章 99: Eagle 1 Returns to the Nest
Gray and Verona drove back to Gray's base. They chatted about various subjects, nothing important really, although Verona did seem interested in how things were going with Yurika.
"We're seeing each other, I guess?" Gray said a little unsure.
"Well, you are or you are not, you need to be clear with her otherwise it will only hurt her!" Verona lectured Gray.
"It's not that... it has some complications." Gray said and he explained the circumstances around Yurika's forced marriage to Verona.
"That... is troublesome indeed." Verona thought for a minute. "Why her though?"
"That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out! She doesn't know him anywhere from the past and he isn't exactly keeping a close eye on her as far as I can tell!"
"Just kidnap her then and beat the guy up if he tries to take her back..."
Gray blinked twice as he stared at Verona, her beautiful face had an evil grin on it causing Gray to pause as he never expected her to suggest that.
Verona laughed at Gray's expression and said "I'm kidding! Seriously though, I'll see what I can find out about this guy for you. Yurika is a wonderful woman, although a bit immature, but that is part of her charm sometimes."
Gray said cheekily, "Does that mean you find yourself attracted to her as well?"
Verona playfully slapped Gray "Not that way, pervert! I mean I'm drawn to her personality, she's open, loud, and full of life. A lot of the things that I used to be before..." Verona let her voice trail off and didn't complete her thought.
"Before what?" Gray asked.
"I'll see how today goes... I don't really know you well enough to share that yet, but I do feel that I can trust you so just be patient."
Gray felt it must be something fairly heavy if Verona wasn't willing to share yet and let it go as if it was never brought up. "So, what do you know of Alterra Corporation?"
"Not that much... I was once asked to pick up some documents from their research division and got a peek at it, but I was trying to fend off this weird researcher that was drinking Dr. Pepper because he kept flirting with me and calling me Verona-chan."
Gray stifled a laugh picturing Ginro flirting with Verona while she had the same expression of disdain he can recall from when he was still working with her at his old programming job. "Yeah, that's Ginro for you, he's actually not that bad once you get past that part of him."
"How do you get past that part?"
"Might have to knock him out." Gray said bluntly.
Verona laughed melodiously and Gray smiled at her. "Hey, your laugh used to be... well... super annoying, what happened?"
"Nothing happened, it just seems that even when I don't pay attention to it my laugh is still normal in the game."
Gray was super relieved to hear this because he still had at least 4 hours total left with her in the truck since he had to drop her back off later, and if that terrifyingly obnoxious laugh came out even once he would have to pull the truck over after hearing it each time.
"That's good! So my next question... why can't you rent a truck?"
Verona sighed and said "Carly, Beth, and I thought that since this was a game, the trucks were free to use for players, so we each took one and drove like maniacs towards New Venice. Beth ended up wrecking hers though, when I smashed in to her truck. That was also one reason why I had Gene take me home since it was cramped in their with 3 people. Long story short, we found out you had to pay to use them and since we only brought one of the three back, we were suspended from even renting a truck for a month."
"You told me you only stole one truck."
"...and that's all they could prove since we only showed up in one truck at New Venice and returned to Laguna Base with one truck. Did you know Carly is one hell of a driver I must say!"
Gray shook his head, his perfect image of Verona was slowly faltering in his head, and honestly he thought she was better this way anyways. "I'm just glad you're alright! Bullhorn is a bit brave and she can get very reckless!"
"Who is bullhorn?"
"Carly! She didn't tell you?"
"No, she seemed a little loud to me, but not in a bad way. She was actually very sweet... and talked about you a lot, at least she did before the mixer."
Gray felt a small pang of sadness at this, but realized it was for the better since the longer she let her infatuation continue, the more it would've hurt her. "She earned that nickname from being the battle cry before the start of large battles in other online games, at least that is what she says. Spoon says it was because she got drunk at a party, put on a viking helmet, and stabbed somebody with one of the horns when she charged at them."
"Ok, Spoon? Who thinks of these names?"
Gray sighed and said "I didn't make that one up! You probably know him as Jim, but he claims he got that name for being a master of spooning. Of course the sad truth is that he got it because of an accident that involved him smashing his own teeth in and damaging his jaw while he was running with a spoon in his mouth."
"Oh! He's that tall muscular guy with glasses that follows Carly around timidly, right?"
Gray had to stop and think because Spoon had changed his physical proportions dramatically for the game. "Yeah, he was a bit pear-shaped before, Ok more like pumpkin shaped. Now I guess he thinks he has a better chance with Carly if he becomes tall and muscular. I do kinda miss his lisp though."
"Well, when you log off you can see him in his normal appearance. Speaking of which, when DO you log off? I have never seen you or anyone on your team say they're going to log off ever."
"I don't log off hardly ever I admit, this is now my job so I've become more comfortable here."
Gray couldn't lie to Verona, but he had to be careful not to reveal anything.
"Yeah, I kinda figured it was something like that. You seem more confident here... I find it very attractive." Verona put her hand on Gray's thigh after she said this.
Gray swerved the truck slightly in surprise and Verona took her hand back and laughed.
"I'm sorry, I know you're happy with Yurika, I just wanted to mess with you!"
Gray had to hunch over slightly now while driving and tried not to look at Verona next to him.
"What's wrong, Gray? I'm sorry! I didn't think that would offend you!" Verona said anxiously.
"You didn't offend me or upset me at all, honest! Something just suddenly came up and I have to look away from you for a minute."
Verona tilted her head not understanding quite what Gray meant, then a light bulb seemed to turn on in her head and she smiled as her face turned a little red.
"Glad to see I still can charm you even with all of these beautiful younger girls around you."
"Age has nothing to do with it, and you're only 4 years older than me, I actually had a huge crush on you when we worked in the same building."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because all of us guys did, even some of the women probably too! I figured that you were constantly hounded all of the time by us so it would be better to just let you be."
Verona laughed "Yeah, I hated it. The more egotistical men would try to show off or flaunt themselves in front of me, some would even tease me by doing holding something just out of reach from me then force me to step closer to grab it. That only happened twice though because the second time someone did it I stepped on his toes with my heel."
"I know... it must've been awful being the office goddess!" Gray said jokingly.
"Honestly it was... If it weren't for some of the other women being friendly with me, I would've been all alone at work. You were actually one of the more popular guys we talked about sometimes."
Gray opened his mouth in surprise "Me?!?"
"Yes you! Your body could use a little maintenance, the way you dressed was disastrous, and you mumbled sometimes, but you have a good looking face, were always polite to everyone, held doors open for people, and were good to talk to when we caught you in a talkative mood."
"Wait... so I could've been the office god?!?" Gray said with stars in his eyes.
"Pffft... don't get ahead of yourself, you weren't rich enough nor attractive enough."
"Well, us guys turned you into the office goddess, did you turn one of us into the office god?"
"Nope, bunch of bums you all were! Actually the only one that could turn us all into naive teenagers again was the young heir of Alterra Corporation, Stephen Seegall... early 30s, gorgeous, rich, and never a scandal against him despite the throngs of women that chased him."
Gray tuned her out when she started describing the guy but his attention focused back 100 percent when she said the name 'Stephen Seegall'. "I thought Stephen Seegall was in his 50s if not older..."
"Well, if he is he hides it well! Maybe you're thinking about his father?"
Gray lost himself in thought for a bit, he felt that he had finally grasped a clue about this Stephen Seegall that is engaged to Yurika and that he had somewhere to go with it.
"Could you find out everything you can about that Stephen Seegall? It may just be the one you're talking about is possibly a Stephen Seegall Junior, but I feel like this could be something..."
Gray let his mind wander and only came back to his senses when Verona said that they're at Gray's base. Gray thought "Time to see how the girls did!" and he messaged Yurika that he was back with Verona.
__________
Yurika perked up when she saw the message from Gray, then stood up at attention and saluted General Stacia "Reporting ma'am! Eagle 1 has returned to the nest with the package!"
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