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“Youshoulduse it, Mark.All that sitting at the computer, it’s not good for you.You know sitting’s the new smoking, don’t you?”
He rolled his eyes and flicked channels.David Attenborough, she thought abstractly, as a school of iridescent fish shimmied through a coral reef.
He sifted a hand through his sandy hair.“Will you stop banging on about my health?I’m fine.”
She bit her lip.He was right.His health wasn’t her responsibility; it never had been.
“Besides, I’m too busy to exercise right now.”
“What with?”
“A project.”
“Work?”she asked, incredulous.Mark worked in officially the most boring job in the world, as warehouse manager of a packaging company.She knew why he never went for a promotion.The job didn’t take energy away from his gaming.
“Christ no, wouldn’t waste my time on that shithole.”
Her stomach tightened.She had to say what she’d come here for.She drew in a breath.
“Mark, there’s another reason I’m here.I guess you know what it is.”
He flicked channels back to the boofy-haired brigade.“Yeah?”
“Could you turn that down while we’re talking, please?”
He flipped the TV to silent, but kept his eyes fixed on the screen.
Judith pinched her thigh, a habit she had when she went to the dentist and was waiting for them to put the needle in her gum.“When I went shopping on Friday, the sale wouldn’t go through because there weren’t enough funds in our—my—savings account.”She waited, but Mark said nothing.“So, when I got home, I checked the balance, and the account has no money in it.”
He cast her a sullen look and grunted.
“Deposits were withdrawn of nine hundred dollars on three consecutive days last week.They went into your new account.”
Mark rolled his neck with some loud clicks.“I borrowed it.I’ll pay it back in a couple of months.Three max.”
Her stomach bottomed out.Even when she heard him say it, she couldn’t quite believe that he’d taken her money so brazenly.“Why?”
“For a game me and the guys are developing.”
“A game?”
“Yes Smidge, a game.We’ve been designing it for months.”
“You’ve never mentioned it,” she said, pulling a strand of hair over her shoulder and smoothing it with shaky fingers.
He tapped the side of his nose.“Top secret,” he said, and gave her his cheesy, lazy-eyed look.The one she used to find kind of endearing, but which now made her stomach rise up her throat.
“Who arewe?”
“VampEmperor and Trojanwarrior—oh yeah, and some input from Bashcityboy.”
“Can’t you use their real names?”
“We don’t bother with them anymore.Our gaming identities are more the real us.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
She shook her head.“I don’t get it—if you’re just coming up with an idea, why on earth did you need the money?”
