WebNovels

Chapter 14 - (2)The First Major Push: The Payoff.

Over the next two hours, Darren watched the relationship fracture in real time.

He didn't need to do anything else, just maintained proximity—close enough to observe, far enough to seem uninvolved. The suit's Indifference lining made him forgettable, background noise in the busy bar.

From his watch point at a high top table with a view to their spot, he monitored their tags like a trader watching stock prices:

8:47 PM:

Jessica asked Mark who he'd been texting earlier, mark said it was work. She asked which project, he was vague. Her [INSECURITY] jumped to [$48.50].

9:15 PM:

Mark mentioned that Jessica had been "distant lately." She countered that he'd been the distant one. Their [RESENTMENT] tags climbed: [$35.75] and [$38.25].

9:42 PM:

Jessica brought up the ex. "Why would that guy think he saw me with David?" Mark said it was a mistake. Jessica said, "But you believed him for a second, I saw your face." Mark's [GUILT] spiked: [$52.50].

10:08 PM:

Mark asked why Jessica was so defensive. She asked why he was so suspicious, their voices rose, other patrons glanced over. The bartender looked concerned.

[ANGER: MUTUAL] [$68.75 / $71.25]

[BETRAYAL: PERCEIVED] [$89.50 / $94.75]

Darren watched, fascinated and horrified, as two hours of his careful cultivation paid dividends. Every doubt he'd introduced had found fertile ground in a pre existing insecurities. Every seed had sprouted into accusations, defensiveness, hurt feelings that compounded on themselves.

He hadn't created their problems, he'd just given those problems a voice, permission to exist, a framework to grow.

10:31 PM:

The breaking point.

"I can't do this anymore," Jessica said, loud enough that half the bar could hear. "You're not present, you haven't been for months and now you're acting like I'm the one who's checked out?"

"I'm acting like you're paranoid because a random guy said he saw someone who looked like you!"

"It's not about that! It's about the fact that you immediately assumed I would lie about seeing David!"

"I didn't assume anything—you're the one who made it a thing!"

Their tags were blazing:

[RAGE: ACUTE] [$156.50]

[HEARTBREAK: EMERGING] [$203.75]

[JEALOUSY: INTENSE] [$189.25]

[PARANOIA: PEAKED] [$167.50]

"You know what? Maybe we need a break." Jessica stood, grabbing her purse.

"Maybe we do!" Mark shot back.

She left. He stayed, staring at his drink, hands shaking. The golden script above both of them lit with a kind of emotional intensity Darren had never seen before— complex, layered, devastating.

[TOTAL COMBINED YIELD: $5,247.88]

Darren's hands trembled as he prepared to harvest. This was it, the biggest operation he'd ever run, Two years of a relationship, possibly destroyed and all he had to do was collect the emotional capital they were broadcasting.

He harvested both simultaneously.

This cold hit him like a train.

Not the ice water dip of small harvests. Not even the frozen vacuum of the pawnshop man. This was arctic, it felt like every warm thing inside him was being ripped out, replaced with knowledge he didn't want:

—two years and it's not enough, was never enough, he doesn't see me, never has—

—I love her but I can't breathe, she wants all of me and I have nothing left to give—

—the wedding venue is already booked, deposits are non-refundable, my mother will be devastated—

—freedom, finally, the pressure releasing, maybe I can finally—

—guilt, so much guilt, this is my fault, I pushed too hard—

—she never trusted me anyway, always waiting for me to fail—

The emotions fractured and dissolved into golden rain that streamed toward him.

DEPOSIT: $5,247.88

Darren sat very still, breathing hard, his heart hammering against his ribs. The numbness that followed was deeper than ever before, not just emotional flatness but complete dissociation, like he was watching himself from outside his body.

He looked at Mark, still sitting at the table with his head in his hands.

Felt nothing.

He Thought: I should feel bad about this.

But he felt Nothing.

The Goldscript Protocol pinged with approval:

[MAJOR HARVEST COMPLETE]

[EFFICIENCY RATING: EXCEPTIONAL]

[YIELD: $5,247.88]

[BROKER FEE: $1,049.58 TO L. BARTER]

[NET GAIN: $4,198.30]

Darren left the bar, and took the elevator down twenty three floors, walked out into the Seattle night and pulled out his phone.

His bank account: $5,483.72

More than enough for rent, more than enough for everything.

He walked in to a jewelry store that was somehow still open—one of those luxury places that catered to tech money with money to burn, and bought a watch. Stainless steel, Swiss movement, $2,000 on his credit card that he'd pay off immediately with his harvest money.

The salesman wrapped it in a box with more ceremony than the watch deserved.

Darren put it on his wrist outside the store.

It felt heavy. Not physically—the salesman had said it was "remarkably light for its class" but heavy with meaning he couldn't articulate, like he'd just paid for something that cost more than money.

He looked at his reflection in the store window: expensive suit, luxury watch, little gold flecks visible in his eyes even in the dim streetlight.

He looked successfully put together, like someone who had their shit figured out.

"I just turned true love into a down payment on a better watch," he said to his reflection. "Capitalism, everybody."

The reflection didn't laugh.

Darren turned and walked back to his apartment, the watch ticking steady rhythm on his wrist and tried to remember why he'd wanted to be a software developer in the first place.

He couldn't recall, that person felt like a stranger.

That night, he went to bed exhausted but satisfied, like an athlete after a successful competition.

That night, in a while he dreamed of faces.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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