Chapter 73: Why Not

Xavier was in bed at 7PM staring at the ceiling.

Not tired. Not working. Just lying there with the particular restless energy of a man whose mind had decided to stop being productive for the evening without offering anything useful in its place.

His phone was on the nightstand. Balance sitting at $1,103,506 with $840,000 incoming in 72 hours from the Gerald Obi acquisition. Patricia had the paperwork. Vincent was handling his end. Everything in order. Nothing requiring his attention until Monday.

And he was lying on his bed at 7PM on a Friday unable to settle.

Selene Adler, he thought. That’s what this is.

He’d been trying not to think about her since the corridor conversation that morning. The blazer fitted properly across the shoulders. The pencil skirt. The corner of her mouth that had moved but not quite become a smile. The way she’d said good acquisition like she’d assessed it independently and reached her own conclusion before he’d even opened his mouth.

2% favorability, he thought. And she’s living rent free in my head at 7PM on a Friday like she paid for the space.

He sighed at the ceiling.

Picked up his phone. Opened WhatsApp.

Xavier: free tonight?

The three dots appeared almost immediately.

Amira: sorry. Kenvale General prep. Research plan outline due Monday. Probably here until midnight.

Xavier: Okay... Good luck.

Amira: you okay?

Xavier: fine. Focus on your work.

Amira: okay. See you later.

He put the phone down and stared at the ceiling for another ten minutes.

High libido and nobody to direct it at, he thought. This is a very specific kind of problem for a man sitting on a million dollars.

He sat up.

Actually, he thought slowly. There’s a place.

He’d heard about it in his previous life. Not through experience, through conversation. A name that came up occasionally in certain circles in Kenvale. High end. Discreet. The kind of establishment that didn’t advertise because it didn’t need to. Its clientele found it and kept coming back because the standard was consistently what it claimed to be.

Luxury, he thought. And I have $1,103,506 sitting in an account that resets its returns every midnight.

He got up. Opened his wardrobe. Dark trousers. Clean black shirt. The leather shoes. He checked himself in the mirror briefly.

Why not, he thought. Let’s have some fun shall we.

He picked up his phone and opened the Uber app. Selected premium without thinking about it. Confirmed the pickup.

While he waited he checked himself in the mirror one more time. Dark trousers. Clean black shirt. Leather shoes.

Presentable, he thought.

The car arrived in four minutes. He grabbed his jacket and headed out.

[ REBATE SYSTEM ]

Transaction Detected: $28 spent on Premium Uber

Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x

Total Return: $56

[ Net Balance: $1,103,534.00 → $1,103,562.00 ]

He settled into the back seat and watched the city move past the window as the driver pulled into Friday evening traffic.

Selene Adler, he thought one more time. 2% favorability and causing problems.

He almost smiled and looked out the window.

Tonight is not about Selene, he told himself firmly.

The establishment sat on the west side of Kenvale in a building that looked like a private members club from the outside. Clean facade. No signage beyond a small brass plate beside the door bearing a name that told you absolutely nothing about what happened inside.

Xavier pushed through the entrance.

The interior was exactly what the exterior had promised. Warm lighting that had been selected rather than defaulted to, soundproofing that turned the street noise off like a switch, seating areas with booths designed so that nobody entering could see who was already sitting in them. The kind of space that had been built by people who understood that their clientele valued two things above everything else. Quality. And privacy.

And behind the reception desk. A woman who made Xavier slow his walk slightly before he caught himself.

She was sitting behind a clean marble counter with the professional composure of someone who had chosen this career deliberately and was exceptional at it. The tailored uniform she wore was doing its professional best to contain a figure that had no interest in being contained. Thick in every direction that worked, the kind of presence that filled a space without taking a step. Dark skin, sharp cheekbones, hair pinned up with effortless elegance. The overall effect was the particular combination of professionally immaculate and fundamentally distracting that certain women achieved without appearing to try.

The world, Xavier thought. Genuinely full of things I stopped noticing.

He walked to the counter.

"Good evening," she said. Warm. Professional. The smile of someone who was good at making people feel immediately comfortable in a space that required it.

"Good evening," he replied . "It’s my First time here. How does this work."

"There’s an app," she said. She slid a small card across the marble counter. "Everything processes through it. Bookings, preferences, payment. Completely secure. Completely discreet." She held his gaze pleasantly. "Download it, create a profile, browse at your own pace. When you’re ready to book it processes automatically and you receive a room assignment within fifteen minutes of confirmation."

"Simple enough," Xavier replied.

"We find simple works best," she said.

He picked up the card and found a seat in one of the private booths.

The app was cleaner than he expected. Well designed. Built by people who understood their clientele(clients). The interface was intuitive, the categories clearly organised, the profiles presented with the kind of professional photography that communicated quality without crossing into anything that would get it removed from an app store.

Xavier browsed without rushing.

The variety was comprehensive. Different backgrounds, different builds, different listed specialisations. He was scrolling through the third category when a profile made him stop.

He looked at it.

Looked again.

I know that face, he thought.

Not from this life.

Destiny. Sarah Torres’s best friend from his previous life. The one who had seen Xavier hug a female coworker in a parking lot and taken that image directly to Sarah’s ear and whispered until two years of relationship collapsed in a single afternoon. The one who had smiled at him at Sarah’s events with the particular smile of someone who had decided he wasn’t enough and felt privately vindicated whenever something confirmed it.

Here, he thought. Of all the places in Kenvale.

She looked different in the profile photo. More deliberately presented, more polished than the casual version he remembered from his previous life. But it was her. Unmistakably.

She doesn’t know me, he thought. Different body. Six years younger. Different life entirely.

But I know her.

He almost smiled.

This city, he thought. Never stops being interesting.

He selected her profile. Read through the listed preferences carefully. Selected his own. Entered the payment details.

The list went from. raw,ebony.bdsm,condom,hardcore etc and even added a section for different races of women Asian,Chinese,black and so on. He selected bdsm to satisfy a long lasting kink and an option for condom on and off. Why not fuck her bad behavior from her shall we its the least I can do.

It amounted to $5,000, he noted. For a luxury establishment that clearly takes the word luxury seriously.

He confirmed the booking.

[ REBATE SYSTEM ]

Transaction Detected: $5,000 spent on leisure booking

Base Multiplier (Tier 2): 2x

Total Return: $10,000

[ Net Balance: $1,108,506.00 → $1,113,506.00 ]

The rebate system just paid me to have fun, he thought. This is genuinely the best mechanic ever created.

He sat back in the booth and looked at the confirmation screen.

Who would’ve thought, he thought. Destiny. Of all people. Working here. He turned that over quietly. Makes me slightly suspicious about Sarah Torres’s entire social circle in retrospect. He paused on that for exactly two seconds. Nah. Let bygones be bygones. Different life. Different everything.

Fifteen minutes later a room number appeared on his screen.