Dating Dr. Dil (If Shakespeare was an Auntie #1)(51)

He looked at his backpack, and then back at her. “You know how I’m a gamer, right? I build video games? That was in my profile.”

“Yes, I do remember seeing that.”

“Well, in one of the . . . er, games that I play, colors often represent personality. If you had told me that your favorite color was green, I would’ve thought that you were open and welcoming as a person. If you told me that your favorite color was white, then I would’ve assumed that you were pretentious and shallow.”

“Oh! Like The Great Gatsby.”

It was his turn to look confused. “Excuse me?”

“Color is symbolic in The Great Gatsby. I was an English major. I had to read The Great Gatsby. Hated the book. However, I loved that white meant shallow and pretentiousness.”

Rahul raised an eyebrow. His face lit up. “That’s so interesting how white means the same thing in the game. Okay, cool. Well, you chose black, and with black . . . well, it represents a life drain.”

“Like vampires? Into the dark of the night kind of thing? I read Dracula, too.”

He grinned. “Yes! Exactly like vampires.”

Kareena knew that when she’d first read about Rahul’s interest in gaming, she judged pretty hard. But hearing him talk about what he loved was relatable. She had interests she could go on and on about for hours. Like her car, or redoing kitchen cabinets.

Their server delivered their drinks, then left with a “Call me if you need me.”

“Tell me more about the gaming,” Kareena said after taking a sip of her drink.

His eyebrows nearly reached his hairline. “Yeah? Huh. That’s pretty cool of you.”

“It’s early yet,” she said with a laugh. “Why do you like it?”

“I was picked on in school, you know? But gaming gave me a place where I felt safe.”

She nodded. She could understand that. She found her people on the debate team. “Your color code thing was interesting. What game is that from?”

“Ah . . .” He ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s from Magic: The Gathering, which is usually a four-player game. I play Commander.”

“What do you do?”

“The cards and the colors that I mentioned? Each colored card has a purpose and a theme.”

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

“We haven’t even gotten into Dungeons and Dragons. I can go on and on about that. I’m one of the best dungeon masters on the East Coast.”

She could not stop smiling. “Wait, wait. Isn’t that the board game the hot actors in Hollywood started playing?”

“Kareena,” Rahul said with a sigh. “I never thought you’d be one of those people. They aren’t even that good!”

Kareena laughed at the dismayed expression on his face. “What? I’m just asking. The board game you’re talking about is like Harry Potter, right?”

“Oh my god, you poor child. You have no idea, do you?” Rahul asked. “Harry Potter is for children. It’s only a small portion of mythological possibilities. In Dungeons and Dragons, you can literally be any sort of creature.”

Kareena took another slurp from her drink as she tried to make sense of his game references. “I’d still be a witch because Practical Magic is one of my favorite movies. Or a vampire.”

“Please don’t say it,” Rahul said, covering his face with his hands.

“Because of Twilight!”

“You are a horrible human,” he said.

He looked so miserable, but there was also humor in his face. Kareena had to admit that this had to be one of the better dates she’d been on. She motioned to his open backpack at his side that was filled with gaming paraphernalia. “Do you bring that on every Indian marriage dot-com outing in case you meet someone who is as interested in gaming as you?”

“No, not really,” he said. His cheeks deepened in color. “I sort of assumed this date wasn’t going to go well, so I double-booked a Dungeons and Dragons game with a few people who came in from L.A. They’re at a friend’s house, and I was going to join them after drinks with you. My dice and cards are pretty valuable so I couldn’t leave them in the car, which is why . . . well, I’m sorry about that.”

Kareena knew exactly why he’d done it, but for the first time, she was sad to see a date end early. “Don’t apologize. Since gaming means that much to you, I’m totally okay with calling it an early night.”

There was a beat of silence. Rahul looked at his watch, and then back at her. “I don’t want to sound creepy, but I have an idea if you’re really interested in learning more about Dungeons and Dragons.”

Kareena cringed. Whenever someone started off a sentence like that, it was usually because they were about to say something creepy. “What is it?”

“Would you be interested in coming to play a game with us? There will be a few women there. The guy who is hosting the event is married, so it’s not like a bunch of dudes. You can be a witch character. I can drive you there and drop you home whenever you want. The only caveat is that the friends from L.A. are pretty high-profile, so you have to swear no social media or anything like that.”

Kareena was . . . intrigued. She weighed her options, then looked at the rest of her drink. What the hell? As long as she was safe, right? Social media wasn’t an issue for her anyway, since her viral video made it impossible to have an online presence right now.