He stopped his pacing so suddenly I thought he might fall over. He looked down at the floor, fiddling with his palm. “I did.”

Oh? Well, that was interesting. “What did she say?” God, was I so desperate to hear about her that I was interrogating my hostile cousin to give up anything he knew? I was pathetic.

He cleared his throat. “She said it wasn’t because of you that she wasn’t coming. But I know she’s lying.”

Liam finally shuffled over to the chair in front of me and slumped into it. “She just seemed so sad lately and tired. You’re her boyfriend. You’re supposed to make her happy.”

My jaw tightened as I fought off the bitter reply that jumped to the fore. I would make her happy, if she’d let me.

“I think going to medical school is what’s going to make her happy at this point,” I said, the words surprising even myself. My chest tightened and it was hard to breathe at that thought. I was almost certain that she was using our breakup as the excuse to accept the spot at Hopkins.

And my hands were completely tied when it came to finding a way to manipulate her to keep her here. I studied Liam’s bowed head for a moment. But…I wasn’t the only one who cared about her staying here. Her friends were all here. Liam, Alex, Jenna, Heath. And so was her mom. If I alone wasn’t a strong enough reason, maybe all of us combined would be.

I rubbed at the stubble on my jaw with the back of my fingers, mulling this over. It wasn’t like the intellectual puzzles I used to spend hours on when I was a kid. This was life. It was messy and it wasn’t logical. And since I was—most of the time—a very logical thinker, I knew this was far beyond my scope. The wheels started turning.

I turned back to Liam. “Hey, remember how you keep bugging me to start my D and D campaign up again?”

He blinked at me, clearly annoyed. Liam hated when anyone changed subjects without any warning. Even when it was a subject he would like. “What—what?” he asked.

“Sorry. I was just thinking that maybe we could all get together for a game. Mia’s friend Jenna has been wanting to get people together for a Dungeons and Dragons game for a while. I figure she might not mind if I run the game as DM and she could play a character. So could you and the others.”

He shook his head. “What does this have to do with Mia?”

“Well, they could invite her, too.” And it would be a great excuse to see her now that there was no other avenue for me to do it.

“But she’s never played. She likes computer games.”

I shrugged. “We’ll invite Heath, too, and they can all browbeat her into going.”

“Beat her?”

“Idiom,” I said, giving the usual cue that he was used to. My cousin was a bright guy and incredibly talented, but he had trouble with figurative language. And sarcasm. He didn’t do sarcasm at all.

“Okay. I don’t want to beat her. I was going to say if you beat her maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to be around you.”

I grimaced. “Thanks, Liam.” She didn’t want to be around me. The words stung, but they were true. And right now she had a pretty good reason for that. I just hoped it wasn’t so strong a reason that she’d want to avoid all her other friends in order to avoid me.

***

Jenna was thrilled when I proposed to run a dungeon for her and her friends. She invited us over to her and Alex’s apartment in Fullerton. I might have offered my house, but figured it more likely that Emilia would show up at Alex’s place. We crowded into the typical college pad—me, Liam, Alex, Jenna. Heath texted saying he was going to be late.

Not long after arriving, Jenna informed me that Emilia had sent her a brief text the day before indicating that she wouldn’t be able to come. I tried to curb my visible disappointment at this news. I’d worked extra hard to design a fun adventure that, I thought, would be an enjoyable introduction for her to tabletop gaming. Was she really so pissed off that she’d blow off all of her friends just to avoid me?

As I thought about it and heard Jenna and Alex make a few subtle comments about Emilia’s absence, though, I began to suspect it wasn’t just me Emilia was avoiding. I could have questioned the two of them about what they thought was going on but the glimmer of another idea flickered into my brain instead. I’d try to be subtle and I’d get what I wanted by using my specialty—playing games. If I rolled my dice right, we’d all soon be banding together for the common cause of keeping her here.

Alex threw a stack of D & D manuals at us. “Aren’t we rolling dice to make our characters?” I asked.