She left.

The door clicked shut behind her, clean and quiet.

Mike lay back and looked at the ceiling.

[DESIRE LEVEL: MADISON REED — 60/100]

He read the number and sat with it.

Sixty. The desire level had risen from zero to sixty in just one week, utilizing leverage as the initial step and following up with two conversations. It reached sixty although nothing about the process felt organic.

She was not predictable; she was contained. These were two distinct qualities, and he was beginning to grasp the difference between them.

He reflected on the fleeting almost-smile. It lingered for just a second, vanishing before she had fully decided to embrace it.

’You’re getting there,’ he thought. ’You don’t want to. But you’re getting there.’

He put the phone down and looked at the ceiling a while longer.

’One week... yeah... I had a plan alright... I filled her, and he’s going to have this sense of longing towards me where I’m going to let her go and feel frustrated.’

’I know that from my experience... every woman who already got filled by me would rather not do it with anyone else but me... and they can’t pleasure themselves anymore without my help.’

’Let’s see if Kyle felt something was wrong with her, hahahahahaha!!!"

Then he got up to start Thursday.

He was dressed and making coffee at seven-forty when the knock came at his door.

He opened it.

Haruka Kanata stood in the hallway, her cheeks puffed out in a way that suggested she was trying to contain an overwhelming emotion. It seemed to be a mix of frustration, indignation, and the weariness that comes from being kept awake by someone else’s choices.

She looked at him.

He looked at her.

"Good morning," Mike said.

She said nothing. The cheeks remained puffed.

"It seems like someone didn’t sleep well enough," he said.

She exhaled long and controlled. "And who’s fault is that?"

"I told you," she said, her voice carrying the flat tone of someone who had been rehearsing a phrase for hours and was now finally delivering it. "I told you to be considerate!"

"I told you I had an assignment, and I knocked twice!"

"I know," Mike said. "I’m sorry."

"Do you have any idea how loud—" She paused, then collected herself. "I could hear everything, Mike. Everything."

"I know," Mike said. "I’m genuinely sorry."

’I need to stay innocent so that I can surprise her when the time comes... God, I hate apologizing like a fucking wimp.’

’But trust me... this approach is going to be hella satisfying.’

"I was on the phone with Ren," she said.

Mike paused just to think. ’That’s even better... I bet that wimp didn’t tell her to have sexting.’

"I had the phone to my ear, and we were talking," she said, "and then—"

She made a deliberate gesture with her hand that conveyed the rest without needing words. "And then he asked what that sound was."

Mike pressed his lips together. "Pffttt..."

"Do not laugh!" Haruka said.

"I’m not laughing," Mike said. "Just a cough."

"You’re about to."

"I’m not."

"Your face is doing the pre-laugh thing," she said. "I’ve seen it, so stop it! This isn’t funny!"

"What did you tell him?" Mike said.

She looked at him with the expression of someone who had mentally rehearsed this question about forty times over the past few hours.

"I told him it was the television from the unit upstairs," she said. "And he said it sounded like a very specific kind of television program."

"And I said yes, some people watch very specific programs late at night. And then we changed the subject very quickly."

"He believed you?" Mike said. "That AIN’T sounding like that, you know." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Ren is very trusting and innocent," she said, and there were several things inside those four words that she wasn’t quite saying. "Which I am extremely grateful for at this particular moment."

"Haruka—"

"Don’t apologize again," she said. "You already apologized."

"I was going to say I’ll do better."

"You said that yesterday morning," she said. "Yesterday morning the person in your apartment was a completely different person from the one last night."

"Well... ehhhhh... that’s fair," Mike said.

She looked at him for a moment. The puffed cheeks had mostly deflated.

She now looked like someone who had said the main thing and was deciding what came next.

"I’m not asking you to change," she said, with the careful precision of someone choosing words like they’re picking up something delicate. "I understand that you have a quite unique life."

"I’m not naive about what kind of person you are. I figured that out in the first week."

"What kind is that?" Mike said.

She gave him a look indicating that his question could wait. "It’s the kind of person who manages to have consecutive nights with different people, attend seminars, make new friends, and appear completely unaffected by it all."

"I’m affected," Mike said.

"You don’t look it."

"I don’t show it," Mike said. "Different thing."

She considered that. "Okay... Fair."

She shifted her bag on her shoulder. "My point is I’m not judging you for how you live, but still... I’m asking for basic wall consideration."

"You’re right," Mike said. "All of it. It’s completely right."

She blinked. She had clearly been prepared for something else, and it hadn’t arrived.

"I know I said I’d be considerate and wasn’t," he said. "That’s on me."

She was quiet for a moment, processing the fact that he had agreed without conditions or redirection.

"It’s not just the noise," she said finally. "It’s that I had to think fast on the phone, and I don’t like lying to Ren."

"Even the smallest lies. Even the lies from television shows."

"I know," Mike said.

’She doesn’t like to lie to her boyfriend...?! That’s fucking better!’ Mike thought. ’Imagine the sneaky sex we’re going to have soon...’

"I’m very bad at it," she said. "I always feel like he can tell, but maybe he actually can’t."

"Still... I feel like he can."

"He probably couldn’t tell," Mike said.

"I know," she said. "But I still felt terrible."

She looked at the floor briefly, then back up. "He’s very far away, and the time difference is already difficult, and I finally had a nice long call and then—"

She stopped. "Anyway."

"I’m sorry," Mike said. "Not the automatic sorry, and it’s the one that means it."

She studied him. "How do I tell the difference?"

"The automatic one comes faster," Mike said. "The real one pauses because I’m actually thinking about it."

She thought about this. "That’s either a very honest thing to say or a very good way to make apologies seem more credible."

"Can’t it be both?" Mike said.

"You say that a lot," she said. "Can’t it be both?"

"It’s usually accurate," Mike said.

She almost smiled. Almost. It didn’t quite make it out, but it had been close.

"Okay," she said. "You’re forgiven. Provisionally."

"Provisionally," Mike said.

"This means that if another incident occurs, the provisional forgiveness will be revoked," she said. "I will buy earplugs, and I will move to a different floor if I have to."

"You won’t have to," Mike said.

"Good." She stepped past him into the apartment, set her bag down on the chair, and went directly to the kitchen counter, where the coffee press was.

"Can I have some?" she said, already reaching for the cup.

"Help yourself," Mike said.