A Game of Hearts by Natalie Brunwick

Author:Natalie Brunwick [Brunwick, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Natalie Brunwick
Published: 2020-05-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

We both grew quiet after that, falling back into the game and avoiding the obvious as we mentally tried to figure things out on our own. The chaos in my mind made it close to impossible for me to concentrate, causing me to drop the flag a handful of times in the battlegrounds as Haley lost our flag just as much.

Realizing we weren’t capable of playing capture the flag in another battleground, we decided to hang around the main city instead. Neither one of us spoke, exchanging cute emotes or doing silly things on the screen in place of saying what was really on our minds. There were times when I sensed Haley looking at me from the corner of my eye, but as soon as I did, she looked away.

After the third or fourth time, I placed my hand on hers and assured her everything would be okay. Even if her admission was as far as things ever went, we’d still be okay. Our friendship would be okay.

She wasn’t convinced, nodding but never saying anything else. She went to bed shortly after that, leaving me with my thoughts and a game I didn’t have the heart to play unless she decided to play it with me. So, I turned off my laptop and went back to my room, but I didn’t sleep.

I couldn’t sleep. Not because of my usual insomnia, not because of the words weighing on my mind, but because of her. Haley. The woman hiding down the hall who was probably struggling to fall asleep, same as me.

And I hated that I put her there. That some part of her visit had lead us to this. To uncomfortable silences and stolen glances whenever we thought the other person wasn’t looking.

It had been so long since I’d dated that I honestly couldn’t remember if the way I acted was normal or not. Had it always felt this awkward and slow? Was there something I was supposed to do but had somehow forgotten during my time as an introvert?

Wide awake, I considered grabbing my laptop to see if there was something online that might help. However, unless someone wrote a self-help book titled What To Do When You Fall For Your Gaming Partner, I was probably out of luck. There was nothing written on it because it was too new, too different, and yet…

So us.

I tried to explain it away as an elaborate fantasy or maybe even a fluke, but in the end, Haley had come out to me, not the other way around. My feelings toward her, the ones I’d tried to force back during our late night chats on Discord…

I wasn’t alone.

And for some reason, that terrified me even more.

Where do we go from here?

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