It had been days, and Aaron still hadn’t heard from Katie. He’d seen her avatar popping up online, but she hadn’t sent him any messages. He hadn’t tried to contact her since that last text he sent. The thumbs up had seemed pretty clear –Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

He had to fend off fans in-world who asked when she’d be co-hosting streams with him again. There were thousands of comments on the HyperLyfe blog, all asking for Catalina Celestina. The press had tried to paint her poorly, but the fans knew better. The day after the Game Hour segment, there were dozens of blogs posts online defending Katie Martinez, acknowledging her part in the history of Galaxus Games, and calling out the media for slut-shaming.

That last part made Aaron cringe. While he agreed that slut-shaming was bullshit, he figured Katie would’ve preferred no speculation about her private life at all.

“Oh my god,” Aiko whined as her purple bug avatar buzzed through the window of Aaron’s castle. “You and Katie are literally the most annoying people I know right now.”

“Aik, get out of here,” said Aaron. “I’ve got an interview in a few minutes, and I’m not interested in your relationship advice.”

“Got to have a relationship to get advice about it,” Aiko said with a sniff. “And you two fucked that up,” she mumbled.

“I can’t make her talk to me,” he said. “And if I can’t talk to her I can’t explain.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Aiko’s avatar hovered in his castle window, tiny hands on purple hips.

“I know she’s mad,” said Aaron. “But Jesus Christ, she told me herself not to let our personal relationship get in the way of running my business.”

“Riiiggghhht.” Aiko’s avatar morphed, changed into a life-like replica of her real life self, complete with irritated facial expression. “First, she told you that before you two had sex. When that happened, the limits changed, and you guys should’ve renegotiated.”

“Can’t do that without talking,” said Aaron.

“Two.” Aiko ignored him and held up two fingers. “When you bought ZumZum, you basically backed her into a corner.”

“What? How?”

“Well now, her opportunity to port out Celestia is gone.”

“No it’s not.”

“Okay, then if it’s still there, since EI owns ZumZum, the deal would go through you.”

“Well yeah.”

“And that doesn’t strike you as a development that could come off as controlling, manipulative, or at the very least high-handed?”

Aaron didn’t respond. An alert popped up on his display telling him it was time for his interview, but he dismissed it, telling his assistant to give him another minute.

“Okay,” he said after a moment. “I see your point. Especially considering her history with Galaxus, that had to be…unsettling. But again, I can’t make this right if she won’t even talk to me.”

“True, and when we talk to her we’re going to berate her as well.”

“We?”

* * *

Katie’s mom had shown up three days ago. She hadn’t needed Aiko’s call to know that her baby was hurting. Barbara Martinez knew when her girl was sick with more than just the flu. Poor thing was heartsick, and weary, and going to places in her head that she hadn’t visited since she’d been in that awful accident. Since that boy had nearly broken her.

After that accident, Barb had been wary when Katie began spending so much time in HyperLyfe. She’d worried it was unhealthy, a way to escape the real life. Then one evening she’d joined Katie in world, and Barbarella69 was born. She never looked back.

HyperLyfe had been a way for Barb to spend time with her daughter when they lived so far apart. It had expanded her social circle, which, as a widowed retiree, seemed to keep getting smaller in the real world. In HyperLyfe Barb had friends from all over the world, and her non-hearing status was never a barrier. A text-to-speech simulator Katie had bought for her let Barb type whatever she wanted, while her avatar spoke the words.

She kind of wished she had one of those gadgets right now. She’d been arguing with Katie for the last hour, and getting nowhere. When her stubborn daughter finally buried her head in her pillow, Barb stomped on the floor to get Katie’s attention.

“Not fair,” she signed when Katie lifted her head. “Don’t do that!”

“I’m sorry,” Katie signed back. “But I’m done talking about this, Mom. I’m not calling him.”

“You’re scared,” Barb signed. “All relationships have issues, give him a chance.”

“I’m done.” Katie’s lips moved and she held up her hands.

Barb lip-read the words, then threw her own hands up and huffed in frustration. “I’m making lunch,” she signed. “You must be feeling better if you can be this hard-headed.”

She saw the television turn on as she turned to leave the bedroom. Katie had been tuned into the Gaming Channel too much in her opinion, and here it was on again, a headline about HyperLyfe scrolling across the screen.

“Captions,” she signed, snapping her fingers at Katie. Lunch could wait.

* * *

Katie loved her Mom, but there was a reason they lived hours away from each other. There was a time, right after her accident that she’d been tempted to move back home, to just curl up into herself and let Mommy handle all the grown-up stuff. But thankfully while Barb was nurturing, she wasn’t the type to coddle, so Katie had stayed on her own and pulled herself back up by her virtual bootstraps. They saw each other frequently in HyperLyfe. And when Katie saw how much her mother enjoyed it, she’d offered her the job of social director for Celestia. They kept their real life relationship to themselves. It was simpler if Celestia residents didn’t know they were related in real life. And, for the most part, it had never caused any issues.

Until today. When Mom had decided that because she’d met Aaron Eldridge for five hot seconds in a video game, she knew he was a nice boy who deserved another chance.

Whatever.

Closing her eyes on her Mom had been incredibly rude. Nearly tantamount to walking out on her, but Katie had reached her limit on the Aaron topic and needed it to end. She turned on the captioning for Game Hour and winced when Aaron’s avatar appeared on the screen. He was dressed in his kilt, standing in front of a roaring fire in the massive stone great room of his Scottish castle.

He looked gorgeous.

“Great,” Katie groaned out loud. “Bring on the humiliation.”

Barb sat down next to her on the bed and pointed at the screen. “He’s so cute,” she signed, grinning widely.

Katie rolled her eyes.

She missed the interviewer’s first comment, but Aaron’s avatar laughed, so it must’ve been a joke. It was good to see him laughing, even if the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“So what’s all this drama been about, Aaron?” said the interviewer. “It’s been pretty crazy.”

“I’d definitely have to agree with that,” said Aaron, his avatar leaning against one side of the fireplace. “I never expected this project launch to take such a bizarre turn.”

“It really has.”

“Well, Stew, don’t sound so incredulous, your network has done a lot to help with that.”

“We just report the news,” said the reporter. “We don’t make it up.”

“Maybe not, but your network has been taking a point of view, a slant if you will, that hasn’t been fair, either to myself, my company, or private citizens.”

“Mr. Eldridge–”

“No it’s true.” Aaron held up his hands. “But we won’t dwell, and I acknowledge that I’ve made mistakes that certainly haven’t helped.”

“For example?”

“I let myself be baited. At that first press conference, I was baited into this month in VR thing to prove something that I’ve never believed needed to be proved anyway.”

“How so?”

“I don’t think any reasonable person really believes VR is an actual danger. Our sales have been phenomenal, we’ve got contracts with the military, corporations, and educational institutions all over the world that are anxious to implement VR. So, whatever hidden agendas have been lurking out there to discredit VR, I think they’ve already failed.”

“So you won’t be fulfilling your month in VR commitment?”

“No,” Aaron shook his head. “I didn’t say that. I’ll keep my promise.”

“Some would argue that you’ve already failed. The fact that you’ve been spotted in the real world.”

“The reporter had her point to prove, and I have mine.” Aaron’s avatar frowned. “She wanted to prove that VR led to addiction, that it was dangerous. I think the fact that I have taken time off, spent quality time in the real world with real people, proves that’s not the case. I trust the public to make up their own minds on that.”

“Well, about that time you’ve spent in the real world…” the reporter’s tone grew salacious. “Do you care to comment on any of that? Rumor is that you and Carly Carpenter–”

“Carly Carpenter and I haven’t been a couple for a long time now.”

“Oh? She says otherwise.”

“Stew, I like to think I’m a gentleman, and as such, I don’t enjoy calling her out like this but when she showed up in HyperLyfe and announced that we were back together, it was the first time I had heard from her in months.”

“So you’re assertion is that you are not back together?”

“No. We are not. It’s not just my assertion. It’s the truth.”

Aaron’s avatar looked tense and Katie tensed in sympathy. She glanced at her mother. Barb’s arms were crossed, and she raised an eyebrow at Katie in a look that said “See, give the guy a chance.”

“Are you seeing anyone right now?” asked the reporter.

There was a long pause, and Katie felt herself leaning involuntarily toward the screen.

“No,” Aaron said finally. “I’m not.”

“So the photos,” said the reporter. “The one alleged to be of you at Lux? That’s not you?”

“I’m a Lux investor. That’s common knowledge. The HL2 launch was there. I find it hilarious that anyone is scandalized of a photo of me in that building.”

“Well the allegation was that–”

“The allegation was that I was cheating on a girlfriend. I’ve just cleared that up. There was no girlfriend to cheat on. Period.”

“So you aren’t involved with Celestia creator Katie Martinez?”

Katie inhaled sharply and grabbed her Mom’s hand, while onscreen, Aaron’s avatar clenched its fists and shifted its weight.

“What I am…” Aaron said the words quietly, slowly, and his avatar turned its gaze directly into the camera. “Is anxious to get back to discussing the technology that is going to transform our world for the better, a cause that I’ve devoted my life to.”

“Yes but Mr. Eldridge, in the present, what our viewers want to know is, are you and Katie Martinez involved, and if so, what does that mean for the future of Celestia?”

“Nothing.” Aaron’s avatar sighed and shrugged its shoulders. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

His tone was flat, dismissive even, and Katie’s stomach lurched. Nothing? Doesn’t mean anything? What? Her? Her work? Or both?

The reporter tried to dig a little more but Aaron curtly deflected him, so the topic switched to the ZumZum acquisition. Aaron glossed over it, indicating that he was excited to be bringing on new talent but that he couldn’t discuss the details yet. The interview ended on a sour note and Katie turned off the television and turned to her Mother.

“See,” she signed. “He said it didn’t mean anything.”

Barb frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think that was his intent,” she signed. “He was talking to a reporter about his private life. He should be talking to you. Call him.”

Katie cut her hands through the air. “Enough,” she signed. “I’m ordering pizza. I’m starving.”

“Oh! Can we do it in HL?” Barb signed. “I want to do that Gino’s delivery like you and Aaron did. You said I could try out the rig-bay.”

Katie groaned and fell back against the bed.

* * *

Fucking reporter.

The guy was a dick who kept trying to steer the conversation to Katie and whether or not Aaron was banging her. It made him sick. He couldn’t wait until this month of bullshit was over.

Aaron looked around the bedroom of his castle and imagined Katie there with him. He pictured her everywhere, the image in his mind a mix of the real and the virtual. The real Katie, strapped to his digital bed, the real Katie, dressed in a tartan skirt and corset made of pixels, laughing as he chased her up the stairs. When had his virtual memories started to merge with reality?

It was partly the technology, he knew that. The S-suits and the rigs and the visors made sensory experience in the virtual world rival that of the physical.

But mostly, it was Katie.

He was in love with her.

She’d shared his passions with more enthusiasm then he’d ever expected possible. It was exhilarating and addictive.

He missed her like hell.

He sat on the edge of the master bed and closed his eyes, reliving their first night together in his imagination. Pizza, a movie on the highlands, sex in this bedroom.

Actually, his system was set up to record and store all his sessions. He could literally replay and relive these memories if he wanted to, unlike the real world ones. The second after the thought occurred to him he recognized how gross it was. It was a total invasion of the privacy of a woman who’d basically made it clear that she was done with him.

“Command,” he said out loud, doing what he had to, before lesser angels could change his mind. “Locate all personal archived scene files featuring avatar Catalina_Celestina.”

“Locating files.” A moment passed and the computer spoke again. “Files located. Waiting for instructions.”

“Command: delete files,” he said.

“Files deleted,” said the system voice, and Aaron felt like he’d been punched in the gut.

Fuck, this hurt.

An alert popped up in the corner of his display.

Catalina_Celestina was online.

Well she hadn’t unfriended him yet. Maybe that was something. Or maybe she was just too classy to kick a guy when he was down. He’d probably log in sometime next week and notice her name missing from the list. And that would be it.

* * *

After a few technical difficulties, Barbarella69 was strapped into Katie’s rig-bay, and happily bouncing around Celestia.

At first, they thought they were going to be foiled by the speech commands that activated the system. Katie made a mental note to point that oversight out to Aaron, then she remembered she wasn’t talking to him.

But Barb had suggested Katie simply ask Command about a deaf interface, and low and behold, when Barb put on the visor, a holographic keyboard showed up under her avatar’s hands. She also had the option to sign if she wished, and have her avatar speak the words aloud.

When Barb saw that option, she beamed, and signed to Katie still in the rig-bay with her.

“I knew I liked that boy.”

Katie groaned and exited the bay, heading for her laptop so she could log in the old way. It was strange that after only a few days using the immersive technology, she was already thinking of the HL experience on her laptop as archaic and slow.

Her mom better order that pizza fast and get the hell out of her rig-bay. Maybe there was something to this VR-addiction theory, because she was jonesing to get back in-world. A little voice in the back of her head suggested it was really Aaron she was jonesing for, but she stamped down on that emotion quick and logged in, flying her avatar high over Celestia City in search of her mother.

She found Barb at the top of her newest skyscraper, her nose pressed against the glass of the penthouse she’d built for Aaron.

Barb smiled when Katie swooped down and joined her on the terrace.

“If I speak to you,” said Katie, trying something out on hunch. “Do my words translate to sign?”

“Yes!” Barb’s avatar said, nodding with glee. “I get text but there’s an option to have it signed too. A little video pops up in the corner of my display.”

“Wow,” Katie said under her breath. “That’s pretty awesome.”

“What’s this?” Barb gestured to the giant picture windows that lined the terrace of the penthouse. “You going to offer furnished rentals now or what?”

“It’s just something I built for Aaron. I really don’t want to get into it.”

“For him? Doesn’t he have a castle?”

“Yes, but this is a replica of his real place.”

“Oh.” Barb’s avatar pursed her lips. “I don’t get it.”

“He just moved into a new apartment,” Katie explained quickly. “He hasn’t had time to furnish it, yet, and he’s spending all this time in VR. I can tell he’s exhausted and… I dunno, it was just a lark. I was sick and up late and couldn’t sleep and so I built his apartment, and then I furnished it. I was going to send it to him, thought it might be someplace he could relax while he’s obligated to be in here. It was a stupid idea and I’ll–”

“Send it.” Barb’s smile was soft, but firm. “It’s a beautiful gesture.”

“It’s weird.”

“Yeah.” Barb nodded. “It’s that too. But you guys are both weirdos. He’ll get it. Send it.”

“We’re not. I’m not….I mean it doesn’t really matter now. I haven’t changed my mind.”

“Sure.” Barbarella69 donned a pair of sleek silver wings and fluttered up into the air. “Whatever you say. Still send it. At the very least, it’s a lovely parting gift.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Good, now let’s go get that pizza. I’m starving.”