“Ohhoho, shit! Nice!”
“Watch it! Behind you!”
But it’s too late. Crimson explodes across my screen and I watch my character collapse like a marionette whose strings have been cut, then watch the enemy sniper who’d taken me out doing a little victory dance across the screen.
Stephen’s face turns hard and determined. “I’ll avenge you,” he assures me, and as I’m waiting to respawn, I watch him take down the sniper gleefully.
“Daddy, look!” crows a little voice.
While Stephen and I are indulging in a little virtual warfare, Kristen is enjoying some Play-Doh playtime with his toddler. Not that I blame her, Judy’s a ridiculously fucking cute kid.
We’d hit it off seamlessly with our new neighbor last night. We’d come back with beer, and while we’d initially put on a show he recommended, we ended up shutting it off because we kept ending up in conversation. And don’t get me wrong, the show was good, but the conversation was even better.
Stephen and I have a shitload in common. We both grew up nerds, into comics and video games, and that love has persisted into adulthood. Somehow we’d ended up talking about computers, and he practically started drooling when I described my PC gaming setup to him.
So I’d invited him to come over and game with me today, and he’d brought his laptop so we could do some multiplayer.
And of course, the invitation had been extended to his little one, and Kristen was happily keeping her entertained again. She’d been absolutely thrilled to death about her impromptu babysitting adventure yesterday and leapt at the chance for another.
We’ve talked about kids of our own, and while we aren’t actively trying, we also aren’t really doing much in the way of prevention, either. Not since we moved in together. We’ve kind of decided that “when it happens, it happens.”
But that might change if Stephen keeps bringing this kid around, because evenI’mgetting a touch of baby fever.
“That’s beautiful, sweetie,” Stephen tells her with a smile, “Are you and Kristen having fun?”
“Yeah.”
Something about her succinct little answer makes me chuckle. My character finally respawns and I lose myself in the game again for a while. It’s good to have a buddy to play with. Most of my gaming friends have moved, and sure, we still get together online once in a while, but there’s something different about playing together face-to-face, like the good old high school days of bringing a friend home to play couch co-op on your Xbox.
Kristen plays a little, but she’s not a fan of playing on a PC. She prefers handhelds. She’d rather play on a Game Boy Color, a system that’s like a quarter of a century old, than let me build her a state-of-the-art PC with all the bells and whistles.
But to each their own, right?
Stephen and I are about two minutes from slaughtering the enemy team in another match online when Judy complains: “I’m firsty.”
“You’re thirsty?” Stephen answers, still carefully watching the screen.
“Yeah.”
“Do you want Daddy to bring you some juice?”
“Yes!”
“Yes what?” he presses.
“Yes, pwease,” she corrects herself.
“Good girl, do you think you can hold on for just a minute while Daddy finishes this game?”
“I can go get her some, I have some Capri-Suns for Joel’s lunches,” Kristen offers, getting to her feet.
“Really? That’s so sweet, thanks.”
Kristen laughs. “No problem. Do you guys want anything while I’m up? Drinks, snacks?”
“I think I’ll take you up on a soda if you don’t mind, baby,” I tell her.
“Of course. Stephen? Can I get you something?”