Chapter 53: TEN MINUTES

OPPORTUNITY DETECTED

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[SUGGESTED ACTION]

– Crack a joke.

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– COST: 10 Lust

– EST. GAIN: ??

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I glanced at the floating prompt, then let a small smile tug at my mouth.

“Last time I put my arm around a girl like this was in high school. Movie theater. She headbutted me.”

Sarah let out a quiet chuckle. “What?”

“I was dating a girl who had a twin. Mixed them up. Don’t ask me how.”

She laughed under her breath, the sound soft against my shoulder.

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TARGET: Sarah Angi

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[ RELATIONSHIP ]

> Partner: [Hubert]

> Loyalty: 0%

> Dependence: 21%

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[ SYSTEM SYNC ]

> Favor: 0% [?]

> Threat: None

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x2 Sexual Encounter EXP

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> GRIEVANCE LOG

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Twenty-one percent. The number kept falling.

Silence settled over us again. I glanced down. The way her breasts pressed lightly against my side with every breath, the smooth skin of her thighs in those short hotpants… fuck. Part of me wanted to let my hand slide lower. Grope her. Push further while she was this soft and open.

Too risky.

I stayed still, arm around her shoulders, and just breathed.

The mood broke the second the noises started.

From downstairs, thin walls doing their usual job, came the unmistakable sound of Karim fucking someone. A woman moaning loud and high, whether real or fake was impossible to tell. The rhythmic creak of a bedframe followed right after.

I cleared my throat and stood up, tugging my t-shirt straight. “I should go. We, uh… we should run again sometime.”

Sarah looked up at me, then tilted her head slightly. “You know what? How about now?”

I’d already finished today’s Endurance quest. Another run wasn’t necessary. But if it meant more time with her, and another possible drop in Dependence, there was no reason to refuse.

“Not even taking a break, huh?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“Alright. Meet you at my flat in ten?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

I walked to the door. She followed. When I stepped out into the hallway she lingered in the doorway for a second, then rose up onto her toes and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek.

I blinked, caught off guard.

Sarah pulled back with a small smile. “Ten minutes. Bye.”

The door closed softly in my face.

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TARGET: Sarah Angi

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[ RELATIONSHIP ]

> Partner: [Hubert]

> Loyalty: 0%

> Dependence: 15%

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[ SYSTEM SYNC ]

> Favor: 0% [?]

> Threat: None

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

x2 Sexual Encounter EXP

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> GRIEVANCE LOG

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Fifteen percent.

Holy shit. So close.

I headed downstairs, still feeling the ghost of her lips on my cheek. Inside my flat I changed into something better for running, lighter pants, a clean t-shirt, and checked myself in the mirror. The Charisma points were still doing their work. I looked sharper than I used to. More put-together.

Karim’s noise was still bleeding through the walls when the knock came.

I opened the door.

Sarah stood there holding a light jacket in one hand. She had changed into a fitted black athletic top that hugged her chest and left a thin strip of stomach visible, paired with tight gray running leggings that clung to her hips and thighs. Her hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail. Even dressed for exercise she looked unfairly good.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey. Ready?”

“As ready as I’m going to be.” She glanced past me toward Karim’s door as another loud moan slipped through. “Let’s get out of here before I hear something I can’t un-hear.”

“Deal.”

I locked up and we left the building together. The air outside was cool but not freezing, one of those rare decent days. Sarah slipped the jacket on loosely without zipping it, and we started down the sidewalk side by side toward the running track.

Fifteen percent. A little more, and the last of her dependence on Hubert would start to crack for real.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye as we walked.

This was going better than I could have planned.

????????????

Unfortunately, the run turned out completely uneventful.

Sarah’s phone rang not long after we started, and she ended up talking to Hubert for nearly half an hour. Realizing nothing useful was going to come from it, no Dependence drops, barely any real conversation, I eventually made up an excuse and cut the run short. She could tell I was done listening to her talk to her husband the whole time. She didn’t argue.

Back home, I figured I still had time to squeeze in another quest before work tomorrow. That plan fell apart the second I opened the list. Piss on Hubert’s door. Fuck Sarah while Hubert was at work.

“Come on,” I muttered. “Give me something easier.”

I walked into the bedroom and dropped onto the bed, still scrolling. Nothing doable. The list would have to refresh. I closed my eyes for a moment, body aching from the earlier Endurance quest and the extra run with Sarah. I was completely wiped.

A knock at the door jolted me awake. I groaned, swung my legs off the bed, and shuffled over to check the peephole. Karim.

“What do you want?” I asked without opening the door.

“Hey.” He cleared his throat. “As you can see, I’m calmer than yesterday, Chance.”

“Cut it short.”

“Alright.” His voice stayed even. “I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I shouldn’t have acted like that. I’m sorry. I was a little drunk.”

Drunk. I’d been drunk before too. I still never hit women or tried to force them into something for my own fantasies. Guys like him always thought the world revolved around them.

“Yeah,” I said. “Sure. Now go.”

“Okay…”

I watched him step back into his apartment and shut the door. Only then did I return to the bedroom and pull the curtains aside a little. Rain had started. Of course it had. This city’s weather was consistently terrible.

My phone buzzed. Jodi. My sister.

I silenced the call without answering and shook my head. I already had enough problems. I didn’t need hers piled on top.

╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮

TARGET: Sarah Angi

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[ RELATIONSHIP ]

> Partner: [Hubert]

> Loyalty: 0%

> Dependence: 10%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[ SYSTEM SYNC ]

> Favor: 0% [?]

> Threat: None

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

x2 Sexual Encounter EXP

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

> GRIEVANCE LOG

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Ten percent.

As if on cue, shouting started upstairs. They were fighting again. Hubert was still at work, I could hear Sarah on the phone, her voice sharp. I couldn’t make out most of it, but I definitely caught a loud “FUCK YOU” in the mix.

“Maybe I should go up…”

I decided against it. She was still too heated. Instead I walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. The leftovers from the dinner she’d cooked yesterday were still there. Good enough.

I set the plate on the table, then froze.

A faint meow came from outside.

Hope flared for half a second. I left the food and hurried to the bedroom window, scanning the street.

There was a cat, all right.

Just not the one with the purple eyes. A regular stray, walking along the opposite sidewalk before disappearing around the corner.

“Damn it.”

I walked back to the table and sat down with the plate of cold leftovers. The food wasn’t bad even reheated-less, Sarah really could cook, but eating it alone in the quiet apartment still felt depressing.

While I ate, I pulled out my phone and searched for Jennifer Dash again. Her profile loaded. No new posts. No stories. Nothing for days. It was like she’d just vanished from the internet. The modeling, the little store announcement… all of it gone quiet.

And her boyfriend, Cole, the same bastard who’d nearly broken my ribs, was still walking around like he owned the neighborhood.

I finished the last of the food, set the plate in the sink, and went through the short nighttime routine: bathroom, toothbrush, lights off. Then I dropped onto the bed and closed my eyes.

Maybe a minute later, headlights swept across the curtains.

I knew that engine. Hubert’s car. The way he always turned onto the street a little too aggressively, like he wanted the whole block to know he was home. I was almost certain he did it on purpose.

I groaned and shifted under the thin blanket.

The car stopped. A door shut. Then the building’s front entrance opened with its usual creak. Voices followed, low murmurs drifting up from the sidewalk. One of them was… Karim’s? Were they talking? I’d never seen them together before.

I raised an eyebrow, pushed myself up on one elbow, and parted the curtains just enough to look down.

Hubert and Karim were walking toward the building together, talking in hushed tones. Not arguing. Not loud. Just… talking. Quietly. Like they didn’t want anyone overhearing.

Strange.

I watched them until they disappeared inside, then let the curtain fall back and lay down again.

I didn’t think too hard about it. Whatever those two were discussing could wait. It wasn’t high on the priority list. First I needed to figure out the perfume. And the woman on the running track who had somehow vanished the moment I looked for her. Those two things sat heavier in my mind than Hubert and Karim ever could.

I closed my eyes and let the rain against the window pull me under.

????????????

Thanks for reading!