Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 130255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
I didn’t have the patience for a broken toe.
“You might have gotten away with that,” Max said, peering over my shoulder. “Doesn’t look to be bruising. You’re lucky.”
“Makes a change,” I muttered, setting the peas on the sofa next to me. “I’ll give it a few more minutes before I decide for certain.”
His head bobbed with a gentle nod, then he paused, leaning towards my laptop. “Is that The Sims?”
Uh-oh.
I licked my lips. “It’s therapeutic.”
He adjusted the screen and frowned. “Is that… me?”
“Sir, you have a terrible habit of looking at things that are none of your business on my laptop.” I scooped it up from the table and set it on my lap once again. “But as it happens, yes. That is you.”
“Why do you have a sim of me?”
“So I can do this.” I brought up the cheats menu and used a mod I had installed to change the weather to winter.
A snowstorm, to be exact.
Within a few seconds, there was a thick blanket of snow on the ground, and I instructed Max Sim to get into the pool to go for a swim.
“What are you—” Max slid off the arm of the sofa to sit right next to me with his arm resting over the back of the cushions. “I’m going to freeze in there!”
“I know.” I pressed play and watched as the little pixelated version of him dove into the pool, then paused it again and deleted the ladder.
“Oh, come on.”
I went into the build mode and got the wall tool. I bit my lower lip as I drew a room around the pool, making it so that Max Sim was well and truly encased in the pool with no route of escape.
This was diabolical.
I loved it.
“I’m going to die!” He pointed at the screen.
“I know.” I hit play a little too happily. “Why else would one put a sim in a pool in a snowstorm and build a room around it?”
He slowly turned his face in my direction. “I think I’m a little scared of you.”
“Probably a good idea to be. Ooh, look! You’re dying!”
“Ellie!”
“Grim’s here! Look. No, I’m going to plead for his soul, you silly thing. Oh, great, there’s Nina bloody Caliente crying. She doesn’t even know you! Why is it always her and Nancy Landgraab everywhere?”
Max blinked at me.
“Ah-ha! There. Now you’re dead.” The ‘game over’ screen popped up, and I turned to grin at him. “That was fun.”
He moved his head a few times, flicking his attention between me and the screen. “I can’t believe you just killed me in a game.”
“I was annoyed with you. I needed to get rid of that emotion in a healthy manner.”
“And killing me on The Sims is what you chose?”
“Well, killing you in real life would be a lot messier and get me arrested.” I shrugged and went to start a new game.
“No.” He plucked the laptop off my legs.
“Hey!”
“You’re not murdering me again.”
“That’s rude.”
He put it on the coffee table out of my reach and grabbed my ankle. “No bruising. You’ve gotten away with it.”
I pulled my foot from his grip and tentatively put it on the floor. Yup—my toe was a smidge achy, but there was none of the stabbing pains that were associated with a broken bone.
“Excellent. Shall we go and find Winston?” I shuffled to the edge of the sofa, but Max was faster than me and put his arm out to stop me.
“Absolutely not.”
I tapped his forearm. “Move this.”
“No.”
“Yes.” I raised both my hands and went to shove it out of the way, but he was stronger than me, and he pushed against my hands, trapping me back against the sofa. “This is unlawful imprisonment.”
“You just committed pixelated murder. You’ll survive.”
“Unlike your pixelated twin.”
“Touché,” he replied. “But you’re still not going anywhere.”
“This is extremely rude.”
“Ellie, you’ve just created me in a game for the sole purpose of drowning me in a snowstorm—”
“To be fair, the snowstorm wasn’t part of the original plan. That’s why there was a room with just a cooker in it. I was going to burn you if you didn’t drown.”
“—And you’ve narrowly escaped breaking your toe. I’m not sure you should be unleashing your particular brand of chaos on the world today.”
My jaw dropped. “My particular brand of chaos? I take offense at that.”
“I also have a guest, and I’d prefer you not terrify him.”
“Oh, him, huh?” I raised my eyebrows, smirking slightly at him. “Is that the real reason you don’t want to get married?”
Max stared flatly at me. “Really? Didn’t you already bark up the wrong tree with that with Penny?”
“I’m just saying it would be an interesting plot twist.”
“I’m not in your novel, Ellie.”
“Wait, didn’t you insist the hero was based upon you?” I challenged. “Based on your previous logic, you absolutely are.”