The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 191: An unexpected turn of events. (Patreon)

The next day, Megan and Mia arrive together around 1:00 pm and when you ask about Emily, Megan tells you something came up and she’ll be here later. That’s… odd, so you shoot her a message.

You: Everything okay?

Emily: Maybe? I don’t know. Julia asked me to meet her. I’m on my way to her place right now. I promise I’ll be at your place by three, though.

You: Alright then. Take care and say hi to your sister for me.

Hopefully nothing terrible happened, but there’s not much you can do now, so you focus on the people here.

Before anything else happens, Megan runs up to Katherine, gives her a tight hug, lifts her and spins her around a couple of times with surprising strength.

“You did it!” She beams. 

“Y-Yeah, but don’t be like this! It’s embarrassing!” Katherine pouts.

“Come on! Cheer up! You’re happy, aren’t you?”

“…” Katherine’s eyes turn to you, and her lips curl into a beautiful smile. “Yeah, I am. I guess it wasn’t as hard as I thought.”

Megan sets Katherine down, then grins mischievously and opens her mouth to say something, but you and Mia stop her at the same time.

“Save it.” You tell her in unison.

Who knows what she was going to say, but it probably involved you and the word ‘hard’.

“You guys are no fun.” Megan pouts while Katherine just blinks several times, confused.

You have Megan help you with the last preparations to get lunch ready while you let Mia have a little talk with Katherine. The redhead seems to be the most nervous around her in particular, and it’s probably because she sees Mia as an authority figure. She is the teacher of the debate club, after all, plus one of the stricter teachers at school, period.

They speak in a low voice, but you can hear little bits and pieces. Something about sharing the same feelings and desires and how Mia is still a woman after she stops being a teacher. Katherine seems to understand, and she giggles nervously as she apologizes.

Meanwhile, you can easily tell what Megan’s priorities are.

“So? How was it?” She asks, impatiently.

“How was what?” You ask back, innocently.

“You know, everything!”

“Well, dancing is not as terrible as I used to think. Still not one of my favorite activities.” You nod to yourself. “You into dancing?”

“Not really. My friends and teammates go clubbing a lot, but that’s just not for me. I’m a little like Katherine in that regard. It’s hard to be myself around people I don’t know.”

“Yeah, it feels like an eternity ago now, but you barely spoke to me back when we started working out together.”

“Yeah. Not to mention you were the first guy I ever spent so much time with.” She then puts a finger on her chin as she thinks. “Wait, you still are. I don’t really know more guys other than you. At most I’ve met my friends’ boyfriends. We’ve hung out, but not much more, so I wouldn’t call them my friends.”

“Well, then I’m glad I was your first and I was able to take you for myself before anyone got the drop on me.” You say with a playful grin, making Megan giggle.

“You know what? Me too.” She says, kissing your cheek and hugging you from behind.

Once you have everything ready, the four of you sit around the table and eat. Thankfully there’s no uncomfortable silence this time, both due to Mia speaking one-on-one with Katherine and Megan coming with a whole bag of questions for the redhead.

“Did you like tango?”

“David didn’t step on your toes, did he?”

“Was it romantic?”

“Were you nervous?”

“Did it hurt too much? You know what I’m talking about!”

“What do you mean a guy was hitting on you!? Tell the whole story!”

On her own, Megan made Katherine tell her everything. And little by little, the redhead starts to loosen up, her stories get more animated as she tells them with more enthusiasm. She has a way of drawing people in, and you can see Mia smiling proudly as she listens to her.

“I didn’t even know he was hitting on me! I thought he was being an ass!” Katherine laughs heartily as she tells the story. “Then David came and told the guy off like it was nothing while seeming all friendly.”

“I bet that was difficult.” Mia grins knowingly at you.

“What? Being friendly? Hell yeah it was.” You nod firmly.

Mia and Megan start doing the dishes after you’re all done eating. When you ask the group what they feel like doing now, Megan is quick to answer.

“Oh, David, Get my backpack! I brought as many board games as I could fit there!”

Okay. That could be fun.

You get Megan’s backpack and get four different boxes from it and set them all on the table. There’s Monopoly, Scrabble, Pictionary and chess. Katherine looks them over and asks.

“Do you guys know how to play chess?”

“I know how the pieces move. That’s about it.” Megan admits.

“I had a friend in high school who loved chess and made me play with him.” You nod. “I’m not very good though.”

“Same with me. I used to play with a group of friends in college.” Mia says. “I think I’m decent. You?” She asks Katherine.

“I play online. I think I’m pretty good.” She says, thrusting her chest forward proudly.

“Oh? Why don’t you two play, then? I want to watch this.” You say.

You notice that Megan doesn’t look too pleased at that, but doesn’t say anything.

“Feeling left out?” You ask her.

“It’s fine.” She pouts. “But can we play Pictionary afterwards?”

“Sure.” You and Mia answer at the same time.

You sit around the table and watch Katherine and Mia have a chess match. And surprisingly, they’re both really good. At least, it’s a little difficult for you to follow the game and outright impossible for Megan. They’re both fast and don’t take too long to pick their moves.

For about 10 minutes, the only sounds in the room are the pieces moving on the board. But just when it seems Katherine is about to win, everyone turns to the door as they hear it opening.

Emily enters the room, looking a bit tired. She smiles wryly as she greets everyone and leaves her backpack in a corner.

“What’s wrong? You don’t look good.” You say.

“I… have news.” She says, giving you a quick peck on the lips and sitting on your lap when you offer.

“Good news or bad news?” Megan asks.

“I don’t fucking know anymore.” The blonde sighs and shakes her head. She then looks at the chess board on the table and apologizes. “Sorry. You guys were playing.”

“It’s fine. I can win another time.” Katherine nods reassuringly, yet she says it with just enough confidence that it almost sounds arrogant. This makes Mia raise an eyebrow while you laugh under your breath.

“What happened?” You ask, rubbing Emily’s thighs to comfort her.

“I spoke to my sister. You know she was supposed to go on a date with your brother yesterday, right?”

“I didn’t know it was yesterday.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, because the date didn’t happen.” Emily wrinkles her brow. “And it doesn’t look like any dates are going to happen between them.”

“How come?” Mia asks.

“Because… My mom sort of stole Jonathan for herself.”

“…” The loud sound of you slapping your forehead echoes across the room, enough to make Megan and Katherine wince. You don’t doubt that there’s a red print of your hand there.

“Yeah, I feel like I should’ve seen it coming, too.” Emily groans and shakes her head. “I just didn’t expect them to meet at all!”

“What are you going to do, David?” Mia asks.

“I don’t know.” He sighs. “Should I even do anything? What does this mean?”

“I don’t have to say that your brother with my mother bothers me even more than your brother and my sister, right? Besides, since I know you won’t say it because of me, I’ll do it. My mother always leeches money off her boyfriends. Your brother has a lot of money. My mom also has the Affection Multiplier.”

“Your mother has what!?” Katherine exclaims.

Right… She doesn’t know.

“David confirmed Emily’s mother has the same… magic app he does.” Mia explains. “Apparently it doesn’t work on other people who have it, but…”

You groan. “I know Mrs. Miller can’t use it to the extent I can, so there’s that, but…” You bite your lip. Do you even have the right to interfere in any way? If you do, it would be like admitting it’s wrong to use the app. Besides, she did say she wouldn’t get involved in your matters so long as you didn’t get involved in hers. Not to mention you’re dating one of her daughters and are planning on asking out the other.

With what face do you ask her not to date your brother?

…

Should you… warn him, at least? Should you tell him you have the app and that Mrs. Miller has it too?

No. That wouldn’t do anything. It’s the same as before. It would be like admitting that using it is wrong. If you can use it and have a healthy relationship with your girlfriends, there’s no reason Mrs. Miller couldn’t use it for something similar.

Except she doesn’t use it like you. She doesn’t even know how to use it properly. She makes guys fall for her, dates them, takes their money and then dumps them. She’s never taken a score past 50.

You don’t think Jonathan is as thin-skinned as to be heavily affected by an eventual breakup. However… could Mrs. Miller somehow mess with his business? Unlikely, since your father is still the one in charge of all the big decisions, but…

“Should I speak to my mom?” Emily offers, looking at you with a worried frown as you’re in deep thought.

“Let me speak to Jonathan, first. The Affection Multiplier CAN control minds in some ways, but only if you unlock all its features, and I don’t think Mrs. Miller has.” You say, but you’ve explained this before. “Other than that, it would just be up to if they hit it off or not.”

You sigh heavily.

“If my brother and your mother get together, we’re going to have a nightmare of a family tree.” You try to ignore Emily’s cute, blushing face for now. “I’ll call my brother and ask him to meet up at some point next week. Might as well have his take on this.”

“What exactly are you guys worried about?” Katherine asks, trying to understand.

“That my mom will end up using David’s brother for sex and money like all her other boyfriends, I guess.” Emily sighs.

“Is there a chance it could be worse?” Mia asks. “Could she influence him enough to have a say in his business?”

“Let me check,” You say, looking at Mia. “I promise to eat you out every day for a month if you give me top marks in this semester’s midterms.”

Mia raises her eyebrows, taken aback while Katherine blushes madly and Emily and Megan laugh out loud at how unexpected that was.

“You drive a hard bargain, but no. Sorry sweetie.” He chuckles.

“Jonathan has a cool head for business. Even if she got all his scores to 100, he won’t let her have a say in his job unless it’s a good idea or she completely changes his personality using traits, which I still think she doesn’t have access to.”

You nod, mostly to yourself.

“Oh, I see.” Mia nods in understanding. “You’re saying that, even at what the app considers peak affection and love, you can’t convince people of things that go against their own values because you don’t change who they are.”

“Yes, but I think it goes a bit further than that.” You say. “I can’t confirm this, but I have the theory that the power of the app goes both ways. We know it’s tracking my score with you without showing it. We also know that, since Mrs. Miller… hasn’t been completely honest with her boyfriends, she’s never taken a score past 50.”

You look at Emily for confirmation, and she nods.

“Relationships always go both ways. It’s give and take. I like you because you like me, and you like me because I like you. Am I right?”

Seeing the four of them nod at that is reassuring.

“The app let it slip once that my scores with you three,” You say, referring to Mia, Megan and Emily. “…plus Emma and Sophia were maxed.”

“You’re saying the app is also making YOU like US faster?” Katherine asks, catching you off guard with how well she’s following everything.

“Yes. And when you truly love someone, you don’t want to hurt them, right? So I think it’s impossible for me to do something that would hurt any of you on purpose at this point.”

“Urgh. My head hurts.” Emily shakes her head.

“Remember what I told you? You can unlock the power to use traits on people when someone reaches a score of 100 affection with you. By that point, and if the multiplier does work both ways as I think, you should consider that person an extremely close friend. Which means…”

“…That if Mrs. Miller gets to the point she can use traits, she won’t use them to negatively affect your brother.” Katherine summarizes as everything seems to click in her head.

“Exactly.”

“Ooooooh.” Emily and Megan both nod in understanding.

“How sure are you of this theory of yours?” Mia asks.

“Very, but I can’t confirm it. I can only go on how I think my feelings for you have grown over time, and that’s not something I can quantify accurately.”

“C-Can we stop this talk? Please?” Megan asks, wrinkling her brow. “I know it’s how the app works, but putting numbers on love makes me uncomfortable.”

“Sorry. I guess I’ve gotten too used to seeing numbers.” You say, smiling wryly.

“I think it’s kind of interesting, but I get what you mean.” Mia nods and lets out a soft sigh. “On another note, now I get why you always insist on having us all together to tell us this sort of thing. This is going to be a pain to explain to the others.”

“Yeah…”

You call your brother and schedule a meeting during the week. After that, you decide to forget about that topic for now and enjoy the rest of the day with your girlfriends.

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