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That night he sat alone in his motel room, spinning in his chair in front of the computer, talking to Geralt and waiting for the chime that signified Kayleigh was online. And when that tell-tale chime filled the room, a smile split his face and the breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding released in awhoosh.
GoodGirlKay:Hey you :)
*
Chapter 2
GreenEyedKing96:Hey beautiful, how you doing? I missed you.
As soon as the message appeared, Kayleigh’s horrible day disappeared and a smile slid across her lips for the first time.Are you concerned that a total stranger has such power over your emotions?He’s not a total stranger, I know he’s aheat least!Ugh, maybe she did need help. But if there was one person guaranteed to make her feel better right now, it was GreenEyedKing96.
She was home after a particularly challenging day: she had been attacked at the bar where she worked when Taylor’s stalker ex-boyfriend turned up. He had gotten violent, shoved Kayleigh into a door and she cracked her head on it, getting a concussion. Then in her concussed state, she had accidentally declared her love for the aforementioned boss.Thenshe had spent all day at the hospital before her boss, the one she declared her love to, turned up to take her home. Taylor had brought Kayleigh home to her parents who completed the humiliation by fussing over her injuries. Her mother clucking like a hen, like Kayleigh wasn’t a twenty-six-year-old woman. Now she was alone in her room and finally able to decompress, all she wanted to do was get into bed and never get out again.
Cheese and crackers, why did you tell Taylor you loved her? Kayleigh groaned out loud as she replayed the moment. She had loved Taylor since the moment she’d met the feisty redhead. She was so enamored with Taylor that half the time she could barely speak to her, too shy and too scared she would make a fool of herself, which shealwaysdid.
But her love for Taylor was destined to be unrequited because Taylor liked men. Technically, Kayleigh did too. She’d realized she was bisexual when she was a teenager but didn’t have the courage to tell her parents. She still hadn’t said those words aloud to them, but they knew. One day she was talking to her mom about her favorite actress, Jennifer Lawrence and obsessed a little too much. Her mom had stared at her like she could read her thoughts and Kayleigh’s heart stopped. Then her mom said that Jennifer Lawrence was a beautiful woman and that it was perfectly okay if Kayleigh found women attractive.
Despite a couple of relationships with both men and women, Kayleigh had never really had that spark, that connection with someone. She figured it was because she was young and hadn’t reallylivedyet. She didn’t have much life experience at only twenty-six, but it was something that had been on her mind recently.
Kayleigh had always been shy. She had never spoken up much in class at school, afraid she would say the wrong thing and embarrass herself. She didn’t have much confidence and never felt like she fit in. When she realized she was bisexual, she felt like that made her stand out even more in such a small town. Combined with generic awkward teenage angst, it pushed her confidence further down.
She’d just wanted to hide away and not face the real world, and that’s how she found the online gaming community. Kayleigh found her place to shine and made friends with like-minded people who understood her. She finally felt accepted. Anyone who said online friends weren’t real friends just didn’t get it. The gaming community was her happy place. The place to go to talk about her passion and connect with people who shared that passion. She built her confidence, her social skills and discovered her dream.
She wanted to be a narrative designer for games. To be the one to create the story and the game mechanics behind it. Only she didn’t have the confidence to go for what she wanted. It was her dream but what if no one liked her writing? What if she couldn’t do it? What if she failed? She was just Kayleigh Good from Citrus Pines, a minuscule town in the middle of nowhere. What could she ever achieve?
GreenEyedKing96:You there, Kay?
The chime from his message brought her out of her thoughts. Someone she did have a connection with was GreenEyedKing96. He intrigued her. She was curious to know what he looked like, not that looks were that important to her, but it would help to build her impression of him. She knew he didn’t have a great relationship with his family. Sometimes when he told her the things his father or brother said, she just wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be okay, that one day what they thought wouldn’t matter. But she had to settle for typing to him instead. He was her best friend, yet she’d never even met him. She hated that he was so far away, so many times she had begged him to move here but it looked like it wasn’t meant to be.
If she could meet someone and have the connection with them that she had with GreenEyedKing96 then she would die a happy woman. He was funny, caring and so sweet. They had a lot in common and he didn’t want her to be someone she wasn’t. He accepted her, no questions asked. She shared her love of writing stories for games and even trusted him enough to let him read the fanfiction she’d written about the game they played, after a huge amount of cajoling on his part.
They had developed a beautiful friendship, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t want something more. Was it weird to feel a sexual connection with someone when you hadn’t met them, and nothing more than light flirting happened with them? She wasn’t afraid to admit that a few times after a deep conversation with him and someextremelymild flirting that she had put out the lights, lit her scented candles and had some alone time with her vibrator, picturing his face.
All she knew about him physically was that he had green eyes. The speculation over which shade of green had kept her awake some nights. Maybe she should just ask him for a picture?It would only be fair, he knows what you look like…She had a picture of herself as her profile pic but his was an avatar. Most of the male gamers online had towering men, muscular beasts or buxom women as their avatars, but GreenEyedKing96? He had a fluffy white bunny and that just made Kayleigh like him even more.
She pulled herself closer to her computer, staring down at the lights flashing all over her keyboard, the internal fan whirring loudly, struggling to keep the masses of computer components cool. Her fingers flew as she typed out her embarrassment.
GoodGirlKay:Yeah, just had a nightmare day and could use my friend : ) Got hurt at work, confessed my love to my boss and this was in front of the new guy who looked after me until the ambulance came. I can’t even remember his face but I bet he’ll remember mine. #sob.
GreenEyedKing96: You got hurt? Are you okay?
GoodGirlKay:I’m fine. Just a concussion and stitches are sexy, right? Anyway, it’s a long story.
GreenEyedKing96:Declared your love to your boss? #Awks.
GoodGirlKay:For sure! Now I need to quit, get a new identity, leave town and never come back.
GreenEyedKing96:No way, you can’t quit now!
GoodGirlKay:Why not, it’s just a bar job?
GreenEyedKing96:Just because. You’re not a quitter Kay, I believe in you.
GoodGirlKay:Anyway, moving on from my humiliation… how did your job interview go?
GreenEyedKing96:Really well, I got offered the job.
GoodGirlKay:Yaaaay congrats!! Tell me you took it?
