“Yes, that’s what it’s all about!”
“What?” He looks at me, confused.
“Love Birds.” I’m grinning, overflowing with excitement. I can’t believe I missed that.
“I’m lost. Please explain.”
“Erik.” I hold his face with both my hands. “You were right when you said it wasn’t dark here but inspiring. I think I solved our problem with the game.”
“Our lack of money, time, and a crew the size of Scorpio Games?”
I smile. “No. The concept itself. ‘Having fun together is what it’s all about,’” I quote Erik back to him. “We knew this was our point with the app. Getting people to have fun together before going on a date.” He nods, showing that he is following. “But what if the playing field, where all the birds are, was a playground?”
He thinks about it for a second, and then our minds connect and become one.
“Yes! That can work. Then the multiplayer matches and private mini games are attractions in the playground.”
“Exactly! It’s about feeling the way you feel when you are a child. You go to a playground to meet others, play, and make friends. Some might become best friends. Some might even get married later in life.”
I sense his excitement. The shadows have left his face. He is fully replenished again, his eyes sparkling.
“All players start as anonymous birds,” he says. “And as you win with your team, you learn something new about the other team members.”
“Yes,” I say enthusiastically. “If we’re talking about a playground, the challenges can be inspired by classic children’s outdoor games, like marbles, Capture the Flag...”
Erik claps. “Perfect!”
We laugh, now springing, dancing, climbing, and balancing on bars while brainstorming. We talk about the two-player mini games—tic-tac-toe, chess, checkers—and monetization. Everything clicks together like a puzzle we can finally assemble. It’s sublime.
“We’ll simulate the stages of a real relationship and give people the chance to fall for someone before dating them,” I say, walking on a wooden wave and jumping into Erik’s arms when I reach the end.
“You’re a genius, Sol.” He spins me in his arms before putting me down.
“We are geniuses together.”
Erik kisses me, and I’m so happy, I could fly.
Now we just have to make the dream come true.
Twenty-Four
Eight days until Scorpio Games’ Christmas Party. There have been no more Fun Season events since the Escape Room + Pub Night. All that is left is to prepare for the talent show—Group Lars’s final challenge.
I thought Erik wouldn’t want to show up at Scorpio after everything that’s happened, but he said he would attend to support me, and I gladly accepted his offer. For the talent show, he convinced me to choose something to represent my culture. So I suggested a Brazilian partner dance: forró.
When a skilled man is directing me, I can dance with grace. My cousins have brought me to forró clubs several times, where random guys invited me to dance to the live music. I could usually put on a show when my partner knew what he was doing. So the challenge here was to teach Erik. He watched a few videos, but it was so hard for him that as the days passed, we neglected the training entirely.
Erik’s full focus has been on the app. In fact, he is working so hard I basically never see him away from the computer. Despite our close connection not so long ago, our relationship has taken a step back. Perhaps four or five.
We live together. We talk to each other. But there is no time for sex. I sleep in my room, and he sleeps in his. It almost feels like we are no longer a couple.
I hate this new distance. I come home from work, and we work together. Then I go to bed, and he stays awake, working. I wake up and he is on the computer again. I’m not even sure he sleeps. He looks like a zombie. He doesn’t cook, doesn’t eat, and doesn’t go to the gym anymore. All he talks about is code and Love Birds.
He is obsessed.
Is he working so hard because this is how we stay together in the long term? Or is he running away again, as he did after our kiss in Tivoli?
I’ve been patient, understanding—or trying to. But our conversation at the playground haunts me. It was our last good day. Was it truly good though? Or were our kisses, our ideas, like a pretty cover for the wreckage underneath?
Maybe now he’s letting go...
Maybe he’s doing to me exactly what he did to Lena, neglecting our relationship because he fears it will end the same way, with me going back to my home country.
I’m sitting at the dining table, nibbling on a slice of toast with no appetite, while Erik types frantically on his laptop. It’s been days since I stopped working on the project, and he hasn’t even noticed.
Suddenly, a wave of anger rises in me, and I’m unable to stay quiet. “I’m tired of this, Erik.”
His hands freeze, hovering over his keyboard, and he looks at me. “Tired of what?”
“You ignoring me.”
He leans back in his chair with a sigh. He’s not surprised. He’s been waiting for me to confront him.
“I’m sorry, Sol.” His voice sounds tired, like he knew he owed me an apology but simply didn’t have time for it.
I keep staring at him, my arms crossed on the table. He rubs his red, watery eyes. He will go down due to the stress. It’s what has been keeping me supportive all these days—my concern for him. But by indulging in his harmful agenda, accepting this distance, I’m hurting us both.
“You spend day and night on this project as if I don’t exist,” I say.
