Page 17 of The Player's Lounge

Every time they met, Quint could see the anguish trapped behind Cody’s eyes and he was sure Cody could see his. Cody had shared with Quint his fear that within the vast infinity of time, this lifetime may not be the one where they would have a chance to find their lovers again.

All in all though, Quint had a good feeling about this planet that he had wound up on, despite its many troubles and flaws. It seemed like it really was the place to be in this sector of the universe. It was a hospitable planet that seemed alone in its galaxy, left to fend for itself.

Earth truly wasn’t just a beautiful planet, but a place to be treasured. Quint could understand its popularity and why departed souls were returning on a regular basis. It held as much, if not more natural beauty and wonder than Quint had seen whilst living on Vondiv’d. The colours were plentiful and so very vibrant, the animals both fascinating and beautiful, working with nature in incredible ways that Quint would never have known possible.

The rattle of the boiling Bialetti coffeepot on the hob snapped him out of his contemplative state and the aroma of freshly ground coffee filled his senses, broadening his smile and giving him yet another reason to be grateful to the universe for giving him the nudge to start a new life here. Coffee was just another of the many new things that made life so good for him.

He removed the coffeepot from the stove and poured half a cupful, tipping in a spoonful of demerara sugar then filling the rest of his mug with frothed oat milk, sipping his coffee and allowing the bitterness to jumpstart him into action for the day.

A rattle from the cat flap jolted him, then Ariella ran in and jumped onto his lap, offering him the sound of her purr along with a few head rubs, all in exchange for a currency that he knew all too well.

Quint carefully put her down on the floor and headed over to the treat cupboard. He took out a pack of her favourite treats, tantalisingly shaking them at her, as if she needed to get in the mood, then bent down and fed her a handful, trading them for a stroke under her thistly chin.

“Who were you before, eh?” Quint asked.

He knew that all life had the power to reincarnate, that each lifetime lived was a level-up from the one before. That was just how it all worked. Everything grew: it was the true nature of life.

It made Quint wonder how long he had existed. He obviously had no recollection of himself before his last lifetime, so there was no way of knowing. The memory was lost within the sands of time forever. He just had to figure out life from here on in and learn through the many incarnations that he would take, because now he was a Player, there would be no going back for him.

“How the hell did I breakthe rulelast time?”

He contemplated the question. Because of what he knew now, he was sure that he never would have rebooted intentionally and risked losing Leo. Maybe he died alone and had lost Leo before, not yet awoken to that unwavering faith and belief he now possessed.

With a shake of his head, he gave up torturing himself, and stood up and walked towards the window. He looked out at his beautiful garden, taking in the sounds of the cityscape, his heart lighter than it had been all week. Being at home was so much better than being at work. On paper, his had been the perfect job, but the more time he spent in the office, the more his colleagues infuriated him with their clouded judgments and rapidly diminishing scruples.

He flushed those negative thoughts from his head for now, preferring to meditate and connect himself to the rest of the universe.

Each day, he put by at least half an hour to realign his thoughts and focus them on attracting into his life the things that he both wanted and needed. He had managed to fashion himself a comfortable life because of this practice, and also had connected with many fellow Players that helped him improve his life here in so many ways. Not only that, he’d managed to find ways of gathering more wealth by the day, but even so, it was no consolation for what hereallywanted to find.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to attract Leo into his life for whatever reason and something was blocking him from doing so. Some days he would lose faith in it ever being a possibility. With this train of thought pulling him down a negative vortex like this, it seemed he was inadvertently pushing Leo further and further away.

Meeting Cody recently had grounded him somewhat, though. It reminded him that he wasn’t alone in searching for the soulmate that would make him whole again. His troubles seemed tiny in comparison to the turmoil that Cody had being living in, going through this life alone with nobody to share the secrets of the universe with.

Helping somebody like Cody seemed to oddly restore his faith as well. Trying to put a positive spin on Cody’s situation had reflected back on him, and Quint was able to relax and let go of things out of his control with greater ease now. The meeting of their minds had been good for them, and he felt good about what the future would hold for them both.

He sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes, evening out his breathing, feeling with six of his seven senses what it was going to be like the day he met with Leo again, drawing in any help he could from forgotten lifetimes.

ChapterEight

Monday had the reputation of being the most excruciating day of the week. Quint could understand why, now that he was stuck in a job that he was beginning to detest. He certainly wasn’t in the mood to be trapped in yet another recording session with another social media influencer who fancied themselves as a singer yet couldn’t hold a note.

Quint sat huddled on the sofa in the back of the control room of the studio, his cup of coffee balancing precariously on the arm of it next to him, laptop perched upon his knees.

He sat staring at the screen, willing the figures on the webpage to move north. The last three months had been incredible. He was approaching a seven-figure sum in his bank account, all from trading in this so-called Crypto currency.

Mistakenly, many had thought the initial boom was long gone and few were brave enough to invest big anymore. Quint on the other hand was more than up for the challenge, and it was paying off. His sixth sense knew the way these traders thought, the way they behaved and he found it easy to anticipate their actions.

The only snag was that it was turning into a full-time job to keep on top of this, not to mention one that was clashing with hisactualfull-time job, much to the exasperation of his colleagues. Isobel in particular.

“Hellooo?”

The tune in her voice was spiked with frustration.

Quint jolted and instinctively snapped the laptop shut, nudging and saving his coffee cup from falling from the arm of the sofa to its certain death in an unintentionally slick move.

“Huh? Sorry Iz.” He looked up at her with hooded eyes, internally raging that Isobel dared to disturb him from his extra-curricular activities.

“I said maybe we should go for another take for the first chorus. He’s just not getting it.”

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