Aftermath

“WHAT!?”

Your three girlfriends shout in reaction to the shocking implication brought about by Sylvie’s news.

Meanwhile, you’re in stunned silence as the same three words are running through your mind, before being reminded by your brain what it is exactly they mean. The trait recommended for Becca repeatedly flashes in your memory, having connected the dots in your head after Sylvie’s revelation.

‘Family Comes First’

‘Family Comes First’

‘Family Comes First’

‘Family Comes First’

[Advanced Trait] Family Comes First (200 Love Points and 200 Lust Points): Everyone will not be bothered if you pursue romantic and/or sexual relationships between immediate family members or those who are of closely related kin. Through your relationship with either family member, your related partners will not be bothered to have a sexual relationship with each other when with you.

…

‘Becca and Cassie are half-sisters.’

‘Family Comes First’

“Cass… your Dad’s…” Stella mumbles next to her in realization.

‘Becca and Cassie are half-sisters.’

“Jay.” Cassie responds, snapping you out of your trance. “My Dad’s Jay. The man holding my hand right now. The man who actually helped raise me. The man who has actually shown he loves me and cares for me.” Cassie adds.

“He’s my dad. That doesn’t change.” Cassie says with conviction.

“You’re the one who told me that last night, remember?” Cassie reminds Stella, who gives her an appreciative smile.

“I guess that’s the one thing I did right as your mother, huh?” Sylvie jokingly asks Cassie, after hearing her declare you as her actual father figure. Cassie breaks away from holding yours and Stella’s hands to run towards her mother and give her a loving hug, wrapping her arms around her mother’s shoulders.

“Not the only thing.” Cassie says as she hugs her mother tighter. “When it matters most, I know you’ll have my back now.” Cassie adds, and you can see Sylvie close her eyes and rest her open palms on Cassie’s back, returning her hug.

“What can I say? You grew on me.” Sylvie jokes.

“It took me nineteen years, but I’m glad to hear that it finally happened.” Cassie jokes back, and both of them awkwardly chuckle at the joke; knowing full well there’s some truth in it. The two then separate from each other, and their awkward chuckles turn into an awkward silence as neither of them really know how to continue.

“Ms. Jones?” Stella breaks the awkward silence for them, making both Cassie and Sylvie look towards her. “Would you like to stay over for lunch?” Stella asks her.

“Lunch! I totally forgot I was cooking something for the girls! I’ll be right back!” Tanya shouts in realization before sprinting past Cassie and Sylvie to go back to her apartment.

“That was Tanya by the way. She’s Jay’s girlfriend too.” Cassie informs Sylvie.

“I figured.” Sylvie replies with a chuckle.

“Can you please stay, mom? We still have a ton of questions.” Cassie asks Sylvie pleadingly, and Sylvie nods.

“Yeah. Of course. Now that I’ve told you about Avi, you deserve to know the entire truth.” Sylvie answers her. “Honestly, I have a ton of questions too. It’s mostly how’d this pushover suddenly become this… this… pimp? When Avi told me about it, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Looks like you’re really taking the divorce well there, champ.” Sylvie teases you.

“You have no idea what he’s been through, mom.” Cassie corrects her mother for you.

“Been through? From what I hear, he’s been through eight of you.” Sylvie jokes, and Stella has to stifle a laugh at that one.

“Sorry. Couldn’t help it.” Stella apologizes. “Also, he’s only been through four of us so far. He’s still working on the other four.” Stella clarifies to Sylvie, getting a laugh out of her; but you feel she only clarifies it to tease you too.

You involuntarily do the math in your head; and by your count, you only have Brooke, Becca, and Maddy left to date; so you assume the extra one they’re counting is Paige since Sylvie probably got the misinformation from Mr. Hoffman that you’re dating her too.

“Not helping, Stella.” Cassie reprimands her, and Stella apologizes once again, making Sylvie laugh even harder this time.

“I’ll order us some food, so we can just wait for it while we talk.” You suggest.

“Oh! Since I’m back in the city, can I request Tony’s Pizza? I’ve missed it so much.” Sylvie excitedly suggests, getting Stella and Cassie to immediately glance at you in worry.

“No problem.” You reluctantly reply, and it gets a laugh from your two girlfriends.

“What? What’s so funny?” Sylvie asks.

“Nothing. Jay just loooves Tony’s pizza.” Cassie sarcastically explains to her mom, who misses the sarcasm entirely.

“That’s not a surprise. It’s the best pizza in the city. It’s even better than the so-called authentic pizzerias in Italy we went to. The pizzas back home are pretty good too, aren’t they, babe? I mean barbecue chicken pizza! Just the name of it sounds delicious already. Oh! Don’t get me started on deep-dish!” Sylvie begins to ramble.

‘Don’t get you started? I wish you didn’t start talking about your awful taste in pizza at all.’ you mentally respond to her, but instead you just nod and smile while you take your phone out to order Tony’s awful pizza.

“I’ll just place an order at Tony’s.” You inform them, as well as cutting off Sylvie from continuing sharing her opinions about pizza. “Cassie, I think you and Sylvie should talk privately first. Catch up, you know?” You suggest.

“Yeah, babe! I want to get to know this more confident version of you. It’s really taken me by surprise! I want to hear what happened that finally got it out of you!” Sylvie tells Cassie excitedly.

“She’s always been confident, Ms. Jones. She just doesn’t like showing it around people she’s not comfortable with.” Stella chimes in.

“Then it’s no surprise she shows it when she’s with you guys, huh?” Sylvie replies, either ignoring or completely missing the implications of Stella’s statement; or, maybe, she just accepts that Cassie was never that comfortable around her.

“Come on, mom. I’ll-uh… I’ll catch you up on what I’ve been doing here the past two weeks, so our talk with everyone later can just be about how you know… um… Mr. Hoffman.” Cassie tells her mother, before directing her to Stella’s room so they can talk privately.

“What’s the plan, dad?” Stella asks you immediately after Cassie and Sylvie close the door to her room.

“Plan for what?” You ask back, unsure of what she means.

“The magical plan to get Mr. Hoffman to stop being an asshole by trying to mess with our family.” Stella clarifies.

“I’ll tell everybody later. Can you add Becca, Maddy, and Brooke to the group chat and tell them we all need to talk later? There’s a trait I need to buy that’s going to affect everyone immensely, and I don’t want to buy it without everyone’s consent.” You tell Stella.

“Roger that, Daddy.” Stella tells you with a wink, before taking her phone out and heading off to the couch to get comfortable.

You look at your own phone to see that you have a message from Tanya and read it first before making the pizza order.

“I’m still preparing lunch for the girls. Is everything cool now? No more screaming?” Tanya asks.

“Everything’s fine, Tanya. Cassie and her mom are talking privately now. Have lunch with your girls. I’m sure you still have a ton to talk about with them too. This can wait. Stella’s going to send a message to ask when you guys are free to talk later so we can discuss the plan moving forward, but that’s for later. Love you.” You reply to Tanya, and then quickly place an order to Tony’s, before giving Becca a call.

“Hey, Becca. Is your dad around? I need to talk to you for a quick minute. I have some news you definitely need to hear before the others.” You immediately ask Becca.

“I’m free to talk, Jay. For far longer than a minute if required. I actually have news about my dad, as well. Something came up in the city and he’s on his way back there, and he definitely doesn’t want me seeing you any further based on how he’s acting. He was adamant that I don’t come with him and stay here in Vegas with absolutely nothing necessary to do for this project yet.” Becca informs you, and you might have some idea as to why Mr. Hoffman suddenly wants to come back here to the city.

‘You better warn Sylvie later about that.’ You think to yourself.

“Yeah~, I may have an idea why he’s coming back here. It’s actually why I called. ” You inform Becca ominously. You enter your bedroom, just in case, since you have to talk openly about the app, while you give her time to mentally prepare herself for the news. “I know why the app is recommending I buy the trait I mentioned earlier to you.” You add. Becca doesn’t respond, and you assume it’s because she’s waiting for your news.

“I’m not sure I’m the best person to reveal this to you, but you deserve to know.” You preface for Becca, before pausing one last time to give Becca time to mentally prepare for the news.

“Your dad is-um~… Cassie’s dad. So-uh~... You and Cassie are half-sisters.” You finally inform Becca.

…

You wait for Becca to respond this time. Waiting for her to react before you proceed any further. However, you can’t hear anything on her end anymore, so you break the silence.

“Becca? Are you still there?” You ask.

“Yes. I’m still on the line, Jay. Is that all?” She asks you, surprisingly calm after receiving what you consider is bombshell news.

“Yeah~. That’s the only bombshell news I have right now.” You couldn’t help but say jokingly.

“How’d you get this information?” Becca asks you seriously.

“Cassie’s mom told us.” You answer her.

“Have you verified this information?” Becca continues.

“Um… I don’t know how we could. I don’t see any reason why Cassie’s mom would lie about it though. Plus, it helps explain why the app would recommend that trait for you.” You answer her, and Becca chooses to remain silent for a moment.

“So, yeah, you already know there’s a trait that can help us address this, but I need—” You start telling her, before she cuts you off.

“I understand why you need to talk to the others about the trait. If I recall, Tanya’s daughters are now staying there, and Maddy has plans to have her sister stay with her over the summer. Having learned from your history with buying Normalized ****, you’re aware a trait like the one you told me about can lead to consequences that the others might not be amenable to.” Becca correctly deduces. You honestly can’t help but be impressed with how quick she analyzes your situation.

“Uh~, yeah. Exactly.” You reply, not trying to hide how impressed you are with her deduction.

“I saw Stella’s message in the group chat, and I’ll join you all later to discuss it. I’ll also make my way back there by tomorrow so we can discuss it in further detail in person.” Becca then informs you, and it’s the latter bit that has you concerned.

“Becca, that’s not necessary! We can discuss this with you in a video call. There—” You try telling her before she interrupts you.

“I have leverage on my father based on the information you just gave me. He can’t threaten me—” Becca starts saying, before you talk over her too.

“This is your career, Becca! Something you worked so hard for! I am not going to be okay if you risk that just for this. I know you want to confront your dad about this, and you should; but think about the effects of you going against his wishes before I’m able to buy the trait. You’ll risk losing your position at Hoffman’s just to confront him earlier than necessary. It’s not worth it.” You remind her in a caring tone.

“Plus, we don’t want to affect your father’s perception of our relationship more than we already have by getting on his bad side. Let’s not give him other reasons not to support us dating each other, to the point that the ‘Family First’ trait thing won’t matter.” You argue with Becca.

…

“I concede. You make valid points.” Becca replies, after a few seconds. Maybe it’s just your imagination, but it sounds like she’s impressed with how quickly you thought about the consequences of her actions too. “Thanks for warning me before I could cause an irreparable mistake.” Becca adds.

“No problem, Becca. I wouldn’t want anything to happen that’ll jeopardize our date.” You tease her.

“Especially after last night, when you told me you’re really looking forward to it.”

Author's Edit: The trait has been edited from its previous wording to better convey its intended effects. Apologies for the confusion!

Previous wording: Your romantic and/or sexual partners will not be bothered if you pursue a romantic and/or sexual relationship with any one of their immediate family members or closely related kin. Through your relationship with either family member, your related partners will not be bothered to have a sexual relationship with each other when with you.