Page 9 of The Biker and the Gamer
Taking the chair across from me, she flips it around before sitting on it backward, propping her arms on the top.
“So, we're having lunch at a pastry shop?” I ask, just to be sure. Unless she has a thing for sugar and carbs, it's a weird spot to choose for lunch.
Instead of answering me, she waves over one of the servers. “Can we get two Jamaican beef-cheese patties and coco bread, please?”
“I'm a pescatarian,” I inform her.
“In that case, he'll have a veggie patty with coco bread, and a Vitamin Water. Mountain Dew for me.”
As the server leaves to get her order, I bite my lip and eye her. “Can't say I've ever had a woman order for me before. It's...something.”
“First time for everything,” she answers with a shrug. “But you'll really be missing out on the meat patty. Veg is just, well, veg.”
“Eh, I’m not here for the food anyway.” I could get lost in those guarded gray eyes of hers. “Do you smoke?”
“Yep.”
“Cigarettes?”
From inside her jacket, she gets out a rolled joint and holds it up between two fingers. “Weed is life. Nicotine is death.”
“And alcohol?”
“A beer or two, but not a big fan.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.” Her eyes narrow at me as she returns her joint to its location inside her jacket. “What's with all the questions? This an interrogation or something? Thought you said you had a proposal.”
“I do,” I assure her. “I’m just trying to understand your character a little.”
“My character? The hell do even you mean by that?” She glances around the store once more with narrowed eyes and a hue of suspicion. “Dude, if you don't cut it with the BS, I'm outta here.”
Right then, the server returns with our order. I'm more of a fish and vegetable eater, but since I’m trying to win her over, I'll eat whatever she wants me to eat.
I watch and follow her lead as she opens the hot, butter-scented coco bread and places her beef-cheese patty inside it. Lifting it to her mouth, she takes a bite, her lids lowering to a close as she savors it.
For as long as she keeps her eyes closed, I watch her, mesmerized.
When she opens them and catches me watching her, she hikes up her brow at me.
To appease her, I take a bite of my food. I'm not hungry. I'd had lunch before I went to The Metal House earlier. But remembering her Ramen noodles for dinner the first time I saw her, I rightly guessed that she hadn't had lunch yet and jumped at the opportunity to get a one-on-one with her.
“So?” she asks after I’ve chewed and swallowed. “What's the proposal?”
“Do you play games?”
“You mean, like the one you're playing now?”
I bite back a smile. “No, video games.”
She frowns. “If only I had the time for such luxury.”
Oh, she’s one of those people. The kind who believes only idlers play video games. “Well, I own a game development company with my business partner, Cedric Drake—you met him last Friday. Last year, we launched our first open-world game and it was a huge success. This year, we're working on a sequel.
“We’re temporarily stationed here, acclimatizing ourselves, seeing as Denver will be the setting for the sequel.”
“Okay.” She takes another bite of her food. “And?”
