Thirty Years

Deal

Three Years Later. . . 

"Good evening Miss Sharp, now what do we have on the news today?"

"It is a good evening Mr. Goodhue. Today, I am pleased to tell you that we will be covering the recent breakthrough in the field of virtual reality."

"We all know The Loft. Food, clothing, furniture--you name it and they'll have it. Just recently, The Loft released a something new. Now virtual reality has been in the market for quite some time now, but it has never been see like this before. This new program, called "Lofts" allows users to essential live double lives. One in the real world, and one in the world of Lofts. There, you can work to earn money to--you guessed it--buy goods through The Loft. What's even more unique about Lofts is that users get customized recommendations based off of their recent searches."

"Wow, now I feel like I should start playing this game!"

"Already at the top of the game charts, Lofts's growth does not look like it is going to stop anything soon. This is Stacey Sharp on CC News. Stay tuned for more updates on Lofts next week."

Click, with the wave of her hand Via turned off her television. 

It had been a month since they had released Lofts and the game was quickly gaining popularity. 

For now, Leo had given her "as much time off as she wanted" after seeing the success of Lofts. 

With no deadlines or stresses for the first time in perhaps both her lifetimes, Via decided go for a walk. 

. . . 

"What would it take for me to get this to work?" For the first time in his life, Alecai felt helpless. 

After he quit working for his father, he went from company to company, getting rejected. Knowing that his results were most likely his father's doing, Alecai took on freelance jobs. However, he learned that freelance jobs were not enough to fund his outreach program. James quit soon after him. But unlike Alecai, James quickly landed a job as the head manager at Chloe, a world renowned restaurant that quickly grew to fame after opening in their city a few years earlier. 

James stared at his friend. 

"You could call up your girlfriend? You have seen her on the news right?"

"Yes but Via is busy. . . and she's not my girlfriend." 

At any other time, James would have laughed at the hopeless look on his normally serious friend's face, but he kept his expression serious out of pity for his friend. 

"She'll come around eventually. Maybe now is the time to ask her since she just finished one project?"

"I don't know and I don't want to burden her with my problems."

"I don't think she'll think of you as a burden. And wouldn't you do the same for her?" Alecai looked at his friend in realization. If Via came to him for help, despite his current circumstances, he would have given everything to help her. 

In the last three years, Via split her time between spending time with Alecai and working on Lofts. However, as the deadline for releasing Lofts, approached, she could spend less and less time with him. 

Although Alecai was not aware of the change taking place with him, James noticed that his friends became more expressive, less burdened and essentially look free these days. 

However, Alecai's unrequited love really was too tragic!

After that one night three years ago, something in Alecai shifted as Via wrapped her arms around him. Perhaps it was that fact that this girl, cruel as her words were, genuinely wanted to help him, and no one else except James had before. After that night, he got her contact information. Eventually the two became close friends and visited each other almost daily. 

I need a break.

Alecai strode out of the flat he shared with James without a word. Even with all that had changed, he still did things abruptly without explanation. James could only shake his head at his friend. 

. . . 

"Via."

Via turned her attention away from the flowers she was looking at.

"Cai, come here and look at these." She motioned for him to come over. 

Over the last three years, this garden had become a common meeting place for the pair. And while he mostly enjoyed the smell of the flowers because they resembled the fragrance Via had (not that he would ever admit that), Alecai listened to Via talk about the beauty of the flowers attentively.  

"Via---" Via looked up to see Alecai leaning over her with a strange expression on his face.

"What?" She wrapped her arms around him. Even after knowing each other for so long, Via always looked at Alecai for approval before she did anything with him. However, he always gave her that same, sweet smile and nodded as he did now. 

"I need your help."

Via's expression turned serious and she pulled away from Alecai, missing the disappointed expression on his face.

"With your outreach program?" She always knew what was on his mind before even he did. 

"I'm already on it." Via pulled up her phone, which she had personally customized to be linked to Lofts, and pulled up his program profile. 

Alecai watched her scroll through the information. He wrapped his arm around her waist after she unconsciously laid her head on his shoulder. 

"Your website looks pretty good, you must have a good programmer." He chuckled. That "good programmer" was herself as she often begged him to let her help him with Sprout (which was what she insisted on calling the outreach program). 

"If it's funding you need, that's an easy problem to fix." Alecai straightened up and turned to her. 

"I don't want to take the money you earned."

Via sighed, taking his larger hands in hers, she ran her fingers over his knuckles. She looked up to see him watching her. Although he was dressed well in a knit black sweater and light fitted jeans, she could tell that the man was not doing as well as he seemed to be. For one thing, his eyes had dark circles under them from the many sleepless nights he spend doing freelance work when Sprout was about to fall into bankruptcy. 

While Alecai clearly wasn't in need of personal money, under his father's control, he was unable to transfer any of his inheritance to Sprouts. And since his main job was as the head of his family company, Alecai couldn't use any of those funds either, in fear of his father taking action against Sprouts once he heard of his son's actions. Thus, Alecai was really in a position he had never been in before. 

Seeing his current state, Via couldn't help but hurt for the man sitting next to her.

"You need to take care of yourself Cai. I earned that money with my hard work and so I'll be the one to decide where it goes." 

Alecai looked at her helplessly and seeing her smile in approval at him, wrapped her in his arms , laying his head on his shoulder. 

"Where would I be without you?" 

"I don't know where you would be but I do know that you'd probably still be a stiff."

At her words, he chuckled, the low sound making her heart thump. 

No Via, he is too important to you. You must not have those thoughts. 

Gently untangling herself from him, Via stood to face him. 

"I'll make you a deal, I'll need one favor from you in exchange for my helping Sprout grow." 

"Just one?" Alecai hid his hurt expression at her stepping away from him.

"Yes."

"Alright."

With that, the two of them walked back to their separate homes. 

But before he took another step, Alecai stood at the part of the path that split up into two directions and watched as Via walked away from him.