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“How’s it hangin’?” they said eagerly, then before I could even open my mouth to answer, continued, “Lark mentioned you’re a gamer?”
My shoulders unclenched infinitesimally. At least it was a subject I was comfortable with.
I nodded, darting a quick look to my right. Ewen had been waylaid by Vince, but he glanced over and our eyes met briefly. I hurriedly whipped my head back toward Kit and managed to give them a tiny smile.
“Yep.”
Their eyes brightened. “Sick. You ever play Moth Simulator?”
“Uh, no.” I looked over at Ewen and Vince again. They were standing kind of close together. Vince laughed at something Ewen said and lightly punched his shoulder.
I was trying to remember if I’d ever seen Vince leaving Ewen’s house in the morning. Looking all fucked out and satisfied.
“I’ve actually been coming up with a concept for my own moth-based game,” Kit was saying, so I reluctantly dragged my gaze away to pay attention to them.
I didn’t think I had. Ever seen Vince leaving Ewen’s after a hookup, that was. But there’d been so many over the years, there was no way I’d recognise all of them.
“Cool,” I said to Kit. My gaze slowly drifted back to the right.
Ewen said something else and grinned at Vince. Vince laughed again and this time patted Ewen’s chest.
What did that mean?
Were they fucking?
“Mine is more focused on the romance aspect,” Kit was telling me, and when I saw Vince get Ewen into a headlock with another laugh, something ugly twisted my stomach into knots.
Anger surged a second later. Fucking Dan Ewen. He was just so… annoying. And I was annoyed at myself for letting him affect me.
Clenching my jaw, I resolutely turned away so I couldn’t see him anymore and gave Kit my full attention.
“Moth romance,” I said to show I’d been listening. “Nice. Cool.”
They grinned and lifted a hand for a high five. “You get it.”
I wasn’t sure what it was I had supposedly got, but I awkwardly returned the high five.
“I’ll show you the sketches I made on my phone when we get to bar,” Kit told me enthusiastically.
My head was practically twitching with the urge to turn once again and see what Ewen was doing. I didn’t let myself, instead taking a deep breath and smiling at Kit.
“Sounds good.”
They seemed nice, and I would feel more comfortable talking about games with them than having to make small talk with any of the others, if I was being honest.
And if I was going to have to endure an hour or so in a bar with my co-workers, at least this would keep my mind off a certain dullahan and his stupid tiny shorts and wet T-shirts and what he might be getting up to with a different ghoul.
Chapter Thirteen
Champagne, Shots and Boob Hats
Rafe
It was strange seeing all the wrestlers in their human skins for the first time.
Kenneth the cyclops, whose wrestling persona was the Optometrist, now had two eyes in his bald head instead of just a single bulbous one. Mads the gorgon’s snake hair was gone, replaced by dark curls. She looked like she might be of Greek descent, with dark brown eyes and lightly tanned skin.
Brian was almost as tall and muscular out of his werewolf form, but now I could see that he had thick black hair, pale skin and bright blue eyes. He still seemed painfully shy, and when we got to Gargy’s, he and Kenneth got comfortable at the end of the bar and looked in no hurry to move.
