✏️ Professional Baby

18. The Trip of a Lifetime

I didn't think I'd ever been so focused, although I didn't realise it at the time. I wasn't really thinking about anything more abstract than a grid of coloured blocks in front of me. There were four reds over at the left hand side, but every time I was close to matching them up with a column of blues, the big dice thing rotated and I was racing to clear away the flashing grey triangles, abandoning any hope at organisation until the immediate threat passed.

I was doing pretty well, I realised. But good things can't last forever, and before long the screen was filled with a pair of four-letter words. I let out the breath that I hadn't realised I had been holding, and leaned back from the arcade machine. This game was addictive; I'd been playing it for way longer than I had intended. My phone, perched on a little waist-high counter that ran around the edges of the room, had probably stopped recording long ago. I had kind of thought this game would be one that they didn't expect to be popular; hidden in an alcove a short way from the rest of the arcade, only seen by those who took a wrong turn on their way to the bathrooms. Still, it was a perfect place for me to take some selfie vids.

I picked up my phone, and looked over the footage. It wasn't me in the video; it was Genevieve. But I had to admit that I looked pretty good, focused entirely on the screen in front of me. I selected a ten second clip for one of her social media profiles; captioned it "Third place on the Polybius score board!", and sent it off to the Girlzz social media team to approve or edit. A part of me wondered what the fans would make of this. Was Genevieve a secret gamer girl, or into retro tech? Or was she just finding a way to pass time during a rare spell of inclement weather in some far-flung vacation spot? I suspected that third place on an arcade scoreboard would give her a reputation as someone with real skills, if anyone believed it. And to be honest, I was surprised. I'd never been that good at video games, and especially not the weird geometric ones like this. I'd only played it because it was out of the crowded areas, so I could play for long enough to get a couple of good pictures without risk of any bystanders recognising me.

Maybe that was why I'd done so well; the game cabinet was down a couple of corridors from the main part of the arcade, where you'd only see it if you took a wrong turn trying to find the bathroom. Which meant that almost nobody even knew this antiquated game was hidden away here. Few players would mean the high scores wouldn't necessarily be good, and I felt kind of disappointed by that. A part of me wanted to feel proud of actually being good at a game.

But then I glanced at the time on my phone, and realised that I'd been here a lot longer than I had expected. The game had kept on taunting me, begging me to play just one more time so that I could see how well I would do without whatever the last mistake had been. But I really needed to go now, because it was almost lunch time. And that meant that Alma's spa session would be finishing soon, and I needed to get back to the hotel room and change into my own clothes without her seeing me like this. I couldn't bear the thought of the girlfriend I loved the most finding out that I'd even contemplated something as humiliating as this.

As I hurried down the corridor, I hesitated. I wanted to dart into the restroom, so I could at least take the diaper off. I'd thought that I could take a couple of photos with the waistband showing as I played games; and then give the Girlzz people the decision of whether to crop it out or not. I'd planned to use the facilities while I was passing. But then, what if someone else was in there? I was dressed like a girl now, and that was bound to freak out any other guys. And it wasn't like there was a way to find out who was in there without actually poking my head in.

I took a deep breath, and walked past. I didn't have time to stop in any case. Sure, it would be less embarrassing if I wasn't wearing a diaper all the way home. But I didn't actually have any regular underwear for this look; not wanting to buy women's underwear had probably been the main reason behind me going out in the most discreet pull-up diaper from my collection today. And even if I were willing to go commando, taking it off would take time that I didn't have. I needed to be back at the hotel room at least a couple of minutes before Alma, and that meant I couldn't afford to delay. Once I was back there, I would run to the bathroom in any case, to ensure that I could get changed in privacy even if I was only two minutes ahead of my fiancée. Instead, I folded the waistband of the diaper down as I walked, and then pulled my skort up a little to cover it. That kept me from humiliation as I came close to the main part of the arcade, and then walked out onto the casino lobby. I was surrounded by noise, and there seemed to be people shouting everywhere, but at least there was nobody there who recognised me.