Level Up (15 page)

He caught her and swung her against him, her face spiraling near his. Her heart was racing--mostly from the near fall.

But also from the catch.

"You okay?" he murmured.

She couldn't speak. She just nodded, making an inarticulate noise.

He held her tight for a second, and her body ached. Just lean a little closer, she told herself. Just a fraction...

She pulled back.

"Guess we'd better wedge this coat into the car," she said, her voice shaking. And cursed herself for being a coward.

Adam was still grinning when they got into the office. There were more people around now, since the holidays were officially over...much to Tessa's chagrin, since her audience was now a lot larger. He accompanied her to her cubicle, only to see José, Fezza, Rodney, and even Stacy standing there, waiting expectantly.

"Oh, lord," Tessa breathed. "Tell me they're not all there to see my Sailor Moon impression."

"I could, but I'd be lying," Adam said, then stood back, crossing his arms.

"You, too?" she said, looking irritated. "Can't you let me humiliate myself in peace?"

"Take it off! Take it off!" Fezza called, until Adam glared at him. "I meant the coat," he added, eyes still mischievous.

Tessa took a deep breath, then unzipped her voluminous coat and, closing her eyes, pulled it open.

For a second, Adam's mind went completely, utterly blank.

She was wearing an honest-to-God replica, and an amazing job of one, at that. The skirt was short and high on the sides, flouncing out in a royal blue that matched the sailor-bow at the bottom of her v-neckline. She methodically hung the coat up over the side of the cubicle, then stepped out for all to see.

"There, okay? Are you guys happy?"

Adam still didn't say anything. Lord, she was even wearing the knee-high boots and the gloves. Her flowing pigtails bounced and cascaded.

How had he never noticed she had such long legs before? And while she wasn't really built, she was willowy, graceful. Like a drawing come to life.

The guys were staring at her, too, he slowly realized. And everybody was silent.

He saw her cheeks redden. "Is it that bad?" she asked, in a small voice.

"Holy shit," Fezza said instead, "you look incredible."

"Can you do the thing?" José asked, making a weird hand gesture. "You know, the Sailor Moon thing?"

She laughed--an anime-girl laugh of pure merriment, surprisingly convincing--before she spun on one toe, and did the karate-styled gestures. "Sailor Moon Plasma Phase Make Up!"

"Holy shit!" Fezza repeated, applauding. Soon, everyone else was applauding, as well.

Stacy hugged her. "You have
got
 to wear that to the next Con," she said. "It's only a few months away, and you will be
 awesome
."

"Coffee," Tessa said, hugging her back. "I'll be happy to discuss wearing this or anything else, but I desperately need coffee."

He watched her disappear toward the break room, arm-in-arm with Stacy, as the guys trailed in their wake with shell-shocked expressions and wide, goofy grins.

He was still poleaxed.

She looked amazing--and not at all like the girl he thought he knew.

What else was she hiding?

It was ridiculous. He'd been turned on before. Now, he was on jet fuel or something. Not because he had a Sailor Moon fetish. But because she'd looked completely happy. That smile could''ve turned on a statue.

God. She's amazing.

He heard his phone ring, and answered it absently. "Hello?"

"Adam."

"Yes?" He barely heard the voice. He saw Tessa disappear behind the corner, and shook his head, trying to shake off the weird spell he was under.

"Adam," the voice repeated, with more irritation now. "It's Casey."

"Casey?"

"Casey, your ex." She now sounded really irritated. "Remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, was...thinking about something else." He hurried to his desk, taking off his own coat and throwing it on its hook. "What's up?"

He heard her take a deep breath. "I wanted to apologize...you know. For New Year's. The call."

"Oh, that." He rubbed at his eyes. Even though he'd deliberately avoided the booze last night, between the coding and wanting to keep an eye on Tessa, he still hadn't gotten that much sleep after Tessa's invitation. "No worries, Case. I figured you'd been drinking, and your family's out here--you were alone for the holiday. That''s gotta be hard, right?"

"What makes you think I was alone on New Year's?"

"C'mon, Case. We both know nobody drunk dials their ex when they've got a warm body."

"Oh?" Another pause, apparently tinged with guilt. That quickly turned to a spark of anger. "Is that why you didn't call me?" She snapped.

He sighed. There was a time when he would've automatically reassured her. He knew Casey had some security issues. That was why the job meant so much to her. At one time, he'd prided himself on being the one who understood her--the one who could weather her moodiness, who was there when she needed him. Hell, he'd talked to her a few times after she'd moved, hoping she'd change her mind, wanting to let her know that he was still there, still waiting.

It occurred to him that he'd possibly been a bit of an enabler. A "nice guy."

In this case, an idiot.

"Did you need something, Casey?" he said, noticing the chill in his own voice.

The pause this time was different--it seemed surprised. "Um...just...I wanted to say I was sorry."

"And I said don't worry about it." He cleared his throat. Tessa was coming back out, now smiling and doing silly karate moves with the guys. She was laughing.

He liked seeing Tessa laugh.

Casey wasn't hanging up the phone, and he sighed. "Listen, I've got a lot of work I have to..."

"Let me clarify: I'm sorry I was drunk and weepy," Casey said. "But I'm not sorry about what I said."

That knocked him for a loop. "What are you talking about?"

"I still love you, Adam."

What the hell?

Tessa winked at him, then did a little "o" of surprise and an exaggerated happy smile--cartoon broad, with both her eyes scrunched shut. He chuckled.

"I said, I still love you," Casey said, with a slight growl in her voice.

"Oh."

Tessa sat down, and started typing. He turned back to his own computer.

Adam took a deep breath, then tried to focus on the phone call. "Listen, I care about you. I always will."

A tiny sniffle. "You...care about me?"

Adam rubbed his temple. "You know that, Casey," he said, with a trace of impatience. He opened his own email. There was something--something from the head project manager and producer, Jacob. Maybe about the new game? He opened it with a click.

"I'm starting to think I made a mistake, moving here."

"Nonsense." He felt a little tension wiggle out of his shoulders. So that's what this was. A buck-up-little-camper call. She was feeling a little insecure, needed someone to cheer her up. "You know you're a kick ass journalist, and you always wanted to make it in New York. You've only been there for a year. You'll do fine."

"I miss Seattle," she said, and there was definitely more of a watery tone.

"You said Seattle was a hipster wasteland."

"I didn't mean it!"

"You totally meant it," he scoffed, typing a few easy responses. He hoped Casey would get over her...whatever she was going through, and soon. In the meantime, he'd just clean out his inbox.

WHO'S ON THE PHONE? Tessa pinged him via Instant Message

MY EX, he typed back, putting in an emoji of a guy yawning.

THAT'S NOT NICE, she answered, but he heard her giggle.

"Are you...?" Casey's voice sounded suspicious. "Are you...
typing
?"

"Sorry. Just answering some work email." He glanced over his shoulder, then choked. Tessa was crossing her eyes and sticking out her tongue at him. He cracked a grin.

"Am I boring you?" Casey's voice was sharp.

He saw Jen Latimer, one of their producers, walk over to Tessa. "Tessa, I need to speak to you," she said, her voice solemn...her expression more so.

Tessa's silly face evaporated, and she shot a worried glance at Adam.

"Listen, I have to go," he said to Casey.

"I'm going to be in Seattle in a few days," Casey said instead. "On assignment. I want to meet you."

"Sure, fine, whatever," he said, not really paying attention. "Just text me. Okay? Bye." He hung up before she uttered another word.

Tessa walked into the boss's office, shooting him one more worried look before Jen shut the door behind them.

"What's that all about?" he asked José.

"Don't know," José said. "Maybe it's the Sailor Moon outfit."

"I hope not," a deep voice rumbled. "Or else I'm screwed, as well.""

The guys looked over, and for the second time that morning, Adam was stunned speechless.

Abraham was standing there, wearing a short navy blue skirt, a white sailor blouse with a ridiculously large yellow bow, and a pair of Doc Martin boots. He wore white gloves and a determined expression.

"They don't have blue boots with heels in my size," he explained. "And I had to raid my sister's closets. And, erm, my mother's. But otherwise, I think I did pretty well on short notice and no sleep."

"Which one of the Sailor team are you supposed to be?" Fezza asked, as José and Rodney collapsed on the floor laughing and pointing.

"I'm dressed as Haruku Tenou," Abraham said loftily. "She normally dresses like a guy, she's a racecar driver, and she kicks ass."

Fezza looked deep in thought, then burst out laughing. "That means you're Sailor Uranus!"

Rodney dissolved into another round of laughter. José was crying at this point.

"Yes," Abraham said, his voice low and dangerous. "As in I'm going to
kick Uranus
if you keep making fun of me."

They continued mocking him as they headed for the engineer's lair.

Adam was grinning, but he couldn't stop looking at the office where Tessa had disappeared.

If it wasn't about the costumes (and he had a hard time believing anyone could've missed Abraham in costume)--then what kind of trouble was Tessa in?

Tessa sat in Jen's office with a sense of foreboding. She'd been in here before, when they'd discussed sound stuff that various games needed, but it was always on an assignment basis. Jen was a woman in her late forties, possibly early fifties, with honey-blonde hair cut in a stylish bob. She wore cute, stylish shirts with simple jeans and very expensive shoes. Today, Jen was wearing a deep burgundy cowl neck sweater with matching leather ankle boots. She was also wearing the most concerned expression Tessa had ever seen on the older woman.

That look meant trouble, Tessa thought, and her stomach sank, especially when Jen shut the door and took a seat behind her desk.

God, I really wish I wasn't wearing a kid's anime costume right now.
 Tessa swallowed hard.

"Tessa, we need to talk about something," Jen said, then stopped. "But first, I have to ask: what is that you're wearing?"

"It's, um, a Sailor Moon costume."

"It's striking," Jen deadpanned. "Any particular reason
why
you're wearing a Sailor Moon costume?"

"Dress for the job you want?" Tessa quipped, then shut her eyes, even though Jen let out a surprised laugh. "I had a bet running with the guys."

"I'm assuming you..." Jen studied her curiously. "Lost?"

"Well, yes. Although I sort of won," Tessa said, then realized Jen was only looking more confused. "I was working on a separate project, a video game, and I needed their help. It was...well, it was for a contest, and it had a pretty gnarly deadline. I told them if they met the deadline, I'd dress up as Sailor Moon." She gestured to her get-up. "I'm a woman of my word."

"Well, it's nice to know they work with the right incentives," Jen said, but she still sounded more worried than amused. "This game you guys created. Why don't you tell me about it?"

Tessa frowned, still feeling nervous. "Do you know the television show
Mystics
?"

"Not really. I may have heard about it, but I don't know what it is."

"It's this silly, action-packed, really fun show," Tessa said. "There are these three brothers, descendants of the Knights Templar, and they fight these aliens whose powers seem like magic. Anyway, the guys run around and solve these ancient puzzles and try to protect the world."

"What does this have to do with your game?"

Tessa went on to explain about the sisters, the bookstore...the desire for publicity. "They've got a lot of used books, but they've got a lot of fan memorabilia, too, and novelizations," Tessa explained. "We thought, if they won the contest, they could publicize a visit from one of the stars and that would help boost sales. Their rent is going up, and they're afraid of being evicted. With Cressida's agoraphobia..."

"I see." Jen sounded like she understood, and Tessa's stomach slowly started to unknot. "So you created a video game in two weeks?"

"Essentially."

"I don't suppose you have it on you?"

Tessa's eyes widened in surprise. "I could send you a copy. Actually, I've got it on Dropbox."

Jen surprised her further by standing up and gesturing to Tessa to sit at her computer. "Why don't you open it up?" Jen said. "I think I'd like to see it."

Tessa sat down behind the desk, typing quickly, calling up her files. "Um, was there something specific you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked. "I don't mean to take up all your time with my side project."

"I actually wanted to talk about this side project," Jen said, and just like that, Tessa's stomach churned, clenching back into a Gordian knot the size of a grapefruit. She opened the game.

They'd all done an amazing job, especially considering the tight time frame. It played well and it looked adorable. Jen went through it.

"Nice job," she murmured. "Only two weeks, you say?"

"Yes." Tessa smiled. "They all worked really hard."

"So did you, I imagine," Jen said, as Tessa went back to her own seat. Jen studied it carefully, silently, until Tessa finally cleared her throat.