Sometimes when you meet a stranger, you feel it. The tension in the air, the formalities, the fake opinions... it's as if there's a barrier between you and that person. It only takes one deep conversation to break that barrier. At this moment, I hadn't had any deep conversations with Maya, and yet I felt like the barrier was gone, shattered out of the path, as if we had been close friends for years.
I watched the progress bar atop her head and realized I was gradually creeping up to forty percent. Soon I would be at a hundred. A hundred! I just hoped my assumptions about what happens at that point were correct. The system was vague on the details, painting the milestone with the tantalizing label of "Full harem member." I didn't know what that entailed, but the promise of it was a warm, steady hum in my chest, a stark contrast to the cold fury of the office.
That warmth, however, quickly became a furnace. Maya kept on hugging me as if she were a leech, her arms locked around my torso with a surprising strength. Even as I tried to gently extricate myself to get some sleep, she just murmured and clung tighter, her body molding against mine on the cramped staff room couch.
"You're so warm, Leo," she whispered, her voice thick with sleep, nuzzling into my neck.
As her nose touched my neck, I felt a sense of vulnerability and relaxation wash over me. The scent of her shampoo... it was that same coffee scent. This time it was intoxicating. It was also, frankly, incredibly distracting. Every slight shift of her hips and every soft sigh against my skin sent a jolt straight through me. The "Flirt Master" skill I'd acquired felt utterly useless here. This wasn't about clever lines. This was a quiet, persistent siege on my self-control, and I didn't have any skill for that.
"I, uh, should probably take the floor," I managed to say, my voice strangled.
"No," she insisted, her hold tightening. "It's okay. I feel... safe."
And that was the problem. I felt everything but safe. A low, restless heat was building in my groin, a persistent and very physical reminder of the beautiful woman wrapped around me. This was a new kind of "unshakeable" test, and I was failing spectacularly. One should know that I was incredibly sensitive to such a touch since Elise had always kept me wanting attention after she got with my manager, maybe the system made attention into points as a sick joke.
The comedic chain of events began when I tried to roll over. My arm, pinned beneath her, had fallen completely asleep, a thousand prickling needles erupting as I moved. I jerked it out from under her with a muffled grunt, accidentally elbowing a stack of coffee mug boxes on the nearby table. They teetered precariously before one of them, the one filled with mismatched saucers, decided to give up on life entirely just because I hit it. It crashed to the floor with a sound like a gong announcing my utter incompetence.
Maya jolted awake. "What? Is everything okay?"
"Fine," I croaked, my face burning. "Just... rearranging."
She giggled, a soft, sleepy sound that did nothing to help the situation. "You're fidgety."
"You have no idea," I muttered to the ceiling.
I finally managed to settle on my back, staring at the water-stained tiles above, practicing my breathing. In and out. Stoic. Think of glaciers. Think of tax forms. Anything but the warmth pressed against my side.
It was a losing battle. Just as I felt myself starting to calm down, Maya, in her sleep, threw a leg over mine, anchoring herself to me. The thin fabric of her pajamas did little to mask the feel of her skin against my thigh. The system's energy bar in my vision, which had begun to slowly refill, seemed to flicker in sympathy with my racing heart.
I tried counting sheep. Then I tried counting coffee beans. I mentally recited the periodic table, the presidents in order, anything to distract myself from the sensations flooding my nervous system. Her breath was warm against my collarbone. Her hair tickled my jaw. Every few minutes she would shift slightly, innocently, and I would have to restart my entire mental exercise routine from scratch.
The irony wasn't lost on me. Here I was with this mysterious harem system, supposedly designed to make me some kind of romantic powerhouse, and I couldn't even handle sharing a couch with a sleeping woman without turning into a mess. Some protagonist I was turning out to be. The system hadn't warned me about this part. There was no skill called "Couch Endurance" or "Platonic Cuddling Resistance."
My left leg started to cramp. Of course it did. I tried to flex my foot without moving too much, but the motion caused Maya to mumble something unintelligible and burrow closer, if that was even possible. Her hand, which had been resting on my chest, slid down to my stomach. I stopped breathing entirely for a moment.
This was absurd. I was a grown man. I'd been in a relationship for three years, even if it had ended in spectacular betrayal. I should be able to handle basic physical proximity without losing my mind. But something about Maya was different. Maybe it was the system's influence. Maybe it was just that she was genuinely kind to me when my world had just imploded. Maybe it was the coffee scent that seemed to wrap around us both like a cocoon.
After what felt like an eternity, her breathing finally evened out into the deep, steady rhythm of true sleep. The death grip on my shirt loosened slightly, though her leg remained draped over mine like an anchor.
The silence of the coffee shop descended, broken only by the occasional sound of rats scurrying somewhere in the walls. The warmth of her body was a brand against my side. I was painfully, achingly awake, every nerve ending on high alert. I glanced down at her, her face peaceful and trusting in the sliver of moonlight from the window.
A bitter, wry smile touched my lips. This was a unique kind of torture, being offered everything you suddenly realized you wanted, wrapped in a package you were forbidden to open. Not yet, anyway. Not when everything was so complicated, so fresh. Especially not when I had just walked away from my old life with nothing but a mysterious system.
Maya shifted again, her hand curling into a loose fist against my chest. Even in sleep, she seemed to trust me completely. That trust was something I had to live up to. I had to make sure I was even worth such a girl, but I knew eventually I would become the most amazing and talented human being on the planet. At this moment I thought about Elise and her new boyfriend.
Of all the revenge stories I had heard and read on Webnovel, none really hit the right spot. I wanted to craft my revenge myself, and my ex had just given me the best chance to do so. I was going to make sure my revenge was the most well-crafted and sinister kind anyone had heard of.
With a final, deep breath that did little to quell the fire burning through my veins, I closed my eyes. This was no time to be thinking about girls. I first needed to get my life together. To take care of my sick mother, then I could have as many women as I wanted in my harem. At least, that's what I told myself. The reality was messier, warmer, and more complicated than any system prompt could capture. I glanced one more time at the progress bar on Maya's head before dozing off.
Sleep, when it finally came, was fitful and filled with coffee-scented dreams. Things would take a drastic turn soon; little did I know I would soon gain a high rank in another company right after being fired. Soon, as in tomorrow.