Pursuit of Happiness, Pt. 3

“You should get the trait.” Stella tells Cassie. To most of everyone’s shock, including yours, Stella agrees to Cassie’s proposal for acquiring a trait.

“Stella… I… you don’t have to…” Cassie stumbles with her words, taken by surprise by Stella’s openness to her idea.

“I know I don’t have to. I choose to.” Stella assures Cassie. “That’s how I know how crazy I’ve been trying to fix this too. I tried to convince Dad to buy you a trait without you knowing too. To not give you a choice and **** what I wanted our relationship to be… That’s just dishonesty on top of dishonesty and I hate myself for even considering it.” Stella admits.

“Wouldn’t you agreeing to this mean I’m forcing you to want the relationship that I want?” Cassie asks.

“No.” Stella answers confidently. “I’ve wanted what I wanted with Dad even before he bought the ‘****’ trait. All it did was to stop me from guilting over it. I think you were onto something when you thought about this, because all ‘polyamory’ will do is stop me from comparing my love for you with my love for Dad. It removes the complications and fears that I think about when I consider being in a more romantic relationship with you. It doesn’t mean I’ll immediately love you the same way, it’ll just mean I’m more open to it.” Stella explains.

“Stella, that’s… I don’t deserve you.” Cassie says with an appreciative smile that makes the tears in her eyes suddenly less somber.

“Of course you do.” Stella immediately rebuts. “That’s why we’re doing this.” Stella adds, before booping Cassie on the nose with her index finger. The two girls smile at one another, before closing in on another hug.

As you and your girlfriends witness the two girls fix their relationship in front of all of you, you all can’t help but smile a little bit too.

…

“Jay?” Cassie addresses you, once she and Stella separate. “How short are we on points?” Cassie asks.

“Normalized Polyamory is 350 Love Points. We are currently ~at — 25. Affection Points. 0 Love or Lust Points. In short, we’re very short.” You answer, trying to bring some levity knowing how your answer would immediately bring everyone’s mood down.

“Will you be okay to farm points for us?” Cassie asks.

“As long as it doesn’t steal any significant time I could spend with all of you, then no.” You answer.

“Will you be okay if we’re a little bit more awkward in the meantime?” Cassie then asks Stella.

“I guess ‘a little bit more awkward’ is our new normal until then.” Stella answers with a smile, and she and Cassie both accept that’s more than they could have hoped for after their conversation last night.

“Viv,” Cassie then calls out to Viv.

“Yeah?” Viv asks curiously.

“Thanks.” Cassie says with genuine appreciation.

“You’re… ~welcome?” Viv asks, obviously fishing for the reason behind Cassie’s gratitude.

“Thanks for calling a meeting as soon as you found out… for talking some sense into me… for everything.” Cassie explains, and Viv actually blushes upon hearing Cassie’s reason.

“Oh!” Viv reacts in surprise. “It was nothing! That’s what co-girlfriends do, right?” Viv adds, obviously appreciative of Cassie’s words but embarrassed at being singled out. Cassie continues to give her an appreciative smile, and Viv gives her a nod to truly acknowledge Cassie’s gratitude.

“And I’m sorry, Brooke.” Cassie then says.

“Sorry? What for?” Brooke asks, surprised.

“You called this meeting and I basically hijacked it from you.” Cassie explains.

“You’re also the first one to make sure to not beat myself up over my mistakes.” Brooke reminds Cassie. “Like Viv said, that’s what co-girlfriends do.” Brooke assures her that there’s nothing to apologize for.

“I just feel like I keep doing it. First it was the thing with Mr. Hoffman right before your date with Jay, then this… we haven’t even finished discussing—” Cassie continues to apologize, before Brooke interrupts her.

“Stop.” Brooke tells her. “Stella was right. You really need to listen to your own wisdom a lot more, Cassie. You don’t need to take the blame for things beyond your control. None of what you said was on you.” Brooke adds, as she places a hand on her shoulder. Cassie turns to her and gives her a hug, which Brooke happily returns.

“Honestly, I need to thank you too.” Brooke says as they hug. “If you and Stella can talk your problems through, it gives me hope that Courtney and I could too.” Brooke adds.

…

“I just need to find her first.” Brooke remarks with a tinge of worry, as she and Cassie separate from their hug.

“Consider her found.” Becca surprises everyone with her bombshell.

“What do you mean?” Brooke asks in surprise.

“The moment you said you couldn’t find her, I cashed in a favor from one of my contacts to look for her.” Becca explains, and you figure that’s what she was doing on her phone earlier.

“You can do that!?” Maddy reacts in what you can only describe as a mix of fear and admiration.

“A perk of rubbing shoulders with the unsavory back at Dorsia. I may no longer have anything to do with the place, and as unsavory as some of them are, their word is their bond — and my contact honors their debts.” Becca explains.

“You scare me sometimes.” You can’t help but tell Becca, utterly amazed.

“Only sometimes?” Becca asks, giving you a teasing smirk that does scare you a little bit more, but also weirdly arouses you.

“I didn’t know you had connections to the Lannisters.” Viv jokes, to no reaction from everyone. “Get it? Cuz her contact always pays their— you guys are no fun.” Viv tries to continue her joke, before finally giving up on it.

“Have you ever considered you’re not funny?” Stella teasingly jokes with Viv.

“Offense taken! I’m hilarious!” Viv jokes back.

“Okay! I’m calling it. ‘Tangent’!” Brooke finally intervenes, unable to stop herself from chuckling, as it feels like everything’s going to be alright again. “How long will it take to find her?” Brooke then asks Becca afterwards.

“He sent me her location a few minutes ago.” Becca answers nonchalantly.

“AND YOU’RE ONLY TELLING US NOW!?” Brooke asks incredulously.

“It didn’t seem prudent to disrupt Cassie and Stella.” Becca answers calmly.

“Oh… right. Sorry for shouting.” Brooke quickly apologizes, and Becca waves it off to say she didn’t take any offense.

“Courtney’s at the Capital City Public Library.” Becca informs Brooke.

“The library!?” Brooke reacts in shock. “What the fuck is she doing there?” Brooke asks.

“My contact unfortunately can’t give me an update about that. He’s only tracking Courtney’s location through her phone.” Becca answers, and Maddy audibly gasps at the revelation.

“People can do that!?” Maddy asks in innocent panic, as she grips her smartphone tightly.

“That’s not all they can do, Maddy. They can even go through your internet history if they want to.” Viv teasingly scares Maddy, who shrieks in panic this time and drops her phone because of it. Viv immediately laughs hysterically.

“What websites have you been visiting, you naughty girl?” Viv asks her teasingly.

“We need to go.” Brooke tells you specifically, and you give her a nod in response.

“I’m coming with you.” Stella informs you and Brooke.

“Me too.” Cassie adds.

“Unfortunately for Vivian and I, we have to stay here. The opening is only a few hours away and we can’t risk not being here.” Becca replies.

“I can be locked in the walk-in and things will still run smoothly, right?” Viv jokingly asks Becca.

“Don’t you dare, Vivian.” Becca replies threateningly.

“~Fine. I’ll have to sit this one out too.” Viv tells you and Brooke, playing up her disappointment by crossing her arms and frowning like a spoiled child who's just been told ‘no’.

“I think you and Maddy should stay, T.” Brooke then tells Tanya. “We don’t want to overwhelm Courtney anyway, and I’m pretty sure you two have guests tonight that you’d want to help prepare too.” Brooke explains, referring to Tanya’s twins and Maddy’s grandparents being part of the guest list to tonight’s opening. Maddy and Tanya don’t argue Brooke’s logic and they both give her nods that they understand.

“Good luck on your talk with her, Brooke.” Maddy remarks, before giving Brooke a supportive hug.

“I’ll update the four of you if Courtney’s on the move.” Becca says supportively. “Though I understand that, for Brooke’s sake, nipping this in the bud would be ideal — hence my initiative to find Courtney as soon as possible — know that this is not a do-or-die mission. If the four of you can’t make it back on time for the opening, we will have other opportunities to convince her. We don’t want you to miss celebrating tonight. Tonight is more than just for Vivian and I. It’s for all of us.” Becca reminds all of you, and you and Brooke both nod in understanding.

“Good luck.”

Meanwhile, at the Capital City Public Library…

“Can you not fucking stare at me while you jerk off?” Courtney addresses a creep a few seats away from her, but with no other library-goer in between them — and no one else even remotely near them — that the creep could stare at Courtney indiscriminately while masturbating. The creep doesn’t budge despite Courtney’s request and just continues to lustfully stare at her, as he indiscriminately jerks his member from underneath his sweatpants.

“Jesus Christ, you have a computer in front of you. Just watch porn you fucking creep.” Courtney adds in annoyance. She turns back to her monitor when the creep doesn’t relent, as she tries reading the internet article about ‘mind-control’ she found by googling.

*rub-rub-rub-rub*

*rub-rub-rub-rub*

*rub-rub-rub-rub*

“You fucking creep! I’m gonna—” Courtney shouts, having had enough of hearing the sound of frantic masturbation. However, she stops when she realizes there’s a woman in the seat next to her now, blocking her view of the creep. The woman has a smirk on her face, and a confident nonchalance as she gives Courtney a once over.

“So… what’s so interesting about you?”