The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 265: The long awaited sixth day. (Patreon)

You look at your phone to see the time. It’s 4:00 pm. Considering all the work you’ll have to do, it’s about time you start.

You drink the last of your glass of beer in one go, set it back on the coffee table and stand up from the couch.

“David?” Katherine asks, having been sitting beside you for the last 20 minutes.

“Remember how I told you I was gonna make you all a special dinner on the last night?” you ask them all. “Well, I’ve got a lot of work to do and I don’t want any of you snooping around or trying to help, so I want you all out of this cabin.”

“You’re kicking us out?” Lilian asks, arching an eyebrow.

“Yep.” You nod shamelessly. “Get out. Have fun. Go for a walk, explore the area and don’t come back for at least two and a half hours.”

“What if I say no?” Lilian asks, pouting and crossing her arms.

“Then you don’t get to eat what I know is your favorite dish,” you tell her.

“I’m going! I’m going!” She stands up from her seat, dragging Emily with her.

“Sure you don’t need any help, love?” Emma asks.

“You brought a cooler full of ingredients. You’re planning a feast?” Mia asks.

“I’m done answering questions. Now move those sexy butts out of here. Go.” You shoo them all out of the cabin, and once they’re all out of sight, you take a deep breath. Your heart pounds like it never has before.

Today is the motherfucking day.

You did well in pushing it out of your mind during the week, enjoying yourself with the girls, practically drowning in sex and in their company. But now it’s time to focus.

You remember clearly the things you’re making.

Shrimp scampi pasta for Emma; Avocado pesto fettuccine for Katherine; Salmon and stir-fried vegetables for Mia; Pork chops, also with stir-fried vegetables, for Sophia and Jessica; Tempura shrimps for both Anzu and Lilian with mixed salads; Chicken with a mushroom sauce for Emily; Stake with the same sauce for Julia; An elaborate hamburger for Megan; and finally, mushroom risotto for Olivia.

In an ideal world, you would make every dish completely different. But you’re not that good, so you’ll just have to recycle some ingredients and preparation. Two pasta dishes, two pork ones, three with shrimp, four with vegetables, three of which will be stir-fried, and two with mushroom sauce. This way you can get the prep done for several dishes at the same time.

You get all the frozen ingredients, like the pasta dough, shrimps and meats, and let them sit on bowls on the counter. You get the vegetables from the fridge and start peeling and chopping. Avocado, mushrooms, carrots, peppers, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, garlic and more. You need to do everything that doesn’t involve cooking first, so that the food will be hot by the time the girls get back. They’ll be punctual, you know. You said two and a half hours, so they’ll be back in two and a half hours.

You have to hurry up.

As you beat the eggs for the tempura batter, you realize the frozen ingredient won’t defrost in time, and thank the stars that there’s a microwave here. Not ideal, but it’ll have to do. Shit.

After losing track of time as you work, you realize this is taking longer than expected. When you look at your phone again, you notice there’s only 30 minutes left. Dammit. Time to start the fires.

________________________________________________________________

Emma effortlessly jumps from one rock to the other, avoiding getting her shoes wet in the small stream coming down the ravine. They’re all exploring a different path than the one they did before. There’s still light up in the sky, but they should be going back soon.

“What do you think he’s making?” Katherine asks them, her voice coated with the same curiosity and excitement Emma is feeling right now.

“He said he was making my favorite,” Lilian says. “So I’m guessing shrimps. Unless he meant dessert, in which case he’s making a cake or something.”

“But I hate shrimps, and he knows that,” Emily says.

“You two never even peeked at the stuff in the fridge, did you?” Olivia asks, disappointed.

“Curiosity got the better of you?” Jessica asks her, giggling.

“Of course!”

“He’s definitely making our favorites,” Mia tells them. “I saw salmon, shrimps, pork… even frozen pasta dough.”

“Yes!” Emma and Katherine share an excited high-five.

“All that food must’ve cost quite a bit,” Sophia points out. “I hope he didn’t spend all the money from his job on this.”

“Ugh. If he did, he’s gonna try to find a job again,” Megan moans.

“There’s no way he spent so much on food,” Lilian assures them. “David never did say how much he earned, but my mom doesn’t pay trash rates.”

“A huge dinner on the last day…” Julia says, then grins mischievously. “You think he did something bad and is trying to apologize?”

“What could he have done that would merit an apology like this?” Anzu asks, out of curiosity.

“I don’t know,” Julia shrugs. “Perhaps he got too friendly with his ex and wants to ask us to let her in?”

The eleven girls all share a laugh.

That was ridiculous. David obviously didn’t think much of her, and besides, he’d brought the ingredient from his house. This was definitely planned.

…

This was… planned?

…

…

Nah. It couldn’t be.

…

He was working really hard just two weeks ago, though. And Lilian said her mother paid well.

…

David did refuse to say how much he made, but told her he put most of it in a savings account.

…

Emma’s heart starts to pound harder, and she immediately shakes off the thoughts.

“Emma? What’s wrong?” Anzu asks her.

“Ah?” she answers back, startled.

“You shook your head really hard there.”

“O-Oh! I just thought I had a bug on my face,” she laughs, trying to hide her nerves.

She couldn’t even hint to the others the thought that went into her head. If she did, and they started to believe it, and then it turned out it wasn’t it, which was the most likely, no, the definitive scenario, they’d all be disappointed and David’s special dinner would be ruined. And yeah, there was NO way he was planning something like that.

…

Right?

“It’s getting late,” Mia says, looking up at the sky. “And from down here, the sun will hide from us sooner than up in the cabin.”

“Should we head back up, then?” Olivia asks. “It’s still like 40 minutes until two and a half hours pass.”

“It’ll take us 20 minutes to go back up,” Julia says. “We can stay outside by the pool until he calls us in.”

“Yeah, let’s go back,” Katherine says. “I don’t want to be here in the dark.”

The eleven women start making their way up the mountain in a column, with Julia at the end of it. Soon, they reach the four-meter cliff, the one they have to climb using the rope ladder. However, there’s someone else here before them.

“Dad, please be careful!” says a young, blonde woman. She seems to be about Emma’s own age. She’s looking up at who is apparently her father. He’s an overweight man who must be around his 50s, and is struggling to climb the ladder up. And really… Emma has to use the term ‘overweight’ politely when she actually means the man must easily weight around 90-100 kilos.

“How did he come down in the first place?” Emily whispers to Megan, but receives a smack in the back of the head from her older sister.

“Shhh!” Julia glares at her.

“I’m fine, dear!” The man says with a tired voice, stopping his climb in the middle of the ladder to rest. “I’m… as athletic… as I was… in my youth!”

“Doesn’t sound like he was very athletic in his youth, then,” Lilian whispers to Jessica, but is smacked on the back of the head by Sophia, who also shoots her a glare. “What!?”

“At least save it for the cabin!” Sophia chides her in a low voice.

The man starts taking another step, and then it happens without warning.

They all watch as the man starts falling, the ladder along with him. He lands on his side from a two meter fall, the rope ladder falling on top of him.

“DAD!” the girl screams.

“Ow ow ow…” The man moans I pain, and Anzu rushes to him in a heartbeat.

“Are you okay, sir!?” She asks him. “Please, don’t move. I’m a nurse, let me check if you’re hurt.”

“Ow… Thank you, miss.”

Julia and Emily get the ladder off of the man, and Olivia glares ice both at it and the top of the cliff.

“I fucking told them this was an accident waiting to happen!” she snarls. “I swear, I’m finding out who put this thing here, and if I find out it was Taylor, I’m hanging her by her feet.”

Emma and the others have to take a step away from Olivia, who is absolutely livid. Emma walks up to Anzu when she finishes checking up on the man.

“How is he?” she asks.

“He’s okay, miraculously,” Anzu sighs. “He didn’t break anything, only a light sprain on his ankle due to the fall, but he’s able to walk.”

“But how did the ladder even fall?” Megan asks.

“Look at this,” Olivia says, grabbing the end of the ladder that was originally up the cliff. “They tied the ladder to wooden stakes and drove them to the ground. The fucking things just slipped out like it was nothing.”

That it was most probably due to the weight of the man goes unsaid.

“And you’re so mad because…?” Emily asks.

“Do you see any other way up, my dear Emily?” This time, Olivia has to visibly swallow a snarl.

The group looks up at the top of the cliff, then around them. The cliff is wide, and all around them are bushes, rocks and trees. The wall is also too steep and too soft to climb by hand.

“Oh,” Emily exclaims.

“T-Then… what do we do?” Katherine asks, getting nervous.

“We call reception, have someone come here, throw the ladder back up, an we’re done,” Lilian says.

“Then please call reception, Lilian,” Olivia says with tired, narrowed eyes.

“Sure, but I don’t have the number. You have to give it to me.” She takes out her phone and freezes when she looks at the screen. “…I have no signal.”

“You. Don’t. Say?”

The others also check their phones, including the girl and her father. Of course, being deep into the mountains, none of them have signal.

“Alright, calm down, girl,” Julia tells Olivia, sighing deeply. “We’ll just have to find another way up. We might have to walk a while and get dirty, but there there’s bound to be a another way up.” She looks at the girl and her father. “You two are coming with us, right? We should stick together.”

“Y-Yes!” the girl says, “I’m so, so sorry!”

“I’m so sorry!” her father apologizes deeply as well. Their faces full of shame.

“So long as you’re okay, sir.” Julia then claps her hands. “Alright people. Let’s move. We’re burning daylight!”

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“It’s been 40 minutes already…” you mutter to yourself.

At four, you told them two and a half hours. That meant 6:30 pm. It’s now 7:13, and the girls aren’t here. You’re starting to get annoyed and anxious.

You got a bit delayed in your cooking with so much to do, so at first you were glad the girls hadn’t arrived yet. But now everything is ready, and the pasta, the meats, the fish, the stir-fried vegetables, the tempura and everything else is quickly getting cold. You grab your phone and call Emma, but it says her phone is either off or it has no service.

Did she run out of battery?

You call Mia, and it’s the same thing. Julia? Same thing. You start getting worried. Anzu? No service either. You check your phone and, sure enough, you do have signal.

You walk out to the balcony with heavy, worried steps as you try to call every phone, even hearing Sophia’s ringtone from a bedroom, meaning she left it here. The sky is now quickly turning dark. You call reception, and ask them if they’ve seen a group of women, the ones staying in cabin 8. No one’s seen them.

You start sweating cold. Irrational panic strikes you.

Where are they? You have no doubt in your mind they’d tell you if they were going to be late. Please, oh holy whatever’s up there, please don’t let anything bad happen to them.

You shooed them out of the cabin, so they didn’t tell you where they were going. But if you had to guess, it would’ve been down the ravine, to explore the other path. Did something happen down there?

With the most terrible ideas in your head, you grab a flashlight and run out of the cabin.