"Ugh, can you get your feet off my lap?" Zoe cursed and Wren pressed his feet down on her lap even harder in response.

"You can get off the couch then..." Wren said, holding his phone above his face while scrolling through TokTik videos.

"But I got here first, dipshit." Zoe pointed out, trying to shove his legs away. "If anyone should leave, it’s you."

Wren cleared his throat dramatically.

"That doesn’t matter because I’m older..." Wren said.

Zoe gritted her teeth especially when she saw the smug look on his face.

"Mooomm!" Zoe shouted toward the kitchen. "Wren doesn’t want to leave the couch for me!"

Diana’s laugh drifted from the kitchen.

"You should respect Wren because he’s older, sweetie!" Diana called back and Zoe looked like she wanted to die on the spot.

Wren laughed as well, then sighed and turned off his phone, placing it on his chest. A week had passed and several things had happened during that time.

The first thing was that Cara had started avoiding him... surprisingly.

Considering they’d gone drinking together and he’d carried her home like some kind of romance movie protagonist, he’d expected... something.

Progress, maybe... A conversation... Literally anything but instead, she seemed to blush bright red whenever she saw him at the store and would immediately find an excuse to leave even though she was at her workplace. "Oh, I just remembered I have to... reorganize my sock drawer. Bye!" That kind of thing so he wasn’t making any progress in that regard whatsoever.

Next was the fact that he’d hit a complete stagnation in his missions.

Wren didn’t want to just go from random married woman to random married woman like he was working through a checklist since that felt too mechanical like he was just using people for points so that made his available missions a lot less frequent, since he was being selective about the targets he had.

Not only that, but Nyx hadn’t given him any random missions lately either, which was unusual.

The system seemed to be waiting for something, though he had no idea what so he was stuck at nineteen completed missions. He was just one single mission away from unlocking the Business features of the system, and yet here he was, completely stuck.

He’d been spending a lot more time with Dani lately, though.

The girl was actually very fun to hang around with, putting aside her constant attempts at seducing him.

They’d watched movies at her place, grabbed late-night food from a store she liked, talked about random shit that didn’t matter. It was... nice. Normal, even.

Priya, on the other hand... they hadn’t kissed since that day at Langford Lodge though they had talked on several occasions, usually when Dani was around as a buffer between them.

Zoe had come home two days after staying at her friend’s place and after realizing that nobody was bothering to ask her what happened... because honestly, Wren didn’t care to learn why a person like her got cheated on and Diana was giving her space, she’d immediately launched into an unprompted explanation anyway.

Apparently the girl was now in her "man-hating era," whatever the fuck that meant.

Something about all men being trash and how she was done with relationships forever. She’d probably change her mind in two weeks, not that Wren particularly cared about Zoe’s love life.

For someone who was Diana’s daughter, he’d expected Zoe to be at least a bit like her mother... sweet, considerate, mature, emotionally intelligent but apparently that was too much to ask for.

Diana was unique, genuinely one of a kind.

Zoe was... well, Zoe was Zoe. Bratty, antagonistic, but probably decent under all the teenage angst.

The stocks situation had been a complete mixed bag. Valdris Shipping Co. had crashed spectacularly after a massive scandal broke... turned out the CEO had been embezzling funds for years and cooking the books to hide millions in fraudulent transactions.

There was a federal investigation, multiple arrests and company stock dropped eighty percent immediately.

Wren had lost five thousand credits on that absolute disaster, watching his investment evaporate in real-time but he’d also cashed in on Harwick Foods, which had announced a major expansion into international markets and saw their stock jump twenty-three percent overnight.

That had earned some of his losses back, at least. Not all of it, but enough to sting less.

He was now acutely aware that even Nyx’s recommendations weren’t foolproof or guaranteed. The stock market side of things was volatile as hell and way more unpredictable than the relationship missions where he at least had some control over outcomes.

But he’d put three thousand credits each into two new stocks... Stellaris Tech, which was developing new computing processors, and Northwind Energy, which specialized in sustainable wind power infrastructure that looked stable and had solid fundamentals according to market analysis.

The projected payback was due in seven days, and he was cautiously optimistic this time.

’I think that’s all...’ Wren thought, mentally tallying up the week’s events.

The past few days had been good, at the very least, peaceful, even but he wanted a bit more excitement in his life.

He’d also agreed to go to the club with Diana and Rita tonight, so that was something to look forward to. Maybe he’d finally get that drunk Diana experience Rita had hinted at.

KNOCK KNOCK!

Two sharp knocks hit the front door and Wren glanced over at it. You couldn’t see outside from the door since there was no peephole or window so he had no idea who it could be.

"Wren, could you help me check who’s at the door?" Diana asked from the kitchen, which was still visible from his position on the couch.

"Sure, Diana," Wren replied.

He rolled off Zoe’s side of the couch, making the girl groan in annoyance as his weight shifted.

Wren stood up and walked toward the door.

’I wonder who could be there...’ he thought as he approached.

There were a handful of people it could be. Maybe Dani, who would probably open with one of her enthusiastic hugs that lasted just a bit too long.

Priya didn’t usually visit him here, it could be Rita checking in on Diana or maybe one of Zoe’s friends, who always tried to flirt with him in that obvious way teenagers did.

’I don’t discriminate, but I’d rather not be with someone that young...’ Wren thought.

He wasn’t going to discriminate since it was legal and all, but he was almost twenty-five, eighteen-year-old girls just weren’t his type anymore.

The gap in life experience alone made conversation exhausting. Wren reached the door and opened it immediately.

"Who’s the—"

His voice caught in his throat.

Standing in front of him was a beautiful woman with purple hair cascading over her shoulders and striking green eyes. She wore a collar around her neck which was black leather with a single gold ring attached to the side, it was the kind that would make people do a double-take on the street.

She was holding a bouquet of beautiful flowers in her hands, and she was smiling at him.

That smile... That fucking smile he knew too well...

"Wre—" Leah started.

He shut the door in her face and walked straight back to the couch, retaking his position and opening his phone to scroll through more TokTik videos.

’Leah’s the kind of person who changes her hair and contact colors when she feels like it,’ Wren thought, trying to ignore the situation. ’Her real hair is black and her eyes are brown. I only know that because of the one picture she hasn’t been able to edit.’

"Who was at the door?" Diana called from the kitchen.

"Nobody important... focus on cooking Diana." Wren said flatly.

"O– Okay."

KNOCK KNOCK!

The knocking started again, more insistent this time and Zoe pushed Wren’s legs away with both hands standing up with a clearly annoyed look on her face.

"I’ll get it..." Zoe announced.

"Don’t open that door, Zoe." Wren warned, not looking up from his phone.

"Or else what?" Zoe shot back, walking toward the door. "You gonna pin me against it with your big dirty man hands and fondle me all over?"

Wren’s eye twitched.

Honestly, Zoe was just happy to piss him off. That’s what he’d been doing to her by putting his legs on her lap, so she was simply taking revenge. Fair was fair in step-sibling warfare.

Zoe opened the door.

"Who is i—"

Her breath caught in her chest. Standing there was quite possibly the most beautiful woman Zoe had ever seen in her entire life.

The purple hair, the green eyes, the flowers, that smile that made something flutter in Zoe’s chest that she absolutely was not going to examine too closely right now.

Leah’s smile brightened.

"You’re Wren’s sister, right?" Leah asked. "Zoe Langford?"

Zoe nodded, completely unable to form words.

Her brain had short-circuited. Her ex-girlfriend and this woman were miles apart in terms of beauty... miles and that chest... those breasts, it was like it was calling out to be—

Zoe mentally slapped herself.

"Great!" Leah said cheerfully. "I’m Leah Merritt, and I’m Wren’s best friend."

Zoe’s face darkened immediately.

’She’s best friends with that brute?’ Zoe thought, genuinely offended on this beautiful woman’s behalf.

"Can I come in?" Leah asked sweetly.

Zoe stepped aside wordlessly, still somewhat starstruck, and gestured for her to enter.

Leah stepped into the living room with her shoes clicking softly on the floor. Diana looked up from the kitchen, pausing mid-stir when she saw the purple-haired woman holding flowers.

Leah stopped directly in front of Wren, who was still staring at his phone with aggressive disinterest.

’Maybe if I ignore her, she’ll just go away...’ Wren thought desperately.

"You blocked me," Leah said sounding hurt but Wren kept scrolling.

"All of my numbers," Leah continued. "Even the new ones I registered just to call you."

’Right,’ Wren thought. ’Any unknown number I got calls from, I just blocked immediately.’

He’d made the mistake of answering one of them, and Leah had been shouting on the other end about how he was being childish and immature and needed to talk to her right now.

"Why don’t you just tell me what’s wrong?" Leah asked as her voice started to crack. "So that I can fix it?"

She clutched the flowers tighter. Her eyes became glassy, and small tears began rolling down her cheeks.

"Oi!" Zoe shouted, stepping forward and rolling up her sleeves like she was about to throw hands. "How dare you make this beautiful woman cry?!"

Wren finally looked up with a sigh. He sat up properly and met Leah’s eyes.

"You’re really crying?" Wren asked with his tone softening slightly. "Sorry, it’s not your fau—"

The flowers were suddenly shoved directly into his face.

Leah burst out laughing, stepping back as the bouquet dropped onto the couch beside him and Wren let out the most tired, defeated sigh imaginable.

’I really keep falling for this shit...’ he thought.

"Ha!" Leah said, showing him her tongue in a childish gesture. "As if I could ever cry because of you!"

She grinned triumphantly.

"You just left me hanging..." Leah said, putting her hands on her hips. "Refusing to answer my calls, blocking every number I tried. So of course I had to find you in person."

"Why should I be surprised?" Wren muttered, picking up the flowers and setting them aside properly. "You already found Dani’s number somehow so finding me would be easy."

Diana stepped out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel.

"Who are you exactly?" Diana asked, though her tone was more curious than hostile. Leah immediately shifted into formal mode and she curtsied elegantly, lifting the edges of her skirt slightly.

"Where are my manners?" Leah said with a bright smile. "My name is Leah Merritt, and I’m Wren’s girlfriend."

Wren had always expected this day would come eventually...the day Leah would show up at his new place and cause chaos but wait.

’Huh... did she just say girlfriend?’ Wren thought, his brain finally catching up.