Game of Love (The Remingtons, Book One: Love in Bloom Series)

Chapter Six, Game of Love

Chapter Six

DEX HEARD REGINA and Mitch's voices before he opened the door to his apartment at the Dakota. Prior to opening Thrive's formal offices, they'd worked from his old apartment. When he moved into the Dakota soon after he'd seen Ellie four years ago, he'd converted the third bedroom into a workspace. Both Regina and Mitch still had keys. Dex stood with his hand on the doorknob thinking about Ellie. When he'd hugged her goodbye, finally feeling the comfort of her body against him after all these years, he hadn't wanted to let go. The last time he'd been with her, he'd awoken to an empty bed and a broken heart. That's when he'd forced himself into the numb state his father had unknowingly helped him nurture. His father wasn't one to allow any of his children to wallow. It didn't take many harsh stares or demanding comments—You're a man; get over it—for Dex to learn how to turn off his emotions. He'd dulled the pain of missing her. Until now.

The release date pressed in on him, edging thoughts of Ellie to the side. He took a deep breath and went inside. The foyer was as large as the entire living room where Ellie was staying. Jesus. Stop it.

"Finally. Did you deliver your damsel in distress okay?" Regina asked as she and Mitch carried fresh cups of coffee toward the office.

Dex rolled his eyes.

Regina set her cup down beside her computer. Her black tank top clung to her ribs, and her hair was swept to one side, exposing the sharp line of her jaw.

Mitch sat in a swiveling office chair and propped his feet up on the desk beside an empty bag of chips. He ran his hand through his disheveled hair. "Wanna spill before we get started?"

"No," Dex said.

"Come on, Dex. You've been on some kind of dry streak with women for what seems like forever; then this chick shows up and steals your ability to function. Spill, or you know we'll get nothing done." Regina settled into a chair and looked at her watch. "Three minutes. Ready? Go."

In an effort to shut them up, he admitted, "She's a friend from when I was younger. She's in town looking for a job." Or running from something.

"Old girlfriend?" Regina asked.

Only in my dreams.

"First fuck?" Mitch added.

Ellie would never be just a fuck. "No and no." Dex spun a chair around and straddled it. "What's the final date?"

Mitch and Regina exchanged a glance that sent a pain through his gut.

"Shit. Same day?" Just another thing to add to his perfectly fucked-up state of mind.

"Looks like it," Regina said.

Dex pushed from the chair and sent it spinning across the hardwood. "Why the hell would they do that? They have just as much to lose as we do." He fisted his hands. "The same day?"

"We can delay. Go out a month later so we're the next big thing," Mitch suggested. In the gaming world, there was always another game on the horizon, which gamers referred to as the next big thing.

"Or a few days early to capture the audience first," Regina added.

"If we go late, we piss off our fan base. If we go early, we run the risk of losing out because if anything happens—an error code that everyone is slammed with, or any fucking thing—then they're the next big thing. We need ample time to test the game to ensure it has no glitches. We're nearly there, but nearly isn't good enough." He paced the room. Things were so much easier when he was developing smaller games without so many people relying on him. He'd developed three games to date, none of which had failed, but Dex didn't believe in luck, and he knew that in a world of graphics and codes, anything could go wrong. Fully testing games before releasing them was vital. Thrive had a three-tiered testing process. World of Thieves II had gone through two tiers already, which meant it was probably fine, but releasing without completing the testing was risky.