His hand shifted, and sparks glittered over every inch he touched.
“Left, and down a little more.”
Felix obeyed her directions and ran his nails back and forth at the base of her shoulder blade. The sparks intensified. Not only over her skin, but deeper, into her muscles. They spread from that one spot and cascaded across her body. Even her scalp tingled.
Jo hummed in delight. “Right there.”
“Can you even feel me through that denim jacket of yours?” he asked. “Or should I slip underneath?”
Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?
“I feel you just fine, thanks,” she said, light and breezy.
“You really are going to be the death of me, you know.”
She grinned at him. “A little to the right, please.”
Felix groaned through closed lips, but he continued to scratch her back all the way to the deli.
After lunch, Felix sat at his first MnM table without Jo. He could hear her laugh from halfway across the hall where she sat ready to GM a game. Felix had taken a seat facing away from her to keep the distraction to a minimum, but that laugh sure did carry. His girlfriend’s laugh. Felix smiled like a teenager with a crush, all goofy and lopsided. He was thirty-six, for crying out loud. He should not be this dopey over having a girlfriend.
He turned to look over his shoulder and spotted Jo in the crowd, loose auburn curls bouncing as she stood up to adjust something at the center of her table. One of her MnM books was open and pressed against her chest. Felix found his attention glued to the hint of green and orange on her hand that was splayed over the book’s spine. The touch of those hands had lit such a fire in him—he’d never felt anything like it. He wanted to feel it again.
His thoughts were interrupted by his GM, a young white woman named Grace, arriving. They introduced themselves, and once the table filled up, the adventure got underway. The din of the gaming hall built up to the point that Felix couldn’t hear Jo anymore. That was probably for the best since his mind tended to wander whenever he did.
Someone else caught his attention, though. Trey and Aida were playing at a table nearby, and Trey was doing some bizarre character voice, like a child actor rejected from playing a street urchin in an Oliver Twist adaptation. There was also a lot of meowing involved, which made Aida crack up every time.
At Felix’s table, the story followed a format similar to the sample game Jo had run for him. Grax and his party were hired by a small-town mayor to investigate some strange noises in the local copper mine. The whole thing was rather Scooby-Doo-esque, with fake ghosts, crotchety old landowners, and an actual line about meddling kids. Jo would have played up the comedy of the adventure, Felix thought. She would have had the entire table rolling with laughter as she embellished the silly parts rather than skimming over them as Grace did. Grace was a fine GM, but she seemed more interested in keeping the game moving than anything else. Felix wouldn’t put it past Jo to also add a Great Dane with a penchant for snacks into the mix.
When the game wrapped up, Felix noted the details on his SWOP logsheet and thanked Grace and the other players. He stood, and his eyes instantly found Jo, still in the thick of her game. Before he could decide whether to head over there, he heard his name. Aida was waving him over. She and Trey were the only ones left at their table.
“How was your game?” he asked as he sat alongside them.
“Great,” Aida replied. “We killed some ghosts and saved a temple from a necromancer’s evil schemes. You?”
“Sadly, all of my ghosts were merely illusory diversions. Which made them very hard to hit with a sword.”
“He gets a sword,” Trey said indignantly.
“It’s an imaginary sword, T,” Aida said with a long-suffering sigh. “It doesn’t count.”
“Trey, I have to ask,” Felix jumped in, “what’s with the meowing?”
“You heard that?” Aida asked with a laugh.
“Oi, guv, that’s jus’ Jolly,” Trey said, returning to his god-awful Cockney. “’E’s a li’l catfolk tryna be a wizard is all. Jolly loves castin’ spells, wot?”
“God, I love Jolly,” Aida said, covering her face with her hand. “It’s so dumb, but he makes me laugh every time.”
“Why do you think I bring him to every convention, lovey?” Trey said in his regular voice. He uncovered her face and pecked her on the cheek.
“So, Felix!” Aida said brightly. She angled toward him and leaned back against Trey’s shoulder.
“Here it comes,” Felix said with a knowing grin.
“You and Jo, huh?”
“Me and Jo,” he confirmed. “Are you going to ask about my intentions toward your best friend?”
“We’ll see,” Aida said. “Thoughts on cats?”
“Slight preference for dogs, but I like cats too. I had both growing up.”
“Coffee or tea?”
“Coffee. Con leche. And vanilla.”
“Why boxing?”
“Because it’s a good stress reliever, I enjoy the discipline it requires, and it makes me look really good.”
“Why Ashville?”
“My grandpa lives there, and I didn’t want him to be alone.”
Aida paused and cast her eyes around like she was thinking. Felix was mildly surprised she didn’t have a list of questions memorized.
