Page 81 of Game Over

God I couldn’t even call it a fight in my head. How pathetic.

“What did he say?”

“He wants to go to Board City.”

It took her a moment to register the name of the cafe, we’d been a couple of times but she always preferred a date where she could be more creative. I figured it wasn’t the worst thing, she was a half-decent painter—out of the mugs we’d made for each other, I’d seriously gotten the nicer of the two. Decorated in little cherries and lemons with hearts intermixed. Mine for her was… purple. And a blotchy, uneven purple at that.

But, Tara being the gracious girl she was, loved it. Counted it as a courting gift like I was some big stupid alpha.

“Oh, I didn’t realize he liked it analog” she teased, trying to keep the tone light to match her suggestively waggling eyebrows.

It worked, and my smile came easily. “He’s not the biggest board game guy. He’ll go, and usually get his ass beat, but this is kind of… what we do.”

“Yeah?” she prompted, waiting for me to continue.

“When we were in high school we got into a fight. It was a small thing all things considered, but we didn’t talk for a week, which was unheard of at the time. We went to the board game cafe mortal enemies—my words, not his—and came out friends again. Though it’s only happened once, it’s the way we make up.”

“That sounds really nice,” Tara said, tracing little soothing circles into the back of my hand. “So why the apprehension, lemon drop?”

I groaned, throwing myself back in my chair. Was it dramatic? Absolutely. But I couldn’t help it. Sometimes a person just needed to be difficult. “It’s…complicated.”

She hummed, giving my hand a little pat. “Let's finish our pancakes then sit on the couch and watch a movie.”

I nodded, digging back into my plate—even if I didn’t feel all that hungry.

The pancake eating gave me time to think, though. Which I figured was probably Tara’s plan anyway. Perceptive little omega always had a suggestion to help me work through my problems without coming off as pushy.

Why was I being apprehensive?

Because Charlie was perfect.

Because Charlie got to have everything I had, including my girlfriend.

Because Charlie didn’t feel that way aboutme.

And it was fucking annoying.

After all this time watching him refuse to date, I sort of figured that there had to be a reason why. Maybe he just didn’t look at people like that. Or maybe he was so in the closethe couldn’t base the idea of telling Cameo—or in my wildest fantasies, me—that he wanted him.

Even though I’d had several partners over the years, before Tara it was really more flash-in-the-pan types. Burning hot fast before fizzling out for one reason or another, leaving Charlie and I to continue our admittedly co-dependent relationship in peace.

And even though I’d fallen in love first, watching him do the same… Seeing him with someone else? It was more painful than I ever could’ve predicted.

I knew that wasn’t fair, but nothing about this was fair. It wasn’t fair that I had feelings for a stupid alpha who never saw me that way. It wasn’t fair that the same alpha was a scent match for the love of my life. It was incredibly unfair that Tara and I had been so patient about bonding because we wanted to be sure and that she just made that kind of connection with him without discussing it at all.

Even if I was aware that was the heat hormones, it didn’t change the way I felt about it.

Hurt. A little angry. Left out.

Insecure that maybe now that she had an alpha she wouldn’t need me after all and I’d lose both of them because I just couldn’t be born with a stupid knot.

I had to figure something out, I couldn’t just keep letting these things fester. And if they weren’t going to go away on their own—which it didn’t seem like they were, given how often and wildly I swung from being so happy that Tara hadn’t changed at all and being furious that was the case—addressing them was the only way…Eventually.

I didthe dishes while Tara hunted for something to watch. We cuddled up together on the couch, a movie from one of our favorite sci-fi series playing softly on the flat screen.

She rested her head against my chest, and I let my cheek rest on the top of her head, catching a whiff of Charlie’s fruity, buttery scent off the hoodie she’d bundled up in. The omega nesting behaviors were really in full force.

In a way, it was nice… comforting. The smell of home, Tara and Charlie together, making things seem a little less dire with every ping of the laser guns on TV.

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