A day of hope?

Emily

James received a message on his phone and went to his room. And I was alone again. I sat on his couch and pondered. I was in love, wasn't I? Not love in a sexual way, no, I don't care about his body. But I care about him. But he doesn't seem to love me... I mean, it makes sense, I told him not to love me for so long that he probably ruled me out from the start. Well whatever, I might need Amber's help with that now. I wanted to write her, but suddenly I got a message from dad.

'You'll be with James Saturday, Monday, and New Years, right?'

'Yeah.'

'Just stay with him the entire time. It's better not to have you here with all the business meetings I have.'

'I'll ask him, if he says no I'm coming home. I'll grab some stuff later, I don't want to wear the same three shirts for the rest of the week.'

'If he knows what's good for him, he'll say yes and buy you some extra clothes.'

'Dad, remember how much he used and uses our services? I don't know how much money he really has left.'

'You stay with him, I don't care.'

Whatever, I'll ask James first. I entered his room and... oh god he was masturbating. I don't think he noticed me but still. Well quite frankly, with how inviting James has been so far, I don't think I need to ask for permission to stay. So the only other thing I can really do is stage a heist. I got into my truck and drove 'home'. Two women were standing outside. They wore rather skimpy clothes and were smoking as I walked by them.

They looked at me and started talking "Ah, the old guy hired more?" "Don't worry honey, he's done quickly and tips well."

"You like him?"

"Can't help but feel sorry for old guys like him. Rich and probably lost his wife a couple years ago. At some point they want some action again."

Ugh, with what money, dad? In any case, going inside only confirmed my suspicions. He hired a bunch of whores and had some fun. Good on him I guess, but a waste of money if you ask me. I sneaked past his room and quickly grabbed a variety of tops, underwear, pants, socks, and an extra jacket. I took some of my laundry too, since there wasn't a lot left in my closet. I'd have to wash most of my stuff at James' place but I think he'll be fine with it. I wanted to leave my room, when it seems like dad had noticed me. He stood in the door frame, obstructing my escape.

"I told you not to come, Em."

"Dad, I'm not judging. I'll be out of your hair in a second, I just want to be presentable to my boyfriend."

"So he agreed?"

"Yes, excitedly. Now let me go and you can go back to your 'business meeting'."

"Hmph, alright. But next time..."

"Yeah I know. Won't happen again. Have fun dad, bye."

With that, I got out. Phew. Seems like the word boyfriend really did it. With that, I quickly drive back. James seems to have left as well, and I simply started my laundry. Fresh clothes are wonderful. But looking at them maybe I do need new ones soon. They are still whole, but years of wearing and washing made the colors bland. The pink shirt I'm wearing used to be a bright and powerful pink, and now it's closer to gray than pink... If dad has any money left after this, I'll see what I can afford. James also has a dryer, which was great. I started the laundry and parked my fresh clothes next to his bed. I guess it's our bed now. Maybe I should have asked him before... If he didn't want me here it would be better to just live in the city house. He's been kind enough to me, I should be able to take the risk.

Seems like he forgot his wallet here. And he still had a fifty in there. I gave an old friend a call.

"Hey Doug."

"Hi Emily... how's it going?"

"Decently well. Listen, I know it's Christmas, but can I come over real quick? A friend of mine needs to copy his office key four times."

"Uh sure, business is tight at the moment, I can't exactly say no. When will you be there?"

"Twenty minutes. It's still fifty bucks, right?"

"Yeah, I'll only raise prices next year."

"Now you're making me feel bad... But the sooner the better, so I'll have to take up the offer now."

"It's fine, Emily. See you soon."

Trinton is huge, but you can get everywhere easily, by foot, car, or train. The city is truly a transportation wonder. It took me only twenty minutes to drive the other edge of town to Doug's workshop.

"Hope I'm not ruining some family time?"

"Nah, the missus is off to see her side of the family with the kids. Never really got along with her side, all very posh. You?"

"Dad does business meeting during the holidays, but I had a few business friends who were just as lonely as me on Christmas, so we kinda celebrated together. The whole thing was rather spontaneous though, so it feels a bit different."

"I get it, but better to be in any company than alone, I say. At least during the holidays."

"Yeah you're right." We chatted a bit more while he was working, talking about the old times of our business relationship. When you help clear out or renovate houses, you're going to meet a locksmith sooner or later, so he knew me since I was little.

"The keys are finished. Do you want any kind of engravings?" I took out my wallet and I still had a twenty. Bingo.

"Yeah, one letter on each key. C, D, E, and L. On the original, an I would be fitting"

"Huh, weird set of letters."

"Yeah he's expanding. Not sure about what the letters mean but... that's what he wanted."

"Alright then, pleasure doing business with you."

"Thanks, bye."

Ahhh, it felt good being productive. And not just because I felt like I had something to do, it felt a bit like giving back to him. Soon enough, I was back. I grabbed some left-over goose from the fridge and started eating when James came back. What had he been up to?

James

God, Christine was so hot. I could sense the desperation in the video of her masturbating. And it seems the danger of getting caught and the fact that I put her in that danger really turned her on, too. Maybe I should actually be with her right now... But no, I had other plans. I wanted to visit the GRC offices. Yes it's Christmas, but I wanted to visit anyway. I was less here to talk and more so to check out how the office looked and ran. Seems like Em left already. Wish she had told me a goodbye, but I guess she couldn't stand it any longer.

It took me about fifteen minutes to walk there. I had left my wallet at home, but my father's access card was all I needed anyway. I swiped the card and... denied. Damn, that sucks. Suddenly, a woman parked her car right in front of the office and got out.

"What are you doing here?"

"Uhm, trying to get in but I got denied."

"Lemme see..." she grabbed my father's card from my hand.

"I assume you're James, then? The new owner?"

"Yeah..."

"About time you showed up. I'll let you in, you'll need a new card anyway."

"Thanks."

"My name is Ophelia by the way. I'm in charge of IT stuff, mainly security." Ophelia -32SP Oh. dear. Somehow I had forgotten all about the potential to meet new women. I'm glad I spoke to Em about expansion. We went inside the office building.

"If you don't mind me asking... Why are you here? It's Christmas, I expected this to be empty."

"Sigh... The servers are having issues at the moment, I have to fix them." Ophelia +4SP (-28SP) "But what about you? Came to visit an empty office?"

"I guess? I didn't really have time to visit this place yet, so I figured I might as well."

"Once I'm done I can give you a little tour. Come back after New Years if you want to see people other than me." Ophelia +3SP (-25SP)

"Will do. Uhm, if you don't mind me asking... Has my father ever... approached you? I'm kind of realizing that I never even brought up this place during the investigations..."

"You father never visited us, and that's exactly what we told some police officers weeks ago."

"I'm glad you could stay out of his clutches."

"I'll take care of the servers now. You go ahead and do whatever. You own this office anyway, not like I can stop you."

I looked around the office. It was well maintained, but rather compact and bland. There was a cubicle where four people could work together. None of the work spaces looked like they were cleaned up, but they were not chaotic either. This was kind of what I wanted. A snapshot of the office here. On the cubicle walls, one of the employees put a photo of his wife and kids, another had a funny cartoon. Ophelia came back quickly.

"Well, this is the main area, where the normal people work. I work in the basement with the servers. Over there is the break room. That's about it, this is a small office. Now come down with me please, I printed you a new access card." In the basement she handed me a card. It had my name on it but otherwise it looked identical. "I'll take your father's card and destroy it. Say... What about your brother?"

"Hm?"

"He helped out a lot here too. I heard he's also in prison. Should he still have access?"

"Deactivate it for now because I have no clue where that card is. Maybe he still has it, in the worst case he forgot it at home and his now ex-wife has it."

"He's divorced?" Ophelia was weirdly ecstatic.

"Yeah his wife cheated on him."

"I always told him so... When do you think he'll be back?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I... may have tried flirting with him a little. He told me he was married... Just... trying to see if I still have a chance." Ophelia +9SP (-16SP) This is going to get complicated, isn't it?

"I don't know how long, but certainly years. The verdict will happen after New Years, the judge is on holiday. Even then... I can't give the company to him anymore, he has no position here as future owner. By law ownership can only be passed down. So even once he's free I have no idea if you'll ever see him again. Might be a good idea to get him out of your head, I'm afraid."

"I don't give up that easily. That's how I made it as a woman in IT, and that's how I'll go about my love life." The fact that she's registered in the app tells me that she'll beg for my cock before Bartholomew even returns.

"In any case, thanks for the tour, Ophelia. I'll be back in the new year. Anything I should know beforehand?"

"Not that I can think of, bye."

We left the office and I walked home. To my surprise, Em was here, eating.

"Em? I thought you left already?"

"Not really. I had to grab extra clothes from my dad's place."

"Huh, why?"

"He asked me to stay here until the new year. Wants to have the home for himself."

"B-But... other people will move in here."

She looked sad. "If I bother you a lot, I'll go to the city house."

"No, it's alright I guess. But you should know by now what I want to do with these women. And you'll have to stay in Laura's bed until she returns. If he keeps you here longer... Well I can only offer the couch."

"It's better than staying home, no need to worry." The washing machine beeped. "I needed to do my laundry, I hope it's okay."

"If you stay that long, it was inevitable, right?"

"Oh by the way, I stole fifty bucks from your wallet and got you these..." Em handed me four keys with engravings on them, one for each woman living here soon.

"That was quick, thanks Em."

After having dealt with her laundry, Em returned to the table, where I had begun eating.

"James, am I... boring?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, you don't do anything all day. Are you sure I'm not keeping you from anything?"

"Not at all, Em. I just had... nothing planned for the holidays. I'm searching for stuff to do, but I don't know what you'd like to do. Do you want to go anywhere?"

"Not really honestly..."

"Yeah me neither."

"What do you usually do when you're bored?"

"Well, I'm never bored. The company, my job, and all my friends usually give me enough to do all day. What do you do?"

"I'm never bored either."

"Guess we're stuck in the same boat, huh?"

Author's note: With this, I have released 100 chapters! I hope you enjoy this story so far.