“Not a ton,” I said. “Maybe ten or so.”
“You’ve got to get working on that,” he said. “Or Tommy will have my head.”
“How many do you have?” I asked.
“You’re going to think I’m the biggest dork ever, but I’ve only got ten left to catch,” he said.
“Aren’t there like two-hundred and fifty of them total?” I asked, a little impressed.
“There are actually only one hundred and five. Not only do I have most of them, I also have duplicates of almost all of the ones that I do have,” he said.
“Can I have some of them?” I asked.
“I’d love to give you some, but it doesn’t work that way,” he explained. He paused and looked at me carefully. “You'd really want to trade them?”
“Why not? Wouldn’t it be better if there was a function in the game where you could trade Monsters? Think about it. If I happened to have one you didn’t have, you’d happily trade one of your duplicates for it.”
“A trading function, huh?” Jacob said, his eyes going distant as he thought about it. “Sounds interesting.”
“I’m just saying. I think it would make a whole lot of sense,” I replied. My mind was already figuring out how to code for something like that. “It would make the game more playable for all players and it wouldn't be that hard to code for.”
“That’s actually a really good idea,” Jacob said. “I can't believe they haven't thought of that yet.”
“I’m telling you, I should try to find a job where all I do is sit around and think of ideas for these games all day,” I said.
“You’d be good at it,” he said, before kissing me on the cheek. “You’ve got that creative edge that a lot of programmers don’t have. It seems like you see the big picture of a program and not just all of the lines of code that go into creating it.”
“Honestly, the creative side of it is my favorite part. I like the coding, too. In fact, I was top of my class in nearly every programming course in college.” I paused, not wanting to brag. “But I’m just not passionate about it the way that I am with the creative element. That’s what makes me excited.”
“Why don’t you find a job that allows you to be more creative then?” he asked. “I know that they’re out there, especially with all of the apps and games that are created every day.”
“I’ve seen a few openings, but I’m under-qualified for all of them. They all want someone who has years and years of experience, and experience is something that I don’t have. All I’ve got is ingenuity and blind ambition.”
“Sometimes that’s all you need, though,” he said.
“I suppose,” I said. “But I still haven’t been able to make it work for me. Any ingenuity I have is being wasted on updating my resume ten times a day. It doesn’t leave much time for creating anything at all, e
xcept eye strain from staring at job openings online.”
“Alicia, it’s only been a couple of weeks, right?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I plucked a blade of grass and twirled it between my fingers.
“Well, give it a little more time. Try to be patient. Trust me, a job will come. And when it does, you’ll look back and realize that all of this worry you’re having was in vain.” He smiled at me. “At some point, you might even wish that you were jobless again, sitting with me in the park and drinking wine in the middle of the day.”
“You’re probably right.” I tossed the blade of grass away. “The grass is always greener on the other side.”
“Always.” Jacob agreed. “What other ideas do you have for the game?”
“You really want to know?” I tipped back the last swig of champagne and then set the glass next to me on the blanket. My belly was full of good food and good drink.
“I do,” he assured me. “I'm interested in your thoughts.”
I grinned at him. Jacob laid back on the blanket and I crawled up next to him, placing my head onto his chest. I listened to his heartbeat and his breathing. I knew that the rhythmic sound would eventually pull me into sleep if I let it.
“I think there should be player battles. Not just at gyms, but against other players individually,” I began. “Then, if you do that, there should also be a friend's list so you can see if your friends are nearby or even other people who are interested in playing.”
I grinned, excited as ideas came to me. “Also, custom tracking items, gym notifications, friend notifications, custom lures-”