46. Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Six
Cody
Cody woke up the following morning with a completely nude Nyrah sleeping next to him.
Apparently, his wake-up alarm hadn’t disturbed her.
Yana had mentioned she was a heavy sleeper and often slept well past noon.
He was curious where Morgan had spent the night.
He started to get out of bed, but Nyrah stirred.
“Cody…?” Nyrah said sleepily. “Where are you going?”
“Breakfast. Do you want some?”
“So sleepy…” she grumbled and pulled the covers over her head.
He guessed that meant no. He slipped out of bed, pulled on his boxers, and headed down the hall to the kitchen. Cody found Yana in the adjacent living room, cozied up in blankets on the couch. She was watching one of her crime dramas with the volume extra low.
“Morning,” Cody said. “Did you sleep on the couch?”
Yana sat up and looked over at him. “Yes, I let Morgan have the guestroom’s bed. I don’t mind the couch. It’s in the same room as the Magic—I mean, the TV.”
Cody heard the guestroom door open, and Morgan joined him in the kitchen, hugging him from behind. “I didn’t want to interrupt, so I let Nyrah sleep with you. How did things go last night?”
Cody cleared his throat and turned to face Morgan, still feeling weird about this whole multiple girlfriends thing. “Good. Nyrah is at Level Two for Romance now.”
Morgan grinned. “So, she levels up the same way I did?”
“Yep. Who wants breakfast?” He moved to turn away, but Morgan caught his wrist and pulled him back to her.
“Let’s not be weird about this, okay?” Morgan said. “I know there’s going to be an adjustment period, but we’re all onboard. You’re still okay with this, right?”
“I am. I care about all of you. A lot. But yeah, parts of this arrangement still feel weird to me. I suspect they will feel weird for a while. But I still want to do this.”
“Me, too.” Morgan smiled softly and kissed him.
They both looked over at Yana, who had been watching the whole exchange.
“Oh, I do want this, too,” she said. “Yes.”
Cody frowned. “But it sucks I have to go start a new job when I should be focused on finishing the game.”
“Well, my shift starts the same time as yours, so at least we can walk over and spend some time together,” Morgan said.
She went over to the coffee machine and started setting it up, while Cody opened his Menu and selected omelets, hash browns, and toast for their breakfast. He pulled the ingredients from his Inventory and tossed them all in the oven.
Yana joined them at the kitchen table for breakfast, but they let Nyrah sleep.
Cody reasoned she might need more rest than usual, after their busy evening together.
Cody and Morgan finished getting ready for work and set off into town.
It was only seven-thirty in the morning, but the sun was already blazing hot, so Cody drove them to work.
Morgan found him a Food Mart polo, and he changed into his new uniform.
There was even a name tag waiting for him in the breakroom.
He went to pin it onto his shirt himself, but Morgan insisted on helping him.
“There. Perfect.” She also straightened his collar, even though he was pretty sure it was fine.
“Are you training me or is Doug training me?”
“Probably Doug.”
Right as she said it, Doug walked into the breakroom. He looked over at Cody, his expression blank. “You showed up.”
“I said I would.” Cody was really hoping for a Friendship Level just for arriving on time, but nothing happened.
“I thought you might be too busy writing your book,” Doug drawled. “C’mon. The delivery truck is pulling up around back. Morgan, you’re on cash.”
Morgan kissed Cody’s cheek, and then Cody followed Doug into the stockroom.
It was a pretty simple job: unload pallets of merchandise, check them off the inventory slip, and stock them in the store.
Anything that didn’t fit on the store shelves got stored in the stockroom, and he had to make sure to double check expiry dates and rotate everything.
It was a physically demanding job, but Cody didn’t mind.
In Velasarin, he was always on his feet and on the move: travelling to his next location, fighting through a dungeon, or hunting for his next meal.
By noon he was done with the delivery and re-stocking the store. Doug silently assessed his work, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be. It must have met his expectations, because he held his hand out and Cody shook it.
“Good. Come back in three days for the next delivery,” Doug said.
“I’ll be here.”
Cody was elated when the notification popped up:
[Congratulations! You have completed your fourth Friendship Level with Resident Doug Callahan! Only one more to go until Full Friendship Achieved!]
Cody was relieved that this whole foray into part-time work had earned him at least one level up with Doug. Excited to share the news with Morgan, Cody headed into the store and found her working at one of the cash registers.
“You did it?” she asked. “You got at least one new level with Doug, right?”
“I did. Only one more to go.”
“Maybe you can spend the afternoon leveling up the girls.” Morgan winked.
“As much as I want to do that, I really need to check in on Marigold while I’m in town. I still have no idea how to level her up, whereas I know exactly how to level up Nyrah and I’m sure we’ll be working on that later tonight.”
Morgan looked thoughtful. “I can’t think of anything that would help with Marigold. But I’ll keep my mind on it.”
“I should also check in with Lexi. I only need to return two more overdue books to finish her Friendship Levels.”
“Sorry, I can’t help you with that this time. I’ve been reading Sebastian Hartwell’s books while staying at your place. Or, I guess I should say Grandpa Sam’s Smut Stories.”
Cody grinned, shaking his head. “Please never say Grandpa Sam’s Smut Stories ever again.”
“Deal.” Morgan made sure no one was watching and they shared a brief kiss, but then her face clouded over.
“Are you okay?”
Her bottom lip trembled, but she took a deep breath and composed herself. “I’m trying really hard to pretend like it’s business as usual, and not possibly the last week of our lives. That’s all. No biggie.” She laughed, but it was hollow and she had tears in her eyes.
“I know. Same.” Cody didn’t care if they were both at work, he rounded the counter and hugged her. “We’ll get through this. Together.”
Lexi was her usual, cheery self when Cody arrived at the library.
He had stopped to pick up a cinnamon roll for an afternoon snack and ended up grabbing one for Lexi and one for Marigold, too.
Maybe the answer to Marigold’s Friendship Leveling was a delicious spiral of dough full of cinnamon, topped with a thick layer of buttercream icing.
Cody was pretty sure if he was on the receiving end of a Friendship Quest, Corner Pieces’ cinnamon rolls would be his ticket to leveling up.
Cody presented the little white bakery box to Lexi and her eyes lit up. “Oh! You shouldn’t have!”
“Well, I did. Do you have any books you want me to fetch for you?”
Lexi peeked in the box to see what treat he had brought her before looking up at him. “You’re so fucking weird. And nice polo. You working at Callahan’s now?”
Cody remembered he was still in his new work shirt. “Yeah, just helping Doug out with some stock stuff. So, overdue books?”
“You really don’t have to keep helping with this.”
He wanted to tell her he really did and that her life depended on it, as did his own life and a bunch of other people’s lives. But she would think he was even more crazy, so he kept his mouth shut.
“Look, I know it’s weird. I only need to help out two more times, and then I’ll turn into a normal person, I swear.”
Lexi waved her hand at him. “That whole explanation made it ten times more weird.”
“Yep. I’m weird. Everything is weird.” Cody drummed his fingers on the circulation desk and looked at Lexi expectantly. “Who has overdue books, Lexi?”
Lexi frowned but started to check her computer anyway. “Not your girl Morgan, surprisingly enough. You must be a good influence on her. But Marigold has some more books that recently passed their overdue date. You could check in with her.”
“Is that it? Just Marigold?”
“Yes, just her.”
“I’m on it!”
Cody briskly left and popped Marigold’s cinnamon bun out of his Inventory. It was still piping hot, the same as when he tucked it in there. Marigold probably wouldn’t have her books with her, same as last time, but it was worth paying her a visit and dropping off the baked goods.
As usual, Marigold seemed flustered as soon as he walked in. She got even more flustered when he gave her the bakery box.
“Oh, uh….t-thanks?” She stared at the box as if it were the most puzzling thing she’d ever seen in her life. There was no Friendship notification.
Cody just bulldozed ahead: “Lexi says you have some more overdue books.”
Marigold bent down behind the counter. When she popped back up, she had two hardcover books. “I t-thought you might come looking for them.”
“Why didn’t you return them yourself?”
Marigold shrugged. “You were very strange about wanting to return them, last time.”
Cody let out a long sigh. He really wished his move to Cornerstone hadn’t coincided with this stupid Cottage Country game.
Now, nearly everyone in town thought he was a fucking weirdo.
If he survived this, no, when he survived this, when the game was done, and Temica was vanquished once and for all, he was going to be the most normal and boring person Cornerstone had ever seen.
But with three girlfriends. Shit, that was going to take some explaining.
Especially when it came to Doug. Double shit.
But no, he shouldn’t be worrying about that. First, he needed to finish the game and save everyone connected to it. He swept up Marigold’s books and tucked them under his arm.
“So, like, what are you into Marigold?” He realized he was holding her library books, so he took a peek. They were both non-fiction. One was about Viking longships, the other was a book about Japanese folklore. The last books he had picked up were also non-fiction. “Uh, world studies? And stuff?”
Marigold averted her gaze. “I’m into a lot of things. Why?”
“I uh…I need to figure out what makes you tick, okay?”
“I don’t know what makes me t-tick.”
They stood in an awkward silence for a few moments, with Marigold clutching one of her long braids.
He still didn’t understand what Knife saw in her.
Sure, she was cute, but she consistently gave off shy, awkward little sister vibes to Cody.
He shook his head and decided today was not the day he cracked the Marigold code.