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“Thirteen times in the past three-ish years.” Her voice wascalm, almost too calm, as if she had come to accept this as something normal.
And on that depressing note, we wrapped up the last game before my big announcement. As I explained to the chat how this was all going to work, I saw that Emma was also attentively listening to me and trying to suppress a smile.
“So, chat, this is what we will be doing for most of next month. I hope you all come back to see OracleMyth’s progress. And if in one month she isn’t in Challenger then I will auction off my Lucky Ladder Clover.”
The chat filled with small pictures of a green four-leafed clover.
Emma looked at me weird, probably because she didn’t know the story of the clover, but my chat went crazy for that. At the very end of the stream I realized that Emma didn’t have any public social media to direct any new fans to, so instead she got a bunch of friend requests in-game.
“That was actually really fun,” Emma admitted once we were offline. “And I didn’t see that many haters in your chat, maybe I misjudged them. I was ready to see riots.” She seemed relieved.
“You did great,” I said. “And the chat loved you. And as for why you didn’t see many haters, I told my mods to go ham on the time-outs and bans.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Thanks. And thanks for genuinely coaching me. I half-thought this would be some kind of a prank.”
“No no, no pranks,” I replied, already planning our next stream in my head. “I hope you had as much of a blast as I did.”
“Oh my god, yes. And that voice chat game! You were brilliant jumping in like that.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I played it off as a joke that I called her my girlfriend to that jackass in her game, but honestly I couldn’t saythat asking her out hadn’t crossed my mind earlier today. I quickly cut off that line of thinking and asked the most important question of the night. “Do you think you could do this every weekday for the next month? Coming here and streaming after work?”
“Yes, totally. My only friend is studying abroad until February so I am bored out of my mind,” she said before yawning and rubbing her eyes with her hands to keep her exhaustion at bay.
“Let’s get you home, you must be tired,” I said and asked for her address, pulling up the taxi app on my phone. Instead, she told me she lived down the street not even ten minutes away.
While we walked there, a comfortable silence stretched between us in the cozy January night. This was not how I expected the year to start for me. Then I pondered once again on how crazy this whole situation must be for her and I was glad she gave me a chance. Tonight gave me lots to think about, but, most importantly, it reignited my passion for streaming. And that was something I so desperately needed.
Chapter 5
Emma
I wason my lunch break the next day when Alex texted me.
Alex
Morning or rather good day.
Great stream last night. My manager at Team Solid called me (and woke me up) saying that she liked it as well. I talked to her and I’ll have the contract drawn up and ready tonight. She said the team would be sending you a care package as well. They wanted me to ask what your favorite color and energy drink flavor were and if you were allergic to anything.
I’ll also be uploading the voice chat game from last night to my YouTube channel in a few hours. We can split the earnings from that one as well. It got clipped a bunch and shared around so people definitely liked it. Even more than the clip of me trying to find you
I smiled and quickly typed back.
You sure as hell slept in, huh? Good morning to you. Glad this has been great for you as well. Can’t wait to do this again tonight.
My favorite color is lilac, my favorite flavor is the green Red Bull, and I don’t have any allergies.
As I chewed through the sandwich I had packed for lunch there was this buzzing in my chest I couldn’t explain. Maybe my luck was finally going to turn around. I let myself feel this tiny flutter of hope for a few moments before trying to rationalize it. I was being coached by one of the best NLA players in the world. But that wasn’t the part that blew me away. No, what truly blew me away was how he was prepared for everything. Even when I got into the game with that griefer last night, Alex immediately handled it with such swiftness, I was speechless. It’s like he was a pro at putting out gamer rage fires.
I opened up my chat with Casey, thinking she should’ve gotten back home by now, even with the time difference.
Hey! Did you watch the stream last night? I still can’t believe he convinced me to do this. I didn’t expect MnstrX to be such a cool guy lol.
And it was true, he did convince me. There was this determination spelled out on his face when he talked me into it and that is what convinced me in the end. His eyes had locked onto mine when he finally gathered himself at the café. I felt like he was giving me a presentation. It also helped to see him get nervous. Because I was just as, if not more nervous than he was. I just hid it better.
Casey
Yes, of course I watched! Ems, you were great! And MnstrX seemed to have a hard time keeping his eyes off you and on the game
