Title: Affection Multiplier App: The Boyfriend
By: BreaktheBar
Chapter 271
“We need to talk about something else,” I said.
Things had calmed down after a few minutes. Not that we’d gotten wild or were sobbing or anything. And thank God I didn’t have another panic attack or anything. Now we were lying snuggled up and holding hands under the covers.
“Anything, Tiger,” Cassidy sighed. We hadn’t exactly come to a conclusion on the topic of how she felt about all of the relationship stuff deep down, but there wasn’t really a way to do that.
“Cattie is in it with us now, and I know you want her to move down with us,” I said. “And I think it would be amazing if that’s what she wants. There are logistics to figure out, but that’s small stuff. But we’re about to have a date with Becca, and she wants in too. We all know it. So what does that look like?”
“Well, you tell me,” Cassidy said, squeezing my fingers. “Do you want her to move in with us as well? Or is stuff with her going to be more slow-going, like long distance?”
“Well, that’s a question for her,” I said. “If I had my way though…”
“You’d want her with us too,” Cassidy guessed, and I nodded. “Same with Wanda. And I know, it’s the subject we’re not supposed to talk about because she’s not broken up with her asshole husband. But if we’re talking about planning for the future, we need to plan for her too. Wanda is going to want to move in with us. Long distance won’t be enough for her. That’s at least four of us, maybe five, and doesn’t even account for Ami or Leia.” She lowered her voice, getting a little closer to me so she was whispering. “Or Terra.”
“Cass,” I said.
“I know, I know,” she said. “But it’s another variable. Hell, we could include Zenya in that too even if it might not happen at all. Though the difference of planning for four and eight is a lot bigger than seven and eight.”
It was, quite honestly, a little disconcerting to consider that it would be easier to manage a poly relationship with over half a dozen women than it would be with three.
“So at least four of us together, almost certainly five, and maybe up to eight… or nine,” Cassidy said.
“We’re gonna need a bigger bed,” I groaned.
“We’re going to need a bigger house,” Cassidy countered.
We had savings, but not savings like that. I made decent money at the Hotel, especially after my last promotion and raise, and Cassidy made about three-quarters of what I was right now. It would have been more—probably a lot more—if she dressed in more scandalous costumes but she’d always played it safe with that. We couldn’t afford a bigger place at the moment, just the two of us, and-
“Tiger,” Cassidy said, interrupting my thoughts. “Stop stewing and brewing. It’s logistics, we’ll figure it out.”
“OK,” I said.
“I don’t think we can talk any more about what the greater relationship looks like without others here,” she said. “Or knowing who wants what. I’ll just say that I’m excited to have Cattie with us because it’ll be like having a sister who I love in the house, and adding more than that is OK with me. We’ll figure the rest out.”
“Alright,” I agreed, thinking of the feeling of waking up with Cattie, Cassidy and Wanda in bed with me that morning. Of seeing Wanda in the dark of the room at the same time. God, I wanted that. “Then there’s one last thing before Cattie gets here,” I said.
“The App?” Cassidy guessed.
I nodded, squeezing her hand. “I’m sorry I need to ask, but… things are all still the same, right? With the perks?”
She frowned and nodded, and I could see the guilt in her eyes. She wasn’t mad at me for asking, she was mad at herself because she knew she needed to.
“Then we need to decide if we’re telling them or not,” I said.
Cassidy swallowed and nodded again, then sat up and little and I joined her. “I… Look, I think it should be your decision, but I do have thoughts,” she said. “And the reason I say it should be your decision is because we aren’t going to be dating them, you are. But I think it’s… Fuck, I think it’s dangerous to tell them. It’s messed with my head for years, and yours almost every day since I told you. The App isn’t making them love you—at worst, I think, it’s making them feel more comfortable and friendly with me so they feel more comfortable doing stuff with you because I approve. Comfortable isn’t the same as love, though. If you weren’t who you are, then maybe they’d have sex with you but not fall in love with you. This week would have been a little more towards the minimum of what I hoped, instead of this maximum; just a bunch of sex, not love.”
“But if it isn’t affecting them, then it’s not something they need to worry about,” I pointed out.
“Except that’s only rational if you believe the App is real and buy into the rules and logistics of it. As soon as I prove it’s real somehow, each of them might feel a lot different about it.”
I nodded along, knowing she was right. Taking a long breath in and out, I had to consider that after everything this week, telling them about the App could blow it all apart. The simplest bad-case scenario was that they all thought I had hidden the fact that I was insane and they got the Ick and ended things. Everything else got worse from there.
“I can see your brain working again, Tiger,” Cassidy said. “Can I guess what’s on the tip of your tongue?” I nodded and she pressed her lips together for a moment before guessing. “But they deserve to know.”
“They do,” I sighed out, nodding.
“Probably,” Cassidy said. “But… sometimes the truth hurts. You deserved the truth as soon as I woke up and realized what an absolute cunt I had been back when I stopped with the App, but I didn’t know how to handle telling you. And just because we need to have Radical Honesty because of my fuckups, doesn’t mean they want to live that way. Telling them removes their agency in being able to decide if they want to know as much as not telling them.”
“Fuck,” I sighed, knowing she was right. “Isn’t that philosophically moot, though? If telling and not telling both remove the choice, then they are equally good and bad and we’re just back to deciding whether to tell them or not.”
“Then there’s the question of who you tell,” Cassidy said. “Just girlfriends? All of them? What’s the threshold?”
I didn’t have any answers. And with time running out before Cattie would come to us, I doubted we would figure it out.
“If you want me to do it, just tell me,” Cassidy said. “OK? I can do it, and maybe separate it from you a bit. I’m the bad guy with this, not you. Whatever you decide, Tiger.”
“OK,” I nodded. “I’ll figure it out.”
* * *