Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
From the Gaming Night WhatsApp group (Members: Eli Gastright, Dean Gastright, Sadie Stewart, Leo Mills)
Eli Gastright: Everyone still on for tonight?
Sadie Stewart: You bet
Dean Gastright: Yup
Leo Mills: [GIF of Oprah Winfrey cheering]
Leo Mills: Been practicing my Star Wars observations to impress her with my nerdery
Eli Gastright: Awesome
Sadie Stewart: So she doesn’t know?
Eli Gastright: No. I still want it to be a surprise so don’t let on during the day
Dean Gastright: I promise I won’t say a word.
Dean Gastright: [Wink emoji]
Leo Mills: Dude [Laughing emoji]
Eli Gastright: LOL
Sadie Stewart OMFG [Three laughing emojis]
Eli
Nobody let on all day.
We agreed they’d all come over at 7pm together, as that gives people a chance to shower and change. I’m making Aunt Wendy’s famous chili, and managed to explain away the huge vat I’m making with a single word: ‘leftovers’.
I don’t think she suspects a thing.
She’s standing behind me with her arms around my waist, resting her face against my back. So cute. I turn my head. “Wanna try some?”
“Mmm,” she assents, and I ladle up a small amount, turning to feed it to her.
She blows on it delicately, and how is even this turning me on?
The chili gets her seal of approval; she moans, “God, that’s good,” and if I didn’t know the crew were just about to arrive, I’d text them to cancel, strip her naked, and just ravish her next to the hob.
“I’ll tell Aunt Wendy you approve next time she calls.”
She grins. “Promise I can listen in?”
“You just want to hear me do the accent,” I tease.
“Duh,” she giggles. “It’s hot.”
I sigh, pretending to be long-suffering and tolerant.
“Well, you know what they say…” I lean forward so I’m a breath away from her lips.
“We gon’ pass a good time bein’ beaucoup crasseux, Chère,” I murmur softly, and she shivers in the most gratifying way.
I love making her squirmy like this. Horny Em is one of my favourite Ems.
With perfect timing, just as I’m about to kiss her giggles away, my buzzer goes. “Would you mind getting that for me?” I ask.
She frowns, puzzled. “Sure. You expecting anyone?” I shrug. She wanders away to answer the door, and I bite on a smile. I really hope this works out as well as I think it might.
I hear Leo and Sadie chorus in an enthusiastic exclamation of “HEYYYY!” and I smile wider, joining everyone in the hall.
Em looks stunned. Our three guests have arrived, and have congregated just inside the door. Leo is wearing his long black leather coat, and I know immediately he’s planned something like the over the top jackass he is. Him winking at me just confirms it. I love that crazy bastard.
“What’s this?” Em asks, looking at us all in turn. I hug her from behind, resting my chin on her shoulder.
“It’s gaming night,” Leo says, like it happens all the time and she just forgot.
She looks adorably confused.
“I mean,” Sadie says with a breezy shrug, “your boy there bought you some awesome games. Be a shame to let them gather dust, right?” She beams as Em’s eyes light up with realization.
“Plus,” Leo adds, “I hear you’ve very kindly offered to run us all a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
Curse of Strahd, right? With the vampire dude?
” Awesome. He got the name right. Em nods, still astonished, but starting to look real happy.
Perfect. That’s the reaction I wanted. “Great,” Leo continues, shrugging off his coat to reveal a medieval style shirt and fucking leather armor underneath.
He’s even got a rubber sword in a scabbard, and twirls a wooden looking stake in his hand that looks like it’s made out of the same sort of stuff.
“It’s cool, I’ve seen Buffy sooooooo many times. I’ve got this.”
“You DICK,” Sadie hoots, undoing her jacket to reveal a blue Dungeons and Dragons t-shirt underneath, “I thought I was such hot shit with this t-shirt! Stole my thunder…” But she’s only play-grumbling, her smile still spread across her face.
She shrugs at Emily. “I made the effort, babe, but this…” she nods towards Leo. “Just can’t compete.”
Dean grins at them both looking much brighter than he did a few days ago.
It’s been a week since his episode, and he seems mostly back to normal.
I’ve sat up with him a few nights, off and on, but it’s been worse in the past. I’ve been trying to get him to contact his therapist again, but he insists he’s fine, and I can't force him.
Em is still ecstatic. “Awwww, you guys,” she says, smiling ear to ear, and Sadie gives her a big hug.
“Thank Eli,” Sadie replies, “this was his idea.”
“But you all agreed to come,” Em points out, and hugs Leo and Dean as well, before giving me a smooch on the lips I won’t soon forget.
“Ah-ah-ah,” Leo scolds, “no wenching until we’ve left.
Now, where is the vampire’s dungeon and/or dragon?
And also, is that Aunt Wendy’s chili I smell there, bruh?
Because if so, it should already be inside me.
” Sadie snorts with laughter, and it makes him grin.
"Yeah, I heard it as soon as I said it, pervo.
And I'm gonna slut it up for that chili. It can have me any way it wants."
Emily
“Guys, I’ve got this,” Leo crows, holding one arm up in triumph.
He’s playing the deck for Ra the Sun God, and I can definitely see that.
“I’m gonna play Fire Blast, which does five damage, and then I’m gonna use the Staff of Ra to boost it by one, and I’ll top that up with the Solar Flare card which increases the damage done by two, and that means I’ve dealt the eight damage needed to reduce Baron Blade to zero, and you can all suck it!
” He stands and throws his cards down with a flourish, holding both fists in the air like an undisputed champion.
“Leo,” Sadie says, pinching the bridge of her nose, “for the final time, this is a collaborative game. We all win.” But there’s an amused smile playing at the corners of her mouth, in spite of her best efforts to smother it.
She loses it entirely when Leo starts to sing You’re Welcome from the Moana soundtrack, doing a creditable impression of The Rock.
Kill stealing bastard, Dean says as he carefully gathers up his deck, and I am delighted that I am able to pick a good 80% of his signs up now. I’ve worked so hard, and I’m still learning every day. Eli’s been helping with that, too. I had him on my next turn, I swear to god.
“That was fun,” Leo says, sitting back down and grinning at me.
I know I must look like a sentimental idiot, smiling at them all so fondly, but I can’t help it.
Eli had mentioned the possibility of a gaming night when he first gave them to me, but I mentally wrote it off as kind intentions, and told myself not to expect it to actually happen.
And yet, here they are, taking an interest in the stuff that means a lot to me, taking part, and having fun with it.
We spent the first part of the evening making their new Dungeons and Dragons character sheets for a campaign of The Curse of Strahd, which is apparently also really going ahead.
Dean deciding with a wry grin to name his Wizard ‘Teller’ just about ended us all, and Leo is still considering calling his Bard ‘Penn’ in tribute.
As an added bonus, having to explain the mechanics to them has refreshed my own memory, and I’m coming up with several ideas for everyone to enjoy. I can hardly wait.
Eli lifts my hand and kisses the backs of my fingers spontaneously, giving me a warm smile.
I can’t take my eyes off him as I smile back goofily.
We have a whole conversation without speaking a word; his eyes look hopeful, asking me if I’m enjoying myself, and whatever response he sees in my own make him beam.
“So, Em,” Leo pipes up, taking a swig of his drink and banging the glass back down again, “how hard do you think Obi-Wan Kenobi smacked his head between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope?”
I blink, and we all stare at him. “Er...go on?” I say with a surprised chuckle. That was unexpected.
“Right, so,” he begins, stretching like he’s readying himself for a fight, making some of his leather armour creak a little.
My phone pings with an email alert, but I’m too intrigued to even glance at it.
“Obi-Wan helps to deliver both Luke and Leia, right? So why does Leia’s existence come as news to him?
Cos he’s all, “oh, Luke is our last hope,” and Yoda says, “nah, bro, there’s another,” and surely he would know that?
He was armpits deep in placenta for them both.
He must have had his memories thumped out of his head since that time, so whose wife do you suppose he was boffing to get punched that hard? ”
“And,” Eli points out, “he didn’t even recognise C3PO and R2D2 in New Hope.
I mean, they’re machines, so they could have had their memories wiped, y’know, maybe for security purposes.
But Obi-Wan should have known them both immediately.
He spent years with them.” He nods at Leo.
“You’re right, he got amnesia somewhere along the line. It’s the only explanation.”
They both grin at me as I gape at them, and I burst out laughing. “Or, whoever was in charge of continuity screwed the pooch a few times.”
“That, too,” Eli agrees.
It’s not just Obi-Wan, Dean says. He signs some more, and again, I catch most of it, Eli filling me in on any blanks.
Darth Vader has this weird mental block about Leia.
Think about it. He knew Luke immediately.
He knew when Obi-Wan was just in the area.
But Leia? She’s face to face sassing him at the beginning, and nada. Zero recognition.
I laugh. “Wow, I didn’t know you were all such Star Wars aficionados!”
Leo grins. “So...are you impressed? Do we get our official nerd cards in the mail, or…?”
“I think you’ve earned it,” I agree, winking.