Now, he and Levi were working on the newest—The World. It was an alternate-reality type of game where you could choose the path in history for your countries, and the game would alter itself and the levels and classes for your characters based on the “historical” timeline. It was tricky to figure out, mechanics-wise, but Magnus loved a challenge.
He handed his keys to Levi as they left Buchanan Manor. “You didn’t drink, right?”
“My night to be sober,” his younger brother said. Normally he’d bitch and moan about the fact that he didn’t get to drink at a party, but tonight, he was strangely quiet. In fact, he was smiling.
Magnus frowned at Levi. “You feeling okay?”
To his surprise, Levi turned to him and threw an arm around Magnus’s shoulders. “What did you think of her?”
“Who?”
“The sister. The one who works with the cats.”
The ice queen who had sat next to Magnus all night? “She’s cute enough, I guess. Might want to remove that Popsicle out of her ass first, though.”
Levi looked confused. “You didn’t think she was warm and gracious?”
“Fuck no. I mean, I get that she was cute, but damn, man, she was being stone cold the entire night. Didn’t talk to anyone.”
“Are we . . . talking about the same girl? Bianca?”
Who the hell was Bianca? Magnus had to think back, and he vaguely remembered a girl with big brown eyes, pale blonde hair, and a coquettish, tiny smile that he’d instantly found cloying, the same way he found most perfumes cloying. “Oh. That one. She’s a cat lady, too?”
Levi laughed, the sound giddy. “She works with the cat lady. Something about her leg being bad, so Bianca helps take care of her. She’s so selfless.”
“Great,” Magnus said flatly. “Good for her.”
“No, bro, you don’t understand,” Levi said, moving in front of Magnus and putting his hands out in front of him. Okay, apparently Levi wanted to stop and have a conversation in the goddamn driveway.
Magnus glared at his dramatic younger brother. “What don’t I understand?”
Levi just grinned and clasped Magnus on the shoulders. “I’m in love.”
Oh, here we fucking go again.
Though only a year and a half separated Levi and Magnus, they were completely different, personality-wise. Magnus was the workhorse. If the best way to figure out something was to throw himself at it for sixteen hours a day, then that was what he’d do. Levi, however, was a dreamer. He was the one with his head in the clouds, who slept until noon, and didn’t hit a single fucking deadline that Magnus set for him.
But when Levi came up with an idea, it was a fucking game changer. It was why Magnus put up with him despite carrying the majority of their “partnership” on his back.
The most annoying thing about Levi’s dreaminess, though, was his ability to fall in love at the drop of a hat. Levi fell in love like some girls changed hair colors. Today, it was Bianca. In two weeks, it’d be Clarice, or the barista at the coffee shop with the cute nose ring. Or it’d be a fan who ran into him at a party and decided to show her gaming appreciation by kissing him in a dark corner all night.
Levi was easy to impress, and he loved ladies.
Magnus, well, Magnus worked.
Levi also fell out of love as quickly as he fell in love, so most of the time it worked out for the best. Levi would be impossible for a few days, and then he’d inevitably get his heart broken—Levi also had a pattern of falling for unattainable girls. He’d mope over his lost love for a few days, and then he’d get back to work with a new passion for creation, and things would move along once more.
Which was why Magnus just rolled his eyes as he got into the passenger side of the Maserati. Let Levi fall in love. He’d be done with what’s-her-name in a few days and ready to get back to work.
And Magnus? Well, Magnus would just continue doing what he did. He’d wake up at six A.M., put in his sixteen hours, and keep on going. Because that was the only way to get anything done in their business. And hey, their business arrangement was a bit unorthodox, but it worked for them. And that was all that mattered, right?
***
Three days later, Magnus went and knocked on the door to Levi’s suite. “It’s fucking two in the afternoon, bro. Are you ever coming out of there?”
Impatient, he waited a few minutes, tapping his foot. When there was no answer from within the room, he lifted his hand to give another impatient knock—
And Levi opened the door, a sullen light in his normally happy eyes, his sandy blond hair a mess. “What do you want?” he said in a subdued voice.
“I want you to work on The World with me? You know, mapping out the AI of the Huns? Remember that part?”
Levi’s mouth pulled down in a sad frown. “I can’t work when my heart is broken.”
Magnus groaned. “Fuck. Not this again. Still stuck on this girl? She’s just a pretty face. Let it go.”
“She’s not just a pretty face,” Levi protested. “She’s Bianca.”
As if that explained it all.
“Is she coming to map out the AI for the Huns for me, then?” Magnus asked, and Levi gave him a dirty look.
“You don’t understand.”
“I sure don’t—”
“Bianca loves me, too, but there’s a problem.”
“Of course there is.” Because there was always a problem when Levi fell in love. “This one married, too?”
He gave Magnus an insulted glare. “Of course not. Bianca would be completely devoted to any man she was married to.”
“Sure she would,” Magnus said, letting the sarcasm drip through his voice. Levi was such a dreamer when it came to women, unlike Magnus, who was a die-hard cynic. He knew how relationships with women went. They’d date a little, things would get a little more exclusive, and the next thing Magnus knew, he was having to check in if he wanted to scratch his ass and finding her toothbrush tucked next to his. Women didn’t believe in “casual.” They believed in first dates and then showed up with a bag of their things so they could lay claim on you. And that was not for him. He liked being able to do his own thing, and he sure didn’t like answering to anyone. The moment a woman started to get clingy, Magnus shut things down. He had Levi in his life, and trying to get his brother’s head out of his ass was a full-time relationship as it was.
“You just don’t understand,” Levi said in a mournful voice. He raked a hand through his messy hair and then retreated back into his room. “I need her.”
“Need her? For what?” He followed his brother into his room, amazed at how Levi managed to trash a two-thousand-square-foot room in the space of a few days. “You need to pull your shit together, man. And look at this pigsty. That’s unfair to the staff for you to be such a pig.” Just because they were rich now, Magnus hadn’t forgotten what it was like to pick up after himself. Levi, on the other hand . . .
Levi turned and flopped onto his back on his big bed. “Like I said, I need her.”
“For fucking what? Is she going to pitch in with the new project? Because I fucking need you to help me with this new IP.”
“She’s my muse. I can’t work without her.”
His muse? Fucking seriously? Magnus began picking up some of the laundry strewn all over the floor of his brother’s room and tossing it onto the bed—and onto Levi. “Fine. I give up. You’re clearly not going to work until you get this newest girl out of your head. So go fuck off and see her or something. Forget all about deadlines or anything. Jesus.”
“That’s just it,” Levi said in a mournful voice. He didn’t even move a muscle when Magnus tossed an old towel on him. “I can’t see her. She won’t leave her sister’s side.”