Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
"Yeah, well…" he murmured, but he didn't finish the sentence. I felt him move again, but instead of disappearing, he stepped in behind me and put his arms around my waist. I was surprised by the openly intimate move. It gave me hope, but it also ratcheted up my fear. I could get too used to moments like these.
"I brought you something," Gideon said. "Come see." He released me only long enough to take my hand. I carefully set the Mickey trinket back down in its spot on the display shelf and then followed him. There was absolutely no hesitation on my part as I let him lead me to the center of the living room. I'd gotten completely comfortable moving around his house on my own. But more importantly, I'd gotten completely comfortable with him. I knew that he would never put me in a situation where I could potentially get hurt or embarrass myself. So wherever he led, I followed and I did so willingly.
"I may need you to walk me through getting it set up," Gideon said as he urged me to sit down on the couch.
"Okay," I said somewhat suspiciously. Since I couldn't see for shit, I wasn't sure how helpful I'd be with setting anything up. But then Gideon put something into my hands that was all too familiar. My heart dropped out of my chest as I felt the object. An even mix of joy and disappointment went through me at the same time.
"Lex, just hear me out, okay?" Gideon said as he closed his fingers over mine as I clutched the video game controller in my hands. Why in the world had he gotten a video game console?
"Why?" I croaked as I tried to hand the controller back to him. But his grip on my hands was absolute.
"Please, baby, just listen.”
Admittedly, the combination of his plea and the endearment were enough to silence me.
"I borrowed this from Kenny. I guess it's an older model or something. He said he would sell it to me for cheap if I decided to keep it."
I wasn't sure what he expected me to say to that, if anything at all, so I kept my mouth shut.
"I know how much you miss playing the games," Gideon continued.
His observation wasn't a surprise because as we'd lain in bed each night, there had been times when the silence had been too much for Gideon and he’d asked me to tell him about the first game I’d designed. It was one of the easiest topics for me to talk about and I’d done so endlessly, explaining all the characters and levels. It had been both comforting and bittersweet because it had reminded me how much I missed playing the video games that had meant so much to me as a kid. As my business had grown, I’d spent more and more time putting out fires and dealing with the developers who’d been coding my games. But I hadn't actually taken the time to keep playing them. And then it had been too late to.
I knew Gideon wasn't trying to be cruel, but it still stung that he was doing this. He must've seen something in my expression because all of a sudden, he was leaning in and clasping the left side of my face while he pressed our foreheads together. "Lex, please just trust me on this."
I nodded because I did trust him. He would never hurt me intentionally. "I do, Gideon," I murmured, eager to get past whatever he was trying to accomplish.
"Tell me why you love the games so much."
"They're an escape. When you're in a video game, the real world doesn't exist and for a while you can be anyone you want to be."
"And when you were a kid, you wanted to get away and be something else, right?" Gideon asked.
I nodded again. "I spent a lot of time in hospitals. During one of the longer stretches when I was in my early teens, one of the nurses felt sorry for me and brought me her son's old video game console and some games to go with it. When I was playing the games, I wasn't sick. Things didn't hurt. I was the valiant knight or the racecar driver or the brave fighter pilot. I wasn't a sickly kid tied to a dialysis machine. I wasn't someone whose body didn't work."
"They gave you a purpose," Gideon offered.
"Yes," I said. "They gave me a reason to open my eyes every day."
"So it wasn't the actual games, it was what the games gave you," Gideon clarified. "They gave you joy."
I nodded. He’d stripped it down to its simplest form and he was right. The video games had made me happy.
"I know you won't be able to play the games like you used to, but what if we play them together?" Gideon asked.