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He nodded, and we went live. Pushing the conversation to the back of my mind, I focused on the games. The chat was buzzing, and the energy was infectious. I felt the tension of my day melt away. It was nice to be in the zone and to forget about my problems for a while and kick some digital butt.
But even my gaming was plagued with intrusive thoughts. I was way over the Challenger MMR threshold already. I just had to win a game against someone from the lowest fifty Challengers, but none of them seemed to ever end up in my games. Alex theorized on stream that they were doing it on purpose and that all fifty of them weren’t playing in order to keep me out of their bracket. The chat immediately started running with that narrative and there were some pitchforks being raised.
I didn’t believe it. Nobody had the time to do something as organized and petty as that. Especially to antagonize someone as insignificant as me.
As we signed off from the stream, I turned to Alex, ready to have a real conversation about my living arrangements.
“Okay, let’s talk about this,” I said, my voice steady but my heart racing.
He turned his chair toward me and we locked eyes. “Look, Em, you practically live here anyway. You spend half the day here, you just go back to sleep at your own place. Why not try it out? At least until you find a place of your own.”
I bit my lip, considering his words. It was true. I spent more time here than at my own apartment lately. “But what if it doesn’t work out? What if it gets weird?”
“We’ll figure it out,” he said, no hesitation in his voice. “I promise if it gets weird, we’ll handle it.We can be adults about this. But I think it could be good. For both of us.”
I took a deep breath, weighing my options. Finally, I nodded. “Okay, then I’ll move in this weekend.”
Alex’s face lit up with a huge grin and I couldn’t help but smile back. “This is going to be great,” he said, pulling me into a hug.
As I hugged him back, I felt that this was right. Maybe we were rushing into things, but it was just going to be for a little bit. Just until I found my own place.
Chapter 12
Alex
It was Thursday,which meant that my wrist brace was finally coming off. The tortuous month was finally over. I walked out of the clinic that morning, my hand finally free from the brace. It was strange moving it after so much time, but I wasn’t completely happy with everything.
The doctors did some x-rays and told me it would take a few weeks to get back the usual range of motion and stamina in my hand. It wasn’t even a guarantee I would be back to normal. Then they told me that if I continued playing as much as I had before the injury, I would end up in a brace in another six months.
I called myself a taxi and once I was on my way back I let myself wallow in the disappointment of it all. I pulled myself out of it enough to text Emma.
Finally got the brace off. Doctor says I can use my wrist normally now but can’t go back to playing as much as I used to.
A few seconds later my phone buzzed with Emma's reply.
Emma
That’s awesome news regardless. How are we celebrating?
I know just the thing.
There was a brief pause before her next message came through.
Emma
And what is it?
Me
You’ll see. It’s a surprise.
As I walked up the stairs to my apartment, I realized I wasn’t as upset at the prospect of a slow recovery as I was minutes before.
The first thing I did when I got back to my apartment was clean. I hadn’t properly cleaned the apartment since my injury. Sure, I hired a cleaning service twice last month so I wouldn’t have to live in actual filth, and I did some small touch-ups here and there, and then there were those few times I was stress-cleaning but right now, it wasn’t up to my usual standards. So I got to work. It took me approximately three hours but I was able to get everything back to normal. I could’ve cleaned more, but Emma arrived earlier than I expected.
She tackled me into a hug right in the hallway and nothing could compare to the feeling of finally hugging her with both of my arms. I squeezed her into me and kissed her forehead, not letting her go for a long while.
“It’s the first time I’m seeing you without the brace on,”Emma said after taking a good look at me once we were inside. “I’m so glad you are healed enough to go without it.” She laced her fingers with my own, squeezing my newly healed right hand in hers.
