Title: Affection Multiplier App: The Boyfriend
By: BreaktheBar
Chapter 175
Wanda and I held each other for a little while longer before she helped me carry the last of the stuff down below deck.
It was a bit of chaos, or maybe more ‘calm before the storm’ down there. JC was sitting in the living area, bouncing one knee nervously as he did something on his phone. Heather was sitting on the couch with Sherry and Ginnie talking animatedly while Cattie was in the kitchen with Leia making up a big bowl of popcorn and glancing over at her girlfriend occasionally.
I went into the kitchen and gave both Leia and Cattie kisses on the cheek. “Cassidy wants to bust out some card games tonight. Are you two interested?”
“Um, maybe,” Leia said. “Gin and I were thinking of doing another movie.”
“I think Heather and Sherry are joining for that,” Cattie said. “I’m definitely in for the games though.”
“Cool, sounds good,” I nodded, turning to take the stuff Wanda had carried for me and stow it away in the cupboards where I’d found it.
“Hey, Leia,” Wanda said. “Has Cassidy talked with you yet?”
“Um, no?” Leia said with a slightly worried lilt, glancing at me briefly. “Is something up?”
“No, no,” Wanda shook her head. “Nothing to worry about. Come talk with me for a sec?”
“Sure,” Leia said, following Wanda back into the hallway towards the cabins.
“Uh-oh,” Cattie said, sliding in next to me and wrapping an arm around my waist. “Trouble in paradise?”
“I doubt it,” I said. “I think I know what that’s going to end up being.”
“It’s the hat thing, isn’t it?” Cattie guessed.
“You know about the hat thing?” I asked.
“Tiger, Cassidy told me,” Cattie smiled. “And I’m a little flattered that I inspired it.”
“You looked super cute, what can I say?” I asked.
Cattie glanced over at the living area where Heather, Ginnie and Sherry were talking and dropped her voice low. “I’d… really like to sleep snuggled up with you and Cass again tonight,” she said.
“Any time you want,” I replied, pulling her into a full hug. “Though Wanda will be with us tonight so the bed would be crowded, but you’re still welcome.”
“I wish I could,” Cattie said into my shoulder as she hugged me back. “God, you make me feel safe.”
I wasn’t sure what to say about that so I gave her one last extra squeeze. Heather had seen us hugging and was scowling lightly in our direction. I let go of Cattie and she took one small step back to separate us. “So cards tonight then?”
“Only as long as it isn’t some dumb betting or daring game,” Cattie said with a slight grimace.
“Nope,” I shook my head. “It’ll be the nerdy ones Cass and I brought.”
“Then I’m in,” she nodded.
“OK, I’ll make sure we find you when we decide where we’re playing,” I promised.
“Thanks,” she smiled, then hooked my fingers with hers briefly to stop me from going yet. “Love you,” she mouthed softly.
I wanted to say it back, but Heather was still watching us from behind Cattie and could see my lips so I just smiled and gave Cattie a wink instead. She smiled back, knowing why, and squeezed my fingers a little before letting go.
With Wanda and Leia disappearing into the back rooms, I crossed over to the Singles Boat and found that the living area over there was just as crowded. Things quickly developed from there as the girls started to decide what they wanted to do for the evening. I managed to sneak a little chaste kiss with Ami before she, Zenya and Heels set up Ami’s switch to play Mario Party and borrowed some controllers from Leia. JC ended up joining them. For her part Leia decided to watch the movie with Ginnie, Heather and Sherry in the living area of the Couples Boat, which meant both spaces were taken up, so the rest of us decided to head up to the top deck to play cards.
Cassidy and I, like many of the girls on the trip, were nerds. It just came with the cosplay territory. We had brought a variety of nerdy dice and card games that weren’t very rules-heavy or technical and were meant to be party games; we often brought them along to Cons so we could play with new and old friends alike.
The six of us sat out on our butts on the astroturf after moving the deck chairs out of the way since we didn’t have a table. All of the girls were comfortably sitting cross-legged, so I was the only one who had to shift around and got ragged on for needing to do more yoga to work on my flexibility.
Looking around the circle as we started with Sushi Go I couldn’t help but grin to myself. Cassidy and Cattie were both giggling at a comment that Terra had made, all three of them familiar with the game, while Wanda was looking through the cute art on the cards with a big smile. She glanced up at me and I nodded, letting her know I agreed that the little sushi art was cute, making her smile a little more. Meanwhile, Becca was reading over the rules of the game, making sure she understood the intricacies (of which there weren’t that many.) The fact that it was the exact same thing I did when I was learning a new game made me feel a warmth in my chest, again realizing how similar we were.
We played a full game of Sushi Go, all of the girls getting into it quickly and all of us chatting both about the game and life away from the trip. All of the girls were full-time on being models and worked hard to develop their workflows and audiences. Outside of their looks, they were known for somewhat different things. Terra was also a traditional model and knew the most about that world. Becca was excellent at photo editing and created beautiful lighting effects both manually and in post. Cattie was known for her snarky demeanour online and had garnered a following that way. Wanda and Cassidy were more ‘generalist’ but each had a different sort of online profile that matched their personalities—Cassidy had a better following on social media in general, but Wanda had developed her monetization to a higher degree.
I felt like a bit of an imposter, sitting and playing with them. Sure, I was a sometime stand-in on some of Cassidy’s shoots as either a model or a photographer, but I wasn’t a pro like any of them. My work was completely different from theirs—I wasn’t a public figure. I was the behind-the-scenes guy at the hotel most of the time, networking with vendors and maintenance and the managers of acts and clients.
And yet somehow I fit with these gorgeous women.
“Let’s play Secret Hitler,” Cassidy said once she had secured a victory in Sushi Go, with Becca just a couple of points behind her, and me one behind Becca.
“As long as we don’t have to draw moustaches on our faces,” Terra smirked. “I don’t think I could pull that off.”
I rolled my eyes, “No, no moustaches. I’m going to go grab some drinks, anyone want anything?”
Inundated with requests, I decided to just stock up our cooler and bring it up.
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