Levels of Love (Novel Haven #1)

Chapter 1

Lara

Welcome to Novel Haven.

Use W-A-S-D and the mouse to explore your new home.

Whenever the world threatens to crush me, I create a new world for myself from my imagination and C# instead.

It’s been like this ever since my teens, when I taught myself to code in order to find an outlet for the tangled thoughts in my head, and it still is.

Though to be fair, reality isn’t even the main thing crushing me these days.

Instead, it’s the insane mountain of work that never seems to shrink, no matter how much overtime I put in. Adulting. Brilliant.

I finish my lukewarm coffee, wishing I could just inject it into my veins instead.

At this point, there’s more coffee than blood in there anyway.

Last night was another near-all-nighter, but it was worth it.

The demo version of Novel Haven is ready: The world I’ve been escaping to on a daily basis for the last two years, the world that means everything to me.

The world that takes the pressure off and heals the wounds of my past, one line of code at a time.

Smiling, I watch as Nora—the default name of our game’s MC—runs through the little village to the lighthouse by the cliff that she now calls her own.

The sun is setting, bathing everything in a warm glow as someone approaches her—the mayor.

He’s about to suggest she open a bookshop in the village, but before he can get to that part, someone taps my shoulder, and I jump.

“Earth to Lara.”

Though I’m already turning around, Nataly pokes me in the arm again with one of her perfectly manicured nails.

“God, your reflexes are shot to pieces.” Nat’s blue eyes sparkle with amusement. Her long blond hair is swept up into an intricate braid, while my own blue-and-black hair probably looks like a bird’s nest, considering how much I’ve been trying to tear it out over the past few hours.

“Sophia called us twice for the meeting already. You fell asleep in your chair again.”

“Did not,” I object, then immediately clear my throat because my voice sounds rough and scratchy. I scan my desk for a glass of water, but all I can see aside from my coffee are three empty cans of energy drink—my vice. Nat follows my gaze and lets out a low whistle.

“I see I’m getting some competition in the chaos department.”

I snort and poke her arm back. “You wish.”

Chaotic though Nataly may be as a flatmate, as a colleague, she’s in a league of her own. Her desk is barely visible under a mound of papers, hand lotion tubes, and sticky notes.

“Folks! This is me calling you for the third time! If I wanted people to ignore me, I could have just become a mum instead of your boss.” Sophia’s red hair pops into my peripheral vision as she peeks around the corner.

Her loud, sharp tone is at odds with her petite frame.

“Lara, Nataly, get over here right now!”

I rise out of my chair with a sigh, and Nat gives my hand a quick squeeze. “Tonight, Aria and I are bundling you into your bed, making vegan macaroni cheese, and putting on a movie for you. You really need a break.”

“That sounds like a dream,” I reply, stifling a yawn.

Nataly and I enter the office where Aria, Kamal, and Ramon are already sitting at the table with Sophia.

Ramon raises his coffee mug at me. Considering the fact that he’s been about as stressed out as I have these past few days, he’s looking surprisingly fresh.

He’s put the game through its paces and found countless bugs, nearly driving me up the wall more than once, but we’re finally there.

I plonk down in the free chair next to his, and Nataly takes a seat across from me, between Aria and Kamal.

“Good morning, everyone! How lovely that we’ve finally all made it here.

” Sophia’s gaze locks on mine, and she manages to give me a serious, scolding look for a short moment before the corners of her mouth start to twitch.

This is one reason why I love our boss. She’s relaxed and completely unlike all the bosses I ever had during my internships.

Another reason is that she hired me even though I had nothing more to show in the way of experience than the aforementioned internships and a few private projects.

And even better, she also hired my two best friends, Nataly and Aria.

“Sorry,” I mutter. “Long night.”

“Were you watching Ghibli movies again?” Ramon inquires, raising one dark-brown eyebrow at me.

“No, I was working. Behave, or I’ll drown you in the coffeepot.”

Fourth point in favor of this job: It’s familiar. Two years after founding, we’ve become a tight-knit team. I know Ramon’s workout plan just like he knows my favorite movies. I’m at ease here. And for the first time since after what happened, I’m not afraid to say what I think.

“If you lot don’t get a grip soon, I’m taking away your coffee privileges,” Sophia threatens us.

Ramon utters a theatrical gasp. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.” She presses her lips into a thin line, probably so she doesn’t grin back, and then turns her intense green eyes on me. “Lara.”

“Present!” I say. Thankfully, all this back-and-forth is waking me up a bit.

“The GameChanger preliminaries are tomorrow.”

I nod. Like I wasn’t aware already. For days, or really weeks, we’ve been toiling away to get the prototype for our game, Novel Haven, ready and presentable in time for the competition.

GameChanger is a video game convention, now in its twentieth year.

One of the reasons it’s become so famous is that it doesn’t take place in some old exhibition hall, but on a fancy estate.

Four years back, several investors came together to support young studios or small, newly founded teams from larger studios.

Ever since then, there’s always been a competition during the convention; not only is it great publicity for all participants, but the winning team also gets a cash prize.

A bloody huge cash prize. And if there’s one thing small studios lack, it’s money.

The first round of judging is tomorrow, and we’ll have to convince some random British government officials of the merits of Novel Haven.

If we do get to the second round, we’ll be taking part in the convention two weeks later.

There, our game will have to stand up to the audience test. Winning would mean we could visit trade fairs.

Or hire someone new. I’d finally have someone for sound design who could . . .

“Is the demo ready yet?” Sophia tucks a strand of her shoulder-length hair behind her ear. “Were you able to add the last few changes?”

“Yep, hence the way the bags under my eyes are dragging on the floor.”

“Excellent. The first part, I mean, not the bags under your eyes. Take tomorrow off and make up for the overtime, team. We’ll have lots to do when I get back next week with the jury’s feedback.”

“No worries, they’ll be thrilled!” says Kamal, the sixth addition and oldest member of our team.

He keeps reminding us that thirty-nine is nothing, really; still, we keep teasing him about his first few silver hairs in his black hair and beard.

He’s a developer too, but his focus, as opposed to mine, is on the user interface and multiplayer mode, which we’ll hopefully be able to roll out along with the actual game.

“That’s the spirit!” Sophia agrees. “We’ll crush the competition, rub the trophy under everyone’s noses on LinkedIn, participate in trade fairs, and be able to hire an entire orchestra for the in-game music.”

“And we could get an office dog,” Aria says. My flatmate goes all out, giving Sophia her biggest, brownest puppy-dog eyes.

“Definite no on the office dog.”

“It was worth a try,” Ramon says, patting Aria’s shoulder. Next to me, Nataly lets out a sigh, probably because she knows as well as I do that Aria’s going to keep pestering us to get a pet at home now instead. With our work schedules, that would be less than sensible.

“Have you managed to get the full list of participants? Do we know who our competition is yet?” Kamal asks, curious.

Sophia shakes her head. “Nearly. There are twenty studios, but two of them are still signing up. I reckon they had to catch up on some admin first. Apparently, they’re publishing the final list at eleven o’clock, so in—” she glances at her watch “—about an hour. Things are looking good so far; we’ve got some competition, but we still stand a decent chance.

And besides, our game is about books, so I’ll be able to sell that to the politicians as an important contribution to public education.

I’ll let you know as soon as I know more. ”

Sophia shares a few more points about the competition with us before we discuss our respective duties for the week.

Since the demo version is now ready, and since we’re supposed to compensate for our overtime while Sophia’s away, the whole situation has relaxed a bit, at least for a little while.

Because if we get into the second round, there’s even more work waiting for us.

And tired though I might be, I can hardly wait.

“All right then . . .” Sophia says after Nataly’s presentation of the current numbers from our social media accounts. “On we go, back to work. And Ramon, try to drink a bit of water instead, yeah?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ramon replies and gets up.

“And don’t ‘ma’am’ me; I’m only two years older than you.”

“Can’t get anything right around here.” He sighs, and now it’s Aria’s turn to pat his shoulder as we all traipse back to our desks. Her smile brings out the dimples in her cheeks. Sophia mutters something that sounds suspiciously like bunch of chaotic misfits, but there’s a smile on her face too.

“On our day off tomorrow . . .” Nataly starts, and there’s already a twinkle in her blue eyes.

I shake my head. “I’m not going roller skating with you. I’m going to sleep.”

“Aww, come on. You can sleep when you’re dead.”