Title: Affection Multiplier App: The Boyfriend
By: BreaktheBar
Chapter 284
Getting the girls back onto the boats without them soaking themselves took three trips after I stripped down again. I carried each one cradled high on my chest, both of them laughing and teasing me with their fingers in my hair, and then one last trip with the picnic basket. When I finally pulled myself up out of the water I was greeted by Cattie, dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tight band tour t-shirt that made it obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath, who hugged me tightly, uncaring about getting wet.
“Did you have a good time?” she asked.
“I did,” I said, hugging her tightly and groaning softly at the feel of her voluptuous chest pressing against me. “Next time you should come too.”
“I’d love to,” she grinned and kissed my cheek.
Quickly Becca was pulled away by Wanda into the Singles’ Boat, while Cattie and Terra both pulled Cassidy into the Couples Boat, and I could tell they were both about to get grilled for details on the date. That left me on the porch, dripping wet and holding my dry clothes in my hands.
“Hey there, sailor,” Heels said, looking down at me from up on the top deck of the Couples Boat.
“Hey,” I said. “How was dinner?”
“Pretty good, all things considered. You should come on up here for a second,” she said, then pulled away from the railing without waiting for my answer.
I followed her with a little frown. Heels and I hadn’t exactly become good friends on the trip, though we’d had a couple of quick conversations that cut to the core of what we were talking about. Leaving my clothes next to the sliding door into the boat, I climbed the stairs and found Heels sitting in one of the deck chairs, looking at the last glimmers of the sunset. I went over to her and took the seat beside her. She was wearing a short-sleeved crop top and black leggings, her warm brown stomach bare as she stretched like a cat.
“What’s up?” I asked as I sat down.
“I just figured I should check to make sure you aren’t some sort of a hypnotist or something,” she said with a smirk.
“No swinging watches here,” I said. “But I don’t blame you for asking.”
“Well, that’s good at least,” she said.
“If I was a hypnotist, wouldn’t being alone with me be a bad idea?” I asked.
“Only if I believe in hypnotism,” she smirked. “But for real, I do think we need to talk.”
“I’m all ears.”
She looked up at the sky, which was quickly deepening to dark blues and black above us. “I know we talked about Wanda already, but you should know that you are lining yourself up to be an absolute fucking awful person if you don’t tread really fucking lightly.”
“I know,” I sighed. “Wanda—”
“I don’t mean just with Wanda,” she said. “I mean with most of the girls who have decided to get attached to you.” She brought her gaze down from the sky to me, her brown eyes boring into me a little. “And I don’t even just mean the girls who were in relationships. Look, I’m not the most friendly person—I get that. I’ve got a bit of a resting bitch face at times, and I don’t go out of my way to try and be bubbly or friendly. But I’ve also been in the background for a lot of this trip and heard a lot of conversations. I’m not going to tell anyone’s secrets, but this stuff that’s going on… they aren’t just flings, Robbie. You’re playing with people’s real hearts and emotions.”
“You don’t need to tell me that,” I said before taking a big breath and letting it out slowly. “Honestly, Heels? I’m fucking terrified of slipping off the tightrope that I’m on.”
“Well that’s good,” she said. “At least you’re taking it seriously.”
“More than that,” I said. “It’s- Serious isn’t a big enough word. With each of them. I don’t take any one of them lightly. They each deserve the world, but all I can offer is me, and each of those amazing women who decide they want me makes me feel like I’m offering smaller and smaller pieces of myself to all of them even if they say they’re sharing the whole thing.”
“You realise that, at some point, something has to give,” she said.
“I’m just hoping that when that happens, it’s something we can work together to figure out.”
“What if it’s your career?”
“Unlikely. None of them are going to stop me from working, and they are all hard-working themselves. If, somehow, we got to a point where they collectively decided that they didn’t want me to work because someone is making enough cash already, then I’d just start working for them.”
“Fair. What if it’s your family?”
I blinked.
This entire week, I hadn’t even thought about my family. The last time I’d thought about them… In the truck, on the way here? When I’d worried that Cassidy had slept with my sister or even my Mom. She hadn’t—swore she hadn’t. After that, I hadn’t thought about them once.
What would they think of this? And this wasn’t just introducing them to the idea of an open relationship, or a throuple. This was… ‘Hey Mom, I know you’ve always loved Cassidy like a daughter. Well, good news! Here are my new girlfriends for you to love, too!’
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “It’s hard to say, honestly. My sister will be weirded out a bit, but she’s bi and into queer spaces and stuff, so she knows poly people and will probably accept it. My parents, my extended family… Hell, Cassidy’s fathers… I just don’t know. But I’d never let that stop me from being with a person I love.”
“So you really do love them,” Heels said. “All of them?”
“Well, it’s different for each of them,” I said. “Love is about two people, not just me and how I feel. And not all of them are at the same spot. But I’ll give each of them everything I can to fulfil their needs and wants. That’s the best I can do.”
Heels sighed, looking back out over the water. The sun had finally disappeared, leaving just the soft blue glow on the horizon. “That’s good enough, I guess,” she said. “But I still think you’re pretty fucked.”
“Probably,” I said. “All I can do is put in all my effort.”
“Then you should know what happened at dinner.”
* * *