"What’s up with you being so jolly today?" Lira asked, leaning against the edge of his desk with her arms crossed. She’d been watching him since the start of the shift—the wide, almost stupid smile that refused to leave his face, the way he kept humming under his breath while sorting items, the extra bounce in his step every time he walked past her.
Kyle glanced up from the clipboard, still smiling like an idiot. "Just ’cause. I believe something fun is going to happen soon."
He was right. Something fun and completely new was scheduled for tomorrow at his place. For the first time in longer than he cared to admit, he was going to actually fuck a girl—not just any girl, either. A top-notch cosplayer. Two full hours. Paid, arranged, and if the photos weren’t fake exactly the kind of body that made his mouth go dry just thinking about it.
Lira raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Are you going to tell me about it?"
"Not now. Right now it’s all speculation and hope." He shrugged, trying to sound casual even though his pulse was already picking up just talking around the subject.
"But if it does happen, I’ll treat you to dinner. What do you say?"
It had been a little over ten days since he’d started working here. Somehow he’d settled into the place faster than expected. His communication with Lira had improved too—past the awkward polite-colleague stage and into something closer to actual friendship. She teased him openly now, and he had started giving it back without overthinking every word.
Lira’s smile turned sly. "Oh, is something good really going to happen to you... or do you just want to take me on a date?"
"Guess. Both," he answered without thinking.
The second the word left his mouth he realized what he’d said.
’Shit.’
Lira’s brown cheeks flushed hard. Her eyes widened for half a second before she looked away, clearly flustered.
’This idiot! Does he not understand what he says?’ she thought, heart kicking once against her ribs.
’But... I don’t hate it.’
That was the problem with him. The best and worst part. He answered her teasing so nonchalantly that he ended up saying something absurd, and suddenly the teasing backfired right onto her.
She cleared her throat, trying to recover, "Since... you’re so confident, I’ll be waiting for you to take me on a date."
A small, teasing smirk returned, "Better keep that wallet thick."
Then she lightly slapped his ass as she walked past.
---
*Alarm. Alarm.*
"Is it morning already?" Kyle groaned, one arm thrown over his eyes. The phone kept blaring until he finally slapped it silent.
10:00 a.m. Wednesday. The day.
He sat up slowly, scratched the back of his neck, and immediately reached for his phone. The first thing he did every morning now was check for DMs from her. The screen lit up. Nothing new. Just the last messages confirming the time, the address, the two-hour rate, and the simple "See you then" from last night.
He stared at the empty chat for a few seconds longer than necessary.
"I hope she really comes," he muttered.
He’d believed her words more than he probably should have. Still, a thin thread of doubt kept tugging at the back of his mind. What if she was just trolling? What if the photos were old, heavily edited, or belonged to someone else entirely? What if she was a guy? What if she simply ghosted? or even worse what if he was trolled?
He couldn’t sit there staring at the screen waiting for a message that might never come. There was work to do. Whether she showed up or not, he was going to treat this like she would. That meant making the place presentable.
"Alright," he said out loud, swinging his legs out of bed.
"Let’s clean this place. It’s finally going to have a woman’s touch for more than five minutes."
He dragged the vacuum out of the closet and got to work.
*Rrrrrrrooom.*
He started in the living room, then the hallway, then the kitchen. Every corner. Every baseboard. He moved furniture just to get underneath it. He wiped down surfaces that hadn’t seen a cloth in weeks. He even got on his hands and knees and checked behind the fridge and under the sink for any lingering bugs, geckos, or spiders. The last thing he needed was some random insect ruining the mood—or worse, crawling across the bed mid-scene.
"Cleaning done," he announced to the empty apartment once the vacuum finally shut off.
"Now aesthetics."
He dragged out the coffee table he’d repaired last week, the one that used to wobble like it was drunk. He shoved a few old books onto the shelves—ones he hadn’t touched in years—just so the place didn’t look completely barren. The half-broken TV went back on the wall. Paintings and posters he’d planned to sell during the worst of the debt days were hung again. Semi-broken electronics, random furniture pieces, anything that made the apartment look less like a temporary crash pad and more like an actual home.
It still wasn’t going to pass for a millionaire’s production house. But it looked... normal. Lived-in. Like someone who at least tried.
When he finally stepped into the bedroom, his eyes landed on the medium-sized box sitting against the wall. A slow grin spread across his face.
"Boy," he said, crouching down and resting a hand on the cardboard, "I spent thousand dollars on you. Don’t you dare disappoint me with the quality."
Inside was a second-hand professional camera—old, but still in excellent condition. He’d taken out another small loan specifically for it. Phone cameras only went so far when you wanted something that looked even halfway professional. This thing, even on its lowest settings, still outclassed any phone by a mile.
He pulled out the camera body, the stand, the extra lenses, the spare batteries, and the small LED light panel that came with it. Assembling everything took longer than he expected, but once the tripod was locked and the lens was pointed cleanly at the bed, he stepped back and just stared at it.
"Wonderful," he whispered, the same soft, proud smile a father might give after watching his kid win a baseball game.
Everything was ready.
The apartment smelled faintly of cleaning products instead of neglect. The bed was made with the least-wrinkled sheets he owned. The camera waited. His cock gave a low, interested throb just from looking at the setup and remembering what was supposed to happen in a few hours.
Then his phone buzzed twice on the nightstand.
*Ting. Ting.*
He snatched it up.
[Too.xpicy.4u: I will be there earlier than expected. Is that alright with you?]
*****
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