He tries to start small.

Joseph coughed awkwardly. "I, uh, I've been having some, um, money problems..."

She gasped. "Oh my gosh! That's terrible! How much do you need? I left my wallet at home-"

He looked at Beth, who nodded. It was now or never. "Actually, I'm kinda struggling to make my mortgage payment. I probably need at least, ah, five grand?"

She stared at him blankly for a moment before breaking into a smile. "Of course, Joseph! I'll have to run to the bank but I have some funds squirreled away for just this kind of thing." Beth grinned behind her and fist-pumped.

"Ok, thank you... I'll pay you back as soon-"

She cut him off. "Pay me back? Don't be ridiculous! This is a gift, not a loan. The idea of you being foreclosed on is terrible! Let me move some money around and I'll be back shortly with a check." She started to leave but Beth stopped her.

"Wait, hold on a second. Joseph, we should tell her." Beth looked to Joseph who shook his head vigorously.

"Tell me what?" She asked with confusion.

Joseph started to reply but Beth interrupted him again. "Joseph, if it's really working on her - and I think we can be pretty sure it is - it won't bother her knowing. Trust me, it can't bother her. That's one of the side effects, I think. I noticed that I can't really bring myself to disagree with anything you do. Whatever you do is to make yourself happy, and so it makes me happy. I guess if you were under duress or something I wouldn't like it, but otherwise everything you do is ok." She turned to the increasingly puzzled Ellie. "You're good just giving him five grand, right? Even though he's a complete stranger?"

Ellie scowled at her. "Not that it's any of your business, but yeah. If he needs five grand and I can give him five grand, why shouldn't I?" She turned back to Joseph. "If you need more, just say so. I can work something out."

Beth nudged Joseph with her foot, so Joseph sighed and reluctantly began to explain. "Ellie, something weird is happening. When I touch people, it's like they get this compulsion to - I don't know, look out for me? Help me? What would you call it, Beth?"

"Do everything we can to make your life better and to make you happy?" She replied.

"Yeah, that. So I think when you bumped into me, you got that compulsion too. Why else would you offer so much money to me?"

Ellie thought about it for a second. "Yeah, that makes sense. Now that I think about it, I pretty much can't think of anything I wouldn't do for you. I don't even know your last name, but I would destroy my entire life to make you happy." She frowned as she spoke. "That's weird. It's also weird that it doesn't bother me."

A look of comprehension dawned on her face as she put the pieces together. "Ok, so now you've got me in your house. We both know I'll do anything at all that you want. I assume your friend here - Beth, was it? - is in the same situation. It's pretty obvious where this is all going. So what do you want, Joseph?"