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“Sure. It looks fun.”
“You’re a masochist.” She pushed her laptop over to me. “Go ahead. Use the right mouse button to launch the rod. Hold it to get it further in the lake. A little bar shows you how far it’s going. Click the left button when it beeps and the little exclamation mark pops up, then use the left button again to keep it within the bar. It rises when you click and falls when you don’t.”
That seemed easy enough.
I did as she said, releasing it when it was the full bar. The bobber dropped into the water with a little ‘plop,’ and I watched as it bounced along with the pixelated motion of the water until the little noise and exclamation mark happened.
I clicked, hooking the fish, and got to work on the minigame she hated so much. She said nothing while I clicked away, choosing to sip on her wine in her little tumbler. I lost the first fish, but by my fourth attempt, I’d managed to reel one in.
“See? It’s hard, right?”
“Not really,” I said. “Not once I’d gotten the hang of the mechanics, anyway.” I hooked another fish and caught it. “See?”
She stared at me for a moment before putting her tumbler down and reaching for her laptop back. “I don’t think I want to show you anything else in this game. You might ruin it for me.”
I laughed, letting her take the laptop from my thighs. “Maybe I’ll download it for myself.”
“I can’t wait to tell everyone at the office that Mr Black plays with pixel chickens in his free time.” She opened another menu and fiddled with the settings. “There. That’s better.”
“Please do tell everyone. I can’t imagine how confused they’d all be. They might think you’d gone mad.”
“I think I have gone mad. I can’t believe I just watched you fish in Stardew Valley.” She shook her head, keeping her eyes focused on the game. “You are irritatingly good at everything you do, aren’t you?”
“It’s both a blessing and a curse,” I demurred.
“Really, if you were also good at cooking, I’d think you were a robot. Thank God you’re utterly useless at just about every domestic task known to man,” she said. “It makes you much more bearable when you have faults.”
“I think you just complimented me.”
“If that’s a compliment, your bar is very low for flattery,” she replied, turning her attention back to her game. “By the way, if you tell anyone about this, I’m going to put salt in your coffee instead of that sweetener you like.”
That was quite the threat.
I also had no doubt she’d do it.
“Don’t worry,” I said, leaning in so I could see the screen a little better. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Chloe turned her head towards me, and the closeness of our faces sent a jolt through me. The tip of her nose was mere millimetres from my own, and with such close proximity, I could see every little golden fleck in her whiskey-coloured eyes.
Something sparked to life deep in my stomach; a tender warmth that spread slowly through my body, making my heart thump vigorously in my chest.
She really was beautiful.
Her cheeks were flushed with pink, and she quickly spun her head away from me. “You’re too close.”
“Sorry.” I scooted across the sofa until we were no longer within accidental touching distance and turned, reaching for the remote to turn on the TV.
I didn’t even watch TV, but I needed something… anything… to take my mind off how close we’d just been.
She’d blushed.
She was blushing, in fact. Right now.
Was she warm from the wine she’d presumably been drinking all evening, or was it because we’d been so close? Because God only knew the heat that was tickling at my skin was because of our closeness just now.
“I thought you didn’t watch TV,” she said, staring at the TV over the top of her laptop.
“I don’t, but you looked so shocked when you found out that I thought I should start.”
