A Coworker Taught Me A Deckbuilder And I Never Really Stopped

Priya sits two desks over from me, dispatches the same jobs I do, and about four years ago she brought a deckbuilder into the office breakroom during a slow lunch because she wanted a fourth for a game she’d been trying to get people into for weeks. I only sat down because I didn’t have anything better to do that particular Tuesday. I remember almost none of the actual rules from that first game, I was bad at it, made obviously wrong purchases the whole way through, but I remember exactly how it felt when a combo I’d half accidentally built finally clicked on my second to last turn. That specific feeling is the entire reason I own the shelf of games I own now.

What I didn’t expect was how much of my reading life changed too, in a roundabout way. Priya reads constantly, mostly science fiction, and the games conversation kept sliding into book recommendations, she’d loan me something during a slow week at the office, I’d read it on my lunch break instead of scrolling, and half the titles I’ve reviewed on here trace back to her handing me something with a specific line like you’ll either love this or throw it across the room. She was right both times that’s happened so far.

We don’t actually play games together that often anymore, life got in the way the way it does, she’s got two kids now and weeknights don’t work the same for either of us. But I still bring her whatever I’m reading if I think she’d want it, and she still occasionally leaves a game on my desk with a sticky note that just says try this, no explanation, which is somehow more persuasive than an actual pitch would be.

I think about that breakroom lunch a lot, mostly because it’s such a small, unremarkable moment to have reshaped this much of how I spend my evenings now. Nobody sets out to start a hobby on purpose during a slow Tuesday shift. It just happens because someone needed a fourth player and you happened to be free, and four years later you’ve got a shelf, a growing stack of reviews, and a coworker you owe more of your reading list to than you’ve probably ever actually told her.

I should tell her. I’ll probably just leave a book on her desk instead.