Chapter 91: Chapter 91 – Hugh: Now we got problems

Nat returned with Julia, who returned an ink pen to the counter, and we all said our goodbyes to Amy.

Overall, I was relatively pleased with the evening. I didn’t like that there was a definite distance between Julia and I present due to my bluntness at the restaurant earlier, but at least she fully understood that I would not be having sex with anyone besides Nat.

Honestly, I didn’t think that things could have went any better with Amy. She was already at Level 6 and was clearly going to be one the best fighters on the team.

In the respect, I think that I could have done a lot worse than Julia as well. As long as her and Nat’s confidence wasn’t misplaced, my guess was that Julia would figure out the tank position easily enough. Nat, too, had all the attributes necessary to be a good support mage. She was definitely smart enough to determine who to heal and when. I mean, they all needed experience and especially experience fighting together, but I had high hopes.

The main problem area on the team was me. I was going to be a rogue? Yeah, that sounded nice in theory, but I literally had no idea what I was doing. Not to mention that, unless I recruited a lot more girls, I was destined to be the lowest leveled member of the party. Combine that with the fact that it seemed like the girls were all looking at me to be the leader. I really feared that I was going to get all of us killed. My only hope was that the girls could somehow git gud before that happened.

After I started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, Julia asked about what supplies and gear she needed to buy. We discussed that topic all the way back to the apartment complex and ended up staying inside the car after I parked to finish talking.

The net result was a list that Nat, her skills and mental score giving her almost perfect recall, would write down for Julia upon reaching their apartment. I think we covered all the bases. Food, lots of water, a large tent, sleeping bags for each of us, flashlights and a headlamp for Amy to go with the ones the rest of us already had, one of those propane lanterns, firestarting materials and a lighter, rope, etc. I told her to also look around for any guns she could buy, but we weren’t sure if that was going to be possible due to costs and any regulatory waiting periods or whatever. None of us were exactly gun nuts or anything, and I had, honestly, forgotten to do the necessary research when the thought first occurred to me.

As we finished discussing the shopping list, I noticed that Julia seemed to be a little nervous, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with the chainmail bikini she was still wearing.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked her.

She met my eyes. “Can I trust you?”

“I hope that we can trust each other. Our lives will literally most likely be depending on it soon enough.”

 “You know, it’s funny, but it’s actually a lot easier for me to trust someone with my actual life than it is with the private things in my head.”

Nat nodded. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“The thing is,” Julia said, “I want to level up more before we go into combat, so I came up with some quests.”

That made sense.

Nat, though, figured out something that hadn’t occurred to me. “When are you going to do these quests?”

“Tomorrow when you’re in class, either before or after my errands.”

“Alone?” Nat asked. “Will these involve nudity?”

“Yes to both,” Julia replied confidently.

“No,” Nat said. “That’s too dangerous.”

Julia laughed. “Your brain hasn’t caught up to the big, huge, gigantic change that occurred tonight.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, and it was clear that Nat didn’t either.

“You’re both worried about a guy trying to force himself on me, right?”

We both nodded.

“Before tonight,” Julia said, “I was less concerned about that than the two of you, but I agreed that it was a worry. I’ve had to fend off my share of drunk frat boys in my day and don’t even get me started on some of the more entitled guys I’ve went out with. Now, though, let’s say that a guy has me pinned to the ground. How’s he going to penetrate the literal actual chain mail that appears suddenly between him and his goal? That’s not even mentioning the fact that I can call a fucking sword and shield into existence with a thought. I am never defenseless now.”

Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.

“Not only that,” she said, “but the Inventory addresses my actual biggest fear, cops. Most police, especially on a campus or in a college town, are going to just tell a naked girl to go put something on. You never know when you’re going to run into that one hardass, though, who absolutely will arrest you. I absolutely do not want to have a conversation with my parents about streaking going on my record. Now, I can go from fully naked to one hundred percent dressed, underwear, layers, shoes, socks, the whole works, in a genuine blink of an eye. ‘Well, no officer, I obviously wasn’t running around without clothes on. When would I have had a chance to get dressed like this?’ As long as I’m even the tiniest bit careful and aware of my surroundings, avoiding security cameras, the danger is very small.”

She had a point.

“Yeah,” Nat said. “I guess that makes sense. You promise you’ll be careful, though?”

“Absolutely.”

With that settled, Julia turned to me. “The trust issue is about the actual quests. I wrote them down on these paper towels.”

I hadn’t even noticed that she’d been holding a bunch of folded napkins clenched in her left hand.

“I’ve numbered them,” she said. “I’m pretty sure that I’ll go through with these, but I really, really don’t want you to even read any of them unless or until I text you asking you to send that particular one to me. They’re really personal.”

“Julia, I promise you that I absolutely will not for any reason read any of those unless you directly ask me to.”

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“And you won’t tease me about any of it?” she asked. “Or even bring up that any of these things happened, not even to Nat? Or change the quest in any way?”

“I will keep them totally confidential even from Nat.” I met her eyes and she nodded. “I will never mention them again. I will only make a modification if you ask me to or if it is absolutely necessary because of system stuff. I will text you before making any such modification.”

Julia let out a breath. “Okay. That works. Here.” She handed the wad of paper towels to me. “Sorry. That was all I had access to use to write on in the ladies’ room.”

“No problem.”

“I guess we should head up to the apartment, then?” Julia suggested.

“It’s really late and I have an early class in the morning,” Hugh said. “If Nat isn’t too disappointed, I wasn’t planning on coming up.”

“I understand. Things are about to get crazy, and it’s best to get some sleep when we can. I would like to discuss a couple of things with you, though.” Nat turned to Julia. “Do you mind going up without me? I’ll just be a few minutes.”

“No problem. I do need Hugh’s number, though, so I can text him tomorrow. Oh, and give me Alan and Matt’s as well, just in case I need them.”

Nat frowned for an instant, and I wasn’t sure if that was about giving Julia my number or the other two guys. It had only flitted across her face, though, and she ended up quickly giving Julia the information she needed.

“Bye, then,” Julia said. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

As was Nat’s practice when she was light on pockets, she had left her keys in my car. Julia had no problem going up alone even as scantily clad as she was and I gave her the keys. I tried not to watch as she exited the car and walked toward the stairs. Either Nat didn’t try the same or she failed.

She blushed when she realized that I was watching her ogle Julia.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Nat said. “I seem to be more and more attracted to the things you’re attracted to. Is that okay?”

“Definitely.”

“I wasn’t looking for a flippant response, there. I’m serious. Julia and I will probably do stuff tonight. No video. No quest. Not for your pleasure. For ours. Are you really okay with that?”

She was right. I hadn’t been treating this subject as seriously as I should have. I gave myself a moment to gather my thoughts.

“Maybe this is wrong of me,” I said, “but I’ve been thinking of your relationship with other girls as being for fun and being about filling mutual needs. I think of our relationship as being about both those things but also about something more, love and romance and something a lot bigger than just sex. Am I off base?”

“No. Not at all. I mean, there’s definitely love between Julia and I, but it’s friendship. I know I have no expectation of her relationship with me becoming anything like what the two of us have, and I seriously, seriously doubt she does, either.”

“It’s really weird, but, if Julia was a dude, I’d be like, no way, no how. No! I can’t put a finger on why it feels so different to me, but it definitely does. As long as it’s like you said, that is, meaning that it’s not like what you and I have. In that case, I really just don’t have any problem with it. If you ever feel like things are changing or that for some reason you need to hide this stuff from me, that’s when I’ll get concerned and when we need to have a serious talk about it, okay?”

Nat nodded, looking relieved. “That’s what I thought, but I really felt we needed to get it out of the table.” She paused. “God! I can’t believe how I acted with Amy. I stroked her butt, and I liked it.”

“I’m not going to lie. That was hot.”

“You know,” she said, “part of the reason that I did that and that I’m going to be doing more stuff with Julia is that I feel I need to.”

“Huh?”

“It’s the system. I feel it in my gut, in my bones. The system wants us all having sex with each other. I don’t know why or what’s going to happen because we’re not, but it’s something we need to be aware of.”

I tensed. “No one and definitely not the system, should dictate who anyone else has sex with. Not me and not you. You understand that, right?”

“Of course. I’m not doing anything that I really don’t want to do. I’m just saying what I feel. I’m not advocating for you to change anything. either. In fact, the thought of you and Julia getting together still terrifies me. Even you and Amy… I’d honestly rather that you didn’t.”

“Okay,” I said. “Good. But… tell me the truth, am I being an idiot about this? Am I just being stubborn? Old fashioned? Weird?”

I still couldn’t share with her my real thoughts, my worries about not having enough love to go around for her and others.

And there was another big issue. When it came down to it, I barely felt comfortable about being able to be a good boyfriend to one girl. Heck, I didn’t even know if I was really even doing a good job with Nat or not. Filling that role for two girls? Three? Above and beyond my muted emotions, I just didn’t think I was good enough.

“I think that each of us has to determine what we’re comfortable with,” she said, “and that’s going to vary person by person. There’s no right and no wrong. I don’t think you should look down on Julia for being very free, and I don’t think anyone should look down on you for not being so open.”

Well, Nat and I were in agreement on two very important points. One, that I had every right not to sleep with anyone besides her. And, two, that it was quite possible that my decision to do that was going to lead us to disaster.

We definitely had problems, and I didn’t know how to solve them.

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