Level Up (9 page)

Unbidden, she suddenly thought of Adam, wiggling around half-naked to an electronica beat, and burst into a giggle that surprised her enough to clap her hands over her mouth. She doubted the guy could dance. He just didn't seem the type.

But the half-naked bit...well, she'd already seen
that
.

He was wiry, not really bulky, but he had some definition. His chest was nice, especially when her chest was pressed up against it. His legs had the ropy strength of a long distance runner, and his arms were strong.

Her cheeks heated, quickly followed by the rest of her.

Now she certainly wasn't giggling.

She'd go talk to Stacy, see if she'd like to grab lunch later, maybe talk about the situation at the bookstore, and the game. It certainly beat staying in her cube for her birthday lunch.

She walked down the hallway and started to turn the corner, only to find Adam already there. He was whispering something to Stacy, and she was giggling, then giving him a hug. "You are the sweetest," she said, her blue eyes shining.

Tessa froze, and her stomach went into free fall.

Guess she already has lunch plans
, Tessa thought, feeling strangely numb. Before they could notice her, she backed away, heading back to her cubicle with single-minded determination, all appetite gone.

She plunged back into working on the
Mystics
 game for the rest of the morning, feeling soothed by the repetitious nature, by immersing her brain in the details of the game, rather than...well, whatever she was feeling.

She was so engrossed in her work, it took her a second to pick up her phone when it rang.

"Hey, it's Hailey, from the bookstore. Are you busy? Or can you talk for a minute?"

"No problem. I can talk."

"I just wanted to thank you," Hailey said. "Not just for volunteering to do something to help the bookstore. Kyla said you were really supportive of her drawings, and she could really use the boost. Once Cressida heard about it, she started feeling more confident. She's got hope that she'll get to stay. And standing up for Rachel in the restaurant--that took guts."

Tessa squirmed, embarrassed. "It was nothing, really. You would've done the same, I'm sure.""

"Actually, I've been primed to kick that guy's ass since junior high," Hailey said. "But I promised Rachel I'm not going back to jail."

Tessa laughed, then realized Hailey wasn't, and stopped abruptly.

"Say, what are you doing for New Year's Eve?" Hailey continued, unfazed.

"Getting this game together," Tessa answered, looking over her notes. "Adam's right. This thing is going to be a bitch to pull off for just two people."

"All work and no play," Hailey said. "You coming to the party?"

"What, you're having a party at the bookstore?"

"No, actually," Hailey replied. "Stacy's family is throwing a costume party. They do every year. Stacy used to hate it, so we go for moral support. Kyla does a lot of cosplay and makes the most fantastic costumes for us. And this year, we're going to be handing out some flyers for the bookstore. Wanna come?"

"Uh...I don't know..." Tessa stammered. Dressing up? Hanging out with a bunch of strangers? She felt a little nauseous just at the thought of it.

"There will be lots of guys there," Hailey said, with a persuasive note in her voice. "Rich boys, sure, but plenty of eye-candy."" She sounded enthused, then stopped short. "Oh, I forgot, you and Adam..."

"Are
not
a couple," Tessa said, more emphatically than she needed to, thinking of Adam's expression, Stacy's giggle. She needed to stop this crush right now. "Seriously. That kiss was just to piss off that asshole, Harold."

And the second kiss was an accident. An aberration.

"Okay," Hailey said, sounding amused. "Well, he can come too, if you want..."

"I'm sure he's got plans of his own," she said, and then realized......maybe he had plans with Stacy. Maybe he'd be
there
with Stacy. "Eligible men, you say?""

"I certainly do," Rachel said. "Can I count you in?

Adam stuck his head in her cubicle, knocking on its metal frame. "Hey, you got a minute?"

She held up a finger, then felt a little burst of irritation. "You know what? Yeah. I'll be there. Thanks for asking me."

She heard the smile in Rachel's voice. "No problem. See you tomorrow night!"

"Sure. Bye." She hung up, then turned to Adam. "You need something?"

He was frowning a little now, too. "What was that?"

"Oh, just making plans. Going out."

"You?" he said, blinking. "Really?"

Now she felt insulted. "What? I have a life."

"You certainly do," he said, and she felt a little stupid. He probably didn't care. Why was she being so brusque? "But they're talking about possible applicants for the engineer position down in The Pit, and I thought you'd want to listen in."

"They are?" She bounced out of her seat like she was on a spring. "Really? Why didn't you get me?"

"I just did!" he protested, trailing her as she half-jogged towards the stairs.

She bolted for the Pit, her mind racing. How had she let herself get so distracted? 
The job, it's always been about...

She stopped dead when she was surrounded by people yelling, noisemakers going off. "Surprise!"

"What? What?" she yelped, disoriented.

"Happy birthday, Tessa!" Stacy said, giving her a big hug.

Tessa still stared blankly, unable to process. "But...but...how did you know it was my birthday?""

Stacy laughed, as did the rest of the team that had crowded into the break room. There was a big platter of cupcakes, spelling out "Happy Birthday Tessa!" in multi-color buttercream.

"Adam told me, of course." Stacy waved to her before disappearing from the room.

She looked over at Adam, who was grinning madly. "I knew you'd be surprised."

"You did this?" she said.

His grin slipped. "Well, yeah," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You''re not pissed, are you?"

"I...no. It's...nice,"" she said. "Really, really nice."

"I figured it must suck to have a birthday so close to Christmas."

She stared at the cupcakes, strunned. "Kinda, yeah."

"Hey! We've hungry men over here! When can we eat those cupcakes?" Rodney shouted from the back of the room, and they all laughed again.

Tessa blew out a candle that they'd haphazardly stuck on the "H" cupcake, and grabbed it. The rest dug in like locusts.

"I can't believe you thought of this," she murmured, half to herself.

Adam shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "Least I could do," he mumbled.

Before she could think about it, she hugged him, quickly at first, then a little harder as she breathed in his cologne--that same fragrance, woods and cedar and comfort. She couldn't help herself. She brushed her cheek against the rough wool of his sweater.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He tightened his grasp for a second. "Don't mention it," he said. "Although you won't be thanking me when we're coding like mad for the rest of the week. Like every waking hour."

She suddenly remembered. "Oh, crap. I can't do it tomorrow night."

"Why not?"

"I'm..." she took a deep breath. "Going to a party.""

"Dude! It's New Year's!" José said, nudging Adam from his place on Fezza's pea-soup green sofa. "We've got ten monitors and a large screen set up for an epic twenty-four hour straight marathon, and you're sitting here dinking away on your laptop?"

Adam didn't even bother to look up from his screen. "Told you. Got a project," he said.

"Well then, why didn't you stay at home?" José whined.

"Talk to Fezza." Adam took a quick swig of Mountain Dew. "He's the one who kidnapped me."

"'Kidnapped' is such an ugly word," Fezza interjected, clicking the keys of his game controller madly. "I prefer 'forcibly invited.'"

"You're one of our best players," José said, "and you're sitting on the sidelines. And you're not even drinking!"

"Todd, tag in," Fezza said, quickly tossing one of the guys his controller and sitting next to Adam on the couch. "It is kind of weak, though, you sitting out. This is a tradition. You've been to my house for New Year's every year. Even when Casey threw a fit because she wanted to go to some fancy party. Remember?"

Adam winced. "Yeah, I remember." That had been two, no, three years ago. When he told Casey it was a tradition, she'd gotten super pissed, gone out with her girlfriends, and gotten trashed. Her hangover and cold shoulder the next morning had been no joke. Since then, they just agreed to do different things for New Year's Eve.

In retrospect, it really wasn't that much of a surprise that she'd broken up with him just a few days after New Year's.

"What the hell are you working on, anyway?" Fezza said, glancing down at the screen.

"That game thing Tessa was talking about."

"Not bad," Fezza said, nudging him. "Nice engine. I knew you were a decent coder, but didn't think you'd had this in you."

"I still don't," he said. "This engine? It's Tessa's."

"No shit." Fezza grabbed the laptop, ignoring Adam's protests. "Hey, this is pretty good."

Adam grinned. This was what he'd hoped for. He'd make the guys aware of Tessa's skills, which would help when she applied for Mac's job. And he'd also get more done on the game. Of course, they were running out of time.

It'd be a lot easier to do this if Tessa had been home working, as well, he thought. Then realized he was being just as much of a wet blanket as Casey had ever been.

So what if Tessa wanted to go to some fancy dress up party? Fezza had kidnapped him before he'd seen what she was dressed as, but she'd been giggling with the bookstore girls, and Kyla was going to pick her up. He felt...bereft.

They'd finally gotten on even ground, just coding the last night and all during the day, since work was closed. They had their easy camaraderie back...no more kiss weirdness. He did find himself looking at her, surreptitiously, throughout the day. And sometimes, he'd swear he felt her gaze on him. But when he looked, she'd be turning away.

The sooner he helped her get this game done, the better they'd be.

"So this is to help a bunch of girls...Stacy included," Fezza mused. "Does that mean you're ready to get back in the ring, man?"

"Thinking about it," Adam admitted.

"Just do me a favor and don't date somebody who hates video games this time," Fezza said. "Somebody we can like, too."

"Fuck it," Abraham said, from a far screen. "Women, who needs 'em?"

"Seriously, have you ever had a girlfriend, though?" Fezza said to Abraham.

"Or boyfriend," José said. "Hey, no judgment."

"All I know is, first Rodney bails on us today, now Adam's doing some damned thing for audio girl," Abraham groused. "Bros before..."

"Don't even fucking say it," Adam said, sharply.

When he glanced over, he realized that all the guys were looking at him, ignoring the sounds of screaming and laser blasts going on in the game.

"Tessa's not a 'hoe,'" he said. "She's a damned talented coder, which you guys would realize if you looked at her work. She's doing this to help out her friends, who are in a real jam."

"She's in audio," Abraham said. "You want to work with her on making lame-ass
Pong
 with pics of beefcake models, whatever."

"You haven't even looked at her code," Adam said sharply.

"What's to look at? She adds audio!"

Adam brought the laptop over. "You telling me this is just amateur?"

Abraham scowled, then looked at the code. "You did this, right?"

"No."

Abraham scanned it over. "It's not bad," he admitted reluctantly. "Sloppy."

"That's because she did all of that yesterday."

Fezza whistled. "What, all day?"

"In just six hours," Adam pointed out, and even Abraham looked a little impressed, although he quickly frowned again to hide it. "She's been working her ass off on this, and I'm helping her. So I'm not being the political correct police--I'm just saying, she's one of us, so show some goddamned respect, okay?"

They nodded.

"So," Abraham said conversationally. "You hitting that shit?"

Adam clocked him. His arm moved before he knew it, slamming into Abraham's face.

What he hadn't taken into account: Abraham had been in the Army before he'd joined Mysterious Pickles. He'd always been a computer genius. He'd also been really, really buff at some point. He roared, getting up and going after Adam, who was still moving forward.

"Not the furniture!" Fezza yelped, as the guys broke them up. "Not the monitors!"

Abraham's eyes slowly lost their crazed anger, and he actually grinned, rubbing his jaw. "Not a bad hit. Didn't think you had the balls."

Adam's fury was still buzzing through him.

"Hey, Adam, isn't that yours? Your phone's ringing," José pointed out. "Maybe you should answer it. You know...outside?"

He shot one last murderous look at grinning Abraham, and walked into the hallway. "Hello?" he said, covering his other ear to block out the noise from the guys who were hooting and joking over the blaring video games.

"Hey," she said, sounding small. "I was wondering...I know you're out with Fezza and the guys, but..."

"You okay?" he said, immediately concerned.

"Yeah," she said, "but...well, I've had enough. And I've been waiting for a cab for the past hour and a half," she said. "Kyla's not ready to leave--I think she's going to sleep here. And nobody else really wanted to go. I just want to head home, get working on the game."

"You want me to pick you up?"

She sighed. "I know it's a lot of trouble, and I'm sorry if I'm..."

"Don't even worry about it," he assured her hastily. "I'll be there as soon as I can, okay? Just hang on."

"Okay. Thanks, Adam."

He felt warmth in the pit of his stomach. He clicked off, then grabbed his laptop. "I'm gonna go," he told Fezza.

The guys booed him. Abraham ignored him.

"I'll walk you to the door," Fezza said. When the got to his condo's hallway, Fezza stepped out with him. "Sorry about Abraham, man. You know how he is."