Page 69 of Love Legacy

“Naomi!” She says defensively, embarrassed to be called out.

“What? You know it’s true.”

Matthew glances at me through the rearview. “So Naomi, are you graduating this year too?”

I shake my head. “I was only allowed to transfer in so many credits, so I had to come in as a Junior rather than a Senior. I still have one more year.”

Alex nods. “Matt too. He’s doing a dual BS/MBA program, so he has to take a fifth year to finish the MBA.”

“Oh nice, what are you planning to do after graduation?” I ask, trying to make conversation.

“Probably the same thing I’m doing now. I’m not sure how much Aleka told you about my background, but I created and sold a Smart Home app when I was sixteen, and since then I’vecreated a couple indie games that I’ve released on Steam, plus I have a pretty decent following as a streamer. I want to fully invest and start my own video game development company, you know, do it full time, on a larger scale. I’m a pretty advanced coder, but my Computer Science degree and the MBA will give me a good educational foundation in some of the technicalities and legalities of the business, not to mention the tools and information I need to run a business.”

Alex did tell me about his app, but I didn’t know quite the full extent of his coding and gaming success. “Wow, that’s extremely impressive. So, the apartment in Manhattan and this sweet car?”

“Bought them both with the payout from the app. And then I put the remainder in my savings. I only use it now to pay my tuition. My rent for my apartment on campus and the money I invest into my game development comes from my Twitch earnings and my appearance fees for conferences and conventions.”

Alex is a lucky girl. Matthew must be loaded, though I’m sure she probably doesn’t care so much about that. “Do you go to a lot of events?” I ask, genuinely curious about his industry.

He nods. “Yeah, a bit. There’s a few I go to every year guaranteed, whether they invite me as a featured creator or if I just go as an attendee. I’m required to attend TwitchCon as part of my monetization contract with Twitch, and then I also go to San Diego Comic-Con, DreamHack, and E3, though they’ve canceled the last couple of E3 cons since Sony pulled out. Then I usually try to see if I can swing an invite to one of the mega Asian gaming conventions like G-Star in South Korea or Tokyo Game Show in Japan.”

Alex grins. “And this year, he was invited to sit on a panel for indie game developers at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. And since it wonderfully coincides with our Spring Break, I’m going to go with him.”

I return her smile; I know she must be so excited to go and be part of his world. “What? No annual Kappa trip to Costa Rica?”

She shakes her head. “Not this Spring Break. We were actually thinking about waiting until after graduation to go this year instead, so it works out.”

“That’s awesome, Alex. I’m happy for you, for both of you, that should be a fun trip.”

Matthew glances over at Alex, looking at her adoringly. “I’ve never gone to a conference with someone before. Even at my first E3 expo, I was eighteen, so I convinced my parents to let me go by myself. I’ll be nice to have you there with me by my side.”

She blushes, pecking him on the cheek. “I can’t wait. And Tyler The Creator is doing a show at the Moody Center in Austin at the end of South By Southwest, so we got tickets to go to that. A little birthday present for the both of us.”

I look at Alex, a little puzzled. “Birthday present?”

She nods. “Matt’s birthday is like a week before mine. His falls in the middle of SXSW and mine is right after the festival, so the concert is like midway between both birthdays.”

“Aw, that’s sweet, you two are Pisces twins, right?” Sage has been teaching me a lot about astrology. It wasn’t something I had been allowed to enjoy back home, but I’ve since discovered I love it. Explains a lot about people’s personalities.

Alex nods. “Yep! Water signs generally complement each other well, but Pisces Pisces pairings are so harmonious.”

Matthew laughs. “What she said. I’m still trying to get a grasp on the whole astrology thing.”

“I teach him astrology, he teaches me the best way to get a victory royale in Fortnite.”

“It’s the only game you’ll play with me on a Twitch stream because you can be off-camera in another room.”

Alex playfully rolls her eyes. “I’m warming up to the idea of actually being on camera. You have a rabid following, Mister. Men and women.”

Matthew blushes but doesn’t respond—Alex was right. It doesn’t surprise me at all to hear he gets a lot of attention from his followers. He’s an attractive guy. He’s got that secretly hot thing going on. Like looking at him from the shoulders up, he’s not bad looking, but if he takes off his shirt, you get to see all the tattoos and muscles hidden away. Even I was surprised when Alex showed me a photo of them at the beach from this past summer. You’d never know, just looking at his face, that he looked likethatunderneath.

Soon enough, we were back at campus. Matthew pulls up to the front of our apartment building, jumping out to get our bags from the back. I take my bag, thanking him for the ride and the assistance with my things before heading toward the front door. I look back, waiting for Alex as she says goodbye to Matthew. She smiles up at him, her arms wrapped around his middle as he cups her cheek. He whispers something in her ear that makes her laugh and blush beet red before giving her a sweet kiss.

From what Maeve’s told me, Alex has had a mix of some okay boyfriends and some not-so-great ones. This is the first guy who’s truly adored her in every way, and you can see it on his face and with how he holds her that he’s head over heels. I love the two of them together, they complement each other so well.

Eventually, Alex pulls away from her boyfriend, and she walks to meet me at the door, waving at Matthew over her shoulder as he drives away. “You’ve got it bad for that man,” I say to her as we head up to our apartment.

She smiles, nodding in agreement. “I do. We’ve been talking a lot this break about what we’re going to do after college. Or at least after my graduation. I eventually want to work for the United Nations, and their headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan. Matt would love to have his company based in New York City anyway, so the plan is to move in together into his Manhattan apartment once he finishes his fifth year.

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