How did this come about?

Rolling for Love’s first draft was 175,000 words. Way too many words. I ended up cutting out 50,000 words for the final draft. However, some of the stuff I cut out, I loved and I spent a lot of time on. Others of it really, really needed to go and never be read again =P

I am turning a few of the chapters into short stories.

Where are we in the book?

Where are we romantically? This takes place a week after the Scythe game – a week that disappeared in the final draft! But, just for fun, we will pretend it is still there. Dillon is sure that with Blake’s help, he can tell Sandy how he really feels. Joe, meanwhile, has been very proactive in his pursuit of her affections. And Sandy? Sandy is starting to like Joe, he is handsome, bold, and best of all he reminds her about the best parts of Amorino. Is that what she really wants? Or is it time for something new?

Dillon Dempsy

Blake and I are already at Tetreazy at our reserved table in the back room when Sandy and Joe walk in at the same time. Very close to each other. Joe looks his usual brutish, evil self. Extra evil, as I hadn’t really asked him to join us, he just assumed he was invited. Sandy, on the other hand, looks lovely. She is wearing an eggplant purple blouse that exposes the tops of her shoulders. Little bits of something shiny draw attention to her ears and neck. Both are exposed as her hair is flipped up in some sort of a ponytail bun thing. Her jeans fit around her hips perfectly and go into tall grey boots, with a few inches of heels, presumably to give her confidence. Though she looks so small standing next to Joe.

I pull my eyes away from her and try to subtly point her out to Blake. My round brown haired work friend had been excited to join us, though his new flame couldn’t make it. Scythe had been fun last week, but I think having Blake as a wing man will help my nerves around Sandy.

“That is not a good sign for a wingman’s job,” Blake says lowly to me as they approach the table. It does look like Joe and Sandy arrived together. But they live somewhat close to each other, sort of, I think, so they probably carpooled. Joe pulls out a seat for Sandy as I introduce Blake.

“Well met and sally forth,” Blake says cherrily. “What are we playing today?”

“Your suggestion was great last week,” I say to Sandy. 

“I remembered you said you like resource management games,” Sandy responds. I am delighted she remembered. “I looked up a few, and I was thinking either Fresco or Pixie Queen. But, I don’t need to be the one who chooses.”

“Have you played either of those?” asks Joe suspiciously.

“Nope,” Sandy says flatly.

“I read a pretty controversial blog on Pixie Queen,” Blake states. “That was a year or two ago when it first came out.”

“Ooh, controversy,” Sandy says. “So, either tried, true, and old. Or new, and possibly bad.”

“I like new things,” Joe says with a grin at Sandy. I roll my eyes as Joe heads over to the game shelf. “You want to get us drinks, Sandy?” he asks as he finds Pixie Queen.

“Sure,” Sandy answers and wanders off. Blake turns to me and mouths the words ‘us’ as he motions me to follow her. I do, we make some small talk at the bar, though her drinks are poured before mine and I twiddle my thumbs waiting for my own order. Why did Blake want a fancy mixed drink? 

“…played this before?” I hear the tail end of Joe’s sentence as I rejoin the table. Blake thanks me for his Bloody Mary as he takes it.

“There is a picture on the front of the rules of the board set up,” Sandy answers exasperated.

“But you are already halfway through the rule book,” Joe says back. Using the odd, apple-shaped thing in his hand to gesture toward the rule book. “You aren’t even looking at the picture, and you are telling me where to put the pieces. You don’t need to lie. I don’t care if you have played this before.”

“I am not lying about the game. Why would I?” Sandy says loudly and defensively. Her eyes dart around and come to rest on Blake, pushing the rule book into his hands. “Here, you are more of a gamer then me, you read the rules. Joe, I remember what the setup looks like. I just looked at it two minutes ago. It doesn’t take a genius to match up pictures,” Sandy shoots back.

“She reads fast,” I quickly defend Sandy. I suspect she has a crazy good memory, but she is clearly uncomfortable talking about it so I try to change the topic. “You got really far ahead of me in the Lies of Locke. You told me something that doesn’t make sense, and I just found it at the beginning of book two.”

“You started book two?” Sandy asks surprised. “I wasn’t sure if you would be willing to read another book with me.”  I see her give me a small smile and my brain starts to short cricut.

“You two are reading the same book?” Joe questions, still unbagging resources and scattering them on the board. His interruption to our moment realigns my brain connections.

“Do you want to read it too?” Sandy offers to Joe sarcastically. We already know he is not much of a reader. “And resource colors should match up. Are you color blind?” She asks him.

“Only when I look at anything but you,” Joe answers sweetly. Sandy’s face turns beet red. I grimace, even I can admit that was pretty smooth. Or really racist, you could take it either way these days. I spare Blake a look but he is nose deep in the rule book. 

***

Hours later, we have stolen, bullied, and tortured our armies of little pixies. Resources have been gathered, and offerings have been made to our tyrant queen. We decided to forgo the big table tonight for one shaped like a square, this game being smaller than Scythe and requiring us to keep certain things secret. I am looking across the table at Joe, and Blake is looking across at Sandy. Sandy and Joe toned down their bickering once the game started, but it was short lived.

“I once had a cousin that cheated at card games,” Joe says absently.

“Original Joe,” Sandy shoots back. “I once had a cousin who shut up and played the game.”

I cringe a little but Joe doesn’t seem bothered. Blake had happily taken over the job of explaining the rules and the game to all of us, after his explanation Sandy had taken the rule book back and finished scanning it with her eyes. Although she tried to do it subtly, I think everyone at the table noticed. Much like her need for accurate rules in D&D, she has been keeping us on track, almost as much of a task master as the Pixie Queen herself. She has to have an eidetic memory, or something, but doesn’t want us to know. I can respect that, she had been surprised I was willing to read book two with her, maybe she has had some bad experiences. Like what Joe is doing right now.

Joe has turned her familiarity with the rules into a running joke. A joke that Sandy is not enjoying. I can see the corners of her mouth tighten, hesitating to correct something that I know she really wants to correct. I don’t know why Joe won’t leave her be. It has actually been nice to have someone who knows the rules so well, we haven’t needed any breaks to search for answers. I focus back on the game.

The person with the least negative points wins, as far as we can tell. We are not sure why there even are positive numbers on the score tracker. There are twenty-one different actions and each of us has a limited number of actions we can use. The game has a limited number of rounds and we are on the last one.

“You know what I like about this game?” Sandy asks the table at the start of her turn.

“Pretty sure I can guess,” Joe laughs.

“You can, can you?” Sandy says sweetly. “Let’s hear it!”

She begins turning in her small horde of hidden resources into the additional resource space and takes the tile worth 10 points. That is her third tile she has taken from there. The goal of the game is to gather different combinations of resources to give to our especially well-illustrated and moody tyrant. Though you hide your resources and victory points from your fellow players so everything is a mystery. 

“You like the fact that you can dick over your friends and it is socially acceptable,” Joe states.

“And encouraged,” Sandy answers happily. “And fair. I think the mechanics of the game are very straight forward and we picked them up fairly quickly. Unlike Scythe.”

“I second that,” I stick in.

“I can see why the article is controversial,” Blake adds.

“Of course, you would say that. You are losing,” Sandy points out.

“Other than the art and the very fun theme, the actual worker placement part of the game is very similar to every other worker placement game,” Blake explains, ignoring Sandy. “There is nothing new here.”

“Whose turn is it?” Joe asks.

“Mine,” I say. I make my offerings, to a smaller degree then Sandy, and move my score piece above Joe’s. 

“The art and the theme are both original. Isn’t the game pretty original?” Sandy asks, her voice genuinely curious.

“I didn’t say not original,” Blake corrects. “I said not new.”

“Does everything have to be new?” Sandy asks.

“Generally, board gamers are looking for the newest concept,” I answer. “Something that breaks the mold and pushes games to their limits.” I can see the little gears turning in Sandy’s head, what is Blake saying that has her thinking so much?

We watch Joe take his final turn. His marker is just two behind me. The win will be based on remaining resources, the moody tyrants’ final wishes, and hidden points people have collected. I can’t celebrate yet, though I would bet that Sandy has us all beat.

“Final scoring,” Joe says. He looks right at Sandy. “Total us up.”

“I need the rule book,” Sandy states.

“I don’t think you do,” Joe smiles, and puts the rule book in his shirt behind his back. “But if I am wrong, you are welcome to come get it from out of my shirt.”

Sandy again turns beet red and shoots Joe a look of disdain. I open my mouth to speak up for her, and I feel Blake kick me under the table. It is the third time tonight. I guess I’m not supposed to defend Sandy?

Sandy scans the board and starts saying numbers to Joe. Joe bats his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I have no idea where you are getting those totals from,” Joe tells her sickly sweetly. “Can you explain it to me please?”

Sandy narrows her eyes and frowns. I start to interrupt and Blake kicks me again.

“So, um,” Sandy starts. “Acquired victory points…no. Let’s start with what is on the board…” Her explanation is thorough, if a little confusing, as if she is reading the rules in her head but trying to hide it by rephrasing on the spot. As she explains, we count up and adjust the score marker. Sandy has gone from negative twenty-three to positive two. Damn it. Joe and I are tied, and not far, but solidly behind Sandy. We won’t mention Blake, this has not been his night, two of his pixie’s are still chained in the mines.

“Well done,” I congratulate Sandy on her victory. She gives me a happy smile and starts cleaning up the board.

“Help me get the book out of my shirt so we can confirm,” Joe directs his words toward Sandy who studiously ignores him. I stand quickly and move to Joe. When he untucks his shirt, the rules fall into my hands instead. Joe holds out his hand for the rule book, but I don’t have them over and scan the final rules.

“She’s correct,” I confirm simply. Joe snatches the rules from me and narrows his eyes. I am sure he also notices some almost exact wording Sandy used in her own explanation.

“You know you could just admit to having played the game before,” Joe states. Sandy’s mouth flattens into a line. I can see her unhappiness turn to anger in two seconds flat. I am unsure how Joe thinks this is still playful. Although most of their banter has stayed civil with Sandy throwing back as good as she gets, questioning her honesty is just too far. I’ve not known her to be anything other than honest, painfully honest sometimes. Why is he hurting her? Why is she letting him? Blake suddenly jostles the board game and pieces go flying, breaking the tension.

“Oops sorry,” Blake apologies.

“Don’t be,” Sandy says flatly. She takes a deep breath and calmly continues speaking to Blake like Joe doesn’t exist. “Tell me more about the difference between new and original in games.” Blake is charmed to suddenly be the center of attention and boisterously dives into one of his favorite topics.

“There is an entire industry of deck building games,” he uses as an example. “And anytime a new one comes out, even the creators will often say. ‘Have you played Dominion or Magic the Gathering?’ It is just like that but with this twist or this concept. So the game is technically new, but the concept is still based on the same ideas that have been tried already.”

“So, it’s like you’ve been there and done that already,” Sandy says, her eyes whip over to Joe and then surprisingly she meets my own. I blush a little, caught staring and try to look away. “It is kind of like getting a new dress but going on the same date with the same guy.” Sandy confirms, I can see those gears turning again.

“I’ve not done either of those things,” Blake states with a laugh. “I know we just met, but please don’t make assumptions based on my lovely figure.” We all laugh as we finish putting away the game. As Joe stands to put it back on the top shelf, I lean over to Sandy.

“A penny for your thoughts?” I ask her. Sandy’s eyes go a little wide, and she hesitates, before seeming to make a decision.

“I want to play Pixie Queen,” Sandy says cryptically. “But I also want to find some new mechanics, or at least new to me.”

“I’d be happy to play games with you,” I say honestly. I really would. To my suprise, Sandy’s face lights up like a tomato and she bites her bottom lip. Is she stopping herself from laughing?

“Are you sure about that?” She asks me, I realize that maybe I’m not sure what we are talking about. Before I can ask Joe’s voice interrupts us.

“If you haven’t played the game before you must have watched a video or something,” Joe’s voice is friendly and playful, but his words are a challenge. I feel my eyes widen, why is he bringing this up again? Sandy stands, her nose wrinkled.

“I don’t owe you an explanation Joe, I don’t owe you anything,” Sandy says. “Find your own fucking way home. I don’t cheat. I just don’t know when to shut my stupid mouth.”

Before any of us can react, Sandy storms off. I stand to follow her but Blake puts a hand on my arm and shakes his head.

“Give her some time to cool off,” Blake recommends. I don’t like it but I stay seated.

“I didn’t think it was that big a deal,” Joe states after a moment. He looks honestly shocked that Sandy stormed off. I shake my head.

“How did you make it to your thirties and still be this dense?” I don’t realize that I have spoken my thoughts until Joe barks out a laugh.

“You are not the first person to ask me that,” Joe says. His handsome face gives me a smile. Despite my dislike for Joe, I find myself smiling back.