Chapter Six
Word had gotten out before I’d arrived at the venue of the awards show. Videos were popping up of streamers who were excited for a chance to bump into me or get a chance to see me.
Not a chance in hell.
Normally, showing up to an award show in person wasn’t an issue, at least it hadn’t been the few times we’d done it.
I would stay in my control room until the speech, give it live, and then leave out the back without anyone noticing.
It didn’t happen often, though; most of the time I did the recording beforehand and stayed home or did them live from my gaming room.
This time was different. Someone was going out of their way to make it known that CovertRetriever was here, same as last night.
My contact and coordinator for the show, Lisa, was worried that someone had insight into who I actually was, so she had me circle a few times and swap cars twice before creating a new setup for me to exit the vehicle.
We thought we’d nipped the leak last night.
I wasn’t turning back now; I was getting into that venue.
Beckett decided, with all the attention on me being here, that he would stay in the original car we took and enter the theatre as a normal guest. Our coordinator made sure to set up a few seats for us toward the front under our fake names given for the ball last night.
“We are truly sorry,” Lisa started to apologize as I exited the car at a side door down an alleyway. “I don’t know who let this slip tonight and today, but only a few people knew we were making these changes. This will be dealt with.”
“Thank you,” I was appreciative of all the effort that she was putting into this weekend, considering it was all last-minute and nothing was going to plan.
Lisa guided me to a blocked-off control room before leaving me alone.
The show had already started, so I was set to be in the small room for, at a minimum, an hour.
I’d gone ahead and prerecorded my acceptance speech and provided that to the show a month ago, but with the updates to how I wanted to attend the event that Beckett sent over last night, we were going completely off script.
Lisa had given me a breakdown of the awards with the best times listed for when I could slip out and no one would notice.
But this time was different. Odette was out there in the audience, and I wanted somehow, some way, to be able to see her again, just one more time. Beckett had made that come true in a miraculous fashion.
Last night was not nearly enough.
Her hand in mine, her body against me.
I needed her like a fucking drug, and it was driving me insane.
Get it together, man.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out to see a picture from Beckett of the main theatre. I was looking at the stage and who was on it, but my eyes caught sight of someone else on the right-hand side of the screen.
Ryker: Take a better photo of the table in front of you.
Beckett: You caught that.
Beckett sent another photo, this time a far clearer one that showed Odette in a stunning green lace dress, sitting at the table in front of where I would be soon.
She was with Jemma, which I knew Beckett would be ecstatic about.
He hadn’t stopped talking about her all morning.
I didn’t know her well from high school, but Beckett had known her from when they were kids, long before we’d ever become best friends.
They had a falling out Sophomore year, but he had never gone into anything more than that.
Last night, he kept raving about how amazing she looked and that he couldn’t wait to see her again.
I, on the other hand, couldn’t get Odette out of my head.
I checked the time and saw that there were several awards ahead of when I wanted to move to the main floor, a few that Odette would most likely be accepting.
I searched social media to find someone live at the award show.
There were a bunch of streamers here; at least one would take the opportunity.
After a few minutes, I finally found one. I cringed when I saw the name.
TheBestParker
Parker was a well-known streamer in the industry, but I never cared for his antics or demeanor toward his fan base.
He was cocky at best, but more so misogynistic.
While I didn’t want to give him the views, his was the only stream I could find, and I wanted to watch Odette.
I wanted to catch a glimpse of her while not being able to physically be there next to her.
The current award up was for Most Anticipated Game.
Odette had been working on a new game slated to come out within the next year.
It wasn’t a spin-off, but a sequel to League of Witches, where you got to court Abigail’s daughter.
I’d been playing demos of it and giving feedback as a silent investor to the game.
No one had any idea that I was helping fund it, but damn, was I excited for the audience to see it.
The entire theatre grew loud with commotion as the name League of Warlocks showed on the screen. Everyone was getting to see the teaser trailer, finally. The commotion told me already that they were going to love it as much as I did.
At the end of the video, Odette was announced as the winner of the award, and I watched her on my small phone screen as she got up from her seat. She was alone as she made her way to the stage. I’d noticed that she was normally the only one from her team when she went to these kinds of events.
I was trying to listen to her speech when I saw the chat starting to blow up.
Look at your girl go!
You are probably so proud of her!
Glad you could be there to support her tonight!
I scrolled to the top of the stream, only now noticing the description of the video: ‘Let’s watch my girl take on the night!’
His girl?
A pit grew in my stomach at the thought.
As far as I knew, Odette wasn’t with anyone. She did keep her private life very much private on social media, but I felt like I would have seen a few signs if she were seeing someone. How we’d acted with each other last night hadn’t seemed like she was.
Fuck, I hoped she was actually single.
I shook my head, trying to get thoughts of her with Parker out of my head, and went back to focusing on Odette in the video.
She was on stage giving her speech. There were a few more awards before the last few of the night, which were in honor of League of Witches. I knew I should probably wait a little while longer, closer to one of the times Lisa gave me, but if I left right now, I’d get to see Odette sooner.
I texted Lisa my plan, and she gave me the thumbs up.
I peeked out the door of the control room as a group of security personnel nonchalantly walked past. Walking down with them toward the exit, I dipped into a side room that had a suit for me to change into.
Just in case, I always came with a second if I needed to deter onlookers who might be watching too closely backstage.
Luckily, this suit matched Odette’s dress perfectly. I’d gone with a dark green like I’d done last night.
I looked out of the room before walking down the back hallway toward the side curtains to the main stage.
The crowd applauded, claps ringing through the auditorium, and I shortened my steps, taking just a little longer than needed to get to my destination.
Odette could be seen leaving the main stage and was promptly bombarded by photographers and people who were conducting interviews.
While I was hoping to see her backstage, I headed to my table, knowing I’d get to see her there. During the bustle of the next presenter taking the stage and leaving, I snuck onto the floor and quickly made my way over to where Beckett was seated.
“You made it.” Beckett pushed a glass of water in front of me.
“Finally.” I had spent far too much time backstage tonight for my liking.
I looked around, seeing exactly how the theatre was decorated. We were in the middle of a short break, and others were up and mingling.
“Did you know about this?” I pulled out my phone, showing Beckett Parker’s live stream and the description.
He raised an eyebrow and gave me a finger to hold.
He ducked and snuck over to the table in front of us.
Jemma turned around to see me, and her eyes went wide with whatever Beckett was telling her.
He came back just as quickly. Jemma’s eyes hadn’t left me, and she took out her phone, quickly typing away. She looked panicked, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I was here or what Beckett had been talking to her about.
“They broke up three years ago, were together for almost six years. He’s a dipshit asshole in her terms.”
“You got all of that from just a few seconds?”
“Jemma seemed pretty forthcoming with information on Parker.” He shrugged.
I looked back over to Jemma, who was no longer looking at our table but still on her phone. It looked like she was in a heated texting conversation. Maybe she was texting Odette.
Odette.
I looked around to see if she had come back to the main floor, a small weight having been lifted from my shoulders, knowing that she was, in fact, not seeing Parker. But I still didn’t like the fact that he was openly calling her his.
The lights flickered around us, giving a warning of five minutes before the show started up again.
She should have been back on the floor by now.
As if on cue, there she was, walking through the side door and straight to her table. That was until she looked over and caught my eye. Her pace quickened, maneuvering around tables and heading for me.
I stood to meet her.
“Hi.” She stopped in front of me, her voice shaky, out of breath, but she was smiling at me like I was the only person in the room.
“Hello.” I smiled down at her. She was standing there in her dress, which was far more stunning in person than on a live stream or photo. I wanted to reach out to touch her. “You look stunning.”