“Morning.” I called out, making my presence known.

“Oh, Tian. Good morning.” Claire raised her gaze from the textbook and smiled at me. “Have you rested enough?”

I took a moment to do a simple self-check.

“Should be enough to get me through the day.” The last part of my phrase got drowned by the yawn, and the Counter Girl snickered at me.

“Are you certain about that?” I could hear a bit of concern in her voice.

“Yeah. My sleep schedule is far from ideal, but I had a lot of time when it was much worse.” I tried to diffuse her concerns, but seeing that it didn’t really work, I decided to switch the topics. “So, what are you busy with?”

Claire gave me a long look, then shook her head, as if giving up on my stubbornness.

“Making notes for things I can tutor Olivia on,” she explained. “There are two more months before her exams, so there should be enough time to get her grades up a notch.”

I fought back another yawn, and stretched a bit. Thoughts about hiring her could wait for a while longer. I was pretty sure she would refuse getting paid anyway.

“Wanna join me for my jog?” I asked instead.

“Yeah, let’s go.” She responded, stretching a bit herself. “After all this studying, my shoulders are rather stiff.”

“Want me to rub them for you?” I offered.

“Maybe later,” Counter Girl responded absentmindedly. “Is this another nefarious plan of yours?”

“Of course it is, Claire. Everything I do is, one way or another,” I told her the truth. “But I am pretty good at massage, in fact. Lots and lots of practice.”

“Oh. Um. Well…” Once again, my frank words made her falter. “As I said, maybe later…”

I let out a bout of theatrical evil laugh, and went to get ready.

***

Since I was matching my tempo with Claire, today’s jog was a rather relaxing one. And, since I had company, a rather pleasant one as well.

***

I let Counter Girl use the shower first. As she was about to close the door behind her, I remembered about forgetting to put the towel back after the cold one I took in the morning.

“Claire, towel,” I decided to warn her.

The girl in question gave me a puzzled look, then checked the empty towel hooks, and blushed a bit. Whatever she imagined, I wonder. I gave her a dry towel, and Counter Girl swiftly retreated behind the shower door, while blushing even harder. Naughty.

***

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The breakfast went by completely uneventfully, spent in empty small talk. For the most part, the main topic was fitness, diet, and various exercises.

I led it toward our next date, whether it would be gym one or not, asking if Claire was up for tomorrow. Sadly, she had a busy schedule in the first half of the day and pre-existing plans with her friend in the evening. Well, that’s a bummer, but not exactly unexpected.

***

We were currently sitting on the bed, with my back resting on the headboard, while Claire half-laid into my embrace once more reading the textbook.

The Counter Girl actually took my offer for a massage. Shoulders only. Since she decided to lay down a boundary, I chose to adhere to it. Our game, so far, proved to be an interesting pastime, and, since Claire let me get away with plenty of advantages, I couldn’t even complain that it was too slow. And then there were all those cute reactions of hers every time the boundaries kept changing…

There was a slight problem, though. As I was slowly undoing the knots in her smooth shoulders, my self-control started to slip. Not a surprise, not really. The warm softness of her body, coupled with the feeling of her smooth skin under my touch, multiplied by her apparent readiness to trust her body into my touch. The fact I was quite pent-up in the last two days also didn’t help my case in any way. It was a gradual process this time, and when I finally noticed, it was too late already.

“Hey, Claire.” I called out, fighting back the urge to slide my hands from her shoulders to her breasts. “I think the massage session is over.”

“Oh. OK.” She nodded absentmindedly, not even making a token effort to leave my arms.

I took my hands from her shoulders and relocated them to her waist. Which was followed by Counter Girl choosing to lean even more of her weight onto my chest, reclining deeper into my embrace. She really found that much comfort in my body, I suppose.

Trying to distract myself, I started playing with her hair, marveling at the difference at how they were so soft to touch, even though they appeared quite spiky after the shower and hairdryer. Yeah, that was an excuse, and a flimsy one at that.

“Claire.” I called out again, as my hand on her waist started to sneak its way under her shirt. “Do you want a kiss?”

With an odd fascination, I looked at how her neck and ears were gradually changing color into the darker shade of red. The girl in my arms still didn’t make any attempts to escape, though.

“Um,” she muttered. “Do you really have to ask every time?”

“Would you rather be just kissed instead?” Not like I was against doing it this way, either.

“Oh.” Her blush went another notch into a darker shade of red.

I was weighing the pros and cons of waiting for her decision, as my hand on her waist finally found its way under the shirt and started creeping upward, as Counter Girl tensed a little.

Fate, destiny, or whatever higher power was messing with my life, had another plan in mind, though. As Claire seemingly came to a decision, and started turning towards me, her phone received a call.

“You should take it.” The last vestiges of my self-control made me say this.

With a certain amount of reluctance in her body language, Counter Girl left her nesting place in my arms and did just that. I decided to give her some space and, more importantly, give myself some time to cool down. This was very close. And we were alone…

***

The call was from one of her friends from the study group she told me about previously. The professor, whose lecture Claire planned to attend in the evening, changed the time. Curses.

This cut short our time together, as well as made me think about what I should do to make myself busy until Olivia got home. Well, there was a matter of changing the car to something with room for more people. I could also visit grandmother, and bring up a matter about the atelier. Since both of my alter egos made their debut, it was a good idea to get myself some proper clothing for high society. I had a pretty strong hunch that either of the twins, most likely Miya, would make me meet their husband soon. So, maybe, it was a good idea to bring this notion myself, as another show of trust from my side.

Either way, it was time to get ready. As I was dressing, something that would adhere to my silly girl’s taste, another thing came to my mind. As I previously said to Su’s first young lady, there was a claim to stake. Only this time it was much less of a joke.