Coffee dates

I arrive in the cozy cafe Ms.Summers invited me in. She isn’t here yet, so I take a seat, and check my phone while waiting for her.

I already gave everyone their quests for today, except for Maria, who surprisingly enough, still hasn’t done the quest I gave her yesterday. I really expected making a friend at the gym to be a simple task, but I was mistaken.

Maybe she’ll even give up the quest if it gives her too much trouble, anyway, I check the relationship graph again.

Boss (6%)

The change goes pretty slow, and I’m not sure what it entails, but I really want to see Cotton soon, I wonder how it is affecting her, I also hope the effect isn’t too strong, I’ll admit I kind of made my choice without thinking.

I go back to her profile, and look at her quest, I might be too proactive with Cotton’s quests, maybe I should slow down with her.

Quest: Help John buy new clothes.

Reward: Fashionista I perk

I felt like the quest could suit her class well, but it was considered advanced, and I didn’t turn on her awareness so I’m a little scared she could get stuck with this quest if she doesn’t do it.
Maybe if she refuses the quest gets auto-rejected? I hope so.

I get out of my thoughts as a panicky old woman enters the cafe. She sees me and try to apologize as she comes closer.

“I’m very sorry John! I was grading papers and I didn’t see the time!” She says while awkwardly sitting in front of me, and removing her big vest.

“It’s okay Miss Summers. I didn’t wait long.” I say, but she frowns.

“John, call me Edith. I’m not your teacher anymore.” She says while looking at me.
Easy for her to say, but it’s hard to break the habit after so long.

“Do you need to see the changes or have you already read them?” I ask.

“Oh, I read them already, but before that, please take a drink, I’ll pay.” She says while making a sign at a waiter to come.

“Thanks.” I know I can’t refuse without causing a scene, and I choose a small coffee to avoid taking advantage of her kindness.

“So, about the book. I read it back from the beginning with the changes you did last time.” She starts, and my palms are slightly sweaty.

“You reread the whole thing?”

“Yes, well it is a pretty lengthy novel now, but I managed to do it in a few days. I felt I needed to read it all at once to consider it as it is, without being affected by previous iterations.

And what I can say is that it’s great! From my experience you have a work worth publishing.”
I kinda expected it but it still feels great to hear, I’ve been spending a lot of time those last few years just rewriting the same novel again and again. So knowing it wasn’t for nothing is a good feeling.

“I won’t lie, and say it is perfect, but at this point I feel like the quirks that remains are what makes it your book, and I would feel pretty bad asking you to change them. You wrote a great book!” She says, before sipping from her hot cup.

“I’m glad you feel that way. Thanks for helping me with it for so long.” I tell her, and she simply smiles back.

“You know it’s the job of a teacher to help her students succeed.”

“Didn’t you say I wasn’t your student anymore?” I ask cheekily, and she laughs.

“You got me!” She says still laughing.
I take a sip from my coffee and look at her.

“That means it’s time for me to contact a publishing house right?” I ask.

“It sure does John. Do you want me to put you in contact with someone? They’ll give you a chance if I recommend you.”
I think about it, I know how hard it is to get picked by a publisher, and maybe getting some help would improve my chances.

“If it isn’t too much to ask…” I answer.

“Of course it isn’t, I’ll send you an email adress to send it to. Be sure to say I sent you, and you should get an answer in a week or two at most.” She explains.

“You already know that this meeting was more of a formality, so now that we’re done with work, how are you doing outside of book writing?” She asks as gets more comfortable in her seat.

“It’s okay, I’m still working at the library close by. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine, you know how it is, I don’t do much when I’m not teaching. I’m an old lady, it’s hard to break the routine.”
She seems to be lost in thought, before suddenly remembering something.

“Ah! I had something else to tell you John, there is going to be an event soon where old students are invited to present their jobs to the current students. You should receive an invite in a little while.”

I’m not excited about that, I haven’t really done much after getting my degree, so I’m not very interested in going to see the students.
Miss Summers seems to notice my lack of excitement.

“You’re not **** to come of course, but I’d be glad if you did. You could talk about publishing your book, or even your library work.” She says trying to motivate me.

“I’ll think about it.” It tell her, not committed.

“That’s fine… However, it’s getting late and I still have papers to grade so I should leave soon.” She says while getting up.

“It’s okay, I understand that you’re busy, don’t mind me.”

“I’m going, but don’t forget to update me on your progress with publishing!” She says as she pays both our drinks and leave.

I know she’s often busy, but I didn’t think it would go this far, she was only here for half an hour and she had to run out. I don’t know how she can maintain this pace all the time.

Since I’m in the middle of town, I can look for a place to eat, as I walk around I receive a phone text from an unknown number.

[It’s Cotton, meet me at the mall at 4]

Apparently, it’s a message from Cotton. Wait, where did she get my number from?
I try to send her questions but she doesn’t respond.
Fine, I guess I need to be at the mall at 4pm. It’s okay, it still leaves me time to meet my online friend.

---

Soon after eating at a random fast food, I head to the place I was supposed to meet my friend.
While heading there, my curiosity gets the better of me and I start thinking of what he must look like. I honestly don’t know much about him, even though we talk a lot on discord .
He’s now a concept artist for a big gaming company, and since we met while playing games I picture him as some kind of gamer guy that doesn’t take care of his appearance. Pretty much like Matt was a few weeks ago.

I arrive at the place we decided to meet at, and enter the cat cafe.

The first thing I notice is that cats are everywhere and clearly don’t care about my arrival. The second, is that the cafe is pretty much empty of actual customers, but I see the man who invited me playing with a cat.

He’s way more muscular than I expected, with an enormous beard and tattoos on his whole body. I get closer and he notices me, waiting for me to talk he keeps petting the cat in his arms.

“Huh… Excuse me… Are you WeatherCable16?” I ask, expecting a nod, but he instead looks confused.

I then hear the voice of someone else from behind me.

“You’re John right? I’m WeatherCable.” says the stranger voice as I turn around.

In front of me is a cute asian girl, she has long straight black hair going down to the middle of her back. She wears big square glasses, a beige sweater and some grey pants which gives her a very comfy atmosphere.
The next noticeable thing about her is that she’s around my size while wearing flat shoes, and her body is mostly lacking in curves, with her chest barely making a bump through her sweater.

As I stare at the girl trying to understand what she said, she start blushing and shrinking on herself.

“Did I make a mistake? I was sure you said my online name.” She says while taking a step back.

“Y-Yes that’s me, I’m John…” I tell her, and she looks relieved as she invites me to her table.

I apologize to the muscular man I called out, and follow her.
As I sit in front of the woman she looks at me and smirks.

“So that’s who you thought I was huh? I never let my gender slip?”

“Not once, I really thought you were a guy, I’m sorry.” I say and her smirk disappears.

“No worries, I should have told you what I looked like before our meetup.” She tells me before prepping for a handshake. I take it and she continues.

“I’m Satomi, nice to meet you in person John.”

“Yes, nice to meet you.” I say in return, and she giggles.

“No need to be so tense. Did you ever go to a cat cafe before?” She ask while eyeing the cats strolling around.

“It’s my first time, and you?” I ask back.

“Nope, wasn’t any close to home, that was on my bucket list for when I arrived in the city. I have a long list.”

“Was meeting an online friend on that list?” I ask as I see her trying to grab a cat as it swiftly avoids her, and goes toward the same muscular guy from earlier.

“I guess since you lived close by, I wanted to know what you looked like, I’ll be honest, I was expecting you to be less handsome, and maybe a little fatter, do you exercise a lot?”

“I guess I exercised a little with my co-worker recently.” I answer vaguely enough for it to sound like I do so regularly.

“Interesting, so you’re telling me you’re naturally in good shape? You’re lucky.”

“Do you exercise?” I ask.

“I don’t, not anymore. I was doing some basketball in school, but I stopped as soon as I graduated.” She explains.

Really? She didn’t look like a big sports girl.

“Come on, don’t be so surprised. I got an early growth spurt, and my classmates almost **** me to join our basketball team at the time. I was so shy back then. I guess it was around the time we met online.”

“I see, I remember we played a lot at the time.” I say while reminiscing.

“Yep, I also started showing you my drawings, and you were my first paid commission ever.” She says with a smile on her lips.

“Was I really? I don’t think a 10$ commission counts.” I answer.

“It sure does. It made me understand that my work had value, and it encouraged me to keep going.”

I’m flattered, even if my contribution to her success was very small.

“By the way, you’re working for a big gaming company now! How is it?” I ask.

“Really good, I’m not paid as much as the standard for an artist my age, but I work on games played by thousands. That’s why I moved here, if I wanted them to keep me, I had to work there in person.”

I feel a cat at my feet, rubbing itself on my legs calling for my attention, so I start petting it, and it jumps up to my lap.

Satomi looks at me.

“That’s unfair, why are they coming to you but avoiding me?” She asks as she tries to call for a nearby cat, that completely ignores her.

“I don’t know, do you want to pet this one?” I ask, and she stands up, getting close enough to pet the cat in my lap.

“You like cats?” I ask as she finally gets to the fluffy creature.

“I always wanted one, but my mom was strict so I never got one.”

---

After talking for a while, I notice the time. If I want to get to the mall in time to meet Cotton, I’ll have to leave soon.

“Then we can see each other another time! I’ll talk to you on discord!” She tells me.

“Sure, sorry I can’t stay longer.”

“No worries, I still have some things to unpack at home anyway, I’ll see you around!” She says, as we part ways.

I really didn’t expect my mysterious online friend to be a cute girl, I guess we can see each other from time to time.

I don’t have too much time to think about it as I have to hurry.

---

Author's note: Hope you liked this chapter introducing Satomi. Since she's a new character, and there was mostly dialogue it was pretty hard to write.
Next chapter, Matt will receive his Vtuber avatar, so if you have design ideas, I'm listening. Obviously, it needs to suit his housewife persona, and kind of follow what he wrote in his design document. But I can add things to it. (Don't forget his Vtuber perk will bring him closer to his avatar as he streams more and more.)