CHAPTER ELEVEN
They got a few double-takes coming in.
Not that Gabe, or Sadie, it seemed, minded.
At first glance he imagined they looked like mother and son, but from the way they were being with each other, this clearly was not the case.
“I used to go to these in the eighties,” Sadie murmured as she looked around. “Even the nineties for a time. It was so much fun, but there was always this awkwardness to it. I was almost always the only girl there.”
“I’m happy to say that times have changed in that regard at least,” Gabe replied, leading her up to the card machine.
“Do we still use coins?”
“No, actually. Now we get cards.”
“Really? Like credit cards?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. That is a lot more convenient, but I miss the coins. I suppose I don’t miss carrying around a bunch of them in my purse, or pockets when I had them.”
“You’ve got them now,” Gabe murmured, slipping his left hand down into one of her back pockets.
“Gabe,” she whispered.
“Yes?”
“...nothing.” She was blushing again.
“You have a fat ass,” he said.
“Gabe!” she hissed, looking at him now with surprise.
“Am I wrong? And is this not what you wanted?”
She seemed to struggle for a moment, then bit her lower lip and nodded slowly. He gave her ass a squeeze and she blushed worse. He knew she would tell him to stop if she wanted him to. Sadie was reserved and a bit anxious, but she’d made it clear by now that she would speak up for herself.
“Here you go,” he said, passing her a card he’d loaded twenty five bucks onto, then did the same for himself.
“Mmm...what first?” she replied, regaining control of herself.
“This is where you choose,” he answered.
She smiled and looked around.
The arcade was of a good size, with easily a hundred different cabinets and consoles scattered about. He watched her scan the area, and then her eyes stopped on a racing arcade. Her smile grew a bit bigger, a bit firmer.
“That one,” she said.
As they started playing, Gabe found himself sneaking glances at her, trying to keep track of how she was doing.
What he found made him smile. She looked joyful in a way he hadn’t quite seen on her yet.
She looked happy, simply, wonderfully happy.
She looked like she was in the kind of mood where it was so easy to lose hours because you were having such a good time.
They spent nearly half an hour on the bikes alone.
From there, she seemed determine to try out just about everything that was on offer.
And he was happy to join her. After he’d paid for the first cards, she had insisted on funding the rest of the date, and he could tell she was serious about it so he hadn’t put up a fight.
Eventually, they ran out of games that caught her interest and left the arcade.
“I’m kind of angry,” Sadie murmured.
“Really? Why?” Gabe replied, feeling a stab of anxiety that something had gone wrong and he’d really missed it.
“Just...I wanted to play video games when I was your age and I did, but pretty soon it was made clear to me that wasn’t acceptable. And I…” She sighed. “Let myself accept that. I was busy anyway, managing my life.”
“I’m sorry, Sadie,” Gabe replied, taking her hand again. “I fucking hate when people try to curb-stomp people’s passions and interests. But despite that, you seemed so damned happy in there.”
“I was,” she murmured, and leaned her head against his shoulder. He let go of her hand and slipped an arm around her. “I really was. And still am.”
Gabe had a couple more ideas in mind of where to take her, but a new one came over him. He’d initially strongly considered taking her to one specific spot, but had decided against it for a reason he hadn’t been able to articulate, even to himself.
Only now he was reconsidering.
Maybe, he realized suddenly, it was how she’d reacted to the arcade.
He shifted their course and began guiding her elsewhere in the mall.
“Where to now?” she asked after a few minutes.
“Here,” he replied, stopping before a simple store with dark, tinted windows. A sleek, stylistic neon sign proclaimed VIRTUOSO.
“I...have no idea what might in there,” she murmured.
“It’s another video game, but one that’s a bit more in depth. You interested?”
“...yes.”
“You want to know more?”
“Surprise me. I trust you.”
He smiled and kissed her on the lips, then led her inside.
The lobby was simple and sparse, just a desk and a few small couches and seats for waiting. Gabe looked over the selection and bought a simple fifteen minute session for one of the basic games. Although it wasn’t even a game, more of an experience.
He imagined the uniqueness of the experience would make up for that.
Gabe guided her through a door at the back, where another room with another seven doors awaited them. He brought her to the one marked 1 and walked inside.
“Oh, is this a virtual reality deal?” Sadie asked as she looked across the simple, bare room where a pair of headsets hung from hooks high on the wall.
“It is,” he replied. “Are you interested?”
“Yes. And deeply curious. Virtual reality has been talked about since even before I was born, but it feels like only in the past decade or so they’ve actually begun to do it.
It was something I always intended to do but never got around to.
” Her smile broadened a little as they walked over.
“And now I get to experience it with you.”
“And I with you,” he agreed.
“You’ve never done this before?”
“No.”
They came to stand before the headsets and she hesitated. “Is this...a good idea? I like what we have, but I know how significant unique or first time experiences can be. Even seemingly small ones. I wonder if one of your girls would like to share this first time with you.”
“They understand and are comfortable with–and even encouraging of–me having at least a couple of first time experiences with women outside of the harem.”
“You didn’t flinch when you said that,” she murmured.
“It is what it is, and it is that,” he replied. “I’ve come to accept it, more or less. And I’m happy to share this first time with you.”
“Well...thank you, Gabe. Now, um, what exactly do we do? Just put it on or…?”
“Yes. Here, I’ll get yours on and adjusted.”
“Thank you.”
He got it on her head and spent a moment making sure the strap was adjusted and comfortable, that the headphones and the little microphone were as well.
“Oh wow, I can’t hear anything now,” she murmured.
“Can you hear me?” he asked.
“I think I heard you say something.”
He pulled one of the cups away. “I think they’re noise-canceling headphones, and we’ll probably be able to talk to each other through the microphone.”
“Oh, okay. Um...hopefully I don’t walk into a wall or something…”
“Don’t worry. They’ve taken that into account, and this is going to be a chill experience.”
“All right.”
He got it back into place, then grabbed the controller and pocketed it while he put his own on so he wouldn’t have to go blindly groping for it.
Once it was in place, he found himself standing in a simple neon blue grid the size of the room they were in.
He could see a very simple outline of a person when he looked over to Sadie.
“Can you hear me?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied, her voice piped into the headphones. “This is...so strange.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of...hmm. A strange feeling. Okay, hold on. I’m going to get it started.”
“I’m ready,” she murmured, vaguely uncertain.
He used the remote to initiate the experience he’d selected. He heard Sadie gasp softly as their reality abruptly changed.
They were underwater now.
They stood on a shelf of land covered in coral and reeds and rocks.
Shafts of glittering pale sunlight slanted down from above.
The waterline was perhaps twenty feet up and beyond it was a blue sky.
Dead ahead was a rock wall covered in gently swaying plant life.
Around them were fish, many, many different kinds of fish.
Bright blue and deep red and glittering green and much more than that.
“Oh my goodness,” she whispered.
He was watching her and she began to move slowly, raising one arm. She laughed as some of the fish darted away from her hand. She was represented in the game by a simple mannequin figure.
“This is amazing,” he muttered.
He’d known about this, seen videos and reviews of virtual reality, but it was true what they said: you couldn’t actually know until you’d tried it for yourself.
Sadie let out another soft gasp as she turned around.
He looked and saw the rest of the ocean shading into aquamarine darkness in that direction.
He saw a few dozen turtles swimming some ways off.
“What if...I bump into something?” she asked quietly, her voice awed.
“If you get the near the walls, a projection of the wall will appear in your vision,” he replied.
“And it will be accurate to real life?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. This is incredible,” she whispered. “It feels...so real! And just...wow.”
“Enjoy yourself, walk around, see what there is to see,” he replied.
She did, and so did he. They wandered slowly across the shelf of land, drifting through a cloud of vibrant tropical fish.
As the experience continued, more sea life came by.
Some jellyfish came in an electric pink cluster.
A medium-sized octopus slithered along the edge of the shelf and they both crouched by it, studying it.
The detail was amazing. It clearly wasn’t real, as it was a slightly cartoony aesthetic, but the motions of all the creatures and the plant life felt authentic to their known reality and granted it an intense air of legitimacy.
“Oh, Gabe, look,” she whispered after several more moments.
As he looked up, he heard the distant, alien calls of whales and saw half a dozen of the immense shapes making their way ponderously off in the distance.
Before they knew it, the experience had ended, fading slowly to darkness and leaving only the neon grid of the room.
He took off his headset and looked over, seeing her doing the same. She had an awed look on her face.
“So...fun?” he asked, walking over and hanging his headset back up.
“Um, yes,” she murmured, sounding deeply distracted. “Very.” As she hung her own headset up, she suddenly turned to look at him. “Gabe, would it be entirely inappropriate if I asked to end the date now and go back to my place and fuck?”
“Uh. No. No, it would not.”
She smiled. “I thought not. Come.”
She took his hand and began guiding him out of the room, and he happily allowed himself to be.