Everyone else muttered their agreement, and I watched as they packed up their dice and character sheets. Or rather, I watched Amy as she ate the lemon bar and watched them pack up. A strange look flashed across her face– she almost looked sad– before she started clearing up, too.
“Thanks,” she said to Fatima, pushing her borrowed set of dice and character sheet towards her.
“You can keep this,” Fatima said, pushing the character sheet back to Amy. “Unless you want to make a different character? You don’t have to use Lauren’s hand-me-downs if you don’t want to, I just thought it would be helpful for you to have a starting point.”
Chloe’s currently off-again girlfriend Lauren had joined the party for a few sessions, but they’d agreed before their last on-again bout that maybe it was a bad idea, and so the character had conveniently been on a separate mission for a while.
Amy’s brow pinched together. “You want me to come back?”
Fatima laughed softly. “Yeah, of course. The invitation was to join the campaign, not just the session.”
Amy looked up at the group, her eyes landing on mine for a long moment. It was like she was trying to sense whether I wanted her there or not. Which was ridiculous, given that I was the one to suggest to the others that we invite her. Not that she knew that.
Given our history, I wasn’t surprised at her scrutiny. I tried my best to soften my expression, my chin dipping slightly in a nod as I scooped my own dice and character sheet into my bag.
“I mean, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do,” she said, then seemed to consider the implication of that. “God, how sad is that?”
“Hating on nerd culture is a bit clichéd, Ames,” I said as I rose from my seat. “And besides, you’re a part of it now.”
* * *
Fatima had sprungfor an air con unit last year, which made summertime gaming sessions infinitely more tolerable. It also made the first step out into the still-hot evening infinitelylesstolerable, and the short walk to the pub fairly miserable. It was made even worse by the beard I’d grown over the last few months; I was half tempted to shave it just for the hotter months.
It was only just June, not even technically summer yet, but it was already sweltering, even at half past eight. At least the sun was beginning to set, promising a temperature drop, and painting the sky a vivid pink that matched the scrunchy holding up Amy’s long blonde hair. Her ponytail bobbed from side to side as she walked a few paces in front of me, arm in arm with Chloe.
“I need one of those fans that you can wear around your neck,” Chloe was saying to her, and I pulled out my phone to add it to the running list of gift ideas I had going. Her birthday was in July, so she’d have to suffer a little while longer.
As I opened my phone, I noticed that I had a message from Anil. I felt a Pavlovian twitch of panic– Anil looked after my grandmother Ethel when I was out, and anytime I saw his name on my phone, my nervous system insisted on jumping to the worst-case scenario. My brain knew it was nothing; that I would have missed calls if anything were wrong. But until I opened the message and saw something innocuous, I wouldn’t know for sure.
ANIL
Class got cancelled on Saturday. Do you want me?
Anil had looked after Ethel every Saturday night for over a year until a few months ago, when he’d started a weekend certification course in a nearby city. Amy had been staying with Ethel on Saturdays instead.
I lifted my chin to look up at Amy and nearly ran into her instead– she was stood completely still in the middle of the pavement, staring down at her own phone.
“Fuck’s sake,” I said, stopping just a fraction of an inch from her. “Watch it.”
“I believe you’re the one that nearly ran into me?” she sneered without looking up from her phone.
“Yeah, because you stopped dead in my way.”
“Whatever,” she said, literally waving it off as she fell into step beside me. “Question for you. How late do you think you’ll be on Saturday? Dad wants me to do a site visit with him on Sunday morning, and it’s obnoxiously early.”
“I didn’t know you were doing site visits?” Her dad was a contractor, and I knew she’d been working for him, but the last I’d heard she’d just been doing a few hours a week of admin.
Amy sighed. “Yeah, well, Dad’s notes are impossible to read, so I told him if he wants me to put together his quotes he needs to take me with him. I think the eight a.m. call time is just to punish my insolence.”
“Sounds about right,” I said, chuckling. “Well, you’re in luck. Anil’s free on Saturday, so I don’t actually need you at all.”
I watched Amy out of the corner of my eye, surprised when her mouth drooped in a frown. Then I watched as she forced herself to smile instead.
“Perfect. That’s my Saturday night back.”
* * *
For all thecons in the heat, the beard had its pros, too. Namely, it made my facial expressions harder to read, which was especially important if Amy were going to be spending more time with the group. As fun as antagonising her was, I wasn’t always the best at keeping a straight face, and the facial hair helped disguise the grins when they popped up.
