Sasha gets Five Stars


This story is in progress.

The e-mail that Sasha had been anticipating for days had finally arrived.  With an outstretched finger poised over the mouse, she was dreading to find out what it would say.

She had plans this evening, though.  Better to get it over with and forget about it, right?

The e-mail was from the Marketing department, advising her that a number of reviewers had been sent an advance copy of the finished game.

Sasha groaned inwardly as she looked over the list of names.

A few of them had been very cautious in their assessments during the beta, and their opinions carried enough weight with the gaming community that the pre-orders were less than expected and a lot was now riding on a successful release.

She scanned further down the list of names.

Oh, shit.

Suddenly she needed a new plan for this evening.  She needed to have a discussion with Rosalyn which, if she was being honest, could end badly.  And timid previews were now the least of her worries.

She arrived at Rosalyn’s apartment a little earlier than they had planned, and nervously rang the doorbell.

It took what seemed like a minute for the door to open.

“Oh hi!” Rosalyn smiled and greeted her with an affectionate kiss, drawing her inside with both hands. “Sorry to make you wait, I was working.”

“Um, about work.  You do know that you’ve reviewing my game, right?”

Roslayn rolled her eyes and shrugged, as if it were no huge surprise.  “Sasha, your name is on the credits.  It’s sort of hard to miss.”

“Then-“

“Oh, come here, you big worrier.”  Rosalyn enfolded Sasha in a warm, reassuring hug.  “This isn’t going to come between us.”

“How do you know that it won’t?”

“Sasha, I’ve been playing since early this afternoon.  I am so blown away by how deep this game is, I had to download a copy to my computer here so I could continue where I left off.”

Sasha was relieved to hear that.  At the same time, the look in her girlfriend’s eyes gave her pause.  She knew that look.  This was going to be another hundred and twenty hours of trying to compete for attention.