And then he asked me to be his bride, and always be right by his side. I felt so happy I almost cried, and then he kissed me.

Nick stared up at the ceiling and sighed. He’d been doing a lot of that today. Earlier in the week, he’d made a vow that he would spend more time mingling with the other girls to build his relationships, but right now, he just didn’t have the will.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Mary.

I want her to be happy… but I can’t just choose her over the others… what should I do? He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you told him before summer began if he’d see himself being split between so many different women, he would have thought it would be a drawn-and-quartered sort of situation. But no, he found himself at the head of a harem instead. Against his will, certainly, but there wasn’t much he could do about this situation.

He had resisted for quite some time, but his compulsion to make people happy had led him to consider embracing it. And then there was Mary. Mary, who was a fragment of his past; a girl who he truly loved, but at the same time, was resistant to the harem lifestyle that they all found themselves in.

“Holly… what should I do?” He asked, turning towards the girl who considered herself his sex ****; another testament to how messed up his life had become.

Holly gave him a frosty look in response. “What you should do is come up with an answer on your own,” she coldly replied. “I can’t keep telling you the same thing over and over. Now make up your own damn mind and stop going back on it!”

She coughed, and tilted her head to the side, giving him a bright smile. “…Master!”

“…Yeah, I know,” Nick sighed. “I want to marry her… I do. I want us to be together forever, but…”

“But the other girls, yes, I know…” Holly sighed. She’d heard this more than enough times, and she was getting sick of it.

“I just want everyone to be happy,” Nick groaned.

“Well, if I were you, I’d keep in mind your position, master,” Holly pointed out. “Last night was one thing; Kim is Mary’s friend, so she didn’t mind talking about the two of you getting married. But how long are you going to let that control your life? It’s Rose’s night tonight, isn’t that right? Do you think she really wants you to talk about your feelings for Mary the whole time?”

Nick winced. Holly made a compelling argument. He’d already let his thoughts about Mary control him today; he couldn’t let it dominate his time with Rose, too. He needed to respect that this was her night.

“Okay,” he nodded. “I’m not going to talk about Mary at all tonight! I’m not even going to think about her!”

Holly grinned. “That’s just what I was hoping to hear, master!”

Just as Nick made that resolution, a knock on the door caught his attention. “Whoa… is it already that late?” He asked, surprised. He got out of bed and walked over to the door, where a certain young woman was there to greet him.

For a second, he did a double-take. It was Rose… but she was wearing daisy dukes, and a flannel shirt tied off below her chest to reveal her slender midriff.

He quickly rubbed his eyes. Oh, crap. Am I seeing things? Or am I going crazy? Why is Rose wearing Mary’s clothes? Have I been thinking about Mary so hard that I let her completely consume my thoughts?!

“Something the matter, Nick?” Rose cooed. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” She was fighting back the urge to laugh.

Nick took another look, and realized he wasn’t going crazy. “Rose… what are you wearing?” He asked.

“Just a little outfit I borrowed from Mary,” she tittered, batting her eyelashes. “It’s complicated, don’t worry about it. But I’m sorry to say, I may have invited a guest or two up to our bedroom tonight… you don’t mind, oui, mon compagnon?”

“Guests?” Nick was at a loss for words. This… could work. Dealing with Rose might have been difficult given his thoughts about Mary, but with other people around, maybe the intimate mood would be broken and he could just focus on hanging out as friends?

Then Rose stepped aside and he saw who it was.

Marley looked up at Nick with a light blush on her cheeks. But her sister was nowhere to be seen.

“Um… hello,” she mumbled, a little embarrassed. “It’s another… long story.”

Nick had a feeling there would be a lot of those tonight.

“So, what’s the story then?” Rose asked, batting her eyelashes. “Can we come in?”

“Uh… yeah, sure,” Nick nodded, stepping aside.

Marley was a little hesitant; the last time she’d been in the Master’s Suite, she’d lost her virginity! But sex probably wasn’t going to be on the table tonight. Or the bed. Or the various other places they’d done it together.

“Oh, and by the way…” Rose purred as she stepped past Nick and entered the suite. “There’s one more young lady here just dying to say hello…”

Nick turned towards the elevator, which slowly opened up. A young woman stepped out, and she took his breath away.

“…Mary?”

She was gorgeous. A vision of loveliness wrapped up in white and gold. Her sunny orange hair was brushed straight, left untied and dancing around her shoulders in a style he didn’t think was possible for her to wear. Her dress itself looked like it cost a million bucks, and it wasn’t the kind of thing she would have chosen for herself. It cupped her large chest while having a portion of the top cut out, exposing her cleavage and shoulders for all to see. The sort of outfit that would be completely out of place on a chaste girl like Mary Mactaggert; once again, Nick had to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

Her makeup was flawless; the tiniest bit of coloring to her lips, with her eyes shadowed and contoured to make them pop in conjunction with her freckled face. A tiny bit of blush dusted her cheeks, but he suspected that was more natural in source than something from a bottle. (…Makeup came in bottles, right? Yeah.)

With her peachy lips slightly parted and her glassy eyes warm with emotion, she said her first words of the night.

“…Marry me.”

“Mary!” Rose hissed, and the gorgeous redhead gasped. She flinched a little and turning even redder.

“Uh… what?” Did he just hear that properly?

“Nothing!” Mary exclaimed. “It… it was nothing! I said good evening! Yeah! That!”

She pushed past him and into the Master’s Suite, wishing she could run away from the stupid words that left her dumb mouth.

Nick watched her go, admiring how the curves of her butt bounced. That fine ass was one of the few things about Mary that was still her own, and it certainly looked lovely…

Wait, what am I thinking about?! What’s she doing here?!

“Rose, what’s going on?” Nick asked, confused. “I thought… this is your night, isn’t it?”

“Are you dissatisfied?” Rose asked, raising her eyebrow. “Oh, no, Mary will be just heartbroken to hear that…”

“No, that’s not it!” Nick exclaimed, blushing. She slammed the door shut behind him and stormed into the Master’s Suite. “I’m just confused, that’s all! I thought…”

He glanced at Mary, who stood awkwardly in the center of the room, not sure if she should approach the bed, the couch, the kitchen, or Nick himself. She just stood there shaking like a leaf, trying her best not to look out of place.

And damn, even that made her look beautiful.

“I invited Mary up because she has something very important to say to you,” Rose informed him. “And also because it gave me a nice little jump in Bonus Points,” she added under her breath.

Rose: 2800 BP + 500 BP = 3300 BP

“What was that?” Nick narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“Mary has something important to tell you?” Rose said innocently. “We can discuss that later, right, Mary?”

“R-right,” Mary said, giving a jerky nod in reply. “Um… should I cook for you, or something…?”

She just wanted to be helpful. But Rose walked across the room with her smile frozen on her face, and stared the other girl in the eyes.

“…Or… maybe not…”

Mary glanced weakly at Holly, who stared curiously back at her. She was just as surprised as Nick to see Mary here.

“Dinner then?” Rose asked, giving Holly a nod. The short girl stood up straight and nodded her head rapidly.

“Yes! That’s right! Dinner! Let me get that ready!” She’d been preparing to cook for two. Now there were four, and one of those four was Marley the human garbage disposal. This would take a bit of her finessing.

“And throw in a nice wine while you’re at it!” Rose called over her shoulder.

“Rose!” Mary hissed, her eyes widening. She had no intention of drinking wine today.

“So, I suppose dinner might take a while,” Nick said, an awkward expression on his face. There was a strange tension in the air that he couldn’t quite identify. While he recognized the source as coming from Mary (she was clearly nervous about something) he didn’t know what to expect.

After all, there was no way Mary had tagged along with Rose for a romantic meal together, not after what had happened between them last night. So why was she-

“Um…” Holly walked out of the kitchen with a sheepish expression on her face a tray of steamed veggies in her hands.

“Holly? What’s up?” Nick asked.

“It’s the strangest thing,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “I was in here just a few minutes ago, getting everything prepared. But then when I walked in… dinner was cooked. And it’s enough for four people.”

That was certainly strange.

“And also…” Holly pointed at the dining room table. It had places set for four, and sitting in the center was an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne chilling.

Mary gulped.

“Something’s going on here,” Nick muttered under his breath. “Sylvia, this is you, isn’t it?”

No reply. But of course the blonde vixen wouldn’t say a word about her latest scheme. With a sigh, Nick approached the dining room table as Holly set down the tray, and went to go get more food.

“I guess this is Sylvia’s way of saying it’s time for dinner, then?” Rose mused. “How… subtle.”

Marley remained silent. Things were awkward enough without her input. As far as she was concerned, she was just here to eat the food, and restrain Rose in case the blonde got cold feet about this whole thing. Not that it mattered though; now that they were in the Master’s Suite, there was no leaving until morning.

The table had been set in four places. Two spots at the head of the table, right next to each other, and on either corner beside them for a strange half-circle. The kind of thing that wouldn’t normally happen, but made the whole dinner more intimate.

Rose sat down at one of the corners, and Marley sat down in the spot beside her.

“Ow!” She stared incredulously at her faux-sister; Rose had just kicked her in the shin!

Rose flared her eyes, then narrowed them. She nodded across the table at the empty spot beside the corner, and Marley quickly got the message.

“Oh, yeah… right…” She mumbled, quickly getting up out of her seat and sitting across from Rose. That just left the two spots at the head of the table open- one for Mary, and one for Nick.

The duo shared an awkward look, and the room filled with uncomfortable laughter. They sat down next to each other, their shyness forcing their eyes down to their plates.

Now Rose had to kick Mary under the table.

“H-hey!” Mary gasped, shooting a dirty look at Rose.

“Don’t you have something to say?” Rose hissed.

Mary’s eyes widened. “O-oh! Right…”

She held her hands together in prayer. “Dear Lord. We thank you for this bountiful feast this fine evening, and- OW!”

“Okay, what’s going on here?” Nick asked. Things were really getting confusion.

“She kicked me!” Mary exclaimed.

“Rose?” Nick looked at her for an explanation. Rose’s only response was a tired sigh and a roll of her eyes.

“Are you seriously getting cold feet now?” She demanded.

Mary turned pale with shame. She knew they had a plan, but… they could postpone it a little, couldn’t they?

“…At dessert,” she said finally. “I’ll ask him then.”

“Ask me what?” Nick asked. He was starting to get suspicious. With the way Mary was dressed, and how Marley and Rose seemed to be working to **** them together, it almost seemed like…

…

But no, that was impossible, right?

He glanced at Mary, searching her face for some hint of what was happening. But Mary just turned red and averted her eyes, which was a massive tip-off that maybe, just maybe, his suspicions were right on the money.

Needless to say, that made for a very awkward meal. A delicious meal, but an awkward one.

The champagne bottle remained unopened as the ice slowly melted, serving as a monolithic indictment of Mary’s cowardice.

It’s okay, she encouraged herself. She barely touched her food, and what she did eat tasted like sand in her mouth. Instead, she spent the whole meal working up the courage to convey her feelings. It’s all going to be okay. He’s going to say yes. I know he will.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and her head immediately snapped forward when she saw he was looking at her. They only made eye contact for a moment, but in that heated moment it was enough to see that they both were concerned for the feelings of the other person.

He’s worried about me… he’s thinking of me… so that’s good, right? Or maybe he was wondering if she was really worth all this trouble.

Mary knew that she was working against the lord’s stated wishes, marrying Nick under these circumstances. Part of her knew that it was wrong; but that part was dwarfed by the part of her that desperately wanted him, and didn’t CARE that it was wrong.

But even if she was going against God’s will, she still held onto her faith. So she made a little prayer in her heart, and hoped that her proposal would be successful.

“Rose,” Nick said, clearing his throat, “would you please pass the gravy?”

“Certainly!” Rose chirped, picking up the saucer by its handle. But rather than passing it to Nick, she passed it to Mary, instead. “Mary, please pass the gravy?”

Mary accepted the saucer before she knew what was happening, and she found herself petrified. Shaking slightly, she turned to Nick, and tried to pass it off to him.

“H-here,” she stammered, handing him the saucer. He took it from her, and their fingers brushed against each other. A current of electricity shot through them, causing their hair to stand on end. They looked at each other with wide-eyed stares, and Nick nearly spilled the stuff all over himself.

He managed to regain his composure, though, and held the saucer steady, carefully pouring the gravy out onto his turkey.

The rest of the meal continued pretty much like that. Rose kept hitting softballs for Mary to catch, and the redhead tried her best not to fumble. And finally it came to the promised time. Dessert.

Holly rolled in a large cheesecake with two layers, and it made Mary’s eyes bug out. She knew exactly what the white cake resembled, and it only caused her anxiety to skyrocket. She shot her eyes towards Nick, and saw he was taken aback as well.

This was her chance. Her one and only chance.

Before she knew what she was doing, she had kicked back her chair and risen to her feet.

“Nick…” She stammered out, staring down at the boy she loved. “I have something important to say.”

“…Yeah,” he said, looking up at her in resignation. He had a pretty good idea. Tonight’s meal had a certain theme to it, and he’d have to be an idiot not to understand what was going on.

Mary was going to propose. Even after what had happened yesterday, she was still resolved to marry him.

And he really wished he could oblige her, he did. But he couldn’t choose just Mary over the others. Maybe if it had been five years ago, when feelings had first started burgeoning between the two of them, things could have been different.

But now? After everything that had happened? After everything that the Harem Hotel **** on him?

He was finding it very hard to argue with his heart. But equally hard to break the hearts of the other women in his life.

So all he could do was hear Mary out, and hope that when he turned her down, it wouldn’t crush her too much.

Mary took a deep breath, and exhaled. She looked at him with uncharacteristic seriousness, like she was about to prepare a sermon.

“This is important to me,” she said quietly. “So please, I want you to listen and not interrupt. Can you do that for me, Nick?” She begged.

He nodded. After everything they’d been through together, after everything she was clearly going through herself, of course he could do that.

“…I love you,” she began. “Nick… you’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met. You’re funny, and kind, you treat people with respect… you treat me with respect. You’ve never made fun of me for my beliefs, whether it was my religion or my aversion to intimate topics. You’ve always looked at me for who I was, and tried to accept me as that person, and that’s the reason why I love you.”

Her voice shook slightly.

“But… I haven’t always been able to do the same,” she admitted.

“Huh?” Nick stared at her in confusion.

“You’ve always loved me for who I was, even with my faults,” Mary said, placing her hand over her heart. “But I was too scared to do the same. Instead of accepting you as the kind, loving person you are, the person who wants to make as many people happy as you can, I was determined to change you. Because I thought there was no way I could be happy if you were with multiple women, I tried to run away from reality; I thought that I could be your only wife, and that… that was wrong.”

She started to tear up, but she choked down those feelings.

“I was listening to the things that I’ve always been taught, but the teachings of God aren’t everything,” she said softly, feeling her heart sting as she affirmed her blasphemous words. “There’s also… how I feel. And how I feel is that… I love you. I want to be with you. I don’t care if you have ten wives, or a hundred… err… okay, maybe a hundred is too many… but I want to marry the man who is willing to marry the women he loves in order to bring them happiness!” Mary cried. Her words grew heavier as her resolve increased. “That’s the decision I came to.”

She reached out and placed her hands over Nick’s. She held them tightly together, as if they were both in prayer.

“Please, Nick… will you marry me? I promise I will accept your other wives and your love for them… so can you please give me the honor of being your first wife, at least?”

Nick stared at Mary in shock. Never in a million years would he have expected to hear such words coming from her mouth.

Mary wanted to marry him… and she was willing to let him marry other people? That was hard to believe. But while her eyes carried hesitation and doubt, they burned with a far more passionate fire- her desire.

She was willing to give up so much, just for the chance of marrying him. That was the depth of her love for him. How could he turn her down? How could he say no to something like that?

Nick had felt love several times. It had been gradual and fleeting, before he came to this hotel. Since the show began, he’d felt a stronger, more intimate love, from many women, including Mary herself. But the love she was promising him, it was stronger than any of that, and it was real.

A wife? Multiple wives? Could he really agree to that?

Could he even disagree?

One of the women he loved was telling him that she was willing to marry him. A woman that he desperately wanted to marry himself.

Nick’s conversation with Kim that morning echoed through his head, when he had once again assured her that he wanted to marry her, but couldn’t because he couldn’t break the hearts of the other women in his life.

Now Mary was telling him that wasn’t necessary. That he could marry her, and make the other women in his life happy too.

He’d already given Kim his answer. And seeing Mary standing there, looking gorgeous and radiant and filled with love as she held his hands, it reaffirmed that answer even stronger.

“Yes…” He said firmly, squeezing her hands. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Mary’s eyes widened.

“R-really?” She asked, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Really,” Nick said, rising to his feet. He pulled her into a big hug and held her tightly. “I love you, Mary. If you want to be my wife… if you’re willing to give up this much… then it would make me happier than anything to marry you!”

He pressed his lips against her, and she sunk into the kiss. For a moment, it was just the two of them. Then they parted, breathless, and stared into each other’s eyes.

What a kiss. He could barely describe it. It was like his entire world had been rewritten in an instant, and everything had changed.

“Woooo!” Marley cheered, clapping her hands with glee.

“Nicely done, Mary! Congratulations!” Rose grinned.

Holly burst into tears. She fell to her knees and held her hands over her mouth and started to sob.

“Mary… you’re really… you’re getting married?” She cried with joy.

“Yeah… I… I guess I am…” Mary sniffled, wiping her eyes. “I’m getting married, wow!” A bright beaming smile illuminated the room. Holly stumbled to her feet and ran over to her best friend. Nick let Mary go and the two girls embraced each other, crying their hearts out.

Nick was still a little in shock. He was actually getting married… he didn’t know how to process that just yet, but one thing he knew for sure, this was what he wanted.

“A toast!” Rose popped the champagne. “To the future bride and groom!”

She didn’t even bother pouring a glass. She took a big swig and downed it; she’d need all the **** she could get tonight.