Page 17 of Balance

Gizmo240

The only thing worse than spending Valentine’s Day alone is spending it alone in an airport.

RuRu4U

Are you ever truly alone in an airport?

A monster came out from around the corner and instead of battling it, I let it kill me. A bunch of users called me lame. I could always tell who was younger because they’d say things like I was cooked.

“Sorry, chat, I’m a little distracted today. It’s probably jet lag. I think I’ll double back and go left. There’s that hallway down there with the treasure chest that I haven’t been able to get to yet.”

Chat kept me busy for a while with suggestions about what to do next. Things to try. Different routes to try and go. It took more than an hour, but eventually I got to the chest.

“All that for a few rubies.” I wrinkled my nose. Rubies. Gemstones. Matthew. Fuck. “Hang on, friends, I need something to drink.”

I took my headset off and pushed away from the desk. When I returned a minute later with my water bottle and a can of iced coffee, I scrolled back through chat just to catch up with the conversation. There were always new users in chat, new names mixed in among familiar ones.

When I put my headset back on, I saw one of those new names pop up into chat.

StoneKing

Nice pants

Stone…. gemstone… king… Matthew Kincaid. Matthew Kincaid from Gemstone Games was in my chat. Not only had he found me, but he’d reached out to me. His sudden appearance threw me off my game, and I ended up getting turned around and doubling back on myself.

Normally I would never send some random user a direct message, but I had to know if it was really him. I paused the game and fired off a quick message to StoneKing. My fingers shook as I typed his name followed by a question mark. And then I held my breath.

He didn’t make me wait long before responding to my message.

After your stream is over, I want to see you. Meet me at 60/40 at seven. And if you need to know if it’s really me, yes. This is Matthew. We were in room 411 together.

Jeez, Louise, bossy much? Was I going to meet him? I shouldn’t. I should stay away. Matthew was… too nice. That thought made me shake my head at myself and throw my attention back to the game.

Matthew was too nice so I wasn’t going to see him again? Did I hear myself correctly? I thought of Charlie’s potential reaction if I told him that I refused to meet with someone because they were too nice. He’d hang me out to dry for sure. Chat complained when I paused the game, but I had to respond to Matthew before I talked myself out of it again.

TroyeBoy

I’ll be there.

TroyeBoyDid you want the pants back?

StoneKing

Keep the pants. See you tonight. Seven sharp. Don’t be late.

StoneKing logged off after that, and I found it suddenly easier to concentrate now that he was gone, and now that I knew I’d be seeing him again.

I hadn’t expected him to find me, but now that he had, I wasn’t surprised. I should have expected it, to be honest. Matthew was a take-charge kind of person. My ass still knew that very well. Once I’d asked him to spank me, something I still couldn’t believe I did, he was all in. It was his show after that.

For a brief moment, I hadn’t needed to think about anything. He’d told me what to do and helped me do it. It never felt like he’d been holding me down either. Just… holding me. Keeping me in place so he could do what he promised.

And after. When I was done shattering, the way he’d kissed me. God. I couldn’t even describe it now. It was soft, but there was this energy behind it, like there were many different versions of him, and he wanted to give me that one.

I spent all day thinking about that kiss. About dinner. About what he wanted. Not his pants, he’d told me I could keep those. I should have stolen a shirt, but with any luck there’d be a next time. Next time, I’d steal a shirt.

I made almost no progress on the dungeon crawler game, something I apologized to chat for, but they didn’t mind watching me get my ass kicked over and over again. I logged out at quarter past five and after making some quick notes about the game for the developers, I got up and stretched. I hadn’t moved for most of the day, and my body was unhappy with me.

A quick shower had me feeling more like a human again, and I spent the next hour choosing something to wear to 60/40. Matthew’s choice of restaurant made me wonder how deep of a dive he'd done because I’d mentioned them a few months ago on my socials. It had been the first time I’d eaten there. 60/40 served food that was a blend of Indian and Chinese cuisine. The tables in the restaurant were low to the floor and instead of sitting in chairs, you sat on cushions. I’d gone there with Charlie for his birthday, only the two of us, which was just as well because Charlie didn’t like crowds, and I didn’t have many in-person friends. Most of my friends lived in my computer.