To: Felix Navarro
Date: Monday, May 13, 2024, 5:03 P.M.
Subject: RE: On the Subject of Stan’s
This is both the best and worst thing I’ve ever read. Congratulations. (Looks like we’re both creative, huh?)
Bummer about Stan’s, but I’m still down for some guerilla marketing. We just need some flyers and maybe a martini for courage.
See ya Friday,
Jo
On Friday, Jo was in hell. Bureaucratic, red taped, “please-wait-here-until-your-number-is-called” hell. And she didn’t even have the internet to distract her. She was going on four hours of sitting in the lobby of the Butler County Motor Vehicles office, twenty miles from Ashville, waiting for her number to come up.
She had tried to make transferring her car registration and driver’s license as painless as possible. She’d switched shifts at work to free up a weekday, made an appointment, gathered all the paperwork she thought she needed, and even arrived early. But she’d missed one crucial step. Apparently, out-of-state cars required an inspection before the registration could be transferred. By the time she’d driven out to the inspection facility halfway across the county, waited for her car to be checked, and driven back, there were no more appointments available. She was now at the mercy of the walk-in schedule.
Which was taking forever.
And to top it off, the customer Wi-Fi was down, and her phone only had one measly, flickering bar of service. She’d finished her book within the first couple of hours, and she hadn’t thought she’d be waiting long enough to need a second one. She’d taken to writing notes on the back of a receipt she’d found in her purse—topics for Felix’s MnM lessons, ideas for marketing the launch event, and the beginnings of a packing list for Indi-Con.
She was starting to run out of room on the receipt when an automated voice announced, “Now serving… number fifty-two.”
Jo jumped up from the plastic chair, her butt numb. “That’s me!”
The actual process of transferring everything didn’t take very long. She showed them proof of residence, her documentation from California, and that damn vehicle inspection paperwork; took a one-minute vision test; and smiled into a camera for her new license photo.
Then—finally—she rushed out the door to hop into her Kansas-official car. She had just enough time to run home, grab a granola bar and her MnM bag, and get over to her lesson with Felix by six o’clock.
What she wouldn’t have time for was a video call with Aida from the library parking lot, which had become their Friday night routine. Instead, as soon as she had signal again, she called her best friend on speaker and stuck her phone in the cupholder. They traded off venting about their days, and then Jo asked Aida how the first session of their friends’ new MnM campaign had gone the night before.
“It’s not the same without you,” Aida said, “but it was really good. Kim brought a friend of hers to try it out. She’s cool, but things are moving a little slow since she’s new. David’s a great GM. He threw us into combat, like, three minutes in. Max almost died twice.”
“Seriously? How does he keep doing that? First Lyric and now this new character.”
“Andros,” Aida said. “He’s playing a barbarian this time. Built to absorb damage, but then he rushes in without thinking and ends up bleeding out in round two of combat.”
Jo laughed and pressed a hand to her heart. “I love that dumbass.”
“Me too.”
“I miss playing so much, Aida.” Jo turned on her windshield wipers as it started to drizzle. “Felix and I are doing a mock game tonight. It’ll be super simple, but I can’t wait to GM again.”
“I knew you couldn’t stay away for long. Cattle theft?” Aida asked, referring to the adventure Jo had written specifically for breaking in new players.
“It’s a classic for a reason.”
“And how are things with the hot librarian?”
Jo could feel her cheeks heat. “You know his name, Aida.”
“Yeah, babe,” Aida said, sounding mildly exasperated. “It’s Hot Librarian. By the way, you still owe me pics.”
“How exactly am I supposed to take pictures of him? You told me to treat him like a work friend.”
“That was before. Now we’re treating him like Jo’s sexy crush.”
Her heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t quite thought about Felix in those terms yet. The idea made her feel all gooey inside. “Which means what? Gentle online stalking to dig up photos of him from Rutgers?”
“Rutgers?” There was a lilt of interest in Aida’s voice as she latched onto that tidbit. “That’s a start. What’s his last name?”
“Nope.”
“Babe, please. You have to give me something.”
Jo took a slow, even breath. She wasn’t planning on saying anything until she’d brought it up with Felix first, but… “I was thinking of inviting him to Indi-Con next weekend.”
Aida gasped. “Jo! I fully support this. This is the best idea you’ve ever had.”
“You think so? It’s not too much?”
“Of course it’s too much,” Aida said, blunt as ever. “Indi-Con is like drinking from the firehose of MnM. It’s perfect.”
“How can it be too much and also perfect?”
There was a long pause. Jo wondered if her phone signal had gone out again, but then Aida said, “Hold on. I need to close my office door.”
