Chapter 10

Holding Sam’s hands and smiling were the easiest things I had ever done. I was lighter. I pushed the door closed against the cold stillness. The snow would need to be shoveled, and I didn’t trust that my landlord was going to clear it like my lease assured me he would. For the moment, I didn’t care. None of us were going anywhere. My only wish was that there were marshmallows for the box of hot chocolate packets I had in the back of the cupboard.

“Take a deep breath. Look at me.” I coached Sam through her panic. “It was a big night, c’mon upstairs and we’ll talk or cuddle or say sexy things at Max. Whatever makes you happy.”

“I want to do all of that ... I don’t know why I’m being crazy,” she murmured. She squeezed my fingers back. She looked down at herself. “Last night was the best night I ever had, and I see something different this morning. Thank you for not letting me get away.”

“Yeah, I will keep my beautiful girls in my frosty winter fortress forever, mwa ha ha ha.”

She pulled me into a hug and I led her back upstairs. She wasn’t smiling when I sat her on the side of my bed, but only Alex was. Max looked ready but solemn. Her eyes flicked down to Alex.

“You’re reading the rules?” I saw Alex flipping through the pages.

“Of course. It’s not fun if I don’t claim victory, break you, and leave you an empty husk.” She smiled. I turned back to Sam. The power flickered. It stayed off. Alex recaptured my attention and said: “Fair warning: I mount my trophies.”

“I’m getting you all a cup of hot chocolate the moment I can power a kettle.” I yawned down onto the floor across from Alex. And there was light and He saw that it was good.

“Finally!” Alex exulted. She started shuffling the game deck.

“Yeah, those guys out in that are fucking rock stars.” I pointed to the curtains. Light was getting through, but there was snow caked up and covering the bottom third of the windows.

“I’m going to let boys do that,” Max stated. “I belong in the kitchen.”

“My kitchen,” I declared; she blushed. I saw Sam slump; I leaned over Alex and squeezed Sam’s fingers.

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I can handle myself.”

“But you don’t always have to.” I leaned forward, intent on giving her a little kiss. Her frown dissuaded me and I squeezed her shoulders as I straightened to my full height. I rubbed Alex’s hair as I stepped by her. Max was sitting on the arm of my chair.

“The cushion’s less hard on your butt,” I told her.

“You’ll be sitting there,” she said. I shrugged, and set my kettle on its heating element. I pulled out the hot chocolate packets. One per cup. There were three left. I’d have tea. I usually had tea. I wasn’t disappointed too much. Alex was flipping over cards. Max was on her phone. Sam was sitting there morose. I put the first cup in her hands.

“No marshmallows.” I rubbed her fingers. Rubbed her hair. Rubbed her cheek. She made an awkward semi-smile. Alex took her cup next after an insistent eye-slinging I got from Max.

“Thanks, Gene,” Max said as I handed her the third.

“You’re welcome, Max.” I leaned over and kissed her head. I was grinning as I sat down across from Alex.

“You don’t have a cup,” she noticed.

“I’ll make some tea after you’ve been schooled,” I promised. I looked up to the other girls. “You guys mind watching game one? She’s been chomping at the bit.”

“Of course,” Max nodded.

“I think I’m going to call my mom.” Sam picked up her phone and walked to the washroom - the only place for privacy in the apartment.

“She going to be OK?” I asked her friends.

“Yeah, she’s going to be awesome,” Alex assured me. “How do we figure out who goes first?”

“I usually flip cards to fill the board like this.” I put the deck she’d been shuffling at the top of the game board, and handed her one of the ten-card starter decks. “You, me. Highest first. Dreamer’s Glass 5, Nihilmancer 3. You’ll be going first.” I filled out the rest of the board. Alex shuffled and played.

“Why does Minotaur have a red circle but everything else has white triangles?” Max asked me.

“You buy heroes and constructs with runes. The white triangles,” Alex declared as she turned over apprentices. Three triangles. She pulled the nihilmancer to her hand. I shook my head. Alex frowned. “Where does it go?”

“Your discards.”

“With these.” She pointed to the cards she had used to buy it.

“Those are still in play.”

“Oh, I get it now,” she grinned.

“I don’t,” Max said.

“Watch a bunch of hands and you’ll see. It’ll make more sense to play and learn.” I grabbed her knee and squeezed.

“What about the red circles?” Max rubbed my fingers. It was clear she was asking Alex this time. I hadn’t seen this deference last night or the days before. It reminded me that there was a ton left to get to know. I looked over at the washroom door.

“You use power, red circles.” She turned over her other two cards: Militia, two red circles. “To fight monsters.” She dinged her nail on the Cultist. “Boom! Dead. What do I do with him?”

“He’s there to take a beating no matter if there are monsters in the middle or not,” I told her. “Take a white crystal and discard your cards from play.”

“Score, sweep, draw my next hand.”

“Oh, so the cards she buys will be in her deck next time?” Max understood.

“That’s how deck-builders work.” Alex ran her finger over the words on the box. “Dad has a bunch, Dominion and Lord of the Rings and stuff.”

“Your dad, eh? I was wondering where you got your taste for games, if it wasn’t Max. Engineering math nerds are the biggest game people on the planet.” I grinned. “That’s awesome. I wouldn’t have expected that from your dad after meeting him.”

“He says it’s the only way he knows to put the math they forced him to learn in school to good use,” she told me.

“I suppose it is.” I laughed. I looked up to Max. “Do you want to check on Sam?”

She hmmm’d. “It’s only been a couple minutes. I think we should let her talk to her mom.”

So, I squared off with Alex. She was beaming. She tugged my bathrobe around her, but it continually fell off one of her shoulders. Whenever I had to think about my move, she’d show more cleavage. She was devious. I loved it.

As for the game ... well, I didn’t get to five runes before her second turn. That first card I had flipped up? It’s really good. She had it in play on turn four and, even learning, she managed to make her OKish deck really fast really quick. I knew more, knew how to play the cards better, but Batman still can’t outrun The Flash. If my brother had made those first two purchases, I’d be salty for weeks. Alex’s smile made the entire loss a great time.

“Boom! Victory!” She shot up with a grin after we had counted. She’d won by six.

“You’re going to get really good.” I looked back to the bathroom door. “I’ll--”

“I’ll check on her. This time, trounce her.” Max stood up and skirted around my chair. I looked at Alex.

“Maybe I’ll just retire as champion. Undefeated and legendary!”

“Is that how it is?” I laughed.

“Perhaps, if you prove yourself, I could be enticed to return to the arena.” She affected a haughty dismissive accent and waved at her face with an imaginary hand fan.

“Oh, milady,” I bowed. I overacted only slightly less than Bruce Campbell. “Whatever could you need of your humble servant?”

She sipped her cup, and couldn’t help but giggle and crack a smile. She didn’t get to answer. Max’s fingers ran through my hair as she walked behind the back of my armchair. Sam approached at my elbow.

“Can I sit here?” Sam worried.

“Of course,” I said with a grin. I expected her to perch herself on the arm like Max was doing on my right. Sam stepped over my knee and floated her butt down onto my thigh. I had nothing to do but wrap an arm around her shoulders as she laid her head on my collarbone. She was almost too tall to hold the pose without slipping her ass off of my knee.

“You feeling alright, Sam?” Alex asked. I brushed away Sam’s brown hair. She had huge grey eyes and a smile.

“I think I’m going to be,” Sam answered. “I like the way you smell, Gene.”

“Really?” I was surprised. I generally assumed my smell was not in my pros column. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she said.

“But we’re stuck here for a few hours.” I frowned. Diligence wasn’t my forte but after last night, work wasn’t an option, weather or no. I did have responsibilities. I did not have a usable phone. “Can I borrow a phone to call off work?”.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry again!” Alex hopped up and went over to my computer chair which held all of the girls’ clothes and bags. I had forced neatness on myself for six days, but I was running at my limit before I regressed to the mean. They had defaulted to neat. I was going to have to step up. I was still stinging from Sam’s “dad bod” comment yesterday. I had even more to do.

“Thank you, Max.” The redhead had supplied her phone before Alex had unearthed hers. She stowed it back in her bag and came back over with an impish smile.

“I had that.” She pouted. She was going to be a great actress if she practiced this often.

“I’m sorry.” Max seemed taken aback. “Next time I’ll--”

“You’ll do your best like you always do.” I rubbed Max’s knee. She ran her fingers through my hair at the base of my skull. I had to smile at such affection. I ended up with one hand on Sam’s head and the other going through Google to find my work number. When I was a kid, I could remember dozens of phone numbers. Now it seemed like I had to choose between my own or my brother’s. The number to our old house was ingrained so deep in my brain, I’d remember it if I was blackout drunk, stoned, and concussed. That would be the last thing Alzheimer’s would take from me.

I got through. Left a message with the receptionist to give to HR. There was an employee call-in number but I hadn’t found it. I was going to be dragged into an HR talk the next time I went in.

“Thanks, beautiful,” I smiled, and handed the phone back to Max.

“You’re welcome, Gene.” She grinned back. There was something missing in her playfulness today. I had flashbacks to my dream. I frowned. It had just been a dream.

“OK, I think I know how teams play now.” Alex announced. “Will you join me, Max?”

“Of course.” Max went to kneel down with Alex on the other side of my coffee table.

“Teams play across from each other, like in Bridge or Hearts,” I explained.

“Yeah, is your partner going to detach before she’s sucked enough blood to feed her eggs?”

“What?” Sam frowned at Max.

“Like a mosquito. A girl mosquito.” Max explained with elaborate hand gestures. I smiled, seeing the awkward nervous girl mixed with the knowledgeable STEM student. I liked it. “A mosquita?”