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scorer honors on ninety percent of the machines in the arcade?
    He thought it best to keep that information to himself, for now, along with the title "Super Geek" that he'd earned from his fellow gamers.
    "Cool!" Garret blurted, plopping down in the machine's worn leather seat. Otis had never wanted to be cowhide so badly in his life. "I'm not much good at video games. Would you teach me?"
    "Well, my IT company services the machines, so I spend a lot of time here." Did that count as bragging?
    Otis hoped not. He hated it when guys bragged.
    "So, this is like, where you work?"
    The heat setting on Otis' cheeks clicked from simmer to broil. "One of the places, yeah." Thankfully, Garret didn't seem to notice the embarrassment, single-mindedly focusing on landing a spaceship without crashing.
    Standing behind the player's seat, Otis winced and grimaced, hands that wanted so desperately to take the wheel clenching and unclenching. He forced himself to talk Garret through the necessary maneuvers, and not wrest control of the game for himself.
    Slowly, slowly, he calmed down, murmuring, "That's it; you're doing fine. Hold 'er steady. There you go…"
    He huffed out a breath of relief when the Carlotta settled on the planet surface without so much as a bump.
    Once in his element, Otis relaxed, laughing along with Garret's attempts to eradicate alien baddies. They tried on the persona of the captain, the gruff, wizened sergeant, the lieutenant, and even the head of the colonists' forces. Only the good guys, though. Most novices found the assorted baddies too creepy.
    A Lie I Can Live With - 23
    Garret pointed to a figure on the screen. "Who's this guy?"
    "That's Corporal Cole. You don't wanna be him. He's kinda a behind-the-scenes guy."
    "Can I try?"
    Corporal Cole? Nerdling extraordinaire? Who wanted to be him? Well, Garret, apparently.
    Dropping more tokens into the machine, Otis briefed his date on the ins and outs of geek warfare, amazed at how many points the man racked up before falling prey to a sneaky, shape-shifting alien.
    After a few more games, Garret suggested, "Wanna take a walk?" They strolled through the mall side by side, stopping at the fountain. "I've seen some of your work; from here you can see some of mine," he said. He swept his hand out toward the surrounding storefronts.
    "Excuse me?" Otis asked.
    The display of Garret's pearly white teeth sent tremors through Otis' belly. "I make dreams come true,"
    he said.
    Otis bit down on the words, "I've got a few you can work on," and rammed his hands into his pockets, a flash fire starting in his neck and working up his face.
    "Umm… exactly how do you do that?" Images of what constituted dreams coming true for him flitted through his mind.
    He never expected to hear, "I'm a loan officer at Attaway Savings and Loan."
    What? This hunk of gorgeousness in skin tight jeans wasn't a model? A construction worker? Paid to sit around and look gorgeous all day?
    Garret, not being privy to the thoughts careening around Otis' head, pointed toward a small shop. "See that store over there?"
    A Lie I Can Live With - 24
    It being a craft store that sold yarn and other creative items, Otis had never paid it much attention. Now he did, watching a kindly, grandmotherly woman beaming and holding out what looked to be packages of brightly colored thread for two other ladies to "ohhh" and
    "ahhhh" over.
    Pride gleamed in Garret's eyes. "She came to me two years ago, wanting a loan to open her own business.
    Everyone else said that a craft store wouldn't be a smart investment. Miss Martha proved them wrong." Before Otis had a chance to name Garret a saint, the guy winked, adding, "And don't think for a minute that I let the naysayers live it down at work. My goal is to fill every empty space in this mall with someone's lifelong dream of entrepreneurship."
    Otis thought back to his own frustrating attempts to start a business, of being told no by bank after bank, eventually giving in to