In my excitement, I completely forgot I still have a job to do. I feel like I could make more money in the longterm going down the portal than I would right now, but you try and explain how a guy spending most of his time in the toilet becomes wealthy. The IRS will do unspeakable things to me when they find out.

For now, I’ll just keep up appearances and work full-time at the office still. It helps that my boss is someone I’ve been crushing on for the longest time. Speaking of which, I’m currently in her office. She’s trying to shovel some more work onto me.

“Would that be ok with you” I hear, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Excuse me?” I wasn’t paying attention. “Eric is still a bit behind on his work. Would you be able to jump in and help him out?”

My annoyance is settling in already. Do I want to do this right now? I’ll try to diffuse the situation a bit. “I’m a bit swamped with my own work at the moment,” I counter. Eva shows understanding, but I can feel her inner manager waking up inside her, ready to exploit her workers to their fullest potential.

“I know, I know. Just help him get set up a bit. You know he’s struggling with his whole situation…” Eric is not a bad guy, and I can sympathize a lot with his situation. His wife cheated on him last year and left her kid with him to run off with her new boy toy.

No one actively talks about it on the job, but with how office talk spreads quickly, everyone knew about it within two weeks. He’s been trying to make the best of a bad situation, but it’s apparent that he doesn’t have the same happy enthusiasm he did before. Though Eric certainly does his best to hide it.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I relent. I don’t know what it is, my soft spot for my boss, her persuasive skills, or my desire to help Eric, but I can’t help but look out for him. I may not be the most popular, successful, or intelligent person. But here, I can help a friend out. He’s been good to me, to everyone, so even though I hate all this work, I’ll grin and bear it for a bit longer.

“Hey, Eric! Eva said you needed some help?”

“Yeah, sorry I’m relying on you so much, dude” he looked on sheepishly. “Been a bit tired with the kid, you know. She started teething…” he begins explaining. I try my best to keep my composure. I know he didn’t mean it like that, but the thought of his daughter teething and biting him while he tries to breastfeed her just broke me.

I started laughing, a hearty sound straight from my gut. Eric catches on and sputters as he turns red. “Not like that dude!” he laughs with me. Our coworkers look give us a strange look, but even then, most of them are sporting a cheeky grin themselves. It’s always more fun when we catch a glimpse of his warm demeanor that used to be commonplace.

I’m sometimes amazed at how hard Eric tries to make the best out of a bad situation. All I do is complain all day. Not even to others, just to myself cause I’m scared to lose the few people around me. I should be more like him. You know what? No, I will be more like him!

With renewed vigor, I start to explain how to solve his growing workload best. My mind is already set on the future. I don’t know what put the portal in my house, but I won’t let this opportunity go to waste.

The day passed a lot quicker than usual, and before I knew it, I was saying goodbye to my colleagues and heading home.

“Welcome back, honey!” Eva calls out, looks like she’s been watching some romantic comedy while I was at work. “Look at what I made for you.” She hands me a singular piece of metal armor.

“I only had enough material to make one arm, but I poured all my love in there for you, babe. More than that other Eva could ever give you!” she winked at me. If she wasn’t invisible to the real world, she might have made a great actress.

It’s so confusing. I should’ve picked a different name for her, but what’s done is done. Maybe a nickname will be better. Ignoring her dramatic performance, I try it out. “Oh relax, Eve, you’re the only woman for me!” Ok, maybe I didn’t ignore her performance and instead just participated. I can’t help it. It feels like I can be myself with her, probably cause she is a part of me.

“Thank god! This whole Eva crap has been so confusing. I was wondering how long I’d have to endure it. You really should learn to pick better names, man.”

“Fair enough, maybe next time I get another game menu, I’ll give more thought into naming it,” I remark dryly. The newly named Eve just rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, get some food, get some rest! We’re hunting goblins tonight! That piece of armor will help you not get shredded this time, hopefully,” she finished with less confidence than she started with.

I roll my eyes. There aren’t many things in life I’m confident in. But after the weekend of death and my subsequent leveling, I can feel the difference. I may not be invincible, but I feel good for the first time in a long time.

Bring it on, you green bastard!