Chapter Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ryan
“What I’m thinking,” Mason said with a contemplative look, delight shimmering in his eyes, “is that we need to get the elusive gentleman in the corner to tell us about the bandits. And the best way to do that is to buy him a drink.”
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” West said, his forehead wrinkling in concern as he looked up from his character sheet. “What if he’s one of them?”
“I don’t think he is,” Mason said. It was obvious he’d already made up his mind and I was trying not to smile. It was our third Dungeons charm, wit, and banter were supposed to be a solid part of my skill set, but at that moment I could barely string a sentence together.
I really needed to pull myself the fuck together.
If only so I didn’t make it completely obvious to everyone else in the kitchen that Mason and I were doing a lot more than making eyes at each other over the table.
“I didn’t think it would get me very far if I bought the bad one,” he said. “It’s not much better than horse piss.”
“I agree with you there,” I said. “So… do you have a name, charming stranger? Or shall I just call you that?”
The flush on Mason’s face returned and I tried not to smirk, tried to control the beating of my heart—which was wild and reckless like storm-tossed waves crashing on a beach—tried to pretend I didn’t love how much I could affect him with just a few words.
My eyes flashed around the rest of the group, but they were all watching us with rapt expressions. Rory was literally holding a handful of popcorn and staring at us like we were in an episode of a fantasy version of Hollyoaks.
There really needed to be more high-fantasy soap operas, because I would watch the fuck out of every single one of them. Who wanted complicated politics and battles when you could watch drama about who shagged who.
“Taron,” Mason said almost shyly and goddammit, this man was going to be the death of me. This wasn’t even real flirting and I was suffering. What was it going to be like if he ever used some of that charm outside of the game?
I already knew the answer because he’d been using it all along. It was just that neither of us had realised.
We were in way over our heads and refusing to admit it, like we were playing hook-up chicken or something.
“Taron… I’m Arden,” I said, leaning a little closer over the top of the screen. “Nice to meet you. I’m guessing you haven’t been in town long because I don’t remember seeing your face before… and it’s definitely one I’d remember.”
“No, we just arrived,” Mason said, flushing again as he gestured to the rest of the table as if he was pointing over his shoulder in the middle of the tavern. I glanced at the party, who were all simultaneously grinning and trying to pretend they hadn’t been staring.
“And what are you three doing?” I asked them. “Are you watching them? Talking amongst yourselves? You ordered some food, right?”
“I’m feeding Basil some peas,” Jonny said. “I think geese can eat peas anyway.”
“Wait,” Rory said with a giggle. “Did you bring Basil in with you?”
“Yeah, in my bag. He’s too little to be by himself, and someone might steal him. Except he’s now on my lap eating peas. And maybe some bits of potato. Whatever he wants, really.”
“Is this your way of asking if we can get a cat or something?” Mason asked.
“No,” Jonny said sadly. “I’m allergic to cats. They give me a snotty nose. I wouldn’t be opposed to a dog, though…”
“We’re not getting a dog,” I said quickly, attempting to put my foot down before my golden retrievers returned with an actual golden retriever. “Not now anyway, because I’d have to do all the training and poop scooping during the day.”
“That’s fair,” Jonny said. “Maybe one day… maybe next summer when I can be here more.”
I left Jonny dreaming of puppies and turned to the other two. They hadn’t started flirting with each other in-game yet but I gave it about two more sessions given the interactions their characters had had so far. Luckily, they weren’t insufferable like some couples I’d heard about online. The RPG Horror Stories community on Reddit was full of them, and I was totally prepared to bring a water pistol to the table if West and Rory started making out in front of us. I loved the pair of them but I had to keep things fair. “What about you two?”
“I’m probably eating. I want to actually get my dinner before Jonny gives it to the goose,” West said, shooting a grin at Jonny.
“I wouldn’t give him all of it! Just the bits he can eat. I’m not gonna feed him pork scratchings or stew! What if there was goose in it? That’s cannibalism!”
“I’m watching you and Mason,” Rory said gleefully as West and Jonny began playfully talking about what Basil the baby goose could and couldn’t eat, which quickly seemed to move on to wanting to find some sort of in-world fishing supply store so they could get him some mealworms. I’d deal with that later.
“Are you obviously watching?”
“Probably. Or maybe I’m trying to eat, but I keep dropping my food back onto the plate. Like when someone is pretending they’re eating and not listening but it’s really obvious. But if I see Taron looking, I’ll probably wave. Or give him a little thumbs-up.”
“Subtle as ever there, Sparkles,” I said with a little chuckle. “Arden definitely notices you staring. And if you wave, he’ll definitely notice that too.”
Rory shrugged. “Oh well, I have to give Taron encouragement somehow. And the other guy sounds super hot, so I’m all for Mason flirting with him for information.”
“I’m not… even going to deny I’m doing that,” Mason said, shaking his head. “But it’s working, right? He’s talking to me.”
“Keep going,” Rory said with a shooing wave of his hand. “I wanna know about the bandits. And I want to watch you flirt with Ryan too!”
Mason flushed again, this time turning nearly as red as his beard. “Yeah, well, I kinda have to since Ryan’s playing Arden.”
“It’s not a bad thing,” Rory said as he casually fished more popcorn out of the bag on the table. “You two are cute together.”
I looked at him, trying to work out if he knew or if he was just being Rory… but from the way West hadn’t batted an eyelash, I didn’t think he was feeling guilty—like if Mason had told him and he’d told his boyfriend in confidence, not expecting him to say anything to our faces.
I tried to pretend I hadn’t stopped breathing for a second and laughed. “I’m a performer, darling. It’s what I do.”
“And I’m just naturally sexy,” Mason said. He was also laughing, but when our eyes met for a second, something passed between us.
We both knew we weren’t pretending.
We just weren’t ready to admit it.