The Player's Lounge by Dan Calley

Author:Dan Calley [Calley, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PP3 Publishing
Published: 2023-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Fourteen

Quint couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe.

Leo.

Leo stood right… there.

But there was nothing, not even a flicker of recognition in his eyes.

Why? Oh. He wouldn’t….

Quint’s world began to spin. Leo wouldn’t. Not after all they’d been through—Leo wouldn’t reboot.

“Say what you just said to him.” Quint grabbed Leo by the arms. After thirty long years, the touch he craved, only to not know him now. “Say see you in the future.”

Leo tugged out of his grip as Kris came over.

“Are you okay, pal?” Kris looked Quint up and down.

Quint shook his head, his gaze not leaving Leo’s. “Say that again. Please,” he said quietly.

“See you in the future?” Leo frowned. “What? It’s just something we say all the time.”

Those words… it couldn’t be coincidence. Yeah, Leo’s look was different: younger, with his silver ponytail gone, but the rhythm of the way he spoke sang to Quint. His essence. “That was the last thing you said when-”

“Quint.” It came hard off Will. “I think we should go and have our meeting now. Let him go.”

Leo took another step back and nodded a quick thanks to Will, confusion filling his eyes before he looked back at Quint. “Maybe you caught me on Social media? Would… would you like an autograph before I go?”

Will shook his head Quint’s way, an unspoken telepathy making Quint stand down. “N-no. I’m sorry, I thought… it doesn’t matter.” He shrugged, unable to offer anything more.

“Leo’s one of our new acts. You’ve probably seen him on TikTok? Right?” said Kris, shifting uncomfortably into the awkward tension that was somehow filling the usually bustling reception area.

“Right. Yes,” bumbled Quint. “Sorry, I… I haven’t been feeling that great, Leo. Nice to meet you.” He went through the motions on auto-pilot until he could straighten out what was going on in his head.

“You got a pen?” asked Leo.

“A what?”

“A pen. Did you want me to sign something?”

“Oh. A pen. No. I mean, yes. Hang on.”

“I think I might have one, mate,” said Kris, patting down his pockets.

Ignoring him, Quint rummaged in his man-bag for a notebook and pen, successfully retrieving an old Biro that had the top casing chewed off.

Leo tried not to look disgusted, carefully manhandling the bottom bit of it. “To?”

“Francesca. My daughter. Sorry, niece, yes, my niece. She’s a big fan.”

Kris narrowed his gaze at Quint and looked towards Will. He went to open his mouth, but Will placed a hand on his arm, silencing him.

“Oh, cool. How old is she?” asked Leo.

“Sorry, who?” said Quint.

“Your niece?”

“F-five?” Quint wrestled with the urge to tell Leo everything, right here, right now. He didn’t care that breaking the rule could be catastrophic to their relationship in future incarnations. Was this how Leo had felt first meeting Quint on Vondiv’d? Emotions hitting him from every cell in his body, only to have to bury them, to not be seen to react at the insanity of seeing a lover who chose to forget?

Knowing Leo had felt this only made Quint want to grab him in close even more.

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