Page 50 of The Player's Lounge

Quint joined him at the breakfast bar, sat and breathed out slowly. He leaned forward, a smile catching light on his face. “Yeah, it’s been good. It’s frustrating, though. There’s so much I want to tell him, but I can’t, unless, you know-”

“I know.” Harry nodded. “It’s our only curse.”

“I don’t know whether that’s what’s holding something back. When we’re together, he feels right, but when we’re apart? I just feel that something’s missing from the old ‘us’.”

“Well, it is. We all know what, but there is sweet Fanny Adams you can do about it, brother. Not in this lifetime, anyway. I’m afraid, my old matey-pops, you’re gonna have to put a smile on your face and grin and bear it. He can’t ever know the truth, and even if he does, the bond still ain’t gonna be what it was. He won’t be able to understand what being a Player is, but you already know that.”

Harry truly had been around the block and he knew every feeling and emotion a situation like Quint’s brought with it.

“Now you know why you never see me with anybody.” Harry smiled at him, then paused, as if recollecting a long-lost memory. He slammed his hand on the worktop. “You got anything to drink in this gaff yet?”

Quint hauled himself up and headed over to the fridge. “Some juice?”

“No, adrink!” Harry shook his hand in the international gesture for a Bourbon on the rocks.

Quint read him and went to search through a couple of boxes that were still unpacked and pulled out a half-full bottle of Bulleit Bourbon. After rummaging around for a glass for a minute or so and giving up, he eventually found a mug and poured him a shot.

“Cheers, chief, I won’t trouble you for any ice.” Harry winked. He took a sip, then sat back in his chair. “Let me tell you a story. I was in love once. It lasted a long, long time. We were both Players at the time. We were so tuned in to each other, it was unbelievable. I knew what every mannerism he made meant. I could predict every reaction to everything he experienced. I knew how he felt every second I was with him from every one of his thousand and one expressions. Even when he wasn’t there, I felt him with me. I mean, you know how it is.”

Quint nodded.

“I died before him, had some horrible strain of, I guess flu or something like that. The planet we lived on wasn’t exactly big on investing in medical matters. Very selfish lot. I think Vinni lived a good ten years after me. I’d chosen to reincarnate on the same planet because I wanted the chance to find him again. I’d lived as a Player so many times already that I’d harnessed the attraction laws so well, I could pull him into my life super-fast.

But it was the age-old problem. I was a Player and he was a Reboot. I still loved him, though. I managed to get together with him and life was good, but it was never the same. We grew old together, and this time we didn’t die too far apart so I was hoping beyond hope that he’d use his noggin and reincarnate as a Player. I was throwing hints left, right and centre about my spirituality, and I swore he was getting it, but in the next lifetime?”

“The same happened?” guessed Quint.

“Bullseye. This went on umpteen times until the frustration just got too much for me. Yeah,me,” said Harry, polishing off his Bourbon and tutting at his past self. “Then for the first time since, well, a long time, I decided I couldn’t take it anymore, and I took the plunge and rebooted. And guess who reincarnated as a Player?”

Quint obviously didn’t have to.

“Then the ball was on the other foot. Vinni got so frustrated and upset, knowing what I must have been going through in all those lifetimes that he broke therule.”

The story was starting to make Quint anxious. The tale of a seemingly never-ending cycle that was itself the very definition of infinity.

“And that was that,” said Harry. “Going into theMediunnafter that death, I felt different. For once, I felt like I was truly alone. Not in a bad way at all, though. I swore to myself then and there that I wouldn’t waste any more time trying to search for somebody when I could be spending gawd knows how many millennia missing them, ignoring all the beautiful things around me, not learning anything new because I’m too wound up searching for Vinni.

The circle of life is all about growing and learning my friend. It’s a cliché, but when we die, we’re alone, and when we’re born, we’re alone. We choose when those things happen, whether we think we don’t or not. Our little lessons in life all come in the form of those people we meet. But let me tell you this, my friend.”

Harry put his cup down and leaned forward towards Quint.

“There is that one time, once in who knows how long when you’re totally in sync with that soulmate of yours. When you die together and you have that choice to be with each other through to the end of time… if you want to, of course. And that is the true other half of your soul. Only when you have them, my chum, you are truly home. I don’t care who you are, you’re never gonna pass up that opportunity, so let me tell you this in case the thought crossed your mind: he didn’tchooseto reboot.”

A tear made its way down Quint’s cheek at the significance of Harry’s statement, and Harry leaned back, almost breathless.

“Quite heavy for a Saturday morning, eh?” He chuckled.

Quint stood up and walked around the breakfast bar, then embraced Harry in the warmest hug they’d ever shared during the years they’ve known each other.

“I love you, brother. I hope you never reboot again,” said Harry, squeezing him tighter. Then—“Bloody hell.”

“What is it?” asked Quint, quickly looking around.

“I almost forgot why I popped over. So, your mate, Cody? I’ve got some intel for him. I’ve been putting the feelers out and a friend of mine reached out. She was in theMediunnwhen his fella, what’s his name?”

“Jim. Tim, I mean?” said Quint.

“The music guy, Tim, that’s it. Anyway, the good news is that we’ve got a date of birth and she felt one-hundred percent that he was going to be reincarnating back here in England. The bad news is that she seemed pretty sure that he was going to reboot. He had that look about him, you know?”

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