I returned to Bella’s apartment, racking my brain around a question of utmost importance.

Should I finish the rest of the food now or wait until my dear wakes up?

The sound of a new message took me out of contemplation. I extended my hand to grab my smartphone from the kitchen table, half-expecting it to be another photo from Helen’s and Olivia’s outing.

Counter Girl: [Yes, please.]

Oh. So she finally received my message. Great.

I put a kettle on the stove, mulling over the new matter at hand. What should I ask from Claire as a repayment?

I couldn’t just waste such an opportunity to set another nefarious plan in motion, could I? Or better yet, how about letting Counter Girl decide on whichever way she will reimburse me?

Well, I would help her anyway. But I had gotten used to our little play.

I grabbed the smartphone again and tapped the video call button. Obviously, audio-only would suffice as well, but why not?

Two whole beeps later, Claire picked up the call.

Huh, she looked completely flustered for some reason, and I hadn’t even started teasing her yet. How curious.

Did Counter Girl think about the price she would need to pay for my help, only to let her imagination run wild? Naughty.

“Hello, Claire,” I greeted the cute girl in question.

“Um, h-hey, Tian,” she replied, stuttering a bit.

Claire didn’t wear any make-up, and her hair was in its usual state of spiky unruliness. From the angle she held her phone, I was only able to get a glimpse of her usual gray hoodie.

Well, Counter Girl looked cute anyway.

“So, what kind of help do you want from me?” I decided to first get important stuff out of the way.

“Um, I’m not completely sure.” Claire drawled. “I just want this whole bullshit to end as soon as possible.”

Between her defeated tone and vaguely lost expression, I could see how done she appeared to be.

“Give me the location, and I’ll send the same guy from the last time.” I slipped into a serious mood. “Just brief him on what outcome you desire.”

“Oh, um, thanks in advance.” A kind of awkward response followed.

“No problem,” I shrugged it off.

This exchange resulted in an awkward silence. It didn’t take much effort to decide that it wasn’t the right mood for the teasing, so I decided to postpone this until a more opportune time.

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Hm, now I needed something to break the ice instead. Except nothing really came to mind right now.

The silence dragged on as I was going over different possible topics, only to discard them one after another immediately.

“So, how have you been?” Claire spoke first.

“Like on a rollercoaster,” I replied with a chuckle.

I retold an abridged version of the events that happened since the moment we parted ways on Friday night. I glossed over some details, of course, but decided to stick to the truth otherwise.

“So, um, you and Helen?” Just as I was about to finish my story, Claire asked something out of left field.

I guess her filter had another malfunction, in a slightly unusual way this time. I watched how the Counter Girl slowly realized exactly what she asked, much to my amusement.

“Hm? What about us?” I asked back.

Well, I was expecting this question to come up at some point, but I assumed it would be in person.

“Ah, no, um, I mean,” Claire rambled in her usual fashion. “It just suddenly dawned upon me, and, well, a few things just started making sense.”

Now, this was outside my predictions.

“Huh? How about an example?” I was rather curious, actually.

“Well,” she bit her lip, “it’s like I always had a hard time imagining that mythical ex of hers. You know, someone who could actually make Helen fall. And imagining someone who could actually break up with her, yeah, that was even harder.”

Fair.

“And now you can?” I had a hard time fighting back a teasing smile.

Judging by the rapid spread of red on Claire's face, she already noticed it herself as well. A moment later, Counter Girl took a deep breath, calming herself.

My amusement doubled as I looked at how she shook her head and then nodded along with something going on inside her head. Ah, such a pity it was only a call. Good thing it wasn’t an audio-only one.

“Yeah.” Claire stopped her pantomime and answered my question.

I met her gaze through the screen, trying to distract myself from how kissable her lips looked. Ah, yes, really a pity.

A minute or so went by in this staredown before Chaos finally acted.

The embarrassed and longing look on Counter Girl’s face changed into one of surprise, while I felt a new weight on my shoulders as my special woman hugged me from behind.

Hm, I must’ve been really engrossed here to not notice someone approaching me like that. Then again, I never really put my guard up with Bella.

“You must be Claire.” I heard the voice of my dear right above my ear as she joined in on the conversation. “Nice to meet you.”

“Um, yes, likewise.” The girl in question responded in an uncertain tone.

“My, you are certainly a cute one. Olivia wasn’t exaggerating.” Bella continued, ignoring the obvious signs of discomfort in Claire’s expression.

“Bella, my dear, stop acting up and go get dressed.” I chided her in a soft tone. As a matter of fact, she was almost naked. Then I turned my attention back to Claire and continued, “She is in a playful mood. If it makes you uncomfortable, feel free to just ignore her antics.”

My special woman gave me a kiss on the cheek and sashayed towards the coffee machine, ignoring my words.

I could only shake my head and sigh in defeat. Still, Bella really was in a good mood, if this was the extent of her jealousy.

“The name of that vixen is Isabella Alvarez.” I once again turned my attention to the prior conversation at hand. My dear followed my words with another ‘hi’ of her own. “And as I said, if her antics bother you, feel free to ignore her or put boundaries in place.”

Bella already said she would play along nicely as long as I needed her to, so I wasn’t all that concerned about her anymore. As for Claire, hm, this was the reality of being involved with me.

I still had no idea what the reasoning behind Counter Girl’s behavior was, so let’s just leave the choice to her.