Watch you blowin' the lines when you're making a scene

Sylvia overflowed with anticipation as she transported herself to the location of Nick and Mary. They were very close together, so they could be getting up to all sorts of things! Her mind was racing with ideas.

No, I should measure my expectations, she reminded herself. We’re not talking about Carly or Gina here; Mary is a pure girl, she wouldn’t push the envelope too much.

It was okay to hope though, right? There was always that possibility that the shy little religious fanatic could be pushed just a little too far one day, and end up… well, pushing Nick too far.

Sylvia wiped the drool from her mouth. Imagining Nick pushing down Mary… it was tantalizing. In spite of how she pestered Mary, the redhead really was one of her favorites. She loved the pure ones the most. It was so fun, breaking them down and turning them into little sluts!

…At least that’s what her predecessor always said. And if she said it, it must be true, right? But there was so much more to Sylvia’s attachment to Mary than that! There were so many more reasons why the little farmgirl made for the perfect little breeding sow!

But those thoughts were for later! Right now, she would just sit back, relax, and enjoy the…

…Show?

Sylvia stared blankly at the sight she arrived at. Mary and Nick were together alright, but they weren’t exactly… together the way she’d hoped.

Never one to let a good picnic go to waste, Mary had spread out a tablecloth over part of the glass bottom where she prepared a meal for Nick’s enjoyment. The meal looked positively scrumptious! Pulled pork sandwiches slathered in barbecue sauce for the main course, with a side of assorted vegetables in neatly-packed Tupperware. She had a big bowl of creamy potato salad that she doled out in small portions for Nick’s health, and for dessert she’d prepared a few slices of homemade apple pie (the rest was cooling in the refrigerator back at the hotel; she’d prepared enough for everybody to have a piece.)

It looked good, it smelled good, it was damn near the perfect meal. Even Sylvia found herself drooling again when she took a look at it.

She quickly shook her head, remembering what was going on here.

This isn’t the time to be drooling! She chastised herself. This is a date! What’s this sappy picnic stuff!? This is what you asked for the tour boat for today? I’m frankly disappointed. Sylvia made a face and sat down across from the two of them as Mary served the food.

“I made sure to properly heat them, and store them in the right containers!” She explained. “The temperature should be perfect! Are the sandwiches still hot?”

“Yeah, these are delicious, Mary!” Nick was too hungry to concern himself with table manners, even though he was trying his best on the date. Mary’s food was just too good to take in small bites, he ended up getting a bit of sauce on his cheek as he ate.

Without hesitation Mary dabbed a napkin on her tongue and wiped it off. Only when she realized how intimate of a gesture that was did her face turn red, and Nick’s face reddened along with it. The two shared a look and then quickly averted their eyes, embarrassed.

Sylvia could puke.

“Ugh,” she muttered under her breath, even though the lovey-dovey couple couldn’t hear her. “Is this really what you two do with your time? Make goo-goo eyes at each other?”

Still… the food looked good. Mary might not have been up to anything scintillating, but this still scratched a very significant itch for Sylvia, one she didn’t even expect to find a need for.

I knew I was right, she thought as she watched Mary carefully fret over him. She’s such a housewife without even trying! It must be all the good Christian raising she went through, that’s gotta be it! Something like that just isn’t natural!

Mary was too damn good at being a loving mother. She wasn’t even pregnant yet and she practically radiated maternal energy like she’d been nuked by a mom bomb and waddled through the fallout buck naked.

Sylvia felt her eyes mist up. She… was she crying?

What are you doing? She chastised herself. Feeling all sappy, just because those two are enjoying their time together? How unprofessional is that?!

But there was more to it, and she knew that damn well. She just didn’t want to admit it. She averted her eyes and blushed.

Time skipped forward in Sylvia’s mind, like a movie reel someone was spinning ahead to see the ending of. She could picture it all. Mary in her wedding dress. Mary leaning down and getting kissed. Mary being pushed down on the bed and plowed into (that was one of Sylvia’s favorite parts).

For a lot of people, things would have stopped there. For Sylvia’s predecessor, maybe she would have been fine calling an end to things with the two of them hooking up and having sex, Mary’s corruption completed.

That was not the case here.

Sylvia’s fantasies skipped ahead. She envisioned Nick and Mary moving into a new house together, their first home. Mary’s belly was bulging, showing the signs of their first child. Sylvia licked her lips instinctively and traced her fingers over where her own womb would have been.

Then came the birth. It was difficult, because it was Mary’s first. But Nick was right there with her, holding her hand every step of the way. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how much Mary wanted to put a stop to it, she kept going, kept pushing, doing whatever she could to make sure that child was born safely.

When she was, Mary took her daughter into her arms and held her close, rocking her gently. “I love you,” Sylvia’s fantasy of Mary said. “I love you my little Sylvia.”

A tear rolled down Sylvia’s cheek as the fantasy fractured around her. She started to shake as her fantasy Mary, the loving mother rocking her newborn daughter, faded away and was replaced by the rosy-cheeked cowgirl sitting on the picnic blanket with Nick, gazing at him with stars in her eyes.

“Nick…” She murmured, placing her hand over his. She squeezed his hand tightly and pulled him into a close hug that caught him off-guard.

“Mary?!” Nick clearly hadn’t seen that coming. Sylvia hadn’t either. She blinked, snapping out of her haze, and rubbed her eyes to dry her tears. She couldn’t believe she’d been crying! What would the other hosts say?! What would the audience think?! This was the most unprofessional thing in the history of Harem Hotel!

…Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but Sylvia was a bit of a drama queen on her best day. She sobered up and dried her tears, and watched warily as Nick and Mary hugged, wondering what would come from this.

“Mary…” Nick stammered, not sure what to say.

“It’s okay that you don’t want to marry me,” she said, holding him close. Her voice trembled. “But I need you to know… how much I love you. Everything I did for you today… all this food I cooked for you, I wanted… I wanted you to see that if you had me as your wife, I would be the best wife I could be. And that still… isn’t enough for you?”

Nick winced. Sylvia could see the indecision on his face. She knew that expression well.

At his core, Nick was a selfish person. He’d lost so much in his life, he didn’t want to lose anything else. Especially not the things he’d gotten back, like Mary’s love. But he also knew that he couldn’t give her what she wanted because of his relationships with the other girls.”

“It’s fine, you know,” she whispered, sniffling. “I’m fine…”

Everyone could tell that she wasn’t.

“I love you…” The words sounded so much more hollow than they did that morning. They were no less true now than they were then, but for Mary, there was only so much her heart could take. She didn’t want to lose Nick… but she couldn’t give him what he wanted, and he couldn’t give her what she wanted.

“I’ll drop out of your harem like Holly did, if you want me to,” Mary murmured. “It’s not fair… to **** you to be with me.”

Sylvia’s eyes bulged out of her skull. Another voluntary withdrawal!? That was absolutely out of the question! She’d end up in the pit of fire snakes for sure.

“What are you talking about?!” Nick exclaimed, grabbing Mary by the shoulders. He hesitated when she flinched, but he kept her tight in his arms. “Mary, nobody asked you to do something like that!”

“Then what should I do?” Mary’s lip quivered and her voice trembled. “Nick… please, tell me, what should I do here? I love you… but you don’t want to marry me. I want… I want to get married!” She sniffled, bursting into tears. “I want to be a mom! But if I sleep with you out of wedlock, then I’ll be a sinner! So tell me, what am I supposed to do?!”

There were a lot of things in Mary’s heart that could give. Some things were negotiable. Others were not. Sylvia had anticipated that when it came to her religion, getting married to Nick, that was one of the negotiable things. That she’d bend to his wishes and go along with him if Sylvia pushed her hard enough.

But now she was talking about leaving the harem altogether, because she just couldn’t live with the idea of being with Nick and not really being with him. It was the worst-case scenario.

“Aargh! Mary! It’s not that complicated! You love him, don’t you?! To hell with marriage! It’s just some stupid words! All that matters is that you love each other, right?!” Sylvia wanted to scream those words at the top of her lungs. But even if she did, her voice was hidden from them. It would be a pointless endeavor.

“Mary… I-I don’t… I don’t want that…” Nick said softly. His eyes started to water as he wondered what he could do, to convince her to stay.

Sylvia turned a glare towards him. She wanted to **** that idiot!

“And you! This is all your fault!” She fought back the urge to spit those words in his face. “Acting like that?! Treating her like crap!? Saying you can’t get married?! Just take her into your arms already you moron!”

These two were fools of the worst kind. They were actually going to risk falling apart over something like this!?

Sylvia saw her fantasy of a white picket fence shatter. Nick and Mary holding each other as they welcomed their new baby into the world? Gone.

She refused to allow that. But there was nothing she could do. Not even the power of the Harem Hotel could fix stupid, sad as it was to admit.

The only one who could fix this issue was Nick himself.

And he clearly wasn’t ready to do it.

“Mary… I don’t want to break things off with you,” he said, taking her hand in his. “I love you. You know I do, so why are you saying stuff like this?”

“Because I want to get married,” Mary reminded him. “I want to be a mom! I’m ready to be a mom, but… if you won’t give me that, what should I do?”

A few hours ago she’d told him that she was fine with their relationship as it was. That she’d be willing to accept a life of never having sex with Nick, and just living a chaste relationship with him if that’s what he wanted.

She wanted that still. She really did. But the more time she had to sit here and think about that, the more she realized how wrong that sounded. Could she really live a life where she was never a mother? Where she never fulfilled her religious imperative to procreate?

Her transformation said no, and that’s all that mattered.

Which put her in a horrible place. No matter how much she wanted to be with Nick, if he wouldn’t give her the family that she wanted… could she really keep going down this path?

“I want to love you…” She sobbed, hanging her head in defeat. “I DO love you… but… but what can I do? What am I supposed to do?”

The answer was simple, throw aside her desire for marriage and just be with him. But her beliefs were the last part of her she had left to hold onto. Everything else had been changed. Her hair was long when she liked it short. Her slender figure had been plumped up, and now her boobs were lactating as well. She couldn’t even wear the clothes she wanted to wear; the transformations had taken that too.

But she still had her faith in God. That was what she could hold onto. And she clutched it tightly to her chest, afraid of what would happen if she let it go.

“Please understand… as much as I love you, Nick… without my faith… without my beliefs… what even am I?” She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, startling him with such a forward gesture. He never would have expected something so **** and passionate to come from her.

He felt her lips tremble against his, as if she was **** for his taste. He could feel her shaking in his arms, and realized then how fragile she was, like glass.

What should I do? Nick’s heart felt like someone had stabbed a knife through it. He didn’t have the courage to continue down this path, he didn’t have it in him to break someone’s heart. But if he married her… it would break the hearts of the people around him, too.

What was he supposed to do here? What was the right decision to make? He didn’t want to lose Mary, he loved her. But she was slipping away, like sand through an hourglass. There was only one way he could see keeping her in his life… but could he do it?

She wanted children. No, not just children, but a family. And Nick wanted to give that to her. But he felt like he was trapped by the hearts of the others.

If only she didn’t have that stupid transformation, that damn thing that compels her to have children, he cursed to himself. Then she wouldn’t be pressured like this!

Sylvia blinked, watching the two of them fall apart before her very eyes.

Wait… this isn’t my fault, is it? She started sweating. After all, she’d been the one to veto Mary’s transformation and **** her down the path of being obsessed with getting bred. Which had led to the irreconcilable position.

So… wasn’t this whole mess kind of completely her fault?

Well… shit. Oh crap. There was an unspoken rule among the Harem Hotel hosts, which was “do not make the harem fall apart.” The host’s job was to keep the harem together, and Mary was practically taking a sledgehammer to it! If the producers learned that Nick and Mary wouldn’t be able to get together because of a transformation SHE came up with, then…

Gyaagh! It’s the pit of fire snakes for sure! She screamed internally, pulling at her hair as if she could **** her brain to come up with an idea of how to save her ass.

Of course, the truth was a far more complex beast to wrangle. Nick knew he was hiding behind the transformation, because he knew Mary. Long before Harem Hotel was even a glimmer in their eye, before Mary cut things off completely and decided to never talk to him again, Mary had wanted a family. A big family with lots of kids.

She hadn’t needed a transformation to compel her to procreate. She’d wanted that from the start. The transformation just worked her up and made her even more **** to be bred, which was hardly Sylvia’s fault!

Some things were nonnegotiable with Mary, and children was one of them.

Hmm… yeah, that’s right! Sylvia nodded, calming down slightly as she considered that possibility. Now that I’m thinking a little clearer, these two were always destined to come to this crossroad regardless of what I did! So it isn’t my fault! Does Nick marry her and have kids? Or do they have to split off forever?

She turned her focus to Nick, desperately trying to will the correct answer into his head.

“MARRY ALL OF THEM, YOU MORON!” She shouted mentally into his brain. But sadly, in spite of her countless abilities, there was one thing that still escaped her, and that was the power to directly influence Nick’s mind.

She’d have to have a long talk with him about what he wanted. Somewhat like when he was seeing her as a therapist, in fact. That would be the best thing for him, if she could help him see that it didn’t have to be either-or. They both thought that a harem was incompatible with things like marriage, but it didn’t have to be that way! Why couldn’t they see that?!

Sylvia clutched her cane tightly and hoped that things wouldn’t fall apart too much before then. Nick and Mary were on shaky ground as it was; if she stepped in now, she could put them on the right path, but she couldn’t do that. This was Mary’s date, and if Sylvia interfered with it to try and **** an outcome, then she’d be accused of collusion.

The thought of what would happen if the producers found her guilty of that sent a shiver down her spine and made her feel sick to her stomach.

Nope! No thank you! I like you, Nick, but I’m not going to risk the cessation of my existence! Sylvia’s love for Nick could only go so far… right?

She didn’t want to think about what she would do for his sake, either.

So the only thing Sylvia could do was pray. Pray that things didn’t get any worse by the time the date ended. Only praying to God wasn’t exactly her style.

The only people she had to pray to were the producers, and… that wasn’t something she wanted to do in the slightest.

Or her creator. Her predecessor. But that would be even worse.

“Mary…”

Nick pulled back from Mary and brought a napkin to her eyes to wipe away her tears. Mary looked at him in surprise, not expecting such a tender gesture.

“Don’t give up on me yet,” he pleaded. “I’ll think of something. I promise. I don’t want to lose you no matter what!”

Mary wanted to believe him, she really did. But his words fell on ears that had heard too many promises.

“I’ll… I’ll try to believe in you…” She nodded, hoping that her faith in Nick could last. Nick could see the hesitation and doubt in her eyes.

If he was going to come up with a solution, it would have to be fast. Otherwise, their relationship would fall apart.

But even if he wanted to marry her… which he was becoming more and more convinced that he did… he couldn’t marry all the girls, could he?

…

Could he?