Wicked games. - clifford

o n e

July 9th, 2013

There I was, standing in the isles of the shop, placing merchandise on the shelves. Since it was Tuesday, there weren’t many customers. I always loved it when it was this calm at the shop because it gave me plenty of time to fill in the empty spaces and to clean up. Even though my boss was nice and fair, he did not really understand that sometimes, the shop got so crowded that we had no choice but to chose our priorities. So he did end up yelling at us when he was not satisfied with our work. Okay, we weren’t the best employees of all-time, but we were alright.

Matthew stood behind the counter, trying to flirt a young mom. She probably was not older than 35 and she was looking for games suitable for her son, who must have been about ten. That’s the deal with parents. Some of them are completely unconscious and buy their 9 years-old Grand Theft Auto, and the others are so scared to trust the labels and buy pre-school stuff. And well, Matthew, he just loved those moms. They were usually the typical strict, loving, and protective moms and practically begged for advices from a “videogame professional”. He saw that as an opportunity. Once, a “hot mamma” as he called them, gave him her number and since then, he set himself a goal to conquer them all. He was kind of a douche, but he was funny and he did know a lot about gaming.

As a teenage girl, the customers often judged me. They thought that, being a girl, I could not know what I was talking about. Like videogames were a guy-only thing that no girl had ever heard of. The short time that I had been working here convinced me that I was a feminist, because it got to my nerves when someone treated differently because of my gender and damn stereotypes. 

I stopped placing games on the shelves when I sensed someone standing behind me. I turned around and smiled to the tall guy with purple colored hair that stood in front of me.

 "Hi, can I help you?"

He looked at me with a genuine smile and scratched his neck before answering.

 "Yeah, I’m looking for Call of Duty: Black Ops II."

 "Oh sure, we have plenty. For which device?"

 "Playstation 3."

I nodded and smiled, making him a sign to follow me as I started walking.

"I don’t know about you, but I am so excited for the new one to come out in November. I played this one so much it’s a bit abusive." I said, handing him the game. I liked to have a conversation with the friendly customers. The guy was bout my age.

"Yeah same. I forgot it in a hotel room in New York City and I was so mad at myself." He laughed before continuing. "I just don’t have the strength to wait until November to get the new one. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m quite addicted to video games."

We continued talking for a bit. He told me about his love for Leagues of Legends. He said he sucked at it, but from what I could tell, he probably was really great at it. It was cute to see his eyes light up as he spoke, I could really tell he was truly passionate. It didn’t strike me as a nerdy thing since it was so common for me, working in the game industry. He paid for his game but for some reason, he stuck around.

"Hey, it might be weird but um, can I have your number?"

He asked, a little shyly. I mean, it’s true that it is a bit fast for asking since we didn’t talk much. He wasn’t really being flirty and I was not either, though. From the very little conversation we had, we did get along pretty well so I saw no harm in refusing.

"Uh, yeah sure. Hand me your phone I’ll write it."

He picked his Iphone from his pocket and gave it to me, a fresh “new contact” page. I entered my information and gave it back to him.