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Judy's apartment was already familiar to us, so when the Thorton parked next to her building, and Judy said she needed to go to the store because there were no groceries in the house again, Panam and I weren't fazed. We calmly went up to the floor and used the guest access our netrunner had already activated for us.
As I walked through her apartment, I looked at it with fresh eyes.
"Do you think she'll finally surrender the fortress of herself to the evil invader you're playing?"
I shrugged.
"Whether she surrenders or not, it's not that important…"
"Hmm?"
Panam looked at me with interest.
"What's important is how you feel about it. Because you're my girlfriend, and if you're against it, then building a relationship where you're not the only one…"
I shook my head.
"No, I'm not against it…"
Panam shrugged.
"…you take everything too seriously. If you had just brought her in, I would have said: choose, her or me. If I had been disgusted by her, I would have said the same thing. But as it is… she's become a good friend, so I don't mind sharing you with her. The main thing is that you give both of us enough of your time, or we'll both get mad and leave."
I nodded.
"I'll remember that."
I looked in the fridge, which, besides an old pizza and a couple of beers, was indeed empty, and I sighed. I would have to wait for Judy to come back with the groceries.
Sitting down on the couch in the living room/dining area, I closed my eyes and activated my deck. I went online and quickly looked for an option to buy the apartment upstairs. After all, if the neighbor to the side is a pain, it's best to have nothing to do with them.
"Hmm…"
"What's wrong?"
"Well, the apartment upstairs is up for sale, it seems…"
"How much?"
"One hundred and thirty thousand…"
"Can't we afford that? So what are you thinking about?"
"We can…"
I shrugged and, opening my eyes, looked at Panam, who was still standing in the middle of the room. She calmly walked up to me.
"Give me your hand…"
A look of understanding appeared in her eyes, and she immediately held out her hand to me. I touched it with mine and granted her full access to the apartment upstairs.
"We'll need to renovate it and make a passageway between the apartments."
"You bastard…"
That was the moment Judy chose to walk into the apartment.
"What happened?"
She looked in surprise at Panam, who was clearly showing her indignation. I gestured for Panam not to say anything and waved Judy over. She put the bags down on the floor next to the kitchenette and then came to me.
"Give me your hand."
"Huh?"
She held out her hand to me, and I performed the same procedure I had just done with Panam.
"Huh?"
"Access to the apartment upstairs… it was for sale, so I bought it."
"Wait, but that's not guest access…"
I shrugged.
"And?"
"Judy, this bastard just trusts us, and he doesn't even entertain the thought that we might screw him over with this apartment."
"That's…"
Judy looked from me to Panam and back again, completely lost.
"Alright… but I'm doing the renovations in that apartment and the stairs between them that you talked about with my own eddies."
"We'll do it…"
Panam put her hand on Judy's shoulder, and she looked at her and nodded. After saying that, they fell silent and looked at me intently. I understood that I was expected to confirm that I had heard them and agreed with their decision.
"I heard you and I accept… the renovations are on you, but I'll help with the actual work."
They exchanged glances and, communicating through the quickly established comms channel—which was visible by the slight glow in their optics—they made their decision, which they confirmed with a nod.
"Well, that's settled… Since we've made up our minds…"
I got up from the couch and, walking around the girls, went to the bags of food. I put them on the bar counter and started taking out the groceries. Hmm… she didn't buy real food, but I could still make something decent with this.
The girls had already walked past me and left the apartment, apparently to check out what I had bought. Well, let them. I had a much more important task: to feed these girls, and preferably to do it quickly, since the evening had already turned into night, and we still had to go to bed.
Without overthinking it, I made something similar to Naval-style pasta. I finished just in time for the girls to return in a very thoughtful mood.
"Ladies, dinner is served…"
The girls walked up to the counter and, sitting down, looked at the dish I had prepared.
"It tastes better than it looks."
"It doesn't look bad either…"
Panam shrugged.
"…you haven't seen how Saul cooks. I watched him a couple of times and now I understand why he's strictly forbidden from touching food before it's cooked. He can screw up even a simple dish like shish kebab, which most men can make at least edible just on instinct, if not good."
"He's that bad?"
I put the first forkful of the surprisingly good dish into my mouth. The girls followed my lead. And after the first bite, they froze, looking at me in surprise.
"This isn't bad at all… you were right, it really does taste better than it looks…"
Panam nodded at her friend's assessment of the dish.
"So, what did you guys find up there?"
"Well, nothing really…"
Panam shrugged.
"Yeah, it's the exact same apartment as mine, one for one. I suggest we make it our main one. We could make two bedrooms, and a living room/dining area up there, and down here, we could combine both rooms into a big workshop for you and me. There would even be a place for Panam, even though she doesn't really mess with tech."
"Well, she's more of a car person. If you need to rebuild an engine or fix the suspension, that's her job. We can handle the rest."
"That's true…"
Judy nodded.
"In short, we could still have a kitchen and a dining area here in case we're too lazy to carry things upstairs…"
"We don't have to carry them. We could put in a small dumbwaiter in the corner. We could just put the food in there, and then it would go up to the other floor, and we could bring it to the table without having to carry plates up and down the stairs."
"That's not a bad idea…"
Panam nodded.
So, with this casual conversation, we finished our late dinner. After that, I went to the couch, and Panam and Judy first went to the shower, one after the other, of course, and then to the bedroom…
Morning breaks…
Yeah, right, it does.
Sleeping on the couch wasn't very comfortable, even with my synthetic muscles. And even though they didn't get stiff, my skin, bones, tendons, and joints were all normal, and they weren't in the best condition after a not-so-comfortable night.
I stretched, got up from the couch, and cracked my bones a couple of times, but carefully.
And only after that did I go to the kitchen, where I quickly made a simple breakfast of potato pancakes. Thankfully, potatoes could still be found easily in Night City, and Judy had bought some. The other ingredients for the pancakes weren't as natural, but they didn't affect the taste of the dish much. At the same time, I put the kettle on and made some coffee. So the girls came out of the room to the delicious smell of a ready breakfast.
"Wow!"
I couldn't help myself. This time, the girls were more open than usual when we were staying together. While I could expect that from Panam—after all, we had had sex a few times already, so she had nothing to be ashamed of. Not in front of me, at least. But in front of Judy, yeah, she was still a little shy. But her knit sweater, which was a swimsuit on her body…
It was just wow…
And Judy wasn't far behind. She was only wearing a snow-white thong and a matching tank top tied in a knot right under her breasts.
"Ladies, you are both incredibly beautiful."
"And that's it?"
Panam raised an eyebrow playfully.
I smirked, walked around the bar counter, and, getting close to her, pulled her into my arms. A gentle kiss was the answer to her question.
"Ahem, ahem…"
Judy interrupted us. So I pulled away from Panam and, turning to face her, put my hands on her waist. I slowly started to pull her toward me, and I didn't see any reluctance in her eyes, only anticipation and hope.
The kiss…
Long… and gentle…
"Man, that's a good way to start the morning…"
Those were the first words Judy said as soon as I pulled away from her.
"I agree…"
Panam completely agreed with her.
"Alright, let's have breakfast."
I walked back around the bar counter and put plates of potato pancakes and coffee in front of the girls. There was a plate in front of me as well, but it had a little less on it. I had been snacking a bit while I was cooking.
"You spoil us…"
Panam sighed.
"It's my evil plan, the plan of an evil genius who evilly decided to do evil and cause injustice to two beautiful ladies."
"Hmm?"
"Well, let's imagine a hypothetical situation… we break up…"
I could see indignation in the girls' eyes, and I raised my hand, stopping them.
"…and with every new partner you meet, whom you'll try to replace me with, you'll remember that I made the most delicious breakfasts. That I spoiled you with desserts, with main courses…"
"You villain…"
Panam laughed and put a piece of potato pancake she had just ripped off into her mouth. Then she took a sip of coffee.
"You said it…"
Judy was also smirking. She shook her head and put a whole potato pancake she had folded in half into her mouth.
"Hmm…"
She chewed thoughtfully and looked at me.
"Something's missing…"
"We should have some milk with them, or maybe some sour cream…"
I shrugged.
"…but you can't find either of those in Night City for love or money. So…"
"Got it…"
The girls shrugged and started happily eating their breakfast.
I finished breakfast first, so I waved at the girls and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
"You bastard!"
That shout was in stereo and was directed at my back right before the bathroom door closed. But before I could even turn on the water, there was a knock at the door.
"Will you get that?"
Judy's loud, questioning shout made me leave the bathroom and go to the door to activate the camera.
"Who is it?"
An unfamiliar girl was standing at the door, dressed… tastelessly, in my opinion. That's how expensive hookers dress, trying to hide their affiliation with the oldest profession.
"Um… sorry, I think I have the wrong apartment…"
Damn it, the girl looked familiar… not personally, but it was impossible not to recognize that lady from the game…
Was it starting already?
No… the canon was still a long way off… at least the game's canon, since Maine hadn't gone crazy yet. And they weren't yelling about the ship named Kujira, which means Whale, on the news yet…
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