The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 197: Mrs. Susan Miller wants to talk. (Patreon)

You decided to just get things over with as soon as possible, so you go talk to Mrs. Miller the day after Julia and Emily asked. You’re alone so that Mrs. Miller won’t try to act differently in front of people who are affected by the app.

After you knock on the door, it opens to reveal your future mother-in-law.

“Oh good, you’re here.” She says, nodding to herself. “Julia said you’d come. Come in, I need to ask you some questions.”

She needs to ask YOU questions? This is supposed to be the other way around.

She lets you into her house and leads you to the living room, offering you a seat on the sofa. She sits in front of you, with the coffee table between you.

“You have the app too, right? Has it been working strange for you lately?” She asks, not wasting any time to get what she needs. You raise a very curious eyebrow at that question.

The AMA? Malfunctioning? Honestly, you never even considered that a possibility. It’s so far from common understanding that you never even thought it possible. It’s not a piece of software. It’s just… magic taking the shape of a smartphone application.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, has it glitched or something? Is it not working properly? Are scores not updating?”

You think seriously about it, and you come to the conclusion it hasn’t. Julia’s scores updated just fine and you were even rewarded with 50 friendship points for getting to the 50-point mark with her. A lot of the other girls’ scores remain static, but that’s because their affection and love scores are at 100. Their lust scores keep fluctuating as always, too, never going under 60 and even reaching 100 every so often.

Since she was the one to offer this information out of the blue, you want to see how much you can get out of her without giving up any information yourself.

“I don’t know… That’s been happening to you?”

“Yes. You know by now I’m going out with your brother, Jonathan, right? It’s why you’re here.” She says shamelessly. “Well, his affection score is stuck at 25, and his love score seems to be glitched too. It’s not even appearing.” 

…

…

… 

Hold it.

Hold it.

Hoooold it.

HOLD IT GODDAMMIT. YOU CAN’T LAUGH IN FRONT OF HER!

You bend forward and hold your stomach, pursing your lips as tightly as you can to avoid letting out a single sound. You don’t even let Mrs. Miller see your face.

“W-What’s wrong?” She asks, taken aback.

“I-I’m sorry.” You groan. “I’ve been having these strong stomach pains lately. School’s been stressing me out.” You lie.

HOLY SHIT. How is this possible!? You don’t doubt for a second that her app is functioning properly. It’s just that Jonathan just… doesn’t care! It’s not like he’s immune. You did get points from raising your affection score with him. It’s just… Holy shit. With just that, she answered all your questions regarding your brother and got rid of all your fears. You clear your throat with a cough that comes out a little too loudly but turn to Mrs. Miller all freshened up.

“I’m sorry about that. But to answer your question. My app is functioning properly. I don’t think that’s where the problem lies.” You say with a smile you try to make sympathetic instead of relieved.

“Is that so? Then what could it be?” She asks with honest curiosity.

Is she… is she serious? Just how have all her years with the AMA been going for her to not question herself a single time? Is the fact that a man doesn’t develop romantic feelings for her an alien concept? Sure, you may have seven girlfriends with extremely high love scores, but you’re practically surrounded women only, and of those, only 11 of them have developed loves scores, regardless of how high they are.

Okay, that’s actually a really high number, but you’re digressing.

“Maybe my brother just… doesn’t feel that way for you?” You offer with as much sympathy as you can muster.

“What? But if the app is functioning well, then why wouldn’t he fall in love with me?”

Okay. Your sympathy’s gone. This woman needs a reality check. You send a silent apology to Emily and Julia for what you’re about to do, but you can’t really hold yourself back here.

“The app? You mean ‘The Affection Multiplier’ app?” You ask, emphasizing the name of the app.

“Well… yeah.” She nods and looks at you like you’re the crazy one.

You sigh heavily, not even trying to hide your bafflement anymore. “Mrs. Miller, how much is 5 x 5?”

“What? It’s twenty-five, but what does that have to do with anything?” She raises an eyebrow.

“1 x 5?”

“…five.”

“0 x 5?”

“Zero.”

“There you go. That’s your answer, Mrs. Miller.” You nod.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“About the Affection Multiplier app and about my brother Jonathan Walker, of course. What else?” You shrug. “Jonathan is an unashamed skirt chaser who canceled a date with your daughter to go out with you. It’s not his first time doing something like this, and it won’t be his last. Bluntly speaking, Jonathan doesn’t have romantic feelings for you. You can’t multiply by zero, Mrs. Miller. Not even magic can force my brother to have serious feelings for someone.”

Okay, that’s actually a really fucking sad thought.

Mrs. Miller seems completely taken aback by your words, but she also looks at you like she didn’t expect you to say those things.

“Let me ask this. Have you checked your score with your daughters lately?”

“I… I haven’t.” She answers, suddenly sounding far more timid than you’ve ever heard her. But like you said, your sympathy is over.

“Why don’t you do that now? You may be surprised.” You assure her.

You watch her hesitantly reach for her phone and unlock it. Some seconds later, you watch her eyes widening in horror.

“T-They’re in the low twenties…!? Their scores went down!”

“Thought so.” You nod to yourself and cross your arms.

“What did you do!?” She demands.

“Me? I promise you I did absolutely nothing. I have no way of affecting your relationship with your daughters.”

“T-Then how did you know!?”

“Because I’m madly in love with Emily. I speak to her almost daily. She’s told me how she feels about you.” You narrow your eyes. “How disappointed she is in you.”

“…” Mrs. Miller mouth hangs open, but you’re not about to stop.

“Emily knows you have the app.” You reveal, and her eyes widen even more as she covers her opened mouth with her hand. “She knows because I told her. Of course, she knows I have it too. She has for a few months now. She’s with me despite knowing that, and both her affection and love scores reached 100 some time after we started dating.”

“100…!?”

“Yes. Every girl I’m currently dating has scores of 100. Do you want to know my secret? It turns out that being honest with people and sincerely being interested in them helps a lot.” You nod with a half-hearted attempt not so sound sarcastic.

You frown when you notice Mrs. Miller’s body is shaking. It’s hard to believe you were so cautious of her at first. You remember her words back when you first spoke to her.

“It’s a handy thing to have isn’t it? You don’t have to worry about people disliking you or criticizing you anymore. You can finally live life how you want to.”

That’s what she said about the AMA.

…

You were worried about Mrs. Miller being some sort of mastermind on your father’s level, but in the end she’s just a very insecure woman who got too used to the power of the app. She relied on it for five years, so she started to see people as numbers on her phone and stopped trying to understand them.

All your animosity towards her just… leaves you. Right now, you can only feel pity towards her. However, that’s not enough for you to offer her everything on a silver platter.

“When I told Emily you had the app, she wasn’t angry at you having it. She was angry at you for using it to fool around with men without building any meaningful relationships. She’s angry that you’re wasting your chances to be truly happy.”

You sigh.

“Julia asked me to come talk to you because Emily told her you and I have the app. She asked me to see what your intentions were, and if you really didn’t care about them, she said she’d take Emily with her.”

Mrs. Miller crosses her arms, hugging herself as she stares down at nothing in particular.

“I don’t think you have an answer for me. And I think that’s a conversation you should have as family. Just be honest with them. Try to understand them. So long as people are honest with each other, they’ll eventually come to an understanding. That’s what I think.”

At this point, you don’t know if your words are falling on deaf ears. Honestly, you don’t feel like you’re the correct person to give her a sermon. You barely even know her. Hell, you’ve spoken more to Mrs. Hayes at this point. But… maybe you could’ve ended up like her if your outlook on things had been just a little different. No, there may still be a chance of that. You need to ask your girls to keep you in check.

“I don’t mean to speak from any sort of moral high ground. In the end, I’m also using the app to live how I want, just like you once said. But are you sure this is really what you want?”

“…” Mrs. Miller doesn’t look at nor speaks to you for a long moment. Just as you’re about to stand up, she says. “Sorry. I… I need to be alone right now.”

“Thank you for having me over. I wish you well, Mrs. Miller.” You nod to her and after giving Julia a call an explaining the situation to her, you return to your place.

______________________________________________________________

While on the bus back home, Emily sends you a short text saying her mother gave her and Julia a call. She wants to talk to them so they’re going. You can only hope some of your words got through to her, and that everything goes well. Really, them having a complete falling out with their mom would be too sad.

The meeting with Mrs. Miller has you mentally exhausted. Your body feels heavy in a way that’s unusual. All you want to do is get back home, drink some tam and fall asleep to a podcast or something. There was this really interesting one about the French Revolution, so not that one. That one you want to listen closely. 

However, when you get home, all your girlfriends but Emily are waiting for you, much to your surprise.

Emma and Megan are looking at something in your laptop, laying on the bed; Anzu and Sophia are playing a game on the console; and Mia and Katherine are playing chess again.

“What is this? What’s going on here?” You ask curiously.

“We figured you’d come back tired.” Emma says, turning from the computer to you. “I see we were right. Your face says it all.” She chuckles.

“I don’t look that terrible, do I?”

“You kind of do.” Megan says with a worried frown. “Was it that bad?”

“I don’t know.” You sigh, your shoulders slumping. “It got me thinking a lot, that’s for sure. I just hope Emily and Julia can fix things with their mom.”

“Checkmate.” Mia says, finishing the match with Katherine and standing up to meet you while leaving the redhead with an astonished look on her face. “Stop thinking for a while, sweetie.” She tell you, kissing your cheek. “We knew you’d be back and start to overthink things too much, so we’re here to help you relax.”

“Oh?”

“We’ll pamper you today.” Mia tells you. “Are you hungry? What do you want to eat? I’ll cook.”

“…Can you make french fries?” You ask with a sheepish smile.

“Of course.” After planting a soft kiss on your lips, Mia walks up to the kitchenette, puts on an apron and starts washing and peeling potatoes.

Having finished her game with Anzu, Sophia gets up and greets you with a kiss as well. She then says something in a low voice. “You know, for a guy with a harem, you don’t indulge much.” She chuckles.

“I think I indulge a lot.” You argue her.

“Not enough. That’s why today WE take care of YOU.” She says with an easy smile. “Get naughty if you want. Or not. Just make sure you stop thinking about other people today, okay?”

“Whose idea was this?” You ask with a chuckle.

“Who do you think? Emma.” Sophia answers with a small pout. “Seriously. She can read you like a book.”

“Yeah.” You sigh contently.

Yeah, you could use the time with them to relax.

What do you do?