Workout alone and another meeting with Jessica.

Since you and the girls decided to keep joint workouts to Wednesdays only and tutoring to Thursdays only, you’re now jogging alone through the streets that lead back to your place. You said it as a joke last time, but you really miss the eye candy. Being able to watch the girls’ fit bodies and ogle as much as you wanted was the greatest motivator to keep up. Now it’s actually kind of boring so you have your headphones tightly on while you listen to a podcast about finding your ideal career path.

It’s when you’re turning on a corner that you stumble upon Jessica once more. You almost crash into her, but you’re able to dodge her by going around her at the last second.

“Sorry, sorry!” You apologize, taking off your headphones. “Did I hit you?”

“No, I’m fine.” Jessica says, shaking off the surprise. You notice her looking at you up and down. Is she… checking you out? You are wearing your workout clothes, which are just a black T-shirt and sweatpants. You can’t imagine you make for a good sight, especially with how sweaty you are.

“Working out alone today?” Jessica asks, looking past you to and behind, probably to see if Emily and Megan are around.

“Yeah. Ms. Miller told us we didn’t have to keep up our schedule anymore and the girls have a tournament coming up soon. What are you doing here?” It’s already 5:30 pm and as far as you know, Jessica is not in any clubs.

“I was at the library with Olivia and Lilian. I was helping them with their Spanish homework.” Jessica tells you.

Right. They also took Spanish as their foreign language course. You did too, and while you’ve been studying enough to do well on the tests, you don’t feel you’ve really learned to speak the language. Though… were they really doing their homework on their own?

Jessica smiles when she sees your skeptical look and tells you “We started doing our work ourselves. I think Olivia took your words to heart, because she hasn’t been pestering anyone for a while now.”

You want to believe her, but it’s still a little difficult.

Oh hey, having sex DID clear your mind a bit. Now you’re thinking with your head. Your upper head. So instead of questioning Jessica on that topic, you focus on the other thing she said.

“You help them with their Spanish homework? Do you speak Spanish?”

“Si. Como se parece mucho al portugués que hablamos en Brasil, aprender Español fue fácil.” She says with a smug smile, thrusting her chest forward proudly.

I’m sorry, what? You could understand the words Portuguese, Brazil and Spanish in there, but not much more. Oh! Maybe she’s saying that since she’s from Brazil, where they speak Portuguese, she also learnt Spanish there?

“Sorry,” So she says, but you can tell she was showing off. “I was saying that since Spanish is very similar to Portuguese and that’s what we speak in Brazil, it was easy to learn.” Jessica confirms.

Hey, you were close!

Jessica clears her throat before saying “Well, I see you’re busy. I’ll… leave you alone then. See you, David.” Is it just you or there a hint of sadness in her voice? God, after seeing her acting it’s hard to believe her emotions now that you have a cool head, but still, would she lie to you with an Affection Score of 80?

Oh fuck it!

“Hey. Wait!” You call out to her as she’s walking away. “Are you busy now? I’m just finishing up here. If you have some free time, would you like to come with me to a café nearby? I’d… like to keep talking.”

She looks back at you and you see her eyes brighten along with her smile. “Yes, I’m free now. I know the place you’re talking about.”

“Then… would you wait for me there? I live close by. I’ll be there in ten, no, five minutes.” You tell her, not wanting to keep her waiting, but you really need a shower.

“Okay. I’ll be waiting then.” Jessica smiles and nods eagerly. She turns around swiftly, either intentionally or unintentionally making her school skirt twirl, allowing your eye to catch a generous glimpse of her ass and what were definitely black lace panties. Since she leaves in the direction of the café humming cheerfully and shoots you a quick glance back, you’re inclined to believe it was intentional.

You jog back home and make sure to take a very cold shower before getting ready and heading out.

You attempt to dress in a way that’ll make you look good. Problem is, you have no idea how since your girls don’t really comment on your attire. In the end, you decide to dress just like you did for your first date with Mia since she did compliment you on how you looked. Blue jeans, a black unbuttoned shirt and switching the polo shirt for a white T-shirt.

You walk at a fast pace and reach the café in seven minutes. You’re officially late, you lament.

Jessica doesn’t seem to mind your 2-minute tardiness and smiles when she sees you walk up to the table for two and sit in front of her.

“This is sooner than I expected.” Jessica smiles nervously.

What? What is she talking abo- Oooooh. She thinks you have an answer to her confession. Well, in a way, you do. Sure, you’ll start with that.

“I spoke to Emily and Megan,” And Emma, but blah blah blah secret blah blah blah. You give her a wry smile. “They don’t like the idea of me going out with you.”

Jessica looks hurt, yet unsurprised. She looks down at her knees and remains silent. Before you can speak again, the waiter comes to take your orders. You order an iced tea and a sandwich, while Jessica… isn’t even paying attention to the waiter.

Man, starting with that was a bad idea. You order a strawberry juice for Jessica and figure that if she doesn’t want it you’ll drink it yourself.

When the waiter is gone, you speak again. “They say that they don’t like to idea of me going out with someone who tried to hurt me.” You give it to her straight. There’s no point in sugar coating it since you’re sure Emily is 100% capable of saying the same thing to her face.

Jessica bites her lip. “Of course they don’t. Why wouldn’t they?”

You continue. “They did say they wouldn’t stop me if I were to still say yes, though.”

Jessica raises her head and looks at you, blinking.

“So we reached a consensus that I should get to know you better before deciding.” You tell her, and her lips start to curl into a hopeful smile. “I think there’s more to it than that though.” You sigh. Here comes the hard part. “Jessica, I want to go out with you, I want to get to know you better, but if you can’t get along with my current girlfriends, I won’t. I don’t want it to sound like a threat or a warning, but it’s important to me that there’s a good relationship between everyone.”

Jessica purses her lips, contemplating on your words, but you’re not done.

“Truth is, I’ve thought about having casual relationships, but I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to.” You chuckle. “I’m hopeless and I always end being serious about the girls I like.”

And this isn’t just recent. Even before you fell for Emma for showing you just a little kindness, you’d always be quick to develop a crush on girls close to you. You had a crush on many of your girl friends in high school, but of course none of those went anywhere because you were a coward. Now that you have the AMA and can have many girlfriends though, things are different.

“So if you can’t be friends with them, I can’t go out with you. They’re important to me, and so is their opinion on which girls I date. If you’re not ok with that, we’ll just leave the matter there. I’m sorry, but it’s something I can’t compromise on.”

This conversation is so fucking weird. Rather, it should be, but it’s not. Not to Jessica, and not even to you anymore. You’ve already come to accept that everyone thinks this is normal.

Jessica’s voice trembles as she speaks. “How can I get them to forgive me though? Of course they’re mad. I can’t blame them. Besides… I’m not the best at making friends.”

Oh? You thought she wouldn’t agree to it. After all, it sounds like you’re putting conditions for her to go out with you (which you are), as if it was an honor or something (which is not).

Your order comes. The waiter seems to notice the strange mood and is quick to leave everything on the table.

“Look, they’re not unreasonable. I’m sure they’ll give you a chance if you try.” You think about it for a while and sigh. “Ideally, I’d love for them to forgive all three of you. It’d make things much easier."

Jessica eyes you as if you were crazy. Well, she’s not far off. “You want Olivia and Lilian to be friends with the soccer starts?”

“I didn’t say that. I just want Emily and Megan to stop holding a grudge, but I can’t and won’t **** them. Of course, in an ideal world we’d all be friends, but it’s not that easy.”

Jessica contemplates your words in silence. She starts taking small sips from her strawberry juice and licking her (sexy) lips. It’s not until she’s drank over half her juice that she chuckles.

“You really are a nice guy.” She looks at you dreamily and sighs. “Maybe I should stay away from you. You’re too good for me.” She says, resting her elbow on the table and her cheek on her palm. “But you gave me a chance. It’s more than I hoped for, so I’m going to take it.” She gives you a small smile. “When I see you with them, I can’t help but be jealous. You guys look so cute, you seem so close. Makes me wish I was part of it.”

“You said your only friends are Olivia and Lilian. How close are you?” You ask in an attempt to change the topic from you to her.

She smiles wryly. She notices what you’re doing, but she plays along. “We met in our freshman year of high school. We’ve been friends ever since. Olivia always had this… anger against everyone she didn’t even know, and Lilian similarly looks down on people, but they never thought that way about me. I don’t know why.” She smiles, recalling memories. “They were always nice to me, as if they knew what I’d gone through. Before I knew it, we were hanging out together, going shopping… I was even invited to expensive trips their parents paid for. It’s thanks to them that I was able to push through high school.”

It’s an odd feeling. You want to be happy that she made friends, but when you know firsthand the things she did with said friends, you wonder what kind of person she’d be if she hadn’t met them.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but I think Olivia has a thing for you, too.” Jessica tells you, taking yet another sip from her juice.

Your expression softens. You knew that thanks to the app, but hearing it from someone else it’s kind of weird. Still, it’s not like this is information you should have, so you feign ignorance.

“That can’t be true.” You tell her with a wry smile.

“I admit, she hasn’t said anything, but she’s been very conscious about you ever since… you know. Well, I’ve been, too. Maybe that’s why I noticed. Ever since you told us you wanted us to stop messing with people, Olivia’s been making a real effort to stop. She’s doing her own homework and ignoring the people she used to bully. She’s tried to apologize a couple of times, but she’s really awkward about it.” Jessica chuckles.

“That doesn’t mean she has a thing for me.” You argue, but you know her love score is at 34. She definitely has a thing for you. Yet… now that you’re talking about it with someone, it almost feels like you don’t want to believe it yourself.

“I’ll talk to her about it.” Jessica says. “Really, I should’ve done it from the start. If I want to be with you, it’s only fair that I talk to her too. Hey, just… out of curiosity,” Jessica clears her throat. “How would you feel about dating Olivia as well?”

Emma, Megan, Emily, Mia… now Jessica and Olivia? Your heart tightens and you feel a little dizzy when you realize that your harem plan is going way faster than you imagined. It’s… exciting, but also very scary.

Of course, the thought of being with Olivia has crossed you mind once or twice, but simply because she’s stupidly hot. It was your dick doing the thinking for you. But pursuing a serious relationship with her? Images of her constant **** run through your mind, and although they don’t bother you as much as they should, they’re still… there.

“It’s… hard to say.” You tell her.

“Of course it is.” Jessica says, mostly to herself, as if she knew she asked a stupid question.

There’s an awkward silence for a while as you think of what Jessica just asked and as she starts into her glass.

“Strawberry is my favorite flavor, by the way. How did you know?” She suddenly says, making you chuckle and relieving the tension in the air. You soon part ways, both seemingly satisfied with the conversation.