It Was Always You (Gaming the System)

It Was Always You

A Gaming the System Short

By Brenna Aubrey

Friends discover their feelings are more than that but timing has never been on their side.

When Jeremy, her brother’s best friend, came back into her life, Michaela cursed the fact that she was in a relationship with someone else. But now that she’s free, he’s dating her roommate.

This is a contemporary romance novella with a happy ending. The characters exist in the same world as Brenna Aubrey’s bestselling Gaming The System series, but you don’t need to have read any of those books to enjoy this story.

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Chapter One
Michaela

The nausea from the twists and turns up this mountain road was nothing compared to the pukey feeling I was getting from the couple in the front seat of the car. They were going at each other. Again.

“I’m not saying I’m not happy for them but do they
really
have to drag us up this godforsaken mountain just for a party?” my roommate, Tiffani, said to Jeremy, her boyfriend of six months, who was also my friend.

“
They
didn’t drag us anywhere, Tiff. We all agreed that it would be fun to rent a cabin and have a whole weekend-long last hurrah instead of stupid bachelor and bachelorette parties.”

“I dunno. I could have hired her an awesome male stripper and then we
all
could have had some fun.”

“Yeah, because Donna
really
wants some oiled-up beefy dude wagging his junk in her face,” I quipped.

I should really have stayed out of it. I knew better. When these two were bickering—which was often—it was always best to keep my mouth shut and leave the room. But as I was a captive audience during this two-hour drive from Orange County to Big Bear, I had no choice and I was a bit bitter about that fact.

Jeremy was cracking up but clamped his mouth shut when Tiffani jerked a glare at him through narrowed eyes. “I had
better
things to do this weekend,” she said with an affected sniff and a toss of shiny, raven-colored hair.

“It’s not like our friends get married every day. This is their time. Let’s let them enjoy it. It’s not about us. It’s about them,” Jeremy said.

But Tiffani wasn’t buying it. She folded her arms tightly against her chest and turned her head to stare out the window.

They hadn’t been getting along lately and though I worried, I couldn’t help but hope that they might decide to call it quits. It wasn’t entirely for selfless reasons, like wishing them to be happy with someone who better suited them.

No, part of it was the fact that Jeremy had been a longtime crush and the day he’d asked out Tiffani and they became a couple had been a difficult one for me. But what could I have said about it? At the time, I’d been in a relationship with Sean.
What a mess,
I thought. By the time Sean and I had called things off, Tiff and Jeremy had gotten more serious. And then…I’d had no idea if Jeremy would ever see me as anything besides his best friend’s kid sister.

My eyes met Jeremy’s large green ones in the rearview mirror and he gave a slight eye roll. I shrugged helplessly at him. It wasn’t uncommon for him to send me unspoken pleas for help when it came to Tiffani, but I was in no mood to save his ass right now. I was barely managing to keep lunch down.

“Can you either go a bit slower or maybe crack the window or something? I’m dying back here.”

Tiffani sniffed. “It’s freezing out there. I’m not opening the window.”

“It’s not freezing.” We might’ve been in the mountains, but this was Southern California and the sun was shining. There was snow on the ground, in patches, but as far as mountain weather went, the temperature was not intolerable. But Tiffani didn’t budge. “Oh well. You’re the one who’s going to be wearing a vomit shirt in a minute…”

With an explosive exhalation of air, she hit the window control, barely cracking it enough to let a tiny stream of air in on her side, though I could feel nothing. The only way you could tell that it was open was the flagging sound of air rushing in. I leaned back with a groan.

“Sip some ginger ale or something, Michaela. God. Stop whining so much.”

My eyebrows shot up and I glared at her. Tiffani had been a good friend, had been there for me through the worst of my grief when I’d lost my dad last year. At that time, I had felt like she’d do anything for me. But lately, pretty much since she’d begun seeing Jeremy, she’d changed. There was distance between us now and I had no idea why. I had always been extra careful to hide my feelings for her boyfriend. Perhaps I hadn’t been as good as I’d thought I was.

I caught Jeremy’s gaze again in the rearview mirror. His eyes were crinkled in the corners as if he was trying to suppress his laughter. I stuck my tongue out at him and shot him the bird. His eyes widened and his gaze flew back to the road.

The next twenty minutes, thankfully, were silent. Jeremy had slowed his speed, mostly because he was stuck behind a truck for much of the way and Tiffani was still pouting, but she soon got bored of that and tried to find a station on the radio that wasn’t ear-blasting static. When that failed, she decided—exasperatingly—to turn to one of her favorite subjects. My love life…or lack thereof.

“So when are we going to get you back in the game? It’s been six months since Sean.”

I fell back against the seat, my face heating. I hated when she brought this up, especially in front of Jeremy. I’d asked her repeatedly not to, but like always, she ignored me.

“I’m enjoying being single. Don’t harsh my mellow.”

“Nope. Sorry. I’m on a mission to match you up with someone. There are some single guys coming up to the cabin, part of Nathan’s wedding party. Hey—what about Lucas?”

“I don’t even remember which one that is,” I said, my eyes flying to the driver’s seat, focusing on Jeremy’s knuckles, which whitened where he gripped the wheel.

“You know…sandy hair, big brown eyes. Broad shoulders. He’s a cutie.”

Jeremy’s head turned, cocking a brow at her. Tiffani placed a placating hand on
his shoulder. “Not as cute as you, sweetie, of course. Doesn’t he work with you at Draco?”

He cleared his throat. “Yeah. He’s an okay guy.”

“What’s he do there? Does he work on the development team like you?”

“No, he’s head of playtesting.”

“Oh
really
, a department head? I bet he makes some good money!” Tiffani said, turning to give me a pointed look over her shoulder. Money was one of her top requirements in a boyfriend. She hadn’t even gone out with Jeremy until he’d been promoted. Not that Jeremy had ever figured out that was the reason for her sudden change of heart. Even though his promotion meant that he worked long hours on the newest expansion of Dragon Epoch, Draco’s top video game product. Tiffani didn’t mind as long as he was showering her with expensive gifts and taking her to fancy restaurants. “Did he get in at the company early?”

Jeremy shrugged. “He’s been there a while, yeah.”

“Oooh hm. I bet that means stock options! I’m hearing that there are sudden millionaires springing up from having opted to get paid in stock early on.” Then she turned back to Jeremy. “Too bad you didn’t get in on any of that!”

“I was still in college when the company formed.”

Tiffani shrugged. “Well the CEO never finished college and look where
he
is now.”

Jeremy stared at her like she was a lunatic—and really, when Tiffani started going on about money, she did get a bit of the crazy going on. “Well Adam Drake is pretty much one of a kind.”

“He’s in the genius uber-rich club along with Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs. None of those guys finished college either.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I was a
slacker
and stayed in school instead of making my millions,” Jeremy quipped.

Tiffani laid a hand on his shoulder. “There still time, dear.”

I almost breathed a sigh of relief that the topic had strayed to one of Tiffani’s favorite subjects—until she turned her laser focus back on me. “So, Michaela, how about it? You should go for Lucas. He drives a Beemer.”

“Oh for God’s sake,” I sighed.

“I’ll make sure and introduce you when we get there. I think he’d be perfect for you.”

“How do you know? You barely know him,” Jeremy said.

She shrugged. “I know enough. He’s cute. He’s established. He’s single and Michaela is adorable. They’d be cute together. They’re both blond.”

“Ah, love match by hair coloring. Perfect,” Jeremy said.

“Shush, you. What the heck do guys know about it, anyway?” Tiffani was saying, but I could only meet Jeremy’s intense gaze in the rearview mirror. I swallowed, trying to ignore that tingly feeling I got whenever I stared into his beautiful eyes. He seemed to want to communicate something to me without speaking. I shrugged and shook my head to indicate I had no idea what he wanted. He blew out a breath and rolled his eyes. Hey, it wasn’t my fault his girlfriend was getting on his nerves! She was getting on my nerves, too.

Chapter Two
Jeremy

As usual, Tiff grabbed her personal bag and hightailed it up the stairs to the cabin we had rented for the weekend, indicating that she would “supervise” the food supply. She left Mic and me to unpack the cases of beer, groceries, and gifts from the back of the car.

And Mic, as usual, had rolled up her sleeves and dug in, hopping up the stairs two at a time, her bright blonde ponytail swinging behind her. I followed, trying to ignore how amazing her ass looked in those faded jeans and the curve of her body under her sweater. I swallowed, forced myself to look away and ignore it. I’d been good at doing this for the past year. Why stop now?

She was on her third trip and the car was almost empty, so I turned before shutting the back hatch on my SUV. “For what it’s worth, I think it’s a bad idea.”

Mic turned to me, one six-pack gripped in each hand, her pale blue eyes focused on mine. I looked away, suddenly uncomfortable.

“What’s a bad idea? Beer?”

I rolled my eyes. “No. Lucas.”

She cocked her head at me. “Lucas is a bad idea?”

I shifted my stance, adjusting the keg resting easily on my shoulder. “You know what I mean.”

She narrowed her gaze and cocked her chin at me. “No, I’m quite sure I have no idea what you mean. Is he a criminal or something?”

I shook my head. “I just mean that he’s not the guy for you. You—”

But her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, so you are making calls on my love life now, too? You’ve been hanging around your girlfriend too long.”

“Mic—don’t be like that. It’s just…I don’t think that you two would be a good fit.”

She threw me a toothy grin and pivoted to walk away before turning and throwing over her shoulder, “And you would know all about that, wouldn’t you…considering what a
great
fit you and Tiffani are.”

I winced. She hung around us a lot. She knew exactly how much the two of us argued. I fell into step next to her on the path back to the house. “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right.”

“Apology accepted,” she said between stiff lips. “As long as you drop the subject.”

“Okay. How about I buy you a beer to make it up to you?”

She shot me a sidelong glance. “Brought my own. Thanks!”

“Mic, wait,” I said on the doorstep before we went through the doorway.

She hesitated and turned to me. “What?”

“I just mean…I just meant that I don’t think he’s good enough for you.” My throat closed up. There was so much more I wanted to say. In fact, I didn’t think
any
guy was good enough for her. And the thought of her hooking up again with someone like Sean or just anyone… I clenched my jaw and fought the frustration of that thought.

Her mouth tightened. “Okay. That’s nice. But maybe you should leave me to find that out for myself? Maybe,”—she glanced away and coughed—“maybe that’s something we
all
have to figure out for ourselves, ya know?” Then she caught my gaze again and her beautiful baby blues were so intense that I gulped.

“Yeah…yeah maybe…”

We held that stare for a while longer and something sizzled between us. Or at least it did on my part. I had tried to avoid looking her in the eyes lately for exactly that reason.

I was suddenly reminded of when we were kids, playing on the same block. Growing up, I was friends with her big brother. Michaela had been, at various times, the nuisance who tagged along when his mom insisted. Or sometimes, she’d been the interesting playmate—when we’d permitted ourselves to reluctantly admit it. She and I had reunited when I’d finished college and came down to OC to work at Draco. I didn’t live far from where she attended UCI. By the time we’d reconnected, however, she’d been in a relationship with her boyfriend and was roommates with Tiffani.

For the past year, we’d hung out regularly. At the beginning, I would have tried to muster the courage to ask Mic out. But she’d had a boyfriend then. Eventually, I’d asked out Tiff instead and she’d said no…a lot. Until one day she gave in and we just kind of fell into a relationship.