"Thanks for the game, guys," I said to my kinky D&D group. "I'm muting my notifications and going to bed." I gave them a smile and began to pack up my dice. The video call was still connected, as it was customary for us to wait for our DM, Jake, to disconnect first, just in case he had any last-minute additions to the evening's events and we needed to take notes.
Jake looked off camera and nodded. "Yeah, good game all. Catch ya later." He disconnected from the voice chat, leaving me alone with Jill, Leon, and Chris.
"Claire, don't forget that we have that interview at city hall in the morning," Jill reminded me "10 AM, don't be late. You're always late." she added in a mutter as Leon laughed.
I pursed my lips and tilted my head. "It's not like the Mayor is going anywhere. He needs us, not the other way around."
Chris perked up at that, his dice clinked on the table as he leaned closer to his camera, a skeptical arch to his brow. "The mayor needs you? For what?"
"PR, dear brother. Stop being overprotective. He's made some bad choices and publicity has been awful."
He waved and clicked the call off. Right, he wasn't actually interested in anything that wasn't along the lines of "Jill and I are gonna take turns blowing and riding him until we get a city contract."
Leon interrupted me with that devilish grin of his. "You mean people actually care when you shut down a program to feed the hungry? Who knew!"
"Err... that's not what he needs PR for. This is a different issue. He's installed these 'standing' benches in the parks that people can lean against instead of a place to sit."
"Motherfucker has no soul, does he? Why are you two helping him? He's a piece of shit." Leon was not shy about sharing his feelings on such subjects.
Jill responded before I could. "We need clients, Leo. Unless you have some wealthy benefactors up your sleeve then Claire and I will have to take one for the team in order to keep this business afloat."
I rolled my eyes as Leon pursed his lips. Always the do-gooder with a chip on his shoulder when it came to social expectations. "Relax, Leon. It's just a meeting to see if we want to take on the case. I honestly don't know if we can spin this and I'm not going to take on an unsalvageable situation just for some money. Sorry Jill."
Jill shrugged, "Tomorrow's a new day, maybe you'll change your mind. 10 AM, don't be late!" She disconnected - three down, one to go.
I leaned forward and smiled at Leon. "We could hang around a bit to see if my overbearing twin pops back in."
He laughed. "Why do you play so hard into that? You aren't selling anyone on you being siblings, let alone twins."
I grinned. "Come on, we have the same birthday and share the first names of the most iconic sibling duo in gaming history. How do I not play into that?"
"And he's as dark as you are light."
"Are you suggesting we cosplay as Cloak and Dagger?"
He sighed. "I would pay to see that. He's like two feet taller than you and outweighs you by at least a hundred and fifty pounds."
"One-seventy and two point four five feet taller than me. We checked. He's nearly three times my size and he's all solid-packed muscle."
"How did we become friends?" He asked in a flat, dry tone.
"We're friends strictly because of your name. I've spent years trying to collect the perfect set. We just need an Albert we can all hate--preferably a very rich one with a mild drug addiction."
"Seriously, how did we become friends?" He was smiling, though he was trying not to.
"You were friends with Chris, he introduced us, we hit it off better than expected."
His lips quirked again. "I recall you calling me multiple times after our game sessions."
"Accidentally! I was trying to hang up, not do a private call with some random guy I just met."
"Right. Accidentally, but multiple times." He leaned forward and playfully lifted his eyebrows. "If you wanted to hook up, you could've just said so."
I glared, but it quickly softened as his smug grin faded. "You have work in the morning, yeah?"
He nodded.
"Alright, goodnight then!" I said before clicking to cut off the call.
He had a habit of sticking around and chatting until the early hours of the morning if I let him. Sometimes a quick goodnight then hanging up was the only way to ensure our conversation didn't spiral into an hours-long debate on the meaning of a single word. Fun as I found those, we both needed sleep. I shut off my monitor and speakers then started getting ready for bed.