Chapter 34
Lara
The better you get along with the other inhabitants of Novel Haven, the more unique events you’ll unlock.
For example, your friends can help you search for lost stories for your bookshop.
“Ah, Mr. Crow!”
Sophia’s excited voice yanks me out of my never-ending reverie about Luca and whether I should ask my boss about everything.
Rodrick Crow is, at this moment, entering our booth, in front of which people started queuing not five minutes after opening time this morning.
He’s a tall, gray-haired man, and unlike the other visitors, he’s wearing a tailored suit that matches his estate exquisitely.
But there are small, colorful video game pins attached to the lapels of his suit jacket, which immediately curbs some of my shyness.
“Ms. Richards, Ms. Anderson,” he greets us, and laugh lines appear around his pale-blue eyes, as if we were old friends. “How wonderful to finally have made it here! There was no getting through yesterday.”
“It’s an honor to meet you!” Sophia shakes his hand, and the excited grin on her face wakes a guilty twinge in my chest. How could I ever have imagined that there would be a grain of truth to Luca’s words? Sophia loves our game. With all her soul.
“The pleasure is mine. To meet both of you,” he adds as he reaches for my hand as well. “Your booth really has turned out beautifully; it feels very homey. Ignoring the masses of visitors, of course.”
“Would you like to have a go at Novel Haven?” Sophia asks, and she looks ready to tug the cosplayer in a Lara Croft costume, who’s only just started decorating her lighthouse, out of her chair.
“Thank you very much, but I will do so along with the other judges before we make our final decision. To be honest, I’m here because I wanted to ask whether you’d be available for a short interview today.”
“Of course!”
“Excellent. The BBC are recording an information segment for their media center. Could we have fifteen minutes with you? Right here by the booth, if you don’t mind. Maybe this afternoon after your presentation?”
Sophia nods eagerly, and her green eyes start to shine. “Absolutely.”
“Perfect. Well then, I won’t keep you any longer. I shall see you later.” He shakes both of our hands again, and then he makes his way out through the crowd.
“Wow,” Sophia says, gazing after him. “He’s so nice. And he wants to record here, at our booth!”
“Yes,” I say, and there’s another unpleasant twinge somewhere inside me. “It’s crazy what your idea has turned into, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, unbelievable.”
“When you first had the idea for Novel Haven,” I begin cautiously, the twinge growing stronger as I try to analyze her every expression. “Did you expect this?”
Sophia’s eyes narrow, and she hesitates for a moment before answering. But there’s nothing on her face. Or nothing that shouldn’t be there, at least. I’m certain it was a normal pause in the flow. Novel Haven was her idea.
“Not at all,” Sophia replies, and a smile flits across her face. “When I first had the idea for the game, I was in my mid-twenties and absolutely clueless.” She takes my hand and squeezes it. “Lara, this is all really happening right now, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” I say, smiling in spite of myself.
“We seriously have a chance of winning this thing. I can feel it.” She bounces excitedly up and down. “And I’m starting to feel the pre-presentation nerves.”
“You’ve got this. You can only do better than I did.”
Sophia shrugs. “Who knows. Your presentation was in front of the judges, but I have to present to the streamers and the teens. I’m scared of teens. It’s a relic from my school days.”
I give her shoulder an encouraging pat. “Don’t I know it. But you’ll be fine. Have you heard anything yet about how we’re faring so far?”
“No, they really are only giving us the results right at the end. Mr. Crow’s team are the only ones who know what’s going on, and I’ve already tried bribery.” Sophia glances at her watch. “I’ll see you again after the presentation. Do you need me for anything before then?”
“Nope. I need to go get all the crafts stuff from our book nook activity this morning out of the workshop room. But there are no more meetings happening in there, so there’s no rush. For now, I’ll try to follow your performance via the live stream.”
Sophia makes a dismissive gesture. “Nonsense, you’d better focus on the people coming into the booth and force them to put our game on their wish lists. This morning, we were fifth on the Most Wish-Listed Games chart.” She gives a snort. “Behind Bytes & Bits, though.”
The mere mention of Luca’s studio puts a weight on my chest, bringing back all my memories—of his touch but also of his words.
I believe Sophia, but I also want to believe Luca.
Not that Sophia stole Novel Haven, but that he overheard someone saying that, at least—the alternative being him trying to sabotage us on purpose.
I tried to google last night who might have started the rumor, but my search didn’t turn up anything.
No newspaper or blog article, and nothing on Reddit.
I even went over the comments on our LinkedIn and Instagram posts, but still nothing.
Aria and Nat weren’t able to find anything either, and while Aria suggested I ask Sophia about the whole thing after GameChanger, Nat is now convinced that someone—Luca, Shane, or whoever—is trying to discredit PixelPulse by spreading misinformation.
Whatever the reason may be, I can’t stop thinking about it.
I want to enjoy my time here: people’s beaming faces as they get lost in Novel Haven, their kind words, and all the excited social media posts about our game.
“Hey,” Sophia says, poking me in the side.
Am I imagining things or is some of my sadness echoed in her own eyes?
“It’s going to be all right. I looked up Austin’s stream, the bloke who was at our booth yesterday.
Even he was over the moon, and he normally only plays action games.
They all love Novel Haven, and that’s got to count for something, hasn’t it? ”
“Yeah,” I reply, trying to give her as honest a smile as I can muster.
Sophia returns my smile and starts handing out the Novel Haven postcards that Aria designed. I watch her for a while before getting back to work myself. Hard though it may be to believe, there is only one solution I can think of: Luca is lying. He must be.