Even Odds by Elia Winters

vendors.”
    Isabel had a hard time believing his excuse. “Haven’t you been here before?”
    â€œYeah, but I never opened.” He unzipped his hoodie and tossed it behind the black curtain at the back of their booth where they were hiding the storage boxes. Like her, he was wearing his PI Games polo shirt and looked more professional than usual. He even wore khaki pants instead of his traditional old jeans. He brushed his red hair out of his eyes and looked around the booth, making sure everything was in place. “How was your night?”
    She glanced at him, and sure enough, his lips were twitching in an attempt to hide a smile. So much for keeping things confidential. Well, at least it wasn’t Lloyd. Best to just bite the proverbial bullet, as it were. “I guess Matthew told you why I left the party early?”
    Dan nodded. “He had to. I went looking for you when I met the Wingdings game designer. I knew you’d want to meet her, but I couldn’t find you, and then Matthew told me you’d already left.” Dan opened his water bottle and took a swig, then shrugged. “Based on Matthew’s count, it looks like you and Lloyd are neck and neck for the win.”
    Isabel didn’t have time to ask more about Lloyd’s progress—and was sort of glad she didn’t—before people started to trickle by the booth, and she moved into convention mode. The next hour flew by: although Friday wasn’t the biggest day of DiceCon, the crowds were steady, and Isabel and Dan were both busy showing Squish to everyone who stopped long enough to play. Every positive response and email newsletter signup was a boost of confidence, since she’d been the design manager for Squish and its predecessor, Bump.
    â€œLooks like things are pretty busy for you today,” a familiar voice said nearby.
    Isabel looked up from where she was opening a second bag of buttons and saw Caleb in that hideous neon shirt. Her stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch as the events of the previous night came flooding back to her.
    Best to remain professional. She looked over at Dan, who was showing the game to a young man on one of the display iPads. “Hey. Yeah, we’ve been doing well. Got a lot of signups, and we sold a few shirts.” She gestured to the three-by-three grid he’d helped assemble the night before, which already felt like a week ago. So much had happened since he’d rescued her from Ikea hell. “I see you’re going back to the glories of glow-in-the-dark yellow.”
    â€œLiving the dream.” He looked down at his shirt, then up at their banner. “PI Games. I’ve heard of you folks.”
    â€œOh yeah?” Isabel identified something unsettled in Caleb’s tone. “You don’t sound happy about it. You hate our games or something?”
    â€œWhat? No. I love your games. I’ve played most of them.”
    â€œReally?” Surprising, since their company wasn’t that big. “I didn’t think many people had heard of us.”
    â€œI like puzzle games.” Caleb picked up a button from the basket and turned it over in his hand. The button depicted the player avatar from Bump and Squish , a plucky hero with spiked hair and disproportionately large hands and feet, doing battle with one of the game’s monsters. “Your games are never just shooting or dungeon crawling. They always have puzzles to solve, and I appreciate that.” He attached the button to his lanyard.
    â€œSo what’s your day look like today?” There, that was polite, vague chatter, right? It wasn’t like she was asking to see him again.
    â€œI’ve got this gig until noon, and then I’m going to hide this shirt and hit the big booths before the crowds tomorrow. Then I might take a nap before dinner and the tournament tonight. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.” His eyes twinkled with his own joke,