He knows a good restaurant

Gulping, Josh tries his best to calm himself down. "Why don't we go to that Italian restaurant down the street? It has been a while since we went there."

"The one run by your friend's family? Hm... It's true that I have been craving pasta lately. By car or on foot?" Monica asks.

"Let's walk there. It's not that far anyway." He does have a car, parked in the basement, but using a car means he can't fully show off his sister, can he?

"My brother is truly a pervert who wants to show off his dripping-probably-pregant-sister. I can't believe it." Monica shakes her head. Josh chuckles at her words.

"You still love me anyway." Josh counters.

"That I do." Monica then kisses him before pulling her brother's hand to hurry him up. Leaving the apartment and going down inside the lift, Josh feels something nagging his mind. Upon leaving the building, Josh finally realizes what is bugging him.

Looking at the apartment building, Josh wonders if it is just him or is the building bigger than what he previously remembers? ... Nah, that can't be true... right?

His hand on Monica's hips, Josh observes the buildings around him as he walks and talks with his sister, trying to see if there is any actual changes to the city or if it's just his feelings. He hasn't forgotten his petty goal of showing off his sister to the passeby on the street, though now something else also has partially taken hold of his attention.

As the siblings walk down the street and Josh basks in the stunned stares of the passerby or the occasional envious looks, he notices that some of the buildings around his neighborhood have been replaced, or becoming bigger. There is a new big ice cream parlor taking up the whole corner of the block, and what used to be several neighboring rival stores have instead fused into a single big building. It confuses Josh on how this could have happened, but the more he looks, the more he has an idea about the reason.

Eventually, they arrive at their destination, only for Josh to see double the size of the modest-sized family restaurant that he remembered. Entering the not-so-packed restaurant, the siblings take a seat as they wait for the menu. In the meantime, Josh looks around at the enlarged space, looking for clues, while Monica instead opens her phone and finally chats with her friends again after hours of being out of contact due to the intense sex session.

Josh remembers that the building next to the restaurant that now is missing used to be a sportswear shop, selling sports gear and so on. If he recalls correctly, the owner of the shop is the cousin of the restaurant's owner, their grandfather dividing his assets between his two sons in his will. Looking closely at the family photos that decorated the walls, Josh finds no trace of said cousin. He sees a photo of the owner's family. There is him, a woman Josh presumes to be his wife, Josh's friend, Lorenzo, and Lorenzo's little sister.

Frowning, Josh is sure Lorenzo's mother is a redhead last time he came here and saw the photos, same as Lorenzo's sister. But now both of them are brunette?

Focusing his eyes on the photos, Josh starts to go backwards in the family photos. He sees young Lorenzo back when his friend was but a kid, a few photos of Lorenzo and his sister together, then finally a young Lorenzo's dad standing proudly in front of the restaurant with his 'new' wife, a baby Lorenzo, and a middle-aged couple that is obviously Lorenzo's grandparents. Still no trace of the cousin. Going further back, Josh sees another middle-aged couple with younger Lorenzo's grandparents, and... their own baby boy? Oh, now Josh gets it.

Instead of two sons, Lorenzo's great-grandparents have a son and a daughter instead, all according to the rules he has set up. That would make Lorenzo's great-grandpa not having to divide his inheritance between his children. Since sibling **** is the norm, Lorenzo's grandparents ended up marrying each other, their children being Lorenzo's parents who continued the family business. This would explain the change to the city layout as well.

Having a son means someone that could possibly continue the family business, and keeping it inside the family means no need to give out part of the inheritance to outside the family, though Josh presume multiple sons will still carry their own disadvantages. With how things changed though, Josh concludes it's more likely that some sons are changed into daughters instead of more daughters being born. Suddenly Josh feels relieved that he has a sister, not a brother, or else he might have gotten genderbent.

After further thoughts, the revelations make Josh frowns a little. If his changed rules have changed Lorenzo's family, what about his own family?

Opening his own phone, Josh searches his photo gallery to find clues regarding his own possibly changed family. Nothing has changed about him or Monica's appearance as far as he remembers, meaning their genetic make-up shouldn't have changed as well. Scrolling his phone, Josh looks at the numerous photos until something catches his eyes. It is a picture of what seems to be a family tree with photos added to it.

There are him and his sister, Monica. His father, Derek, his mother, Linda, his aunt, Lara, and his uncle, William. All of them are siblings, which doesn't surprise Josh that much after he is now used to the new reality. What does pique his interest is that his aunt, who used to be his mother's younger sister, is now married to his uncle, who used to be his father's younger brother as well, with a 11 years old son and 9 years old daughter. Aunt Lara has no intent to marry just yet in the unchanged reality, while Uncle William seems to be married to his job, but here they are both married to each other with 2 children.

Looking further up the family tree, Josh sees that he only has one set of grandparents, as he expected. But instead of a Grandma Liz, he now has a Grandma Anne instead, who obviously is his grandfather's sister. Josh wonders with how some families got folded in due to the changed reality, if his parents somehow used to be related to each other further up the line as distant cousins or something, though he guess it doesn't matter now.

His musing is interrupted by a familiar sound coming to his table. "Ah, look who has decided to show his face here again?"

Turning his head, Josh sees his friend Lorenzo walking to the table with a friendly grin.

"Sorry it took a while. We are short on staff at the moment since Maria has to take pregnancy leave." Lorenzo explains why no waiter has come to their table yet.

"Ah, no problem, man. It's okay." Josh waves his hand. He remembers that Maria is Lorenzo's sister, which means... "Oh, congrats for you and your sister."

"Thanks, Josh. I appreciate it. Oh, what about you and Monica? Have you two decided if you gonna have children?" Lorenzo asks back.

"As a matter of fact, we have. Josh finally decided he wants to impregnate me just this morning. I am 100% sure I am already pregnant at this moment." Monica answers as she stares accusingly at her brother, though it has no real heat behind it.

Whistling, Lorenzo slaps Josh's shoulder in excitement. "Now that's my bro! I thought you will never pull through!"

"I thought I told you I gonna wait until Monica is finishing her college?"

"Well, true. But still nice to have some confirmation." Lorenzo shrugs while grinning widely. "Anyway, congrats, Josh! You too, Monica!"

"Thanks, Lorenzo." Monica smiles happily at the words. It seems she is actually very happy at the prospect of being pregnant.

"Okay, enough chit-chat. The usual stuff, Josh? Pasta for you, Monica?" Lorenzo asks as he puts a pen on his notepad.

Both him and Monica say yes in confirmation, upon which Lorenzo leaves to bring their order to the kitchen. Left on their own again, Monica returns to chat with her friends, while Josh looks back at the picture of his new family tree in this changed reality. Feeling curious about how his changes have affected the wider world, Josh decides to look it up in the internet.