I came out of the VR haze in my apartment. It wasn’t big and it wasn’t shiny. But it belonged to one Kade Wilson - me. Grant Fuller is my VR alter ego. In real life I am a 34 year old ex-cop turned pro gamer, 5’9”, decently built although there is a layer of pizza hiding the six pack, dark brown hair, green eyes. Grant Fuller on the other hand is 6’2”, built like the love-child of Hercules and… Hercules with blond hair and blue eyes. We don’t look anything alike but my agent told me that this appearance sold better.

Over the course of my last eight years of gaming career I managed to buy a type-2 apartment on the 21st floor of an Irvine Company arc tower between Tacoma and Olympia. And my apartment reflected my mindset - pragmatic spartan. No frilly shit but all the cool toys.

I got out of my gaming immersion chair and started stretching. While the Deep Immersion Chair offered all kinds of goodies to the serious gamer, like continuous massage, position shifts to avoid pressure points, stress monitoring and even bio-sustain, there was nothing like a real good stretch after nearly 8 hours online.

Okay, stretch and shower. I made my way to the bathroom, jumped under the water and enjoyed the hot water jets on my skin for a moment. Good thing that type-2 apartments came with a daily shower allowance of 10 minutes.

By the time the water had died to a trickle I felt refreshed and I had decided that I go for a real-life beer instead of a virtual one. Yeah, with the n-links you could actually get buzzed. At least online. As soon as you logged out, the signals stopped and the nervous system recovered within 20-30 minutes. The benefit: No hangovers the next morning. But I was in a celebratory mood and decided that a hangover might just be the right thing to go with it.

15 minutes later I was dressed in black cotton pants and a white cotton button down. It was nearly 10 am and even in the Northwest summertime is warm. I added a pair of flip flops as I stepped out of the door.

In the express elevator I pressed the button for “Transit Pad” and the little box took me to the 5th floor where a hover Lyft was waiting for me. After a short discussion with the automatic system and about 10 minutes I exited at the Shamrock Tavern.

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I stepped in and was surrounded by fake Irish decoration and the smell of fake Irish food. I breathed in deeply. Yep, exactly what I needed now. After the glitz and pomp and super-realism of the VR it was good to get a dose of reality in your neighborhood dive bar.

“Kade - fooking - Wilson!” a high pitched and yet sexy voice exclaimed from my side in a fake Irish accent. Okay, maybe the voice wasn’t sexy but I knew the body of the bartender it belonged to. Sue me for remembering that voice begging me for another slap on her ass.

“Rach, love of my life, how’s things?”

“Ha, smooth talker! Don’t think you are going to get away that easy.” She scowled at me. Then her face turned all sweet innocence. “You can always make it up to me and take me downtown for a shopping trip.”

I suppressed the desire to roll my eyes. That’s how this whole thing with her got started. I had a win to celebrate and she was along for the ride. Sometime halfway through the celebration we ended up downtown on a shopping spree for her. That particular experience cost me nearly 15 grand.

“Let’s talk about that later. Right now I’ll have a beer and three Leprechaun tacos.

“You got it sexy! Out on the patio or at the bar?”

I hesitated for a moment but then made up my mind. “Patio. Let me see what sun does to my body.”

She snorted as she typed the order into her pad while I made my way to the patio. I flopped down in a sunlit corner, leaned back and closed my eyes for a moment savouring the feeling of sun and wind on my skin. I opened them again as a shadow fell over me.

I thought it would be Rachel with my beer but instead an angel hovered over me. I blinked a few times. Nope, still there.

The sun outlined a perfect body in a tight and expensive mini dress mixing classic chic with the perfect amount of sexy. Her head framed by a mane of curly blond hair, her lips full and ruby, her eyes green and piercing. I let my gaze wander, taking in the sights. Slender but toned legs, pumps the same color of her lips. If I would have tried to create my perfect woman, she would have looked a lot like her. To top it off, she held my beer in one hand and a tumbler of whiskey in the other.