Thoughts at work.

I could easily pinpoint the day things changed. My body was the most obvious sign. I had noticed the strange things I was capable of since then, but for some reason I didn’t treat them with the importance I should’ve. Something about them had a faint air of normalcy, like it was only natural that I could do these things despite realizing they were strange and even supernatural. I never expected this to affect people around me, though.

What Mila, Grace and Sarah told me during lunch hour still circled my head, and that wasn’t good.

“Hey, wake up!” Maria snapped her fingers in front of my face, and I suddenly remembered I had to finish washing the dishes and go back to sweeping the entrance to the coffee shop.

“Sorry! Sorry!”

“Are you feeling well today?” She asked me, hands on her hips. “You don’t normally take this long to wash a few dishes.”

“I’ve been having headaches today,” I said to excuse myself. “It’s been a weird day.”

“Don’t overwork yourself, okay? You go to the gym right before work, don’t you? And you were studying for your midterms not that long ago. It’s good to have things to do, but too much can be damaging.”

I smiled. “Funnily enough, all that is much simpler and easier than other things I have to deal with.” Lifting weights was simple, studying was straightforward, working was fulfilling, but people? People were far more difficult.

Maria grinned. “I suppose a boy in your situation has it hard, huh? Girls giving you trouble?”

“I wouldn’t call it trouble. Just… A lot to think about.”

“Can’t you go to your friend for some advice? Thomas, right? He looks like he’s popular with the ladies.”

I had to try hard to keep myself from smirking, and instead kept a small smile. “He’s single right now,” I told her.

“Single? A guy like him? That’s a surprise.”

“Right? And he always tells me he’s glad he’s not in my shoes.”

Maria laughed. “I bet. Boy, school was such a blast. I miss it. Are you having fun in school, Oliver?”

“Now I am,” I told her, putting away the last of the plates. “The first three years weren’t nearly as good.”

“You’ll be going to university?”

I nodded. “If all goes well, yes.”

“That’s fun, too. A lot of freedom, meeting new people, experiencing new things, broadening your horizons… Aaah, I’m so jealous!”

I chuckled. “If you keep reminiscing about old times I’ll have **** but to really call you Ms. Maria.”

“Shut it!” She puffed her cheeks in a pout. It didn’t look that out of place on her, despite her age, which I learned was 26. She pointed a finger to the front door. “Now go sweep the front entrance, slacker!”

“Yes, yes.”

I took the broom and went outside, trying hard to hold a laugh.

Work had become a lot easier with time and experience. There was still the unpredictable variable of customers, but at least I was learning to do everything better bit by bit. I was confident I could even prepare coffee quickly enough and without spilling anything, but the thought of actually having to prepare a customer’s order still made me a little afraid to tell Maria I could handle it. Things like sweeping, though, and washing dishes and even waiting on tables was much smoother.

Really, with things as complicated as they were getting, I was looking forward to my work days. It was a short escape from it all, a bit of time I didn’t have to think about what my lovely girlfriends wanted me to do.

…

Or that was what I hoped would happen.

We were having a slow, slow day. We only had two tables occupied, and Maria was more than capable of taking care of it on her own. That left me with all the menial tasks that left too much time to space out to think about… stuff.

Things were now crystal clear between the girls and I. For a few different reasons, they were not opposed to / wanted me to sleep with other girls. Sleep as in ‘have sex with’, if it wasn’t clear enough.

Let me be honest with you here. While this sounds like every man’s dream, with me certainly not being an exception, it wouldn’t have been something I would’ve said yes to if not for a single reason.

Noelle Summers.

The world is full of attractive women, sure, but how often do you feel like you click with someone the moment you have a simple conversation? How often do you feel like you click with someone AND they are ridiculously cute and hot?

Despite what our first encounter might make you believe, I didn’t feel a click with Mila, Grace and Sarah the moment we started talking. I spent the first WEEK panicking to my very core, not understanding what the fuck was going on, remember? With Noelle, though… I thought it was going to be awkward, but we ended up having a lot of fun.

…

I had a crush on her, and in that talk with the girls, they practically **** me to accept it. If not for that, I would’ve buried those feelings deep down until they were forgotten.

I feel like I have to say this, despite it being very obvious to me. My feelings for Mila, Grace and Sarah have not diminished in the slightest. If anything, I love them even more. It’s just that… I can’t deny that the idea of being with someone new is exciting, more now that I know they encourage it.

So yeah, I said okay to this because I wanted to date Noelle. But you’re probably thinking, ‘Oliver, what about Alice? You said you liked her!’ And yes, I do like Alice. She’s smart, competent, a top class beauty, and apparently a huge badass who rebuilt her own car and participates in street races with it. I just hadn’t felt that click yet, and that… worried me a bit.

The girls were encouraging me to go after Noelle, yes, but they seemed to be more interested in Alice and I hooking up. I mean, of course they were. She’s one of their best friends, so they probably trusted her far more than Noelle.

I didn’t want to **** anything, though, and that’s what worried me. I didn’t want to… sleep with one of my girlfriends’ best friends just for the sake of it. I felt like it’d be a disappointment for us all. I was going with her to the car meet on Saturday, though, so… I supposed we’d see how that went.

Finally, there was one more issue that concerned me. A very simple, yet important one. See, Mila, Grace and Sarah were okay with me sleeping with other girls. They WANTED to share me. That’s cool and all, but… What about these other girls?

Would Alice want to be with me? She knew I was dating her friends already. What about Noelle? She didn’t even know I was seeing other girls. She would undoubtedly hate me if I tried to do anything before I even told her I had three girlfriends. And if I told her, she was also likely to not want anything with me.

What a fucking mess.

Well, the girls said to leave that part to them, so… I’ll just have to trust them on this. I just hope this doesn’t end in any sort of fight.

If there was a supernatural being responsible for all the weird shit happening to us, then I prayed it also helped us make this work.

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