Free In Her Wildest Dreams by Farrah Rochon Page A

smile broke out across Dalton’s face.
    “This,” he said. He opened his briefcase and pulled out a small black box, no bigger than a deck of cards, with a tiny lens on one side of it. Using the attached USB cord, he connected it to the laptop, and then positioned the screen so that the webcam brought both him and Gavin into a small frame in the corner.
    Dalton clicked a couple of keys and a basketball court appeared on the screen with a computer-generated figure holding a basketball. The graphics were pretty elementary; Gavin was already running through a mental list of things he could add to spruce it up.
    “Okay, now stand,” Dalton said.
    Gavin gave him a reluctant look, but stood. Dalton typed a bit more, set the laptop on the coffee table, and then pulled his hands away. “Now, take a shot.”
    Gavin gave him a quizzical look. “What?”
    “You heard me.”
    He pretended to make a jump shot. The computer-generated figure mimicked his movements, but then, out of nowhere, another figure appeared and blocked his shot.
    “Whoa,” Gavin said. “What the hell was that?”
    Another small box popped up and two young men appeared. Their grins were huge. “Sorry for blocking your shot,” one of the men said.
    “Wait a minute? They’re playing against me?” Gavin asked. 
    Dalton nodded, his grin matching those of the MBA students. “Meet Michael Baker and Rashard Lambert,” Dalton said. “Guys, this is the former business partner I was telling you about. One of the best software engineers you will ever meet.”
    “Former software engineer,” Gavin automatically corrected him, though his mind was more on what he’d just seen on his computer than his current job title. “Get up,” he said to the guy on the screen. “Let me see how this works again?”
    The one that had been introduced as Michael stood, and he and Gavin went back and forth on the screen. After a solid ten minutes, Gavin had worked up a sweat. It felt as if he’d been on an actual basketball court, engaged in a heavy game of one-on-one.
    “Hey, Dalton, we’ve got a party to go to,” Michael said. “We’re still meeting in a few weeks, right?”
    “Yeah, I’ll see you guys later. Have fun,” Dalton said. “Don’t get drunk.”
    The guys both laughed, and then the small pop-up screen that held their video feed went black. Dalton turned to him, and said, “Impressive, right?”
    Gavin nodded as he reached for his beer. “I’ve got to give it to you,” he said. “This takes it to the next level. Incorporating live game play against another live opponent right into the program? You can have two best friends across the country keep up their weekly basketball game.”
    “Not just basketball. Tennis, ping pong, golf. Even bowling. We haven’t figured out a way to do football, but they’re working on it.”
    “The problem is your interface,” Gavin said. “It’s way too rudimentary to compete with what’s on the market right now.”
    “Why do you think I came to you?” Dalton asked.
    Gavin shook his head. “I don’t know, man. That’s going to require a lot of work.”
    “I’m not asking you to do it for free, Gavin.”
    “I wouldn’t,” Gavin said. “But it’s not as if I need your money. It’s the time. We’re gearing up for what will likely be our busiest time of the year at Decadente. This is the absolute worst time for me to take on something like this.”
    Dalton let out a sigh, and Gavin had a feeling he knew what the issue was. “You want to debut it at the IT Expo, don’t you?” he asked.
    “Yeah,” Dalton said. “You already know what this could mean if it makes a big splash there.”
    “Bank,” Gavin said. “Lots and lots of bank.”
    He sipped his beer as he stared at the computer screen, seeing the lines of coding in his head. He knew exactly how he would write the program to make the virtual players more lifelike and to add more colors and sharper images. He would design it so that people