When Austin and I answered at the same time, Not-Henry laughed and Collin’s Daddy was the one who had to start coughing.
“I…” Collin glitched again. “Is that a game for my phone?”
“Yes.” Austin did a happy dance in his seat but frowned as he patted himself down. “Shoot. I don’t have pockets.”
And we weren’t supposed to have our phones.
“The new level is updating tomorrow.” It was my turn to do the happy dance. “I entered to win but I’m not expecting to get picked.”
That wasn’t going to happen but it’d been fun to try.
“What is it about?” Collin blinked but stayed functional that time. “I don’t think I’ve seen more than a few ads for it.”
“You’re a vampire slayer that gets fabulous clothes and every time you kill an upper-level demon you get to go on a shopping trip.” My slayer had the best closet ever. “You have to be careful about the in-game currency, though. It’s a problem.”
I didn’t have to worry about that because for some reason none of my cards would work on it.
Not-Henry let me buy gift cards once a month at the grocery store, though.
They’d started showing up after I’d been looking at the prom dress I wanted for weeks but hadn’t been able to kill the right demon to get.
“It’s a scam.” Austin’s sigh said he understood my pain. “I’ve got feelers out to see if they want to sell it, though. I’d rather own it to make sure I can get the upgrades I want.”
“That sounds more practical in the long run.” At least for him. “But you can’t rig the contests in your favor if you own it. That would be cheating.”
Austin’s grin made me think he didn’t have a problem with cheating, but Collin distracted me. “What kind of contest is it?”
He really didn’t knowanythingabout the game.
How?
It was the best.
“Designing clothes for a new story in the mall.” There were so many people who’d entered, the site had nearly crashed but—
Oh dear.
“You weren’t helpful, were you?” Not-Henry was insistent on being helpful sometimes and he wouldn’t look guilty about it so his innocent expression didn’t give me any hints.
“No.” He kissed my head when I sighed in relief. “I did keep the site up and running, though. There were…shenanigans going on behind the scenes and I fixed that too.”
Because he was helpful.
Austin’s glare said he knew about the shenanigans and wasn’t happy. “Just because they have money and a title doesn’t mean they get to rig anything. They need to stick with fixing elections or I’m going to have words with some people.”
Not-Henry knew the most interesting people.
But they were smart and curious, and by the time we were leaving, Collin had promised to download the game so he could try it too.
“What did you think, Shelby boy?” Not-Henry looked very pleased with himself as I swung my duffel bag and squeezed his hand. “Better than you expected or about the same?”
“Amazing.” I wasn’t sure how else to answer. “You were real. I made new friends and got to come.”
It’d been a great date so far.
“If Collin starts playing the game then we can share clothes. I’ve never had online friends to do that with because it takes a lot of trust. Sometimes people steal your dresses.” It was scary and I’d heard too many stories about entire closets being cleared out. “But Collin is very nice and won’t steal my clothes.”
Hopefully.
