“Maybe,” I said cagily. He’d never said it back the night before, so I wasn’t about to make another grand declaration right then while surrounded by piles of cards and Jasper’s boss being in and out of the room. This thing between us was still relatively new. Fragile. I understood why he probably wasn’t ready to say the words, but that didn’t make having been the one to blurt it out easier.

Jasper, though, was not deterred. “You do.”

Neither wanting to start an argument nor to put myself out there again, I tried to dodge my way out of that line of conversation, busying myself with my own sorting. “What I’d really love is to find one of the cards.”

“Or anything of value,” Jasper agreed as he separated out still more scroll cards. Unless they were a few select rare types, scrolls in Odyssey were penny cards, something experienced players bought in stacks to flesh out their deck. They might make the game go, but they were too common to offer much value to collectors. In the past few hours, I’d received quite the education on the types of rares and what cards actually fetched a decent price. And we’d uncovered precious few of those in this lot.

“I lost to this card in Philly.” Jasper held up a card. “But it’s a cheap common. Worthless unless it’s in the right deck. I’ll leave Arthur a buck for it, but it’s sad that that’s the best card I’ve seen in hours.”

“See? Even you’re discouraged.”

“Jasper? Giving up?” Jasper’s boss, an ex-military guy named Arthur who reminded me of some of Bruno’s buddies, came into the room. He had that same sort of intimidating attitude as the special forces types I’d met, but he did seem to have a soft spot for Jasper. “He never quits.”

“Thanks.” Jasper offered him a weary smile.

“I’m heading out soon.” Absently shuffling a stack of cards, Arthur rolled his neck. “I’m not up to all-nighters anymore.”

“You’re not that old,” Jasper teased because Arthur wasn’t Professor Tuttle’s age by any means. “I’m pretty sure there are some mountain ranges with a few years on you.”

“Ha. Can you and your boyfriend lock up when you’re done? Triple-check the alarm.”

“Okay, boss. Will do.” Jasper glanced at me, clearly expecting some objection from me at the label. But it wasn’t inaccurate. At least I hoped it wasn’t. And ever since coming out to James and Luther, I’d felt strangely at peace. I wanted to be brave, like the singers in the revue the night before. To that end, I simply nodded and told the fluttering in my stomach to behave.