More bad feelings.

Where do I even begin here? The fact that he was smirking like he was somehow superior, like he thought he had won whatever contest had happened in his head, pissed me off so fucking much. It very nearly drove me to grab Diana and kiss her to prove my point. But I didn’t. Instead of giving in to that pettiness, watching the guy… calmed me down.

That was just it. That was the type of person I never wanted to be. I knew because, well, not only was it obvious from the way he was acting, but also because I had that same feeling about him as I did with that one girl in the mall some days ago. This guy and I were incompatible. No, it was more than that but it was hard to understand how.

“You’re kidding, right?” the guy asked with his dumb, amused smirk. “This is your little brother, isn’t he?”

I let go of Diana. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, questioning why I removed my arm from her waist. Truth is, I just felt silly doing it. What was I trying to accomplish with that? Prove that Diana was mine? Assert myself as the stronger male for having a hot girlfriend? Why would I even care what this guy thought? All we needed was for him to leave, nothing else.

I sighed. “Sure, sure. Her little brother,” I told him, waving it off. “Whatever I am doesn’t change the fact she doesn’t want you near. Might want to get all the water out of your ears if you didn’t hear her.”

“Listen, kid. This is a matter between two adults here,” the dude said, dismissing me.

I looked from him to Diana and back to him. “Odd, I only see one adult here.”

Diana snickered.

The dude scowled and stepped forward, making me raise an eyebrow. See, Diana is taller than I am by a noticeable margin. A 15 cm margin, to be precise. The size difference between this guy and Diana was about the same, meaning the dude was about 2 meters tall. To me, he was a giant. To him, I was little more than a hobbit.

Still, I grinned. “Trying to use size to intimidate? Really? Or are you coming onto me? If so, sorry, I’m only into tall women.”

Hah. That actually got to him, because he did take a step back. Is he the type to actually get insecure when they call him gay?

Diana chuckled and shook her head. She held my hand and gestured towards the tent, smiling. “Let’s go. I don’t want you to waste energy on him.”

I nodded and we turned around, only to be stopped when the guy grabbed Diana’s shoulder. “Hey, come on!”

I saw her face harden before she slapped his hand away, glaring daggers at the guy. “Fifth and final time,” Diana said coldly. “Go away. And don’t fucking touch me.”

I could feel something coming from the guy. It was shame, but shame that made him upset and angry instead of embarrassed. Was he someone really not used to being told no?

“Nathan? What’s going on here?”

The guy’s face fell as he turned to the source of the voice. It was a woman about his age, too. A cute brunette with short hair wearing a flowery sundress. She was about as tall as me. What also called my attention was seeing Fernanda behind the woman, fidgeting nervously with her sketchbook in hand.

The guy, Nathan, quickly recovered and dusted himself off with a casual smile and a shake of his head. “Nothing, just a little misunderstanding here.” He turned to us with that same smile, one that looked shockingly sincere. “I’m sorry about that. I’ll be leaving now.”

“She told me you were hitting on that woman,” the new girl said, glaring and first gesturing with her head towards Fernanda and then towards Diana. “Is it true?”

“What? No, no. See, that’s why I said it was a misunderstanding,” the guy casually said.

“Are you his girlfriend?” Diana asked the girl. “If so, you might want to have a chat with him…”

“Babe, she was the one hitting on me,” Nathan said, cutting Diana off. “I kept telling her I was taken, but she wouldn’t back off.”

“Oh, that’s rich…” I muttered, shaking my head. “I’m sorry, what’s your name?” I asked the guy’s girlfriend.

“A-Ava. Who are you?” she asked with a frown.

“Oliver. This is my girlfriend,” I said, gesturing towards Diana. Didn’t even want to let the guy hear her name. “This guy’s been harassing her for a while.”

“It’s true!” an older lady sitting on her towel said from a few meters away. “I’ve been watching!”

“Yeah, he wouldn’t stop following her!” a young man said from the opposite side.

Man, we really caused a scene here…

“Babe, they don’t have full context…” Nathan tried to defend himself, but his girlfriend was having none of it.

“Just… Shut up.” She turned around, but I could feel her heart being broken. Sadness and betrayal so painfully clear it left me feeling awkward. Ava walked away with quick, heavy steps and the guy followed her.

As we all breathed a sigh of relief, I noticed I’d been clenching my fist hard without realizing it. I had a feeling that could’ve turned into something worse if it had kept going.

Diana and I looked at Fernanda and smiled at her.

“Did you go get her? Thank you,” I told her.

She shook her head. “It just happened to work out. I remembered seeing them together before I came here to draw, then I noticed the ruckus and saw him bothering Diana. I was lucky to find her quickly.”

“Good thing that you did. Thank you,” Diana said. “I was afraid Oliver would have to kick his ass.”

Fernanda raised an eyebrow and looked at me.

“I mean… I would’ve if I had to,” I admitted.

Fernanda’s eyes widened at that. I don’t think she believed I had it in me, and I don’t blame her, but damn if I almost didn’t when he grabbed Diana’s shoulder.

Grace and Sarah approached to check on us before we went back to sit in front of the tent.

Author's Note: Weird chapter to be 600. To all of you still here and to all of you reaching this chapter at some point, thank you very much for reading. I hope it doesn't look like I'm trying to milk this series or something like that. I just genuinely enjoy writing it and still have a few ideas I don't want to leave behind. I don't know how much longer we have, but I still want to continue this. It still feels good to write it. That said, I have to start thinking about what I'm gonna do after this.

Again, thank you all for reading, for sticking with me, for the comments, and even for the likes. It's dumb, but seeing that number go up helps me feel like I'm doing something right (and when it's low I get all depressed. Fuck numbers, tbh.)

Consider supporting the story on Patreon if you're interested. Currently up to chapter 611 for the highest tier. Chapters for the William branch are also posted there. And currently a Patreon exclusive, I'm working on a re-write in First Person PoV for the David Walker branch of The Affection Multiplier. Chapters for the latter are sporadic, though, right now covering about 50 chapters of the original story. I'll post that for free when I have more of it done.

Thank you all and stay safe. I wish you all the best.