Multitasking

"Hey, you!" Stef beamed excitedly as Luke reached the front of her queue the next morning, leaning over the counter to kiss him before rushing to hand over his regular request, which she had prepared in advance for his convenience "Oh goodness, are those for me?"

It wasn't Luke's usual style to bring a girl flowers at her work the day after a first date, but he wanted to see if other gifts might score higher affection points than his tips did, as he was still very much in the experimental phase of using the mysterious new app. Stef definitely seemed happy with them and his phone was buzzing, so he hoped they had the intended effect.

"I have a gift for you too" she told him "As a thank you for last night, your order is on the house!"

"Oh wow, thanks! You can do that?"

"Yeah, of course!" the barista smiled "I've also snuck in a couple of extra treats for you"

"Well, I think that kind of service deserves some proper gratuity"

Stef placed her hands on her hips and laughed as she watched Luke place one coin after another into the tip jar in front of her. His phone was vibrating like crazy.

"You still on for meeting me after work?" he checked once all his coins had been dispatched.

"Just try and stop me! I've been really looking forward to it. I got such a good feeling about you from our conversation last night" she gushed "So where are you taking me this time?"

"I actually thought we'd head back to the same restaurant as before" Luke revealed.

"Oh.."

Stef looked a little surprised, but not unhappy, with that slightly unconventional approach to a second date.

"There were a few other things on the menu I liked the look of" Luke reasoned "and I also thought we could grab a cocktail at the bar there before dinner this time"

In fact, Luke had seen from the map on his app that Juliet was at the restaurant again today. He hoped that, with a few well chosen compliments and a generous tip, he might soon be able to get her up to a full heart and unlock the ability to meet with her outside of her work whenever he wished.

"Sure, that makes sense" Stefanie nodded.

Luke checked the increasingly smitten barista's affection rating again once he left her shop. What the user guide had said about the hearts taking longer to fill up as they ascended certainly seemed to hold true. Nonetheless, some flowers, twenty pounds worth of tips and their brief but pleasant conversation had taken her past two and a half hearts now - three ought to be achievable tonight if he played his hand well. If the user guide was correct, and it hadn't steered him wrong so far, that would allow his date to end in a much steamier manner than the last one had, with full nudity and non penetrative sexual acts unlocking for Stef. He had his own work day to get through first, though, and there was potential to raise some affection there as well.

---

"Here, I got you a few extra little treats to go with your coffee"

"Oh wow, thanks Luke" Rachel smiled, pleasantly surprised by the gesture "Someone got out of bed the right side this morning. You get laid last night or something?"

Luke felt the small selection of biscuits and chocolates Stef had thoughtfully included with his morning drinks would be better served as gifts for Rachel than snacks for himself. He also loved the efficiency of one of his 'connections' directly helping to raise the affection level of another.That was some highly effective multitasking right there.

As the day went on, and Luke and his work friend joked, chatted, and bitched about their job like usual, his phone suddenly began a more prolonged buzzing session than was normal. That meant something significant had just happened.

Great going! You have successfully filled the first of Rachel's hearts! She will now accept any dates you invite her on!

Was he really going to try this? He supposed he could always dismiss it as a joke if she declined.

"Hey Rach, did you want to go on a date with me some time?"

"Sure, you free tonight?"

Holy. Shit.

Just like that!? Now he really wanted to test just how strong the powers of this app were. Again, he could dismiss what he was about to say as a gag easily enough if it got a bad reaction.

"I can't tonight, I've got a date with the girl from the coffee shop"

"Oh, fair enough then. Let me know what day works best for you and we can have our own date then"

What? Seriously? He knew Rachel well enough to be categorically certain she wouldn't go out with a guy who was openly dating someone else, let alone be put on hold for them. For the first time, Luke was beginning to fully accept the Romance Mechanic actually worked, and wasn't some kind of elaborate hoax every woman he met was playing on him.

He didn't want to get too far ahead of himself with all the incredible possibilities that could open up for him just yet, though. He needed to test his new found powers of persuasion on at least one more person first, just to be triple sure.

Diane was now teetering on the brink of her first full heart, as completing requests seemed to be one of the most powerful ways to raise affection quickly, and she was constantly making them of him. If the app kept working as well as it had so far, then soon Luke's boss would be a fully fledged five heart fuck toy, willing to fulfil his every sexual whim in exchange for him simply doing his job adequately. Well, there had to be some perks to working where he did, and the pay and pension definitely weren't cutting it.

Suddenly feeling uncharacteristically motivated, Luke opened up the latest report he had been tasked with writing for Diane and resolved to power through it before the close of play.