[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 376 & 377. (Patreon)

Chapter 376: Intermission - Because those two were late.

It was bowling. Of course it was bowling, Diana should’ve seen it coming. Maria was a huge advocate of bowling as a group activity.

Diana parked her car in the mall’s underground parking lot and… stayed there for a bit. They were supposed to get together at 7:00 pm, but she was five minutes early and Maria never was the most punctual of people. Usually it was a mild annoyance, but now… What if she wasn’t here yet and Oliver arrived before her?

Her heart pounded hard, and a voice in the back of her mind urged her to cancel everything. It said that it would all be for nothing, that she was wasting her time, that there was no way a young man who had women throwing themselves at him would care about a cold, stoic woman like her.

…

But there was a chance he did care, and telling herself that it didn’t matter if things didn’t go well, she got out of her car and took the elevator to the top floor. The bowling alley was there, at the opposite end of the food court.

Diana stepped out of the elevator and headed to the meeting spot, right in front of a candy shop.

…

…

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!

He was already there, waiting, alone! Oliver stood there, dressed in a dark peacoat and blue jeans. He was punctual, which already said something good about him, and he looked so good in that coat, but…!

Diana saw him even from a distance, but thankfully he hadn’t seen her yet. No, he was looking somewhere else, towards the bowling alley. No… No, not the bowling alley. The arcade right next to it. Was he… into games like that?

Diana swallowed hard, feeling the knot that formed in her throat. Maria and her boyfriend were nowhere to be seen. Her legs now felt twice as heavy. She considered hiding in another store, but feigning tardiness would be awful.

…

She gripped the strap of her purse on her shoulder and took the first step. The ones after that one felt every bit as heavy, but came easier.

“Oliver, right?” she said as she got close.

Dammit, she startled him! Oliver flinched and turned to look at her with wide eyes. No doubt her cold, distant tone was the cause. Her heart froze, her fingers gripped her purse tighter and she felt her brow furrow. Already she was screwing everything up! But then…

Oliver smiled. His eyes shone, and his lips curled up into a soft, beautiful smile before he let out a chuckle. “I’m sorry, I was… distracted. You’re Diana, Maria’s friend, right? I’m… very glad I got to see you again.”

Diana blinked. He sounded mostly sheepish, but there was a softness and kindness in his voice that took her off guard. And… he was glad to see her again? Even though the last time they saw each other… she glared coldly at him?

Diana nodded, but she couldn’t think of what to say in return. In hindsight, she could’ve just said she was also glad to see him again. It would’ve made everything so much easier. But at that moment, Diana felt it was too… forward, too pushy. It wasn’t that she was trying to play hard-to-get, but more that she didn’t know how to… appropriately interact with a younger man. She worried she might creep him out.

Oliver looked at his phone and let out a sigh. “It’s seven already, but they’re still not here. Thomas is always five minutes late at a minimum.”

“...And Maria’s just the same,” Diana said. “I always tell her it’s bad manners, but she still arrives late.”

Oliver chuckled again. It didn’t feel forced to her, which made her feel better already. “I wonder how it works between them. Do they agree to meet at a certain hour but get there 10 minutes later but at the same time?”

A small smile crept to Diana’s lips at the mental image. “Or they both think the other will be late anyway, so they end up meeting 30 minutes later than agreed.”

Oliver snickered. “Yes, I can see that happening. Still, I don’t mind waiting. Five minutes is nothing. The problem is…”

“...When those five minutes turn to ten, then to twenty,” Diana finished for him. She watched his expression and saw him smirk.

“Exactly.”

…Was this really the guy Maria claimed couldn’t speak a word before? He seemed exactly the type of social butterfly she believed him to be.

Oliver looked back at the bowling alley. “Have you ever played before?” he asked her.

“Yes. Maria used to bring us here a lot back when we were in university,” she answered. It took her a solid 10 seconds before she realized she should ask him the same. “You?”

He shook his head. “Never.” There was, for a short moment, a small, sad smile on his face before he looked back at her again. “So I’m looking forward to this. I hope I don’t slip.”

“Don’t worry. That’s what the shoes are for,” Diana told him.

She wanted to slap herself. She continued to have this disinterested tone to her voice, despite not wanting to sound like that. Her heart kept pounding painfully and the tips of her fingers felt cold.

It got quiet for a moment. Oliver likely got frustrated that his efforts to talk to her got that kind of response from her. But then he spoke again, this time more… unsure of himself.

“Um… I’m v-very sorry to bring this up, but it’s something Maria told me. Is it true that… you work as a receptionist in a hotel called intimacy?”

It was like her whole body felt cold and hot at the same time. Her face, however, was immutable. Or rather, the shock of his question made it immutable.

“It’s true,” she answered.

His face went red. Then he groaned and rubbed it with both hands. “That’s… really embarrassing. For me, I mean,” he said, laughing. “You must think I’m a philanderer, huh?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I did, don’t you think?” Diana answered. “Or are you?” She almost winced at her own question.

“...” Oliver put his hands inside the pockets of his coat, his expression neutral, or thoughtful, rather. “Sometimes I think I am, but when I tell them that, I get scolded.” He smiled. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you thought that, but thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt.”

Diana swallowed. Her hands began to feel numb, her head began to spin, and she pushed the words out of her lips before the silence between them got too long.

“By the way, you look very nice.” God, she wanted to throw herself down to the first floor.

Oliver smiled. “Thank you. So do you.”

Or maybe not.

************

Chapter 377: The thought process.

I thought my brain was going to melt from overheating. Seriously, it was like I had overclocked it or something and was working beyond its normal limits. Well, both my brain and my heart.

It felt like being underleveled for a boss fight or having to perform a new song after only a few days of practice. Plainly put, I lacked experience with this sort of situation, so I had to rely on the meager skills I had. Turns out, though, I… already had everything I needed.

I did not read Diana’s mind, if you can believe it. It just didn’t happen, and I had to wonder if it was because I didn’t need it. After our first and brief interaction at the hotel, along with what little I could gather from what Maria told me, it was all plain to see to me. Diana had social anxiety, just like me.

It didn’t manifest in the same way. She could speak just fine, she didn’t stutter or hesitate once the words began to come out. Instead, it showed in her eyes, in her frown, in her clenching hands and in her cold voice. Like instinctual attempts to push people away, all to protect herself. And assuming I was right, I had only one course of action: be the way others had been for me.

It was a strange sensation. I forced myself to talk, to make conversation, but I wasn’t lacking on topics, even though we were alone. I just had to be brave and say what was on my mind. I admit, it was hard to tell if it was working, but I had a feeling it was, so I pushed on.

I drew on the few experiences I had of times when I could speak freely, be confident with people who weren’t my friends or my girlfriends. Diana and I weren’t close, so I could act like we were. Instead, I drew on my experience working at the coffee shop, treating customers with politeness and warmth to make them feel welcome. But that wasn’t enough. I couldn’t just be… ‘professional’ around a person I wanted to get close to. Professionalism put a barrier between employee and customer. So I drew on something else, my interactions with children, like Sarah’s little siblings. It wasn’t to say I wanted to treat Diana as a child. If anything, the age gap between us made me feel like I had to be more respectful, call her ma’am or Ms. Diana or something like that, but that would only make things more awkward between us, I thought. No, what I focused on was the way I felt when talking and playing with Sarah’s siblings. That lack of pressure, that desire to treat them well, with care and respect instead of condescension. And finally, there was my own experience. I knew in the flesh what it was to have anxiety make you act in ways you didn’t want to, and I also knew what it was like to find people who recognized that and looked past it.

My efforts did earn me a compliment and the confirmation that she didn’t look down on me for my… dating history, so things were looking up.

Why did I bring that up, you ask? I wanted to get it out of the way a soon as possible. If I had to spend the whole date wondering if she thought I was a womanizing asshole or not, I’d need to spend the entire next day in bed recovering from mental fatigue. 

If possible, I wanted to prevent us from falling into an awkward silence while we waited for our two other friends, so I tried to keep the conversation going. It did cross my mind that maybe talking more would make her uncomfortable, but contradicting thoughts would result in inaction, as always. Choose a path and stick to it.

“So you’ve known Maria since university?” I asked Diana.

She nodded. “Yes. For about eight years now,” she said. I noticed her tone was becoming a bit softer by the minute, but it could also just be wishful thinking. “I owe her a lot.”

I chuckled. “So do I.”

After a short pause, it was Diana who asked a question next. “How is working with her?”

“It’s fun. She’s taught me a lot, and I’m closer to my goal thanks to her.”

“Goal?”

I flinched. That came out without realizing it, but I already said it, so… “Nothing concrete. Just… pushing myself to do things I couldn’t do before.” I didn’t want to make things about myself, so I kept it at that.

Thankfully, Thomas and Maria arrived just then.

“Sorry we’re late!” Maria said, hands together in front of her face as they walked up to us. “I have no excuse. My phone is 10 minutes behind.”

“That’s an excuse,” Diana and I told her in shocking unison. We stared at each other, blinking before we both chuckled. It was my first time seeing her smiling, and it was beautiful.

“Sorry, sorry,” Thomas said, a big, dumb grin on his face. “I was with her, but I didn’t bother to check the time. Still, ten minutes is not THAT bad, right?”

“It’s bad because it’s always ten minutes,” I told them both.

“Anyway,” Maria said, pushing that matter aside with no subtlety at all. “You two seem to have gotten to talking already, right? Diana, this is Thomas.”

“A pleasure,” Thomas said with a short nod. “Maria talks about you a lot.”

“Probably to tell embarrassing stories of me,” Diana told Maria.

“Hah! I wish! You barely have any worth telling, Ms. Perfect.”

Diana shook her head, but there was another smile on her face. Small, but honest and… grateful.

“Okay, then. Let’s go. I brought you all here today to destroy you, so get ready to start crying.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Thomas said, smirking confidently. “I’m a regular here, too.”

Of course he was.

“Oh? You never told me that.” Maria grinned. “Maybe I’ll have some competition for once.”

And then there was me, who had never played before. Oh well. It still looked like it would be a fun time. Already having those two around changed the entire vibe, and for the better. Maybe the double date was a good idea, after all.