Chapter 83 - Crashing the Mixer

MAJOR VALEN?!?

Gray, Yurika, and Stacia were still reeling from the shock as all 3 of them could hardly believe what they were seeing.

Gray thought about it rationally for a second though and whispered "How old is Major Valen anyways? And what is his first name anyways?"

All 3 of them were drawing a blank as Major Valen never addressed them with his first name nor did he ever reveal his age. Given his looks, it was assumed Major Valen was at the very least 40 Gray assumed. Due to the three girls not panicking, it is safe to assume that none of them have met Major Valen before and that Geoff's surprise was caused by him not knowing that Major Valen would be coming.

The dim lighting and other patrons were preventing Gray from getting a good look at the other 2 girls, but with 3 girls and 2 guys, Gray assumed they were short a guy. Gray, Yurika, and Stacia felt a little bad after they noticed the tense atmosphere of the 5… well, at least Geoff and Major Valen looked tense. Beth looked a little nervous but the other 2 girls looked a little annoyed by Geoff and Major Valen.

Beth suddenly received a call and whatever she was hearing was making her look a little dejected as she hung up the call and then whispered to the two girls next to her, they then started to get up as if they were about to leave.

Gray looked at Stacia and Yurika and said "I do this for the team!"

Before Stacia and Yurika could figure out what Gray meant, he had walked over to the table with Geoff, Major Valen, Beth, and the 2 other girls and said loudly "Sorry I'm late! I wasn't sure if I was going to make it in time!"

Gray finally got a good look at the 2 girls that were with Beth and Gray's jaw would've probably hit the table if he hadn't mentally prepared himself before for a surprise. It was Carly and Verona!

Beth, Geoff and Major Valen looked at Gray with a look of confusion as they were not expecting to see him at all, Carly and Verona looked very surprised as well but with slightly different expressions. Carly had a surprised expression similar to that of a predator that came across defenseless prey while Verona looked surprised as if seeing an old friend unexpectedly.

"Gray! You snaggle-toothed monkey! I didn't know you were coming! I would've worn something a little sexier for you!" Carly said happily.

Gray felt fear momentarily after hearing this, but luckily Verona interrupted Carly and said "Gray, it is good to see you again!"

"Verona! I'm surprised to see you with Carly and Beth!" Gray said happy to see someone a bit more normal than Carly while sitting down next to Major Valen and across from Verona.

"We met at Alterra Corporation, they put me in charge of the GameGo buyout so we met at the office a lot and seeing as Beth and Carly are the only 2 girls my age I couldn't help but make friends with them."

"Your age? Didn't you tell me you were" Gray started to say before he felt a foot swiftly kick him in the shin, forcing him to fight back tears as he continued "not interested in dating people our age, which is a fairly young age."

Everyone had heard the sound of Verona's foot being kicked out as it had made a sound like it was cutting through the wind before striking Gray's shin. Geoff and even Major Valen winced slightly picturing how Gray's shin was probably shattered into a few hundred pieces or so.

Verona let out slightly haughty laugh as if nothing happened and said "I'm not terribly picky, but age aside I just want to find a man that knows what he wants and is honest with me."

"That sounds like… not a lot of men…" Gray said sheepishly.

"Indeed, I had been hit on so much at our old job that I was sick of all men."

Both Carly and Beth nodded their heads in agreement, being two of the few female employees at the former GameGo meant they were hit on a lot, especially Beth. Carly was a little too intimidating for the average person so she wasn't hit on as much.

"I never hit on you if I recall…"

Verona smiled and said "I know, you never did, but I was still waiting for it, so I apologize for being a little mean to you at times."

Gray laughed and said "Don't worry about it, that place is gone now anyways, right? It's not like it was real_"

This time Major Valen kicked Gray and probably shattered his other shin into a thousand pieces. Unlike Verona's kick, Major Valen's kick was like a fart… silent but deadly.

A single tear formed and went down Gray's cheek.

Verona looked concerned for a moment and asked Gray "Are you ok?"

"J-Just remembering some good times at the office." Gray said shakily, he might need help walking back to the truck later.

Verona looked at Gray curiously as she couldn't recall any good times Gray had that she was aware of, but she let it go as she really didn't pay attention much to Gray while they were in the same office.

Gray then received a private message and saw it was from Stacia so he opened it quietly through his armlet. "I can't hold her back much longer!"

Gray glanced back where he left Yurika and Stacia and saw Stacia desperately trying to hold Yurika back and the people around them giving her odd looks as she was genuinely trying to break free from Stacia's grasp.

Gray wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, but he would rather not experiment right now as he didn't want to ruin Geoff's and Major Valen's night even more.

Gray turned and was about to address Major Valen when he noticed the latter slightly shaking his head. Gray interpreted this as he shouldn't reveal that he knew him or maybe that he was Gray and Geoff's superior, either way, Gray decided to take a neutral route and instead said "Sorry, I didn't mean to leave you two out of this, I'm familiar with Geoff, but might I ask who you are, sir?"

"Sir?" The girls all said simultaneously looking at Gray.

"Uhhh, yeah, sir as in dude, or bro, or something like that. I don't know him at all so I was trying to be polite." Gray was starting to sweat a little as he was pretty sure Major Valen was clutching a clipboard and would strike when the girls left.

Major Valen smiled amiably, which neither Gray nor Geoff had ever seen before so it creeped them out a little, and said "No problem, I am Gene, Gene Valen." And Major Valen reached out to shake Gray's hand.

Gray tensed his hand waiting for it to be crushed so he squeezed Major Valen's hand as hard as he could as well. Surprisingly Major Valen didn't crush Gray's hand, but also realized that Major Valen didn't even try.

"Nice to meet you, Gene, I am Gray."

"Like wise…"

"Sooo… ummm, I've never been to one of these so what do we do exactly?" Gray asked sheepishly.

"The way I look at there is nothing left to do! Verona, trade seats with me! Gene looks more like your type anyways!" Carly said excitedly.

"Oh? What is my type Carly?"

Carly whispered something in Verona's ears and it caused Verona to blush momentarily, then ask "How do you know about that?"

"Intuition… plus we talked about it earlier."

Gray really wanted to know what Carly whispered to Verona, but he was also smart enough to know not to ask.

Verona shot Gray a glance before shrugging and standing up and trading seats with Carly.

For the first time ever, Gray saw Major Valen start to sweat a little bit when Verona sat in front of him. He seemed to be very interested in her compared to Carly, which seemed to suit Carly just fine as it was hard for two alpha males to get along in a pack. Gray knew Carly would be considered very cute, especially tonight when she was wearing an outfit that showed off her set of over-sized… platform shoes making her legs appear long and slim with the rest of her already perky appearance. The problem with Carly was her voice and personality. It just felt like a dude trapped in a girl's body most of the time.

"Listen Gray… I'll make this easy for you…" Carly reached out and grabbed Gray's wrist and pulled him close to whisper and said "Come back with me and we_"

Just as she was about to finish that sentence that was leaving Gray hanging on by a thread, everyone heard a crash followed by feet stomping. Gray received another private message from Stacia saying "I'm sorry I couldn't hold her back any longer!"

Gray could make out Yurika's teal twin tails bobbing up and down slightly and occasionally see her demonic gaze as she made her way towards the table where Gray and the others were at.