Codename: Dweeb by Mazzy King

Braden
Deployments are hard.
The long days, the dangerous conditions. The loneliness.
Luckily our barracks had WiFi, which meant I could pass the time doing my favorite thing—play games online and connect with people all over the world.
The past twelve months, I’ve made friends with an online gamer I’ve never seen and don’t know anything about…but her sweet voice and sympathetic ear have made the time tolerable. We’ve never crossed the boundaries of friendship, except for one particularly lonesome night. But I’m going home now, and my brother keeps telling me to find a “real girl.”
My first night home, my parents and our old neighbors have a dinner in my honor, and their daughter Natalia, a girl I’ve grown up with my whole life, brings treats from the new bakery she’s opened in town. She’s spent the last few years abroad and came home while I was away…and wow, is she a knockout.
I find myself growing more and more attracted to Natalia, while my heart belongs to @faeprincess28, someone I’ve never even seen or met. That’s due to change at an upcoming gaming convention…but what happens if I fall for them both?

Natalia
I’ve worked hard over the past few years excelling in my craft as a pastry chef, and my best friend and I decided to finally take the plunge—open a business together. To my family and most of my friends, I’m successful and smart, but that comes with a lot of pressure.
To @dweeb6, though, I can be who I really am. And that’s a nerdy gamer girl.
Except our online game isn’t the only thing that draws me in for our nightly gaming dates.
It’s his voice. His personality. And he’s been at war, somewhere in the world, for the past twelve months. That’s all he’ll tell me. Not the branch of service, not his location in the world, not even his hometown. But he’s opened up to me about hard days, long nights, and missing home…and we’ve become friends.
Except I’ve gone and fallen in love with him.
I can never tell him that, though, and he wants to meet me at an upcoming video game convention in the city. I want to meet him too, if only to convince myself that we really are just friends on the internet, despite my feelings and despite sharing one heated, virtual night.
Besides, my old neighbor is home from deployment too, and he’s gone from scrawny geek to buff, sexy Superman when I wasn’t looking. He seems interested. He’s real.
Now, if only I can convince my heart of that fact…