Chapter 11: Chapter 11 – Natalie: Decision time

As we pulled into the mall parking lot on our way to the food court, Hugh still had a smile on his face, which struck me as really odd. Before today, I'd always thought of him as a guy who kept an even keel, never experiencing huge highs but also never falling into the lowest of lows. He seemed overall to enjoy just going along at a steady clip.

What he'd done at the batting cages, though, had really energized him. He was clearly elated.

I liked that he was happy. He'd done such a nice thing for me back in high school. He deserved it.

"You've gotten awfully quiet over there," he said suddenly. "What's on your mind?"

"I was pretty stoked about raising my IQ earlier, but it seems like your increase in agility made an even bigger impact on you."

"It wasn't the actual raise in agility, though that is nice, as much as it is the fact that I actually raised a stat and saw a result. It made all this so much more real."

"That's a good thing?" I asked.

"Yes and no. I mean, there are definitely bad parts, and I'm still super worried about why I've been given access to a system. But ... wow. I've read so many books, right? And I would go to bed at night and imagine I was in the protagonist's shoes, you know. Thinking about the battles and character builds and what I would have done differently. I never in a million billion trillion years thought I'd ever really have access to one. They're make believe. Pure fiction. Not a real thing. And then there was the screen, and that made me think I was totally bonkers. And then you could see it and then it was so cool that I could actually see my status screen. But it was just words on a page still, you know? But we did an experiment, measured my number of hits before adding the point and after, and there was a distinct, measurable result. It just ... made it all real."

I couldn't help but grin. He was so excited, like a little kid. It was tres cute.

It was in that moment, though, that I had to ask myself a crucial question - how much does this guy really mean to me? And, honestly, I didn't really know. It was too soon to be thinking about a relationship. I hadn't seen him in months before today and there had been absolutely nothing romantic between us in the past. If I let myself go down that road too fast, I'd be risking way too much.

My body? That was open to negotiation. Even though the thought terrified me to some extent, make me feel sexy and wanted and who knows where that would get you. My emotions, though? I was much more careful about that.

What was absolutely true, however, was that I liked seeing him happy. I wanted to make him happy.

Trying to keep my tone casual, I asked, "This public dare - sorry, quest - that you were talking about, do you have any ideas for it?"

"No. I told you it's not necessary."

"Is that your choice to make or mine?"

"Yours, but-"

"No buts," I said. "It's either mine or yours."

His jaw tightened.

"Look," I said, "I get that you want to protect me from going too far too fast and doing something that I'll regret. I even appreciate that you're doing it. I'm a big girl, though, perfectly capable of making my own decisions, so I guess I'm asking - do you respect me or not?"

"Of course I do! But you know it's not really that simple. Anything that you do regarding that quest, you'll be doing primarily for my benefit. Don't I get a say in what you do for me?"

"If you can tell me definitively without lying that you have no desire for me to flash in public, sure."

He tilted his head a me.

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"That's what I thought," I said.

"Fine. If you're that determined, I'll think up a quest for you."

I shook my head. "No, I want the one I'm sure you've already thought up. I want the one that you're reluctant to tell me. The one that you're sure will get us lots of points and make you so aroused that you can barely stand it and that you'd never tell me about because you think it's too far."

"It is too far. You're not ready."

Since increasing my mental stat, it was easier to think, and all this system stuff was making a lot more sense to me. It was easy for me to gain stats through quests that Hugh can think up at any time and have me do. It was much more difficult for him to get XP, so I was positive that this quest the system gave him was much more important to him than he was letting on.

"Again,” I said, “my choice."

He gritted his teeth, and I could tell that we were just going to keep going in circles on that line of argument. A different tact was called for.

"Think of it this way," I said, "you and I have a kind of deal, a pact, a contract, you know? I put myself out there for you by embarrassing myself by exposing my body. You put yourself out there for me by embarrassing yourself by being open and honest about things you'd rather not tell me. This is one of those things. I want to hear it. I need to hear it."

Hugh blew out a breath. "Are you always this persistent?"

I grinned, knowing that I'd won. "Yep."

That answer was actually a complete and total lie. Normally, I was the girl who sat in the back of the class, trying not to be noticed. Well, wanting to be noticed but scared of it at the same time. Persistence of any kind drew the exact wrong kind of attention.

The response I gave him was how the Natalie I wanted to be would have truthfully answered.

"Okay, so, if we want to maximize points, we need a task that's both super embarrassing and open ended, right?"

"Open ended?"

"Like, if you flash one person, you get a certain number of points and the quest ends, right? But what if you could flash multiple people for the same quest and get points for each one of them? It would add up quick, right?"

That sounded truly horrible. When he said public, my mind had went to a situation where there was a chance of someone other than him seeing me. He was now talking about people, apparently many people, definitely seeing me.

Instead of reacting negatively to his crazy scheme, I kept my expression as blank as I could and just nodded.

"If you absolutely insisted on doing something to maximize points, I'd suggest something like walking through the mall and choosing various places to sit. Then we can find some guys who are looking your direction and you can, you know, casually, as if you just weren't really paying enough attention to what you were doing, part your legs enough for them to get a good view. I mean, you'd have to lose the tights of course, but I think that would probably give a decent number of points."

I could hear the strain in his voice as he tried to keep it calm, like this was something he was disinterested in, that he wasn't thoroughly turned on by the thought of me doing that.

I shut my eyes and counted to ten. Either I was going to fully commit to this system and leveling and helping him or I wasn't.

Once I opened them again, I lifted my butt off the seat and began the laborious job of removing my leggings while sitting in a car.

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