[Book of Eros] Chapter 49 - Thinking of how this changes things. (Patreon)

Author's note: made a small big change in the last paragraph to coincide with where I'll be taking the story.

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Leonardo moved to the kitchen with slow steps. Angela wasn’t there yet. He started working on breakfast, thinking his normal routine would help him get his bearings, but as he took one of the bowls to beat some eggs, his shaking hands failed him. He dropped the glass bowl and it shattered into only a few big chunks. But the loud noise seemed to have alerted Angela, who ran into the dining room already in her uniform.

“What happened!?” she asked, eyes set on Leo.

He shot her a tired, wry smile. “I dropped a bowl.”

“Oh…” Angela sighed in relief. She walked around the counter to help Leo pick up the pieces, but as they both kneeled down, she noticed his trembling hand picking up a glass piece. “Leo?” she asked, gently taking his hand in hers. “You okay?”

He stopped and bit his lip. Should he… tell Angela? The being that communicated with him through the book said they’d be watching him. They would see his struggles, his choices and how people around him responded. What did that mean? Was he being judged? The message seemed to imply that. If so, then what was the right thing to do? Should he tell Angela and have her share the burden? Was he even okay with that?

“…Yes, I’m fine,” he answered, forcing a smile. “I’ve just never dropped a plate or anything before. I startled myself, haha…” he laughed sheepishly.

But Angela narrowed her eyes slightly. “Is that really it?”

“Yeah,” he nodded easily, picking up the glass and sweeping the smaller pieces with a broom.

Angela stood up and eyed him firmly. “You know, you’ve been honest with me from the beginning. That’s one of the things I like the most about you. But I don’t think you’re being honest with me right now.”

Leo turned away from her and bit his lip. She sure knew how to hit where it hurt. And truth was, he wanted to tell her. He was scared. He didn’t want to deal with this alone, that much he knew. He was practically responsible for whatever happened this moment forward. But exactly because he felt like that, he didn’t want to impose the same pressure on Angela. If he could shoulder this alone for a year and work towards removing the curse, everything would be fine.

“Tell me the truth, Leo,” Angela demanded, frowning and with her arms crossed under her ample chest. “What’s wrong? Are you regretting what happened last night between us?”

“What!? No, not at all!” He hastily shook his head. “Last night was amazing, and I don’t regret it one bit! I just saw…” he caught himself. He nearly blurted the truth out. He took a deep breath, forced a smile upon his lips and looked at Angela. “It’s not that, I promise. Please, just trust me.”

“No, fuck you,” Angela spat, stepping up to him and grabbing his school jacket with both hands. “You think I’m just gonna see you with shaking hands and pale as a ghost and go ‘yeah, he’ll be fine’? Fuck no, Leo. Tell me what’s fucking wrong.”

She was blunt, she was tactless, she was overly aggressive in her approach, and yet Leo found himself falling even harder for her. He hugged her, pulling her into as strong a hug as he could manage. Angela seemed taken aback at first, but quickly returned the embrace, rubbing his back and kissing his shoulder.

“What the fuck happened, Leo?” she asked quietly.

“I think I had a close encounter with god,” he joked sarcastically. He opened the book, but the message was no longer there. “Well, shit,” he laughed dryly. “Now I’ll just look like I’m insane.”

“Tell me anyway,” Angela insisted, and she heard his story with her full attention. Leo clearly remembered every word, not because he had such good memory, but because the event was too frightening to ever forget. Angela swallowed hard, her face going pale as well.

“So now I have a year to remove the curse, or we lose everything,” he said, finishing his story. “And to make it worse, I think this… entity is watching me and judging me.”

“Holy fuck, Leo,” she sighed.

“You believe me?”

“Of course I do. What would be the fucking point of pushing you to tell me the truth and not believe you when you say this shit?” She was swearing more than usual, but he couldn’t blame her. “You could stand to trust me a little more.” That made him smile, if only faintly. “So, the gist of it is you need to have as much sex as you can, with as many women as possible, in the span of a year or we lose all chances of ever removing the curse on top of losing our gifts. Did I get it right?”

“Sadly,” he nodded with a wry smile.

“Sadly? Sounds to me like an awesome deal for you, you lucky bastard,” Angela grinned as she teased him, and he greatly appreciated her efforts to lighten the mood. “You’re going to tell Reiko, right?” she asked, though it didn’t quite sound like a question.

“You think I should?” he asked carefully.

“Of course. She needs to know!”

“What if she decides she wants nothing to do with us and it makes us lose a whole month?” he asked, grimacing. He wasn’t comfortable with the thought, yet with the stakes as high as they were now, it popped into his mind despite himself.

Angela paused for a moment, but quickly shook her head. “Reiko is… stranger than she looks. She might have that innocent appearance, but I think what she really wants is to let herself go.”

Leo blinked, surprised. “Oh?”

“Come on! Think about it! A girl who loves drawing porn yet is forced into such a sheltered lifestyle? She was bound to develop some… unusual interests eventually,” Angela argued. “She’s been slowly letting herself feel those things when she’s with us, which is why I like her. I want people to be honest with themselves, and of course that goes for you and me, too.”

Leo chuckled, and found himself surprised that he could laugh in any manner at the moment. He gave Angela a calm, genuine smile. “Thanks. I actually feel better now.”

“Good!” She nodded firmly.

“Doesn’t change the fact we’re against the clock now.”

“We’re not gonna get anywhere panicking, anyway,” she shrugged. “What you have to do hasn’t changed. Just means you have to be more proactive now.”

“The polyamory gift is going to be a necessity instead of a convenience,” Leo said, flipping through the book’s pages to confirm it and the other gifts were still there. They were.

But the polyamory one wasn't.

In its place was a message that read 'I won't make it easy on you. I want to see true struggle.'