Will you be my girlfriend?

Crystal has grown on you. Back at MicroStuff, you'd thought of her as the incompetent bimbo only hired because she has a great figure and blond hair down to her calves. You were wrong... maybe she struggled a little with some of the code but she wasn't a ditz and she fucked like... well, like nobody you'd ever been with. Not that your sample size was especially large.

"Listen, Crystal," you say, "you don't need to be jealous of the other girls. They're with me for their own reasons but... I... I'd like it if you were my girlfriend."

The look she gives you is not exactly what you were hoping for. Not that you really expected her to jump up and down or anything but surely a smile and nod wouldn't be too much to expect.

"Danger is supposed to make people horny," she says. "And we're certainly in danger. But don't be an idiot, Mike. From what you've told me, those girls are smart. Which means that they have options. If they're hanging with you, that means they're interested in you, not just riding you for their dissertations. Besides, how long has it been since Amber dumped you? You need at least six months before you know whether you like someone or you're just rebounding."

You consider telling Crystal what a bitch Amber was but reject the idea. You don't want her to think you're the kind of guy who does **** porn or anything.

"So, you're saying we're just a fling, a one-night-stand?"

She grabs you by your hair and pulls your face up to where hers is. "Don't be pathetic, Mike. One thing I can tell you, desperation is the biggest turnoff any girl ever sees. You're on a roll, girls are flocking to you, and that's hot for us. Don't spoil it by getting whiny."

You reach up and untangle her fingers from your hair. "You know, I think we'll have this conversation again... after we fuck MicroStuff over and learn to control the earthquakes."

She grins. "Now that's more like it. Now get on your phone and call your girlfriends. We need a council of war and you need to call it before one of them does because I'm not banging some beta-boy."

You let her make breakfast while you call Mara, Anna and Stacy, setting up a meeting in the afternoon.

The two of you brainstorm about possible programming ideas while you eat... creating an earthquake by fucking certainly indicates you've got something by the tail but exactly what set it off and whether you can transform that energy into something a bit more controlled remains unclear... and the idea of just running code to see if it'll work strikes you as really dangerous.

After breakfast, you decide to head to the library to see if Elizabeth has learned anything about your personal conspiracy theory.