I began prepping the plates , placing the beef Wellingtons on a plate along with the roasted vegetables and pouring the gravy into two individual gravy boats.
"So..... this is a date ???" Jade asked playfully.
"Of course not.... this is just.... two acquaintances meeting again after a long time..." I replied.
I began setting the countertop she was sitting at, setting the wine glasses to the sides, placing a serrated stake knife and fork upfront of her.
"Ohhh we gonna eat here?" She asked a little surprised.
"Yeah the dining table is a bit large, besides this way it'd be easier and more cosy." I replied to her smiling before walking to get the gravy boats.
"So what is it that you do to afford such a nice place?" She asked me curiously.
"Ummm well it's kind of unusual I generally just Game and recently started writing web novels. I replied grabbing the gravy boat then the food.
"Hmmm you're right that is pretty different." She nodded in agreement.
"Should we Toast?" I asked awkwardly.
"Sure, to what?" she asked smiling.
"Ummmm.... To a great night?" I said nervously.
"Too a great night!!!" She cheered clinking our glasses with a giant smile.
"So explain to me what you do exactly?" She asked curiously as she began cutting into her dinner.
"Well, generally I just stream gaming and people watch me and we interact and hang out over the internet, and in my spare time I try and write web novels but it gets hard with everything that goes on." I answered her as I began digging into my dinner.
Silence followed for a few seconds, making me look up to her. Her eyes wide opened staring at me chewing her food slowly. "I hope it's okay" I asked slightly worried at her reaction.
"Its soooo good!" she said in shock.
"Thank you." I smiled in return.
"Where did you learn to cook?" She asked.
"Nowhere special, just internet and cooking for myself." I replied, "So what do you do? I heard you went to study bio medicine when you left college but that was it." I asked trying to keep the conversation going.
"Yeah I went to UCL to study biomedicine then I went onto neuroscience, how about you?" she replied.
"I didn't do too well during college sadly so I went to Greenwich to study Accounting, but I didn't really feel like I would do well in a 9-6 office job, so I decided to do stuff online which luckily worked out well for me." I answered smiling slowly eating my dinner.
"Really? I distinctly remember you was one of the smartest in our classes if I remember correctly" she asked completely surprised.
"I dunno, I always felt I understood everything but during the exams the results just didn't match up….." I laughed.
"So….. Tell me more about this thing you do…." She smiled in interest.
"Umm well.... Generally I'm just a online gamer that streams gaming content, and people watch and chill out watching me, and they kinda subscribe to my content or donate money and that's the gist of how I make a living." I replied hesitantly, not many people still kinda get the concept of watching someone else play games.
She looked at me slightly confused still at the whole explanation, "So people watch you play games and you make a living off it?" she asked bewildered.
"Yeah.... It's like how people pay money to watch other people play football, except in my situation I interact with my watchers and fans tell jokes, stories and try and be funny." I tried to explain it better to her.
"Ohhh interesting" she replied slightly confused but agreeing, "so how much do you make with this then?" she asked curiously.
"I mean it's all based on how active I am and how many people like to watch me and stuff but right now don't be shocked... but it's around £30,000 a month, not including some youtube stuff I also do…." I replied hesitantly.
She stopped eating and look at me directly into my eyes in shock, "are you telling me…. You make more then what most people make in a year, in one month playing games!" she asked.
"Ummm…. Yeah….. it's not that simple, it takes a lot of time and effort as well …" I replied.
"That is insane!" she said still shocked at the news.
"Yah its only because my viewers and fans are so generous to be honest….." I added.
"How about your web novels? I heard you mentioned them earlier" She asked politely.
"Hmm well I only do that in my spare time, surprisingly enough it takes a lot more time and effort then I first expected, but at the moment I don't earn anything from that, I'm not popular yet and I kinda only do it because I wanted to tell a story." I answered her, "how about you?... what's neuroscience like? So pretty cool" I asked politely.
"It's…. so...so…" she replies recuperating herself and began finishing up the rest of her dinner.
"Really?.. To be honest I find science one of the most fascinating things, space especially." I added smiling.
"It's boring stuff really, I just sit in a lab researching on brain stuff." She said quietly looking down playing with some of her left over veg.
"Ohh you're finished….. how do you feel about dessert?" I asked trying to change the conversation.
"You make dessert as well?" she asked in shock.
"Well I could, but I didn't know what you liked or disliked so I played it safe and bought ice-cream from the super market." I laughed.
"Cookie dough?" she asked excitedly.
"No way that's my favorite as well!" I replied.
Standing up I walked to the freezer to retrieve the ice cream, 'hmmm all the different flavored ice-creams I raided my lock super market for was kinda wasted...' Picking up the cookie dough and retrieving two spoons from my draw, I motioned her to follow me into the other room.
She began trying to clean up the plates, "You don't need to do that, I'll do it later." I said and she began to hesitantly stop and follow me into the other room.
I took a seat on the sofa first, she also took a seat beside me but leaving a decent gap between up, "hope you don't mind sharing… would means less washing up for me." I suggested with a cheeky smile.
"Not at all" she replied smiling.
"So wanna watch a movie or something?" I asked.
"Sure" she asked.
Switching on the TV I opened my digital collection of TV shows and movies, "Take a pick, I'm okay with watching anything" I smiled passing her the remote, "I'll grab the wine glasses." I added. Swiftly getting up I made my way to the kitchen counter, in the process also picking up my phone, accessing my phone apps I turned down the thermostat temperature by 5 degrees. Putting my phone down and grabbing the two fresh wine glasses and the bottle of wine I made my way back to her. "Picked anything yet?" I asked politely placing the glasses and wine on the table and taking a seat.
"There's just too much to pick from." She replied flicking through my seemingly endless collection of shows and movies.
"Hmmm.... You know what …. Let's just get to know each other more." Taking the control and switching off the TV. "So.... Hmmm…. What hobbies do you have?" I asked curiously.
"Hmmmm outside the Lab, I just tend to hang out with friends….. Ohh I love eating and trying new places.... And I love exploring, I love mountain climbing, I also helped in charities in other countries." She replied.
I nodded in interest, "that sounds pretty amazing, all I ever do is go gym in the morning come home write a little then gaming sleep and repeat, sometimes I chill out with my mate Jay if he has spare time. Pretty dull to be honest." I admitted.
"You don't have many friends?" she asked concerned.
"Yeah….. not really… I have a few others but generally all pretty busy working and stuff, and well my peak streaming time is in the evening to early morning. I also lost a lot of friends because of a bad breakup I had and majority just betrayed me over time. So sadly I don't have many left." I explained.
"Bad break up?" She questioned.
"Yeah….. I broke up with a now Ex-Girlfriend, and I guess they preferred being friends with her…. Doesn't help that I'm kinda weird and anti-social as well." I answered
"Ohhh no…. that's so bad... Well you can now add a new friend in your list now." She smiled.
The ice-cream now soft enough to scoop I began with the first spoonful. "To be honest I've been so lucky with that I do for a living, I get to do something I thoroughly enjoy and earning enough to live off of." I said.
"Yeah...… Even I thought its a bit crazy how much you earn while playing games, it's pretty insane that's even possible." She said and began digging into the ice cream.
"Ha do u even remember how much I loved to game back in college?" I reminisced.
"Yeah you was a proper nerd, I remember you used to collect things and you was either on the school computers playing games or in your Gameboy crew killing Mario kart." She laughed remembering.
"Ohhh god…. You remembered all that?!…. To be honest i'm still the same." I laughed.
"Yeah but who would have thought that shy nerdy boy would come out to be some popular online star earning tons of money." She joked.
"I know right…. Crazy….." I replied, I could feel the room getting distinctly colder.
"Is it me or it feels a lot colder here." She questioned.
"Must be the ice-cream, ill get you a blanket." I hurriedly got up jogging towards a cupboard and taking out a small blanket. Handing it over to her to help warm her up I retook my seat.
She began covering herself with the blanket and looked towards my direction. "Come closer we can share the blanket, you must be cold as well" she said.
"Nah it's okay it's okay I'm not that cold." I replied.
"Nonsense" she insisted and scooched over to me leaning her back onto me, I naturally raised my arm allowing her to lean on my body.
"This is certainly more warmer." I added.