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“My god! It feels like forever since we had a morning run.” Stella comments as Maddy leads the group in dynamic stretches.

“It’s been like three days.” You point out with a laugh.

“Well, it felt like nine months.” Cassie says with a sigh.

“I know, right? Life was so much simpler before we went to that Gala.” Stella says in reaction, as Maddy changes the stretch to some walking lunges.

“No secret sisters we didn’t know about. No asshole biological fathers. No other person we know has the app…” Cassie starts listing off all the revelations one long weekend has dumped on your group; and the first one even felt like it was for you and not her, as majority of your girlfriends found out during the Gala about Lainey and your checkered history with your sister.

“No confirmation that I get to stay here and be allowed to date, Mr. Craig.” Maddy chimes in, putting the long weekend in perspective for Cassie and Stella. As stressful as it was, you all made a lot of progress. Stella and Cassie seem to agree, as they both give Maddy congratulatory hugs and smiles after she makes her point.

“You’re going to have to get used to calling him Jay if you’re going to date him Maddy.” Cassie tells her, and you don’t miss the fact that it’s one of the things you told her when you two started dating too.

“Or you can just skip all that, and start calling him ‘Daddy’.” Stella jokes, making Maddy immediately blush, getting a poke to the ribs from Cassie as reprimand for unintentionally embarrassing Maddy.

“Speaking of dates, how was your date with Becca last night, Mr. Craig? I-I mean Jay.” Maddy then forcefully segues the conversation away from Stella’s teasing joke.

“Feels weird the first time you start calling him by his first name, doesn't it?” Cassie playfully acknowledges Maddy’s struggle, and Maddy nods her answer with an awkward smile.

“Should I start calling you Jay too… Oh yeah~. That does feel weird.” Stella chimes in teasingly, before realizing the other two have a point.

“You’re not a part of this club. Sit somewhere else.” Cassie teases Stella, playfully shooing her with her hand, and placing her other arm around Maddy’s shoulder. Maddy copies Cassie’s hand gesture and shoos Stella away too.

“Et tu Bruté?” Stella asks, jokingly acting shocked by the display.

“Alright Mean Girls,” You tell them, so they can get serious for a moment. “Let’s get to running, shall we?” You remind them what you’re all here for.

“The world has turned upside down! Dad is the one eager to go on a run now!” Stella points out dramatically.

“He’s just trying to avoid talking about his date with Becca.” Cassie teases you.

“I’m not. I already told you girls earlier that Becca and I had a lovely evening, didn’t I?” You answer.

“That’s it? Just a ‘lovely’ evening?” Stella teasingly asks, doing air quotes for ‘lovely’.

“What more do you girls want to hear?” You ask them, knowing exactly what they want to hear.

“DETAILS!” Stella answers in almost a shout.

“What kind of details?” Maddy asks Stella innocently.

“The ‘ee-er-ee-er’ kind, obviously.” Stella answers, while simulating sexual penetration with her fingers.

“And you want to hear about those details because…?” Maddy continues to ask.

“What do you mean ‘because’? Because details, Maddy!” Stella answers, getting tired of Maddy’s line of questioning.

“Oh.” Maddy reacts in embarrassment again, and you’re about to come to her defense when she adds, “I thought it was because you’re a cuck like Chad,” and the three of you react with your mouths agape at the boldness of Maddy’s burn.

Cassie raises her hand for a high five, and Maddy enthusiastically accepts it, and you give her one too just to encourage her not to just take shit from your daughter without dishing some of her own from time to time.

The three of you look back at Stella, whose face has scrunched up in exaggerated fury, making it obvious that she’s just playing the role of burn victim. Cassie picks up on this and playfully tells Maddy, “Run, Maddy. Don’t let her catch you. I can’t imagine what she might do.”, before grabbing Maddy’s wrist and running off with her.

“Get back here!” Stella shouts, before running after them like a schoolyard bully, leaving you the lone one not running.

“Teenagers.” You say with a chuckle under your breath, before starting your own run at your much slower pace compared to the three of them.

“Teenagers.” Brooke says while laughing in agreement, after you recount how the girls acted during your run this morning. It's not lost on you though that something similar happened with Brooke when she first joined you and the girls on a morning run.

Cassie and Stella went to the sports complex to get some volleyball training in, while Maddy went back to their apartment to help Tricia with some chores. Since the girls had their own things going on, you went to visit Brooke at the gym to continue your fitness journey.

Chad’s in the gym today too, and he was eager to continue training you today, but Brooke said she has you for today and Chad happily gave you and Brooke your privacy to train. It’s at the end of your workout that you and Brooke got to catch up, including you recounting what happened during your morning run with the girls.

“You never answered Maddy’s question though. How was your date with Becca last night?” Brooke then asks you. “If you only say it was ‘lovely’, I’m going to make you do legs tomorrow and fuck up your entire workout schedule.” Brooke adds to playfully threaten you to be more descriptive.

“She cooked. I ate. We played chess. I didn’t stand a chance in a single game. We played in bed after that. I thought I stood a chance there, and she almost killed me. We talked about not potentially killing me next time, before doing it again; and she almost killed me again. You know. Typical first date stuff.” You playfully recount your night with Becca, leaving out as much context as possible.

“Typical, huh?” Brooke asks teasingly, knowing full well that you’re being playful also. “So ‘I almost killed you during our first date’ is what you’re saying?” Brooke insinuates.

“Oh yeah. Are you kidding me? Any other man would have died of dehydration the amount of times I came—” You jokingly answer before Brooke covers your mouth out of nowhere.

“Yes, Karen?” Brooke addresses someone behind you.

“Are you available for a training session today, Brooke?” Karen asks her. “I had to reschedule today and I’m not going to have that pervert Chad be my trainer ever.” Karen comments.

“Yes. Of course.” Brooke answers her before looking at her watch. “Let’s say 10:30? I’ll just finish up on my current client.” Brooke tells her.

“Perfect. I need to go meet my daughter around lunch so I can’t do it later than that.” Karen answers.

“Great. How about you start with some stretches by our usual area and I’ll catch up with you shortly?” Brooke suggests, and Karen doesn’t push it further and leaves you two alone.

“Wow. The one time I do it, I summon an older version of Lizzie.” You joke as soon as Karen is out of earshot.

“Well, I gave us about another fifteen minutes before I have to train her. I’ll just see you at Viv’s later for lunch?” Brooke asks you.

“Yeah. Of course.” You tell her. “Oh, but hey, before we split up for now, how was it moving in with Viv?” You ask her about her time last night too.

“It was alright. Her guest bed’s okay for overnight stays, but I need to pick up my own bed from Courtney’s if I’m going to move in with her for the foreseeable future. I need better lumbar support.” Brooke answers, chuckling at her reasoning.

“So…” You start to say, since the topic of Courtney’s already been brought up. “How is she? Courtney, I mean.” You ask Brooke.

“She’s more distant with me. She opens the door and goes straight to her room to leave me alone. I joked that that was the dream ‘Courtney welcome’ for majority of my rooming with her, but it’s so jarring that it’s actually happening now; and it’s even more guilt-inducing knowing the reason why she’s doing it too.” Brooke answers.

“I have talked to Chad though, and I can confirm she’s found the app already and is testing out how real it might be.” Brooke adds, getting you to worry a little.

“How so?” You ask.

“She’s asked Chad to pick a number between zero to a hundred to represent her love and horniness for her.” Brooke answers.

“Subtle.” You sarcastically joke.

“Yeah, well, that’s Courtney. Queen of Subtlety.” Brooke jokes back, matching your sarcasm.

“Has she told Chad about finding the app?” You follow up.

“No. Seems like she’s playing it safe, and Chad’s probably not the best way to gauge the seriousness of the app anyway.” Brooke answers.

“What do you mean?” You ask to clarify.

“He told me the numbers he gave her were ‘three thousand’ for Love, and ‘Infinity times a million’ for horniness; and he didn’t back down from those figures even when Courtney asked him to be serious because he was, and I quote, ‘super serious about my off the charts feelings for her’, end quote.” Brooke tells you, and you both laugh at Courtney probably being infuriated by that, but also finding Chad’s exaggeration sweet. You both do wonder how high Chad’s scores are with Courtney, and if she gets a taste of buying traits because of it.

“That’s about it though. She hasn’t asked Chad about you, and she hasn’t mentioned to him how weird it must be for her that people are so accepting of you sleeping with your own daughter.” Brooke adds, and you just nod as a response, since you’ve all decided to give Courtney space anyway. As long as she isn’t getting suspicious of you and everyone’s perception of your relationship with Stella, then there’s no point of addressing it earlier than it needs to be.

“Are you just finishing up your sex talk with your client, Brooke? I’m done with my stretches, and if he’s just about done anyway, I’d rather we start earlier.” Karen comes up from behind Brooke, and she gives you a look that can only signify that she blames you for not having warned her.

“Now she thinks I’m a pervert too.” Brooke tells the group.

“Aren’t you a pervert, cum dump?” Viv teasingly asks her, and Brooke gives her a look of murderous intent, as Viv knew exactly why she shouldn’t have said it as Lizzie just arrived to bring in drinks; but your group pretty much share knowing looks with each other that she was summoned by the lewd conversation beforehand.

“Here’s your sugarcane juice, Chef Nguyen.” Lizzie says as she starts to serve the group their drinks, and obviously overhearing Viv call Brooke a cum dump.

“Thanks, Lizzie.” Viv thanks her for bringing her drink, and you and the others do the same when Lizzie gives you all your drinks. Just as Lizzie’s about to leave the private room, another waitress enters.

“Sorry to bother Chef Nguyen, but can I borrow Lizzie for a moment?” the other waitress asks.

“Of course. What’s it about though?” Viv answers.

“Um~...” The waitress answers, before you can hear someone shouting Lizzie’s name in the open area of the restaurant.

“Oh, shit. Mom.” Lizzie says in reaction, before immediately running out of the room. Viv stops herself from addressing the situation herself, as you all hear Lizzie’s mom stop calling for her after Lizzie exited.

“Her mom was better off saying something sexual if she wanted Lizzie to pop up.” Stella jokes, getting Cassie to playfully reprimand her but Cassie can’t hide how she finds it funny too.

“Oh, that reminds me, are you hiring by any chance, V? My sister and I were told to look for summer jobs while we’re staying here in the city.” Maddy asks her.

“Oof. Can’t help you there, M. Staff’s fixed for the next two months after the grand opening this Saturday.” Viv answers her.

“Becca?” Maddy then turns the question to Becca.

“Apologies, Maddy. The restaurants I run require previous service experience for your application to be in consideration.” Becca answers Maddy, before eyeing Viv to remind her that there are hiring policies.

“Oh right, that goes for me too, M.” Viv then jumps in. Maddy then looks towards Brooke who gives her an awkward smile at first.

“Chad pretty much does all the custodial stuff we need for free; and unless you or your sister have experience being fitness trainers… sorry, Maddy.” Brooke tells her.

“I can’t even help find my own mijas work, so don’t look at me, chica.” Tanya adds, before Maddy even gets the chance to look her way.

“Oh! I thought of something!” Stella excitedly perks up, and Maddy gets a hopeful look on her face too. “Paige just left her side job at the sports complex. Maybe they got something for you and Tricia to do there, Maddy.” Stella suggests.

“Okay! I’ll tell her about it. At least that gives us other options.” Maddy says excitedly.

“How is Nelly and Sofia’s job hunt going?” You ask Tanya.

“From what I can tell… nowhere.” Tanya answers, a worried sigh accompanying it. “They’ve sent applications to a few of the places that they want to work for, but none of them have gotten back to either of them yet.” Tanya replies.

“I might be able to help in that regard.” Becca then jumps in. “Ask your girls what company’s they sent their applications to and I’ll see what I can do to get them interviews.” Becca informs her.

“You’d do that?” Tanya asks.

“It’s not much, but it’ll get their foot in the door. It’s still up to them to impress.” Becca clarifies the extent of her help to Tanya.

“Ay! Es más que suficiente. ¡Muchas gracias, Becca!” Tanya gleefully thanks Becca.

All this work talk suddenly reminds you of something too…

An hour later, back at Jay’s Apartment

“Good afternoon, Mr. Craig. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Mrs. Sachs sent me to read over the draft of your manuscript with you?”