Chapter 10 THE TEST

CHAPTER TEN

THE TEST

THE DANCE FLOOR, THE BRAVES CLUB, 7PM.

Blinking repeatedly, Robin answered while stammering, "What, what do you mean by fall in love with you? You're not my type and I don't even remember agreeing to be your date, okay,"

"Okay, so will you be my date for tonight and may I have this dance?" Andrew asked with a sincere smile and his right hand stretched out.

"Sure, Mr. Andrew Alexander Grey," she answered with a smile and placed her hand in his.

Leading her to the dance floor, Andrew ignored the gasps of shock coming from the crowd.

All he could see was Robin in her beautiful short black dress with her red hair catching all the lights and flaming like fire over her shoulders.

He stared into her ocean eyes as they took their place in the middle of the dance floor. Sounds of photographs being taken was heard in the entire room, but that was none of his concern, his entire attention was on the beauty before him.

"I'm really nervous I've never waltzed in public or attended this sort of events before and I don't know what to do, I'm saying sorry in advance so I don't embarrass you, the only time I've ever done this was with my brother when no one else was watching," Robin said in a single breath, looking into his eyes.

"You don't have to be nervous, just follow my steps and you'll be fine, okay," he said to which she nodded.

The waltz started in a slow 1-2-3 beat. Drawing Robin closer to himself, with his right hand on her waist and his left hand in her right hand. Placing her left hand on his right shoulder, he whispered in her ears, "Ocean eyes, just be calm I'll lead, you just have to follow my steps, take a deep breath and close your eyes. Imagine that there's just you and me in this room, okay."

With her nod, they both started the waltz. Andrew stepped forward with his left foot and Robin stepped backward with her right foot. He started the next move by taking a step forward again to the right with his right foot making a bit of an upside down "L" shape and she also moved her left foot back to the left which had him shifting his weight to his right foot without moving his left on the third beat, he slid his left foot over to his right, making both of them stand with their feet facing each other.

On the fourth beat of the waltz, he stepped back in another step with his right foot which had Robin stepping forward with her left.

On the fifth beat of the music, being a fast learner, Robin had already got the hang of it and he stepped back once again to the left with his left foot, while shifting his weight to his left foot.

Finally at the sixth beat of the waltz, Andrew slid his right foot forward until both their feet were facing each other once again. Smiling, they both repeated their steps and kept waltzing until the music stopped. She felt so perfect and light in his arms, just like they had waltzed together before.

Looking around after hearing claps from their audience, they realized that everyone had stopped waltzing and had their eyes on them, the whole time.

"That was awesome right, no one would believe you hadn't done this before, what do you think?" Andrew asked, smiling.

"Yeah, it was indeed great, but I think I need some air and I'd like to leave. Thanks for teaching me to waltz, but I really have to go."

"So you wanna be like the modern Cinderella right? After getting me under your spell, you're just gonna run off? But ocean eyes, I gotta remind you it's only 9pm and it's still far from midnight," Andrew whispered in her ears which had her feeling all weird on the inside.

"You don't mean that and I'm no modern Cinderella, it's just I have an early lecture tomorrow morning and I also need to go visit Jack before that, so obviously I have to go to bed early," Robin answered while moving out of his arms.

"Come with me, I want to show you something," Andrew replied while leading her out of the party.

They walked past the photographers, paparazzi and party guests, past the doors and finally left the party venue.

Pressing the first floor button on the elevator, Andrew said, "This place I'm taking you to is somewhere, no one else, except the guys has been to. You're supposed to count yourself very lucky to go there."

"I don't remember asking you to bring me with you. I'm not like the other girls whom you get with those cheesy lines. I'm sure with your reputation with girls, you must have brought a bunch of them here, telling them the same thing, I'm no fool you know?"

"Believe me," he replied just as they got to the first floor. The walls were painted in grey and black with several paintings and pictures of game characters.

There was a very large gold framed picture of him, Evans, Joe and Miller, where he had a brilliant smile with his hands on a Evans shoulders while Joe and Miller squatted in front of them with big smiles on their faces. They all seemed very happy in the picture.

There were others which had him smiling at the camera with awards in his hands and also many awards won by The Braves on shelves.

"Wow, The Braves has won so many awards! There's like fifty of them here," she exclaimed, while looking at him.

"Yeah, it's actually more than that, but I still want to take this club to higher places. Do you know why I brought you here?"

"Certainly not to take advantage of me, why?" Robin answered with a cheeky smile.

"No, it's definitely not, I'm not that sort of person. I think you're the one who's likely to do that, I mean I'm super handsome and successful, a nice catch if you ask me," Andrew answered while coming closer.

"Oh please, you think too highly of yourself. So if that's not the reason, then why did you bring me here?"

"I just agreed for you to join our club, but definitely not without a test so you are here to play several games with me first. I need to see how capable you are and evaluate your abilities," he answered as he typed in a code which opened a door and revealed a room with a white background.

State of the art computers and gaming consoles were arranged according to their make. Gaming controllers, Play Stations and Xboxes were all in there and lots of other devices.

Scanning the room, she spotted the latest Play Station and exclaimed while tracing the devices, "Oh my God, you have this too? This is so awesome, my brother had to save up a lot before we got the first edition,"

"Yeah, there are lots of them here, I'll have PS5 before the end of the year, as soon as it's out. I've been playing games ever since I could remember. My father has always had whatever I wanted at my fingertips, probably to make up for the time he never spent with me," he said with the last part in a muffled tone.

"What did you say? I'm so stoked to be here," Robin asked as she took a seat with the controller of the PS4 in her hands.

"Nothing, so we'll start with the first game I made, it's pretty simple. It's called Temple Fighters and don't make fun of the title, I was only ten when I made it, okay,"

"Ten, you're really a genius Andrew. At that age I only knew how to play with dolls all day," Robin replied, laughing.

Laughing along with her, he quickly gave her the basic instructions on the game. Picking their avatars, they started playing.

It was a two player fighting game, where each player had three lives and after playing for about a minute, Andrew won round one if the game. During round two, Robin emerged winner and finally in the last round he won again.

"I must say you're a fast learner, I like that. I really don't like losers around me and having you win in the second round, proves that you're quite skilled, but that's not all on the assessment list, you will have to play a virtual football match with me and also create a game for children which you have to submit to our platform before Monday, next week. So are you up for it?"

"Yes, I am, but I've got a question for you."

"What is it?"

"Do you personally take care of assessing every Braver, I mean there's like a hundred members in the club, or am I just a special case?"

"Yeah, you're special because of how pretty you are," he replied with a flirtatious smile and wink.

"Be serious okay? How come you're not talking about Jenna Lincoln. The reason for you guys breaking up has been cleared today, so why are you here with me instead of her? I want the truth," she asked with a serious look and putting the controller down.

"Let's play first, then I'll tell you," he said, passing the controller to her.

"Let me warn you beforehand, I'm really good at football, both virtual and real football. So you better get ready for some ass whipping."

"Let the scores speak for itself. I always win and this time will be no different." Andrew replied.