44 A Deal

Justin had a curse: he always did the dumbest things when he panicked. So when Emily, the love of his life, asked him who he liked he described Alexa. Who he had absolutely no interest in. Who probably would hit him if she found out he had used her as a shield. Who he needed to come clean to because Emily wanted to meet her.

With a groan he sent her a text message. 'Hey, are you back from the holiday yet?'

She replied a few minutes later. 'I never left. What's up?'

'I'm not allowed to want to treat a friend to coffee?'

'Suspicious, but I'll bite. Does 2 work?'

So at 2 PM he found himself sitting across from an ice cold art student as he tried to explain himself. Her glare could practically freeze a lake.

"You told her—the girl you tried to forget all summer by making my game—that you liked me because you panicked?"

"I didn't mean to," he squeaked in fear before repeating himself in his normal voice. "I didn't mean to. It was stupid, and I did panic, but—"

"But she wants to meet me so now you want me to lie for you."

It sounded a lot worse when she said it out loud. "Come on, Alexa, I only said that I liked you not that you liked me. In fact, I told her you didn't. She thinks we're just friends."

"We  are just friends. What are you thinking?!" She crushed her empty coffee cup in her fist. "Look, Justin. I like you. I think you're an interesting person and if the chance arose to work together again professionally I'd do it. But don't pull me into your mess. I've got my own things to deal with."

"One meal, that's all I ask," he begged. "She wants to go to that macaroni place after finals to celebrate. I'll say I invited another friend. You say hi, she's not suspicious, we all go home happy and full of macaroni."

Alexa bit her lip, wavering. "You'd buy the macaroni?"

He shook his head in mock disbelief. "You're the stingiest millionaire I've ever met. Yes, I'd buy the macaroni. However much you want."

"And I'd never have to do this again," she said flatly. "I swear, this is a one-time deal. If you make me play along with your schemes again…I'll…I'll tell everyone who you really are. Especially that girl."

Justin's heart hammered in his chest. Okay, he could accept that. He meant it when he said he only needed help the one time.

"You've got a deal."

Her lips curled up in a satisfied smile. "Alright, Romeo. So what else happened with her this weekend?"

"Do you really want to know? It's possibly the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me."

Alexa laughed as she leaned back in her chair carelessly. "Embarrassing stories are the best ones. Spill."

Justin explained everything, from his mom's obnoxious bear hugging to his cousin telling her childhood stories to him fainting on top of her and laughing so hard she thought he had lost his mind. She was completely expressionless up until the point where he told her about the fainting episode when she started to cackle with glee.

"You really must have lost your mind. Does love make you do that?"

He cocked his head, curious. "You've never been in love?"

"Nope," she said, popping the 'p.' "I'm asexual and aromantic. I don't care about that sort of thing. I find people's motivations fascinating but I have no real interest in their emotions beyond that. Tell me, what is it like being in love?"

"All I want is for her to be happy but it seems like she's happier without me in her life so I watch and help from a distance. Until a little over a year ago, she didn't even know my name," he admitted.

The weight on his heart twisted at those words. She liked him but she didn't like him. She knew him but she didn't know him. If she really, truly knew…what would she think? Would she think he was a stalker?

"How long has it been?" Alexa asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"About seven years."

She slapped her hands on the table and practically jumped out of her chair. "Seven years and you haven't done anything until now?! What kind of idiot are you?!"

Justin sighed. He had heard it all before. "The scared kind."

Alexa rubbed her hand over her eyes as if warding off a headache. "Justin...my friend…has anyone ever told you that you're hopeless?"

He let out a bark of a laugh. "You'd get along well with my cousin. She calls me hopeless all the time."

"You say you've been watching and helping…what exactly have you done?"

Justin laid it all out in simple terms: the secret admirer presents, the big tips, the online friendship, following her to college, the carpooling, the scholarship, all the way up to Thanksgiving. She shook her head in disbelief every time he added something else to the list of what he'd done in secret.

"You poor, stupid man," Alexa sighed. "Quite a hole you've dug for yourself."

"I know," he said glumly. "I'm trying to dig my way out but I don't even know if that's possible anymore. When she expressed interest in knowing the person behind my online persona I thought, okay, I'll stop talking online and start talking for real in person. Then she's not losing me at all, right? But now I've royally screwed things up further by involving you."

"Yes you have," she said bluntly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Justin, you're a genius with computers but an absolute moron with people."

"I know that too. I have no idea what I'm doing."

He slumped back in his chair, defeated. Confessing his stupidity to another person had really taken a lot out of him. Now Sam wasn't the only one who knew how horrible he was with people.

Alexa eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and pity before nonchalantly examining her nails, speaking as if what she was saying didn't matter. "I can't fix your stupidity but I may be able to fix the part of the problem I'm involved in. Are you willing to listen to my plan?"

"I'll take anything at this point," he said desperately, wondering why she suddenly agreed to get involved beyond her previous agreement of just one meal. "Please help me."

She patted his hand condescendingly. "I will, young grasshopper. But in return you have to promise me that on our next game collaboration you only get twenty-five percent of the profit instead of fifty."

Justin didn't care about the money. He had taken a chance on Alexa's idea in the first place because he was bored and was interested in seeing people like her succeed. People who had dreams but didn't have the means to fulfill them.

He had a lot of means but what he didn't have was the fulfillment of his own dream. If Alexa could get him anywhere even close to that after he screwed up so colossally…he would owe her a lot more than 75% of a game's profits.

"Deal."