Work, a talk with Johnathan, and having a friend over.

The next day, you got the email you were expecting. You’re not sure why Mrs. Reed would send this on a Sunday, but from your short talks with her and Lilian’s complaints, she might be a bit of a workaholic. Anyway, the email details the finer points of the work you’ll be doing, along with sending the texts you need to translate.

You’ll be getting paid for every text you get done, and as a first test, Mrs. Reed sent three. You skim through them and realize that, while you might need to use the dictionary in a few places, this is doable. But before you get to work, there’s something else you need to do.

You sit in front of your computer and send an email to your brother, saying you need to speak with him about business and that this might interest him personally. Only thirty minutes later do you get a call from him. That’s good, since he’s the one with money for overseas calls.

“Hello?”

“Hello, little brother! I hope I’m not calling at a bad time?”

“Far from it. Now it’s perfect.”

“I wish we could talk more but these calls are expensive. Now, what kind of business could you of all people have for me?” Jonathan says with a chuckle.

“This is personal business. Not to you as part of dad’s company, but with you as a natural person.”

“Are you trying to sell me something?”

“I am. And it’s something no one else can offer you.”

“Alright. You’ve got my attention, Dave. Hit me.”

“I apologize that I can’t disclose everything, but all you need to know is that I’ve acquired a certain… ability. One I’ve used for myself and I can share with others.”

“You’re getting esoteric.”

“That’s my intent.” You sigh. “The truth is, Jonathan, that I need money. A lot. Not because I’m in debt, but because I have a big project coming up. I took a well-paying job, but it won’t be enough.”

“You’re not planning to do what I think you’re planning, are you?” your brother asks with a resigned tone.

“Perhaps. But let’s leave that for another time. From now on, I will only talk and I won’t answer questions.” You take a deep breath. “I know how much you enjoy the company of women. In that sense, I guess we’re very alike. What I’m offering is the ability to become such a good kisser, that women will fall at your feet. I know how it sounds like, and you don’t need to believe me. I’ll give you a free day trial. See for yourself if I’m speaking the truth. If you like the results, you can pay my price. If you don’t, I’ll get rid of that power and we’ll never speak of this again.”

“We leave you for a bit over half a year and you get knee deep in occult stuff,” you hear Jonathan sigh. “But you’re not one to call me for a prank, so I’ll play. When does this free trial start?”

“The moment you hang up.”

“Very well then. Talk to you later, Dave. Take care and send my regards to your girls for me.”

He hangs up and you immediately go to the traits section of the AMA and buy the Great Kisser trait of Jonathan.

Great Kisser (10 lust pts): Your kisses give your partner small amounts of sexual pleasure.

Looking back, this was your best purchase simply because it offered such great value. It’s the cheapest trait in here, and your girls love it. You don’t doubt Jonathan will want to keep it.

You let out a heavy sigh.

You didn’t want to rely on the AMA for this. There’s something that feels wrong about selling a trait. But at least you know Jonathan, know he’ll use it to have fun and not cause any huge problems. You didn’t want to just ask him for a loan, so you’ll give him the trait in return. You’ll give him back the money when you’ve earned enough. It’s just that he’ll probably feel more comfortable thinking of it as a business transaction.

You sit in front of your computer again with the intent of working on those translations. Only an hour later you get an email notification from you bank. A money transfer was just made to your account for the sum you asked for, plus a quick message.

‘What the hell are you? A wizard?'

It seems he liked it.

The next day, though you spend your time at school with your girls as always, they give you odd looks when you tell them you can’t meet up with them afterwards.

“Actually, I’ll be really busy the whole week,” you tell them with a regretful smile. “I’m sorry.”

Lilian clicks her tongue. “Is this because of the job my mom gave you?”

“Yes. It’s only temporary, but it’s a lot of work. On the flip side, I’ll be able to make a lot of money is a very short time. That’ll be a great help.”

“I thought your dad sent you an allowance,” Katherine points out.

“Only enough to make it through the month. I just happen to be good at saving money, but well…”

“Taking us on dates is expensive, isn’t it?” Sophia asks, arms crossed.

“You said it. Not me,” you answer, raising your hands.

“Fine. You get a week free from us,” Emily says, turning her head away from you.

“Hey, don’t say it like I don’t want to be with you!” you argue. “But you know that I’d get too distracted if you were with me. If I take a whole week, I’ll have everything ready. I still have to take care of school work, you know?”

“I know. I’m just messing with you,” Emily kisses your cheek.

“I guess this means girl time,” Megan nods.

“Oh! Do you girls want to come to my house?” Katherine offers. “We can use the pool.”

“I want to go!” Jessica jumps at the invitation and gives Katherine a tight hug. “I’ve been waiting all year for pool season!”

“I guess a certain someone will just have to miss seeing us in swimsuits,” Olivia says, eyeing you with a teasing grin and making you groan.

“C-Can I at least get a picture?”

“Nope. You’ll have to wait till the trip,” Lilian says, joining the teasing.

You inform your older girlfriends during the second recess, and it takes less to convince them. You guess they’re more sympathetic to the troubles of a student with a low income.

But while what you’re saying is true, you’re also hiding something. Something the girls can’t see you doing.

An hour after you get home and get everything ready, you hear a knock on your door. You answer it to see Monica behind. You let her in, and while you know why she has a plastic bag full of groceries in her hand, you don’t know why she’s also carrying a suitcase.

“Are you sure it’s okay for us to have a secret rendezvous like this?” she asks you.

“The funny thing is, we could be having an affair and they wouldn’t mind. But if they find out I’m spending time with you when I told them I was too busy, I’m sure I’d never hear the end of it.”

“If it happens, you deal with it. I won’t be made responsible for your screw ups.”

“As agreed,” you nod.

Then, Monica passes you the plastic bag full of groceries that she had on her hand.

“Great. How much do I owe you?”

You pay her the money she used to buy this and get to work. Turns out Monica is very skilled in the kitchen. Far more than you are. And when she helped you think of ways to propose, there was no way a classic dinner wouldn’t be suggested. However, Monica gave you a very good idea.

“Why don’t you cook a different dish for every one of them?” she’d said.

So in return for you helping her with her romance troubles, she’ll teach you how to best prepare the girls’ favorite dishes. It’s fortunate that’s one of the first questions you casually asked them.

Pastas for Emma and Katherine.

Salmon for Mia.

Steak for Julia.

Anything tempura for Anzu.

Hamburgers for Megan.

Chicken for Emily.

Pork for Sophia and Jessica.

Shrimps for Lilian.

And finally, risotto for Olivia.

Actually, some of them, like Megan, Lilian and Katherine answered with some kind of dessert, but these are their main dish favorite foods. And over the week, Monica’s going to teach you how to make good dishes out of these ingredients while overseeing your practice. And to avoid some issues with how perceptive she is, you had to admit that there were more girls. She just doesn’t know those other girls are your teachers and thinks they’re just not from school.

“Let’s not waste any time,” she says, clapping her hands. “You need to get work done after this, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s start then,” she says and opens the suitcase, taking from it a slightly heavy pasta maker.

“Are you serious?”

“If you’re going to make pasta, there’s nothing better than making it yourself,” she insists.

“I’m not gonna have a pasta maker when I need it!”

“You can make the dough the day before and freeze it,” she shrugs. “Alright. Get the ingredients and we’ll get to work. If you’re quick, we might even be able to cover hamburgers today as well.”

If there’s two things you learn from all this, is that, 1) cooking from scratch is a tough process and it’s a good thing you asked Monica for help. 2) Monica is a very strict teacher that will make you start all over again if the end result doesn’t meet her expectations. That said, the girl is committed. She stayed until 11:00 pm teaching you all she knows. Good thing she, like many of the students of Hayes Academy, is absolutely loaded and had her driver come pick her up.

After a quick shower to clean yourself of all the flour on you, your sit in front of your computer and get to translating. It’s difficult work, having to double check many words and even having to make a pause several times to read on the specifics of any given cosmetic product. A lot of technical language is needed, so you need to study up as well as translate.

At the very least, you feel yourself getting better bit by bit. The trait making you progressively more competent as you read and write the new languages. It’s feels good that a trait you bought urgently for a specific situation is making itself useful right now.

You finished one translation out of the three yesterday and got the other two done today, finishing by about 3:00 am, emailing them to QA, who’ll check for errors. That means it’s time to get a history assignment done. You work until 4 am, get in bed, and your body wakes up on its own by 5:30 am.

“Goddammit,” you groan.

You’ve become too much of an early riser. But an hour and a half of sleep for you, who have the Seldom Sleepy trait, feels about the same as a four hour sleep. Not ideal, but enough not to pass out during the day.

You receive another email with confirmation of a job well done and more texts to translate, as you asked. You repeat the routine the following day, and the next, and the next and the one after that. You **** the Seldom Sleepy trait to get as much work as done as possible, fitting school, cooking, translations and school assignments in a single cycle before you sleep for an hour and a half every day.

As expected, it’s taking its toll on you. You feel yourself getting exhausted, but that’s alright. You just need to push a little more. You have a promise to keep. The most important promise of all. You need to make your girls as happy as they’ve made you, so putting this much effort is expected. No, putting this much effort is nothing compared to what they’ve given you.

They deserve nothing but the best. Your very best.