Press Start for Love

By Sara Rogers

Anna Brier doesn’t think esports is a sport but she’s been re-assigned to report on a multi-city pro-gaming tournament. After meeting Paul, one of the top three gamers in the country, her opinions of esports might just change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sara Rogers
• Release date: Sep 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798861430357

Sara Rogers

Sara Rogers lives in Seattle, Washington with her family and adopted pets. She enjoys going to festivals and conventions, training her dog, and traveling.

Book preview

Press Start for Love

By Sara Rogers

Press Start for Love by Sara Rogers

Published by EvilGlasses

Copyright © 2023 Sara Rogers

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact: [e-mail]

Cover by Sara Rogers.

ISBN: ebook

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

To my family, to my friends, and to my writing group.

Prologue

Everyone in the large conference room was looking at Anna while Ms. Jacobs, the VP, talked to her about her conduct. The room was bright and almost suspended in the sky with its floor to ceiling windows on the 22nd floor of the downtown LA building. The chair Anna sat in was uncomfortable. There’s far too many people in this room with me and Jacobs, she thought.

While Ms. Jacobs kept going on and on, all the people around the table nodded, and Anna thought, why doesn’t this chair get much use out of it if there’s always so many people in here? It should have more bounce, more spin, more lean. It’s making me sit straight up at attention while I’m talked at .

She still didn’t hear anything Jacobs was saying. I know what it’s all about though.

I thought I loved him. Wait, I did love him at the time. I knew he was married, everyone knew he was married, that’s one of the reasons why I’m here.

You took advantage of your position, Ms. Jacobs said.

I guess I did that too. It’s not like I stopped being professional or that I was ever late for a broadcast. On the contrary, I felt like I worked even harder to make it look like nothing was going on. But things can only stay silent for so long.

Anna, Jacobs barked.

Anna focused on Jacobs’ round, red cheeked face. She drinks too much.

You’re a great reporter, Jacobs continued, I don’t want to lose you but you can’t stay in pro football. So, we’ve opted to reassign you to esports. There’s a tournament starting soon, League of Heroes.

Anna’s face lost all its color. Esports? That’s not a sport. I’m a sports reporter. I can’t report where there’s no sport.

Ma’am, I know I overstepped my– Anna leaned forward on the dark, cold wood table.

You’re overstepping now, Ms. Jacobs cut her off in a calm, strong voice.

Anna let the chair straighten her back to attention once again.

You can resign if you like. I won’t stop you but I don’t want to see you go. Do you accept this?

None of the other faces in the room had an expression. They were dolls nodding their heads. Did they even hear what just happened? League of Heroes? But the chair gave Anna a harsh, unmoving reminder, what else could she do?

She nodded, Yes, ma’am, I accept.

You’re also on two weeks suspension, no pay.

Anna hung her head as she pushed herself from the hardest unforgiving chair she’d ever sat in. Once on her feet, she raised her head, said thank you, and took her leave.

Chapter 1

Anna held her eyes closed and rolled her head from left to right and then right to left while taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly. She opened her eyes and looked at her phone that was on a tall tripod. She pressed record and stepped back to get her mark.

She let out a deep breath and smiled at the camera, opening her light green eyes wide and then squinting them. Don’t worry, Anna. This is all a bunch of bullshit anyway. League of Heroes, what a joke. The venom in her voice was deadly.

She took her phone off the tripod and watched and then deleted her clip. She needed to move slightly over. She put a water bottle just to where she needed to have the outside of her foot.

After getting reassigned to the esports division at the telecom company she reported for, she hadn’t tried to hide her disdain for the up and coming competitive gaming world.

A group of gamers all wearing the same white, red, and black sweatshirt with Gamey McGameface written on the back of it walked by. She raised her lip and shook her head. All these people just sit in their basement smashing buttons.

She put her phone back on the stand, the good front facing camera to her. She pressed record and stepped back to her water bottle.

In a low voice she said, They walk around like this is a sport. Like they’re a team. She made a pfft mouth noise and rolled her eyes.

She raised and dropped her shoulders hard, smoothed out and twisted her strawberry blond hair, and snapped focus to the camera.

The League of Heroes tournament is just about to get under way and the teams are already starting to get chippy at one another on social media. Check out this post from SachaGotcha…

Anna put on a clinic of hiding true feelings and getting the job done no matter what the ask.

This is Anna Brier reporting live from Minneapolis’ League of Heroes headquarters.

She stopped and watched back the recording. First thing she did was edit out her snarky comment. Everyone back at the office and her boss knew she didn’t want to be covering esports. No sense in giving them another reminder.

She put her phone and folded up tripod in her shoulder bag and looked around the large convention center room that was transformed into the main stage. Play was scheduled to start tomorrow evening but there were still a lot of set up crews and moving parts getting bolted down.

Thinking about all the teams that were to play she knew she had many more hours to go, recordings to watch, media feeds to keep an eye on, interviews to do with winners.

This week is going to be the start of my personal hell, she told herself as she scanned the room. Talking to a bunch of nerds about nerd stuff that they think is a real sport.

She found a plug to post up next to so she could browse her phone without worry. Her press pass allowed her to be wherever she wanted basically for as long as she wanted. Another amateur move, she thought.

She texted her friend from work, Nina, This isn’t my scene.

Nina was already texting back. Nina wasn’t ever far from her phone. It is now! Haha, but seriously. Have you talked to any of them yet?

Not yet. They’re all over though.

Maybe it’ll be fun. At least go eat some good food, there’s always that.

Anna smiled at Nina’s message. She responded with a heart and hug emoji. She scanned the room again and noticed a man leaning against a ramp railing.

He had on a thin black jacket that hugged his body, blue jeans