Page 90 of Shadow

Ripley blinked and shook his head, trying to brush off the daze he’d fallen into while Olivia and Alley tried to explain Dungeons & Dragons to him. The group had set up in the bar with a bunch of tables pulled together to start the game. So far Olivia, Alley, Gage, Edith, and two people whose names he couldn’t remember were planning to play, and they were currently going through a character sheet. He was still a little lost.

“Sorry. I am. I’m just not following it all. Explain what all the stats mean again? I understand some of them, but some of them seem… redundant.”

Olivia clasped her hands together and looked at Alley. “Help, please.”

Alley laughed and pulled out her phone. “Does he speak meme?”

“Do you speak meme?” she asked Ripley.

Ripley scratched his head. “I don’t know. I mean I’ve snooped around enough Facebook profiles to have read a few.”

Alley shook her head. “That’s just sad. I’m going to try reading one to you anyway. Here’s a stats analogy using a tomato.”

Ripley wrinkled his nose. “Liv is allergic to tomatoes.”

“It doesn’t matter. This will still make sense to you. Strength is being able to crush the tomato. Dexterity is being able to dodge the tomato. Constitution is being able to eat a bad tomato.”

Ripley waved his hand and grabbed the phone from her. “Give me that. You don’t have to read the whole damn thing out loud. It makes sense now.” He skimmed the rest of the image Alley had pulled up on her phone then passed it back to her.

“So, what you’re saying is, Gage is the bard.”

Alley grinned and held up her hand for a high-five. “Now you’re getting it. All we’re doing right now is helping you make your first character. The rest of it you’ll pick up as we go along. Olivia is a fantastic DM.”

Ripley glanced at his girl in time to see her cheeks flush. She was graceful about taking compliments, but she also always got just a little embarrassed by them.

“I have no doubt about that,” he said, brushing a quick kiss against her cheek.

“So, what class are you thinking about playing?” Olivia asked, clearly trying to get the conversation away from herself.

That was easy. Of everything they’d told him about the various classes in the game, he understood the rogue the most and thought it sounded like the most fun to play.

“Rogue for sure.”

Olivia huffed and reached into her pocket and then slapped a twenty-dollar bill into Alley’s outstretched hand.

“What the heck was that?” Ripley asked.

Alley chuckled. “I have a knack for pinpointing what class a new player will pick. Olivia bet me twenty dollars I couldn’t figure you out.”

Ripley raised an eyebrow, “And you picked rogue for me?”

Alley shrugged. “What can I say? I’m good.”

“Clearly. We could have used your skills on a few missions at my old job.”

By the time they were done filling out his character sheet, Ripley was itching to get the game started. It felt like it required more set-up than any game should, but they kept assuring him it wasn’t always like this.

When everyone was sitting around the table they’d set up in the Library, Olivia morphed into someone he’d never seen before while she set the stage for the adventure they were going to have during their game.

She was clearly in her element, and it was sexy as fuck to watch. He may not have had any idea what she was talking about when she asked everyone to roll for initiative, but he didn’t care. He was content to just watch her all afternoon.

When it was his turn—thankfully, he didn’t have to go first—he was oddly nervous. It was a fictional story about a party of adventurers searching for a lost artifact and fighting monsters along the way. There was nothing about the situation that should have made him nervous.

But he survived his first turn, and the game continued on with laughter, jabs, and smartassery mostly coming from Gage and Alley.

“So, when you pick up the pouch, you discover it’s not empty. But it contains…” Olivia’s voice trailed off as the door opened.

“Oh, come on, you couldn’t have waited until we got here?” a woman said.

---