[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 746 & 747. (Patreon)

Chapter 746: Invitations.

We were at the large table behind the folding screen that Maria had once prepared for us. She kept it for the larger groups, but most customers come in groups of three or four.

Mila told us more about her own second day at modeling school, saying how how she was really happy that one of the teachers had used her as an example of how to stand up straight and how to pose in front of a camera, that she said those were skills she already had mostly down, but that some girls didn’t seem too happy about it.

“You run into these kinds of people no matter where you go, huh?” I muttered bitterly, still upset at… well, everything.

Grace and Sarah getting hit on against their wishes, Fernanda getting harassed, Mila getting hate for nothing… And that made me remember that dude who kept harassing Diana, too, that V-Tuber drama Noelle had to go through, and the story the girls told me about what Alice had to go through.

“It is how it is,” Maria said, coming up from my blindspot with a tray of cookies she set on the table. “You meet some bad ones, you meet some good ones. You have six of those good ones in this table alone, don’t you?”

I don’t think that was directed solely at me, but at every one of us individually.

“We didn’t order cookies,” I told her.

“They’re my treat for helping me with a bad customer, but I’ll take them away if you don’t want them.”

“No, we want them!” Mila and Noelle quickly said, dragging the plate closer to their side.

“There you go. Anyway, don’t think about it too hard,” Maria continued, making a mess out of my hair. “It’s true that there’s a line where things can get dangerous, but don’t go giving up on people just because of a few bad apples. You don’t want to regress, do you?”

I groaned. “Yeah, I guess not.”

Alice blinked, looking from me to Maria and back. “You know… Sometimes I forget you two worked together for almost a year. You know him really well.”

“Of course I do,” Maria said, pulling my ear while keeping her eyes on the girls. “He’s my honorary little brother by now. Why do you think I’m mad that he didn’t come visit until now?”

“You said you forgave me,” I said, groaning some more. Her ear-pulling didn’t hurt one bit.

“Forgiven but not forgotten,” she said.

“Holding grudges is gonna make you age faster,” I told her.

“Hah! Look who’s talking,” she shot back.

“Alright, that’s fair. Can you let go of my ear now?”

“Fine.”

The girls looked at us with deeply amused smiles.

“By the way, love,” Grace said. “Why don’t you ask her?

“Ask her what? Oh, that!” I turned to Maria again. “Hey, is Sunday night a bad time for you and Thomas? We’re throwing a sort of… inauguration party for the house, but Diana and I work on Friday and Saturday nights. Besides, Ben’s boxing match is at 7:00 pm, so we’ll take the opportunity to celebrate his victory. Well, if he wins.”

“Sunday night… Mmm… Yeah, Isabelle is working on Monday, so why not? Will Diana be making drinks? If so, Thomas will have to drive. Who else is coming?”

“Mostly just our closest friends,” Sarah said. “Lena, Kevin, Ben, Mark, Thomas, you…”

“We’re having a barbeque on Saturday afternoon with our families,” Grace said. “Well… Most of our families.”

I frowned. Both of Grace’s parents were currently out of the country. Her dad was working, her mother was on vacation. Poor girl couldn’t decide if she was upset or relieved, believing that her parents would actually make things worse if they came over.

Mr. And Mrs. West were also coming over and bringing their younger kids. Sarah tried not to let it show, but she was excited. Mr. and Mrs. Aliev were also bringing their younger son, who is already friends with Sarah’s siblings, so no worries there, either. I hadn’t had the chance to really get to know Noelle’s parents since they’re both extremely busy all the time, but they had made some to come over. I was really looking forward to that, since I wanted to bond a little more with them. I hoped I could reassure them of how much their daughter means to me.

Our biggest worry was actually Alice’s parents. Well, her dad in particular. Alex and his wife were coming, too, and we were hoping he’d help smooth things over, but the fact still remained that, if he had his way, Alice would move out to study at a better university. We hoped he wouldn’t bring it up, but we were preparing for the worst. On the bright side, his issue wasn’t with me. To him, Alice and I being separated would be an unfortunate side-effect of her doing what’s best for her.

Fern suddenly appeared, peeking her head from the side of the folding screen.“Maria! Customers!” she said in hushed tones.

“Ah! Right! Sorry! Yeah, we’ll be there, Oliver. Just text me the time, okay?” the owner of the coffee shop said before running off to actually work.

We all gave Fern a thumbs up. “Good job,” I told her.

“I do wonder if it’s okay to tell my boss what to do…” Fern said with a shaky smile.

“She’ll gossip all day if you let her,” I told her. “Don’t be afraid to bring her back to reality when you need to.”

“By the way, you’re coming, right?” Mila asked her. “You’re coming to our house on Sunday night?”

“Um… Y-Yes,” Fern nodded, if a bit more nervous than usual. Fern and Mila hadn’t really interacted much by this point, which is still weird to think since I’m used to all the girls kind of knowing each other well. I suppose it was a similar situation when I started dating Diana, but even though it hadn’t been that long since then, it felt like a long time. “Oliver told me. If it’s not an issue…”

“Woman, we need you there,” Grace said, smirking. “We have a lot of stuff to talk about, particularly after everyone else has left. Because you’re staying the night, right?”

Fern took a deep breath and smiled with pursed lips before answering.

“Y-Yes.”

The girls all cheered.

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

Chapter 747: Fortunate side-effect? Kind of.

Of course, having waited until they closed shop, we took the chance to drive Fernanda to her house. At this point it was mostly for my own peace of mind than hers, since she seemed to have gotten over the ordeal already. Maybe I’m the one making too big a deal of it, or so I thought until I got a call from Luke of all people after we dropped Fernanda off at her house.

I answered and put him on speaker.

“Oliver?” he said.

“Hey there. Sorry, I’m driving so I have you on speaker. Is that okay? The girls are here with me.”

“That’s perfectly fine. How’s the house doing? Any issues?” he asked. He sounded kind of happy.

“None so far, no,” I said. “It’s taking us a while to get used to it, though.”

“Yes, that happens. I always feel weird whenever we go to our house in Korea.” Of course he has a house in Korea.

“So? What can I help you with?” I asked.

“Ah, right. Firs of all, I wanted to check that you were all okay, since I’m currently in Spain and we won’t see each other tomorrow at work.”

“Hm? We’re… doing fine, why do you ask?”

“That’s good to hear. If so, then I feel a lot better. The thing is I also wanted to thank you.”

“Ah? What for?”

“I heard the news. You got Joseph Milán arrested, didn’t you?”

I looked at Noelle beside me with a raised eyebrow, and she looked at me matching my confusion. None of the girls in the back knew the name, either, but since we really only got one man arrested that day…

“Joseph Milán? Was that his name? Also, how did you hear about that?”

Luke sighed heavily. “He’s kind of a troublesome competitor of mine, but more importantly he’s the son of a troublesome competitor of James Morgan, the man I introduced you to some time ago at the bar. Remember him?”

Ah, the rude old man who somehow ended up taking a liking to me. “Yeah, I remember him.”

“Well, Joseph getting arrested helps Mr. Morgan and I a fair bit, even if the kid won’t end up in prison. The news of him sexually harassing a young woman and assaulting a young man are going to hit their reputation a bit, and we can use that to get an edge on a couple of deals.”

I sighed. “You do know I had no knowledge of any of this before you told me, right? We just stepped up to protect Fernanda.”

“Of course. It just happened to help us out. If it helps you feel any better, you stopped someone who loves to use his money to do this kind of stuff and hide it all from the public eye.”

Yeah, I could sort of tell. “Again, how do you know this?”

“The hotel is not the only business I run in your city, you know? The manager of a shop nearby noticed and sent me a text. Didn’t take long to confirm it.”

“I see…” Yeah, I just can’t picture the levels on which Luke and his peers operate. “Well, I’m glad shutting that guy up helped you.”

“Yes. And on that note, I thought I should let you know that… Mm… No, never mind. It’s nothing.”

The girls all groaned, and so did I. “Come on, don’t do that. You already started. Out with it.”

“...” Luke sighed. “Like I said, Joseph Milán will likely not end up in prison. Money can buy freedom, sadly. The bigger issue is that he is a very petty man.”

I scowled. “You’re saying he’ll try to get back at me?”

“Perhaps. It’s possible. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to worry you. Just forget about it. Mr. Morgan and I will make sure you and yours aren’t troubled. Knowingly or not you did us a favor, we’ll return it in kind.”

Again, I just can’t picture the level on which these people operate. How was this Joseph guy going to get back at me? How were Luke and Mr. Morgan going to stop him from doing it? It was easy to tell me to ‘forget about it’ and I wish I could, but I was going to be looking over my shoulder for a while now.

“I’m serious, Oliver,” Luke repeated. “Don’t worry about it. Nothing will happen. I swear on my own family.”

“...” I sighed. “I can see why you didn’t want to say anything. But okay, I’m trusting you on this.”

“And I do not take that trust lightly, I assure you.”

“Thank you.”

“Please, don’t mention it. Well, I leave you all to your well-deserved family time.”

“Drop by the house when you’re here again,” I told him. “We’ll see if I can make a decent drink by then.”

“Thank you. I’ll take you up on that. Until then.”

“Take care.”

We both hung up, and the girls all suddenly let out a sigh as if they’d been holding their breath.

“Sorry, I still don’t understand how you can talk so casually with Luke Allen of all people,” Noelle said. 

“Yeah, it’s like being friends with Elton Mudd,” Mila said.

“Luke seems more well adjusted, though,” Alice said, with a faint giggle.

“Yeah, it’s weird,” I said. “But… I guess we relate to each other in ways we can’t relate to anyone else.”

“You mean… about the spirit thing?”

I nodded. “It affects you in ways that are impossible to explain to others. It shifts your world view, changes your priorities… You’ve seen it in me at times. When I seem to lose myself in lust… It’s not normal, and it’s fun when I can just let it all out, but a lot of the time I have to keep myself in check. It’s the same for Luke. Getting what he wants gives him a similar euphoria to what I feel when having sex, and he has to restrain himself to not… destroy everything around him because of it.”

“...” The girls went quiet for a moment.

“I guess I don’t often stop to consider how dangerous powers like yours could be in different hands,” Grace said.

“Or how said powers could corrupt or control someone,” Sarah said, sighing and leaning back on her seat. “I know we’d rather not talk about it, but… I do wonder how it was for Julian.”

“...” I swallowed hard through the knot forming in my throat. “I do too,” I admitted.