"That's good." He'd never seen her quite this animated, he realized. She was practically glowing, bouncing with energy. It made her skin flush, and coaxed a hint of a smile. She looked like a different person. Well, no, she looked the same. The animation just made you look at her longer.

"Three sisters run the bookstore, and they live above it," she said, sounding a little breathless as the words came tumbling out. Her hands moved quickly, punctuating her words. "I met one of the sisters, Hailey. Anyway, they have this high rent, and not enough people coming to the bookstore. And they're afraid they're not going to be able to keep the place, and the bookstore means a lot to them. And one of the sisters, Cressida? She's got agoraphobia. She hasn't left the house since she moved in when she was thirteen...so like eleven years ago. It'd be really, really hard if they lost the place."

"That does sound bad," Adam said. "What can I do to help?"

She stopped, then that wide, beaming smile stretched across her face, momentarily stunning him with its brilliance. "You don't even know what it is, and you say you'll help. I like that about you."

He straightened. The way her eyes shone, the way she was looking at him, made him feel about ten feet tall.

"I need your help making a video game," she said.

"Okay."

"In three weeks."

He choked. "Wait. What?"

"It's for a competition," she said, her words gaining speed. She took a step closer to him, and he could smell her perfume--like vanilla and something flowery. It was nice, and strangely distracting. "If they win, they'll get a celebrity appearance. They can promote the appearance and get more customers. See?"

"Can't they just get an ad in the yellow pages or something?" he blurted out.

"They don't have money for advertising. They need a game changer. I think this is the perfect thing."

Adam sighed. Despite feeling like a white knight, making a video game in three weeks? That wasn't nobility, that was insanity. "Well...I'll need to know more details," he said hesitantly. "We're going to have that new game coming down the pipeline at MPG..."

"You know there will be plenty of time before we go into crunch mode on that," she said. "We'll be slow for another two weeks, at least. I've already got the beginning of a game concept sketched out. We can talk to the girls more about it, too. It'd be awesome. I'll be asking the other guys if they'll help me, too."

"Finding a way to get onto the team, kind of ingratiate yourself with them, huh?" he asked. So was this all a scheme to get ahead? Or was she really interested in helping these girls?

"I hadn't thought of that," she said, sounding surprised. That did make him feel a little better. "But that certainly wouldn't hurt. Kind of killing two birds with one stone."

He sighed, then glanced over at his laptop, where he still had the dating profiles open. He quickly darted over, shutting it. She stared at him, baffled at his sudden movement.

"Um...I do have some stuff that's come up, that I need to work on," he said, realizing that it was possible that the management at MPG could fill the position on Abraham's team in those few weeks. While beating José and Fezza at their bet wasn't his primary motivation, he knew that if he let himself get sidetracked, he''d probably push off dating indefinitely. He needed to get back on the horse. He was lonely, and it was starting to get depressing to stay stuck in the past.

Also, let's face it, he didn't want to toilet paper Abraham's truck.

"I'll still help, but I'll project manage and fill in where I can, okay? You're going to need more coders."

Her expression fell. "Oh." Her voice was quiet, too, and the vibrancy of her expression dimmed. "Well...all right. I can make it work."

Now he felt like a slug, and he walked over to her, nudging her with his shoulder, getting her to look at him. "Really, I promise. I will help. Okay?"

She nodded, but she had that tilt to her face--the slight frown, the chin up, ready-to-take-all-comers expression that he was familiar with. "You don't have to. I mean, it'd be great, but one way or another, I'm going to make this work."

"You are amazing," he said, without realizing he'd said it aloud. "If anybody could get this done, it'd be you."

She stared at him, obviously caught off guard. "Um, thanks."

They stood that way for a second, silently taking account of each other.

"You hungry?" he said finally, breaking the odd tension. "I, um, was just going to make some mac and cheese."

"That sounds really good," she said, although she was blushing a little.

It was nice, this new camaraderie, he thought. Funny it had taken them a year to get there, but he could see being very good friends with her.

But off limits
, his mind reminded him. 
She's your roommate, for God's sake.

He blinked, startled.

Where had
that
 thought come from?

Tessa braced herself to enter the lion's den. Or, more specifically, the Dungeon. That was the basement level cubes that the engineers had made their own. It was very industrial-looking, with pipes everywhere, but it seemed to suit their "turf"-esque attitude, and it kept them separate from the character designers, producers, and money people.

She'd thought carefully of how to approach the coding guys for help. She'd asked Felicia separately for help, and had received a surprising "yes" since it was a clear one-time service, not an offer of friendship and socializing. But these guys--she'd need them to do the heavy lifting, and get the game itself workable in the three week deadline. She couldn't do it herself. The more guys she could get to help her, the better.

Rodney, Fezza, José, and Abraham were settled in. As usual, Fezza and Rodney were joking around, José was bouncing his head to whatever was playing on his ear buds, and Abraham was laser-focused on his screen, his large fingers dancing across the keyboard with surprising speed.

"Um, hi," she said, clearing her throat.

Rodney and Fezza looked over at her. "Hey there," Fezza said, with a quicksilver smile. Rodney grinned and nodded. "What can we do you for?"

"I've got a favor to ask," she started, then paused as Fezza smacked José's shoulder, getting him to take out his ear buds and pay attention. Only Abraham refused to turn around. "I'm making a video game for a contest thing, and I was wondering if you guys might help me out."

"A contest, huh?" Fezza rubbed his chin. "What sort of contest?"

"It's for a TV show. They're looking for fan art contributions, and I'm sure nobody is turning in a video game. It would be a slam dunk," she said.

Rodney shrugged. "Could be fun," he mused, glancing at the other two. "What sort of help do you need?"

"Felicia's helping me with character design, and I've got Adam signed on to help, as well," she said--hopefully true, she thought. "But I'm going to need help with the coding."

"A real coder would be able to do it herself," Abraham said, still not turning around. "Just saying."

Tessa felt her back go up at his accusation. "Well, that's the other side. I need a fully working game in three weeks."

That was the exact instant she saw them quickly backpedal. "Whoa! That's not a lot of time, Tessa," Fezza protested.

"That's why I'm asking for your help."

"Even with the three of us..."

"Four," she interjected. "I'd be coding, too."

Abraham huffed out a derisive laugh. She clenched her jaw, trying to keep herself calm.

"Okay, four of us...that's going to be a tall order," Fezza continued.

"What's the show?" José asked. "And what's the prize? Is it something we could split, I mean?"

"Well, no," she admitted. "It's for some friends of mine. If we win the contest, then they would get a celebrity appearance at their bookstore."

The guys looked at her expectantly. "And...?" José finally prompted.

"A celebrity appearance would go a long way toward keeping them in business," she said. "They're having a hard time staying afloat, and this would really be a good boost as far as bringing in traffic and promotion."

"Okay, I guess I'm going to be that guy," José said. "What's in it for us?"

She bit her lip. This was circling the drain fast. "What do you want?"

José leered.

"That I can provide?" she quickly amended, then glared at José when his expression didn't change. "I mean, I don't have enough money to pay you guys for this amount of work. I could...I don't know. Provide you with beer? Baked goods? Clean your house?"

Rodney sighed. "I don't know, Tessa. It's short notice, and I think it's an uphill battle, at best," he said gently.

"I mean, I'm sorry for your friends," Fezza added, "but...I don't know. Maybe if you were clearer about what you need from us exactly, so we had a better sense of how much time this would take, that'd help."

"Absolutely," José said. "Ask Adam. If he can help you draw up the production schedule, get a sense of what sort of work we'd be doing, that would definitely go a long way."

She frowned. They had a point. She wouldn't necessarily want to agree to something that was so amorphous. But Adam had said he wouldn't sign on unless she was sure that she'd have the help necessary. Catch 22.

I guess it's back to Adam, then
, she thought, with an internal growl of frustration. "If I get the design brief and the production schedule, will you help me out?"

"We'll talk," Fezza hedged.

"Fine." She stalked out. This wasn't going to be easy. But she'd make it work...one way or another.

CHAPTER 4

"Why am I here again?" Adam whispered to Tessa, close to her ear, as they sat at a local restaurant. He doubted the group of women they were sitting with could hear him, what with all the hustle and noise. As it was, he was hemmed into the very corner of the booth, surrounded by women. It should've been ideal.

His nerves in his stomach said otherwise. He took a calming pull of his draft beer.

Tessa smiled at him. "To meet our clients," she whispered back, close enough that he could feel her breath against his jawline. "Also, because I wanted you to actually talk with them, and realize why we're doing this."

"I already said I'd help."

"You also said you wanted to meet girls." Her dark brown hair brushed his shoulder.

Adam glanced around. Well, he was doing that with a vengeance. There were three women right there--four, if you included Tessa. And they were all pretty, as she'd stated. Rachel at the far end of the table was more than pretty, she was supermodel gorgeous, with jet black hair and ridiculously pillowy lips. But the others, while more unusual, were all good looking in their own rights. The bubbly little blonde had a bit of a Marilyn Monroe thing going, with her sunshine smile and sweetness. Hailey, the one with the purple streak in her hair, looked like a cross between a pinup and a punk rocker.

Tessa was right; he'd wanted to meet girls. And what better way than to surround himself with a bevy of women who actually spoke his geeky language?

Of course, it would help if he wasn't outnumbered and on his own, he realized, feeling a little disconcerted. The guys at work would probably be envious, and call him out for being nervous, but deep down every guy knew: without a wingman, being surrounded by women was a sure way to get your ass handed to you, either through rejection or ridicule.

He felt his palms sweat slightly.

"So you guys want a video game for this
Mystics
 show, right?" he said, bringing out his Moleskin notebook and a pen. Better to stick to business, where he felt most secure. "I'm thinking first-person shooter. It's easiest, and we don't have a lot of time."

The group quieted, staring at him intently.

"Oh, that's not going to work, " said the blonde--Kyla?--with some hesitation.

Rachel shook her head as well, her violet eyes apologetic. "
Mystics
isn't that kind of show."

"Have you even seen the show?" Hailey asked pointedly.

He sighed. "Well, no..."

The girls gave each other a worried look.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure it stays true to the show," Tessa interjected quickly, and scooted her chair a little closer to him. She was wearing a long-sleeved raglan T-shirt, her dark brown hair pulled back in its customary ponytail. She smelled like roses, he realized, and almonds. He wondered absently if it was her soap because she didn't really seem like the perfume type. "Here's what I'm thinking. More like a puzzle game. You need to get through a house. There's a kid trapped in the attic, but you need to get through seven levels of paranormal adversaries to save her."

"Seven?" he yelped. "That's a shit ton of coding, Tess."

"Which is why I enlisted you," she said, grinning, and he couldn't help but grin back. "Anyway, we'd have the three brothers making their way...you could toggle between them, because they each have their own specialty..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, taking notes. "That means setting, character design for three different characters, not to mention enemies and...I'm assuming you want a boss level?"

"Well, of course I want a boss level," Tessa said.

She was going crazy. He frowned, knowing he'd have to rein her in. "We'll talk levels later," he muttered. ""All right, artwork. We're going to need to keep this pixelated..."

"This is
Mystics,
 not
Minecraft
 or
Terraria
," Tessa countered.