Alice ponders.

Of course, after doing it with Grace in the kitchen, I took the opportunity to practice my very useful cleaning spell some more. It still took some effort and focus, but it was getting easier every time. I cleaned the drops on the floor and even the kitchen counter for good measure. It wasn’t obviously dirty, but Grace had sat there.

“It’s still fun to see that happening,” Grace said, chuckling and pulling up her pants. “Like… the stains just disappear. How does it work?”

“I’m still not entirely sure, but it has a lot to do with imagination and visualization. If I can’t see it well in my head, I can’t make it happen in reality.” Let out a short sigh. It’s interesting that using magic tires me out more than sex, but it makes sense when I remember that sex fuels me and magic uses that fuel. “Anyway, once you’re ready there, would you mind going to the garage and telling Alice we’re almost ready for dinner? I need to slice the chicken and serve the plates.”

Still with her blouse undone, Grace walked up to me and kissed me on the cheek. “Why don’t I take care of that and you go tell Alice? I can at least slice some chicken and I’m sure Alice would rather you go. Besides, isn’t she wearing that coverall you seem to like?” she said with a teasing smile.

“...” I grumbled. “I won’t be long. Also, tell the others to help you set the table.”

“Yes. Now go.” She sent me off with a spank on the butt. “And thanks for that. If you reward me like this after every assignment I finish, I might have to ask the professors for more to do.”

I chuckled. “Don’t joke. We need you to have some free time.”

I walked out of the kitchen and headed to the garage outside, going in through the side door. There, I found Alice sitting on a stool in front of her car, the hood lifted as she stared at the engine with a frown on her face.

“Something giving you trouble?” I asked.

Alice flinched, apparently not having heard me coming in. She smiled and shook her head.

“No, I’m already done,” she said, standing up and closing the hood. “I was just… thinking.” She sighed.

Feeling some faintly troubling thoughts in her, I walked up behind her and hugged her, wrapping my arms around her waist. “What is it?”

She smiled wryly. “Nothing important, really. Just… I was thinking that maybe I should sell this car and buy another one, or maybe just keep the money in a savings account.”

I was taken aback, and my chest even hurt a bit. I held Alice closer, almost as if to prevent her from running off and doing just that. “What? Why?”

Alice sighed. “It’s a 2-seater, and even if I remove the anti-roll bars at the back and somehow find the backseats they made for it, I hear they’re really bad.”

“But why is that a problem?”

“It’s… been in my mind for a while. My car is kind of useless for us, as a household. It only takes one passenger, can barely carry any groceries, and it’s pretty much just an extra expense. If I sold it, I could get a lot of money out of it. Likely even more than I’ve put into it over all these years.”

“If you sell it, I’m breaking up with you.”

Alice sighed and pouted. “Oliver, I’m serious.”

“And I’m… mostly joking, yeah, but only mostly. Alice, you love this thing. Believe me, I understand what it means to you. The guitar you and the others gave me for Christmas? You couldn’t get me to sell it for 20 times the original price. And I know this means even more to you.”

“But…”

“We have the van to carry us all, Sarah has her SUV, and Mila and Grace also have their cars. It might be too much, admittedly, but none of us would ask you to sell yours. Ever.”

“I just… think it would make things easier for us, you know? We’d have some savings for an emergency…”

“And a very, very sad Alice to go with them,” I said, kissing her cheek.

Alice swallowed. “I… shouldn’t be putting a car before all of you.”

“You clearly don’t, if the idea of selling it even crossed your mind. But there’s no need to do it. You’re… a bit single minded in what you like, after all,” I joked and kissed her cheek, managing to get a cute little laugh out of her. “I don’t want you to get rid of the thing you love the most.”

Alice sighed deeply. “Fine, I won’t. But you’re wrong, though. You and the others… You’re the ones I love the most. I’d tear this thing to pieces with a sledge hammer myself if I had to choose between you and it.”

She meant that, too. I smiled. “As happy as I am to hear that, let’s hope that it never comes to that. Also, selling it IS the better option there…”

Alice laughed, turned around to hug me face to face. She nuzzled against my neck and breathed in deep.

“Mmm… You smell nice.”

“Is it the chicken I was cooking?”

“Nope. You smell of sex,” she said, grinning.

I raised an eyebrow. “You can tell?”

“Kind of. It’s subtle.” She sniffed me some more, around the neck and chest. “Yeah, you definitely just had sex. With whom?”

“...With Grace in the kitchen,” I admitted with a sheepish smile.

“Did you now…?” Alice licked her lips. “Say, this might be coming out of nowhere, but… Think we’ve got five minutes?”

I swallowed. “Um… Dinner’s almost ready and… you need to get changed, don’t you?”

She looked at me with puppy dog eyes that made it nearly impossible to resist. “So… we don’t?” In an unexpected move, Alice pulled down the zip of her coverall for good measure, revealing that she was only wearing her underwear under it.

Fuck it. I grabbed her by the waist, lifted her up and pulled her into a deep kiss. Grinning against it, Alice wrapped her legs around me.

It’s not often that Alice plays the temptress and some cold chicken is a cheap price to pay.

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