And some revelations

Waking up, I noticed that Em had hugged me in my sleep. She seems to be sleeping still. Good, better not to read a lot into it, I guess. Looks like Beth messaged me late at night again. She was however already up and ready to respond.

'Hi James. Your recent article is still doing great. How are you progressing on your most recent one?'

'Good, I'm about half way done. Merry Christmas by the way, hope you enjoy the holidays.'

'Well, enjoyment is relative. I've been all alone but it's been productive.'

'You don't want to do anything with your family?'

'No. Are you with your family?'

'No, I have business to take care of. I celebrated Christmas with Amber and her girlfriend and some other loners like me.'

'Damn, now I feel jealous. Also you and Amber are already over??'

'No, it's an open relationship, remember? That works both ways.'

'Didn't think Amber would find someone besides you tbh. Well whatever, thanks for the bit of gossip.'

'Miss the office?'

'A bit, I'll be honest.' Beth +5SP (+8SP)

'Well, you know what I suggested. At the current rate of my articles, it seems like it'll work out. Then you'll keep hearing all the gossip you need. ;)'

'Tempting offer... But what if there's better gossip elsewhere? :p'

'You really think a guy willing to rail his boss's temp replacement in her office makes for bad gossip?'

'Fair enough. Btw, I've been chatting with Floria... What's going on with Christine and you?'

'She's been very friendly with me for a while now. We're dating.'

'So you're fucking all the writers now. Anyone else?'

'Gloria.'

'GOD DAMMIT JAMES, THIS WAS MEANT TO BE A JOKE.'

'Hire some men or less interesting women then.'

'I have.'

'Dan doesn't count if he's away.'

'Fine. At this point I'm afraid I'll come back to the office and you'll jump on me.'

'Rude, I do care about consent. Just say no and I'll leave you alone. Floria shows no interest in me and where did that lead? We're just colleagues.'

'You're leaving out Helen...'

'She's a lesbian, I don't think I need to waste my time there. That's as no as it gets.'

'Alright, alright. Maybe I was a bit too harsh.'

'Have you been keeping up with our article output btw? Do we need to change anything?'

'No, you all have gotten a bit better I think, at least the core writers. Maybe you're having some good influence on them...'

'I'll take the compliment, boss. If fucking them outside of company time helps, I'll gladly work overtime ;)'

'Just don't expect to get paid.' Beth +3SP (+11SP)

'No need to worry. I like to help out where I can, however I can. Speaking of which, boss... Could you promise to go along with my suggestions if my next article does well?'

'You know what, if that motivates you, yes. I'll reject all offers if your next article does well.' Beth +10SP (+21SP)

'Thanks, it means a lot to me and my partners.'

'James, there's one thing I want you to answer. Floria talked to me and was unsure about staying with us. Are your actions involved in any of that? If your constant dating makes others uncomfortable, that's your problem.'

'Well, I am involved, but not like that. Floria is one of the people that GRC pays some compensation to for what my father did. I won't disclose much more, but she could certainly live off of that money if she wanted to. I tried to get her to stay regardless, but she can make her own decisions.'

'I see. Sorry for doubting you.' Beth +1SP (+22SP)

'No worries, I get it. If I was as uninvolved as you are right now, I'd assume the same.'

'I'm glad you're understanding. We'll talk some other time.'

Suddenly, I got a message from Christine.

'James, I can masturbate again! Maybe I'm not that broken.'

'Wonderful Christine.'

'It doesn't feel as good, but it works. I've been SO horny since we did it last and I just want you to be here...'

'And do what?'

'Pin me down, **** your dick in as I struggle in vain, giving me a slap or two because a slut like me deserves it.'

'Well I can't come over now. You're still with your family, right? That would cause a lot of issues.'

'It would, yeah :( But you can still come over. I'll explain if I have to. Make your slut suffer...'

'I have a better idea. Film yourself masturbating and send that to me. Be slutty about it, I need to see why I should keep you.'

'Meanie... that's so hot.'

I put my phone away, she will be filming for a while. Suddenly, Em hugged me tighter.

"Good morning, James."

"Morning, Em. How are you?"

"I'm good. Are you not fine?"

"No, I am. Oh uh, sorry, I haven't made breakfast yet."

"Don't worry, we have time."

I got out of bed and turned around. "Oh Em, I can see your... ahem..." She quickly grabbed the blanket and covered her breasts. "Sorry."

"It's fine, thanks for telling me."

As I took my shower, I thought back to my conversation with Klara yesterday. I had promised myself to take the desire of these women seriously, did I not? And for a while I did, until... Ngrimah's traits came into the picture. They went further than anything else before. But maybe I didn't know the women enough to actually understand that while the traits might be intense, they still reflect their personalities like the older traits. Even Em's questionable traits, one of the old ones that's also very intense, clearly reflects her company's money needs and her willingness to work hard. I think my game plan should be asking them for consent at a high enough SP where they don't question it.

My promise to take the desires of the women I meet seriously has another front to fight on, though. Em's suggestion yesterday and her hug today, I think she may either be developing feelings for me or thinks this is a good way of showing thanks. Yet I'm not interested. So what exactly am I supposed to do? I already have enough women I love, going after Em seems pointless. But well, there's the issue of the +100SP quest and how I might help her there. Questions for future me, I guess.

During breakfast, Em reads her phone: "Dad suggested I stay another night here, since we would meet tomorrow anyway. Can I stay?"

"Sure. You should take all the time to get away from him if possible."

"What have you planned to pass the time?"

"Well, I should look at my finances again. I need to know how much money I have left after needing your moving services twice more this month."

"Don't worry, with all the furniture left over, it gets pretty cheap since we keep the profit."

"I know, I've just spent so much money this month. I bought furniture from you twice, I paid you for the removal of the spycams, you moving stuff around five times this month, it's a lot. Not to mention all the dates I went on alongside other convenient purchases. I'm far from broke, I'm sure, but I want an overview."

"Fair enough. Mind if I help you? There just isn't a lot to do around here..."

"Sorry. I'd usually have work and when I'm off work, I meet with people. Friends, dates, sex, whatever. So I just don't do a lot else at the moment."

"Is your life seriously just work and sex?"

"Well, human contact, let's say. It's not like I fuck everyone for hours. Plenty of time is spent for just normal love things, you know? Anyway, time for some budgeting." I started crunching numbers on my laptop on the kitchen table. After a while, with everything calculated, I had my result. "Okay, I still have a hundred bucks left after you enable Donna and Christine to move in. That's not great..."

"Huh, why not?"

"Well that means with the pay cut I have to take for the compensation, I'll basically live from paycheck to paycheck."

"No it doesn't, unless you need me to remove spycams every month. Also you won't move around five people every month for the rest of your life. And once people move in, just pool the money. They won't have to pay rent anymore, so things will be a lot cheaper." She paused for a moment. "As your business partner, I should also inform you that I can see you needing some renovations here. You still have many empty rooms but only one bathroom. And there are rather trivial things like the mailbox. It needs to be bigger if you let a dozen people or so live here."

"That's a good point. Well I guess where all the extra money will go from now on."

"Can I ask... this house is massive. How many rooms does it have?"

"I... never counted. From what I know this used to be a mansion of some rich person but it was abandoned. My father renovated just the lower floor in the hopes of making it useful, but... nobody needs a house this large and the layout can't easily be transformed into an apartment building. It was eventually rented out as a cheap apartment."

"Hm well, that's good to know. We're no construction company but if your group grows, you should be able to construct more floors."

"I guess so, but we're far away from that. Plus we have a basement for emergencies."

"Basement?"

"It's well hidden and unused for now."

"Hm, while we're talking about plans... what about the city house? It looks really empty and sad now, I don't think you can bring any dates over right now, can you?"

"For now it's mainly for your protection. I hope you don't mind the sparse decoration. After that I'll probably empty it and gift it to GRC."

"You can't do that... My dad once tried to make the company's workshop building a part of the company, but he was told he'd have to sell it at a realistic price. So unless GRC wants to fork over the massive price for a large single family home in the city center..."

"Well, what then?"

"Just keep using it as you do now?"

"And what about you?"

"W-Well... Could I... have keys for this place instead? If I run away from him, he'll think I'm here anyway. He seems to trust you enough to not question anything and if he shows up here searching for me and I'm not here... I don't want to think about where that could lead."

"Fine, have my mom's keys. Actually, could you recommend me someone to copy keys? Seems important for the amount of people here."

"Oh yeah, I know someone. I'll tell him this is an office key. How many copies?"

"One for Laura, Donna, Christine, and you. That's where the list stops at the moment. So four keys."

"That should work out, yeah. Should be about 50 bucks. If you need any other help, I'll gladly be of assistance."

"Thanks, but I don't think I can get much from the remaining 50 bucks."

"Hm, how does a blowjob and cumming inside once sound?"

"H-Huh?"

"Hm?"

Oh right, her trait. Let's just pretend that never happened...