Chapter 31 Elizabeth
ELIZABETH
@pancakesareelite:
How the hell did you see that coming?
@theanswerisno:
I’m rarely taken by surprise
@pancakesareelite:
Doesn’t that make life kinda boring?
@theanswerisno:
Nope. I like it this way
I could still feel the desperate way Lincoln had gripped my chin as he guided my mouth to his. His hot lips on my neck. His hands on my waist. I could still feel everything.
With a long exhale, I paced my apartment wondering if I should have stayed at the office and waited for him. But if I did, I’d be late for the LAN. Late for Link.
Wait.
He had plans too.
It couldn’t be a coincidence, right?
I grabbed my phone and spent a solid hour scrolling through my chats with Link. Some of which had been lost as games ended, depending on which medium we chatted on.
I ran through the similarities for the millionth time.
Link… Lincoln. The names were similar.
They both spent a lot of time with their moms. Which maybe wasn’t unusual for normal people. Maybe I was the only one who rarely saw mine.
Lincoln and Link were both engineers.
Um… what else?
I thought I saw @wheretheresawilliam at Lincoln’s presentation, but I could have been mistaken.
How was it possible that I spoke to Link almost daily for years, and yet I knew so little about his private life?
I stumbled upon the message Link had sent me a couple years ago about how it would have been his father’s birthday. Lincoln had lost his father too.
Even though the information was scarce, I was sure. I could feel it in my bones, in my gut. I could feel it the first time we met, and I ignored it. I knew Lincoln Carden before I met him. My heart knew Lincoln Carden before I’d fallen in love with him.
Now I needed to confirm it. And confess.
And if Lincoln was my Link, he’d be at the LAN tonight, waiting for me.
I could text him, but what would I say?
Hi Mr. Carden, it’s me Elizabeth, aka Lily, aka Pancakes.
Oh gosh, please let that not be the thing I say.
Maybe I shouldn’t go at all. That was an option. But regardless of whether Link and Lincoln were the same person, neither of them deserved to be stood up.
I was going to that LAN, and if I was wrong, then I’d get to meet Link and I’d tell him everything. He’d laugh at me. Maybe forever.
My mouth twitched knowing how he’d tease me.
Lincoln was everything, so all-encompassing, that I’d almost forgotten about Link. About the late nights and the early mornings. The soft prods and check-ins. He was even there for me when Alistair had left me unsettled.
So was Lincoln. Alistair hadn’t shown his face since Lincoln threatened him. I hadn’t received any messages or emails either.
This worried me because I knew it wasn’t the end. Douglas was up to something. Scheming. Planning. Whatever it was would be worse than the stalking.
I flung open my closet. Over the last few years, for every date I went on, I’d been rotating the same few outfits and thrifting.
But this wasn’t a date. Was it?
What does one wear when meeting the possible love of their life who may or may not be their boss?
As I threw every single item I owned out on my bed, it struck me that I had no idea how I’d identify him if he wasn’t Lincoln Carden. We hadn’t discussed anything like where we would meet or an identifiable outfit to wear.
Or…
Had we?
I had an idea, but I needed a permanent marker.
Here goes everything.
The LAN was being hosted at Thunderstruck’s office.
My heart was beating so intensely that I thought I may not make it there in one piece.
I’d taken a higher dosage of my anti-anxiety medication, and even then, I wasn’t sure it had worked.
Or maybe it was, and if I hadn’t taken it, I’d simply have expired from a heart attack.
On wobbly legs, in my worn-out Converse sneakers, I made my way toward the building entrance. The front glass doors were open, and I stepped inside, being immediately engulfed in upbeat music and excited chatter.
I’d never been to a LAN before. I had no idea what I actually needed to do, so I clutched my backpack straps as if letting people know I brought a laptop along would somehow make me more acceptable to them.
A woman and man, dressed in Overpower T-shirts, sat beside a doorway at a small table. “Hi,” the woman said with a wide, toothy grin. “Are you here for the Overpower LAN?”
I nodded, my eyes scanning every man who passed me.
The problem was there were lots of men here who had slightly darker shades of skin, and plenty of the people here wore glasses too.
But none of them was Lincoln Carden.
Crap.
“Username?” the woman asked, pulling me from my daze.
“My username?”
“The one you signed up with.” Her eyes studied me and softened. “Your identity stays anonymous. We know how these things go.”
I nodded again. “Pancakes are elite. Lowercase, no spaces.”
The woman chuckled, as did the man beside her. “Would you like a name tag or username tag?” She gestured to the blank stickers and markers in front of her. I considered using my name, but it would then connect my identity to anyone else with an interest in the Gordon-Bettencourts.
And I couldn’t have that.
I didn’t want to think about that at all.
Tonight, I wasn’t Elizabeth Gordon-Bettencourt.
Tonight, I was Lily.
The woman strapped a bright blue band around my arm. “You can go on in. Table F12. A plug point will be available, and the Wi-Fi password and all other details will be stuck on the table’s surface. You’ll see it.”
The main gaming area seemed to be the company cafeteria.
There were rows of desks and chairs set up, and almost every table had a laptop on it.
Some even had desktop computers. There were small groups bunching together chatting in high-pitched voices and plenty more gamers who were already in the middle of some game.
I navigated the aisles to Table F12 while looking around. At the front of the hall, a small crowd had gathered, and something told me that in the center I’d find the creators of Overpower, @wheretheresawilliam and his fiancé, @theresarose.
Would it be the same people I saw at the presentation?
“I’m so pumped,” a girl muttered to herself beside me.
I, on the other hand, was on the edge of throwing up. Deep breaths, Lily.
I pulled out my laptop and logged in using the details on the desk. I accessed the group and scrolled through the members looking for the name that controlled my heartbeat.
@theanswerisno was online.
He. Was. Here.
My head shot up to people-watch, nay, person-search.
If he was friends with @wherestheresawilliam, he’d probably be near him. I stared at the group surrounding the power couple until person by person the crowd thinned.
A dark-haired man who looked a lot like the man from the presentation and a lot like @wherestheresawilliam leaned down to speak to someone seated at the desk beside him. A side profile so familiar to me by now, I could spot it from anywhere.
A shiver danced down my spine, contradicting the heat flooding through me.
I could barely breathe.
Lincoln Carden was here.
Lincoln Carden was my Link.