Infinite Cashback System

Chapter 257: 257 | Drive-By Bird-Naming and The Familiar Couch

Chloe said nothing, but she met Ayaka’s eyes for a long moment before inclining her head in acknowledgment. Some kind of understanding passed between them that Jordan couldn’t quite interpret. Female communication operated on frequencies his brain simply didn’t receive.

The drive back to Cooper Garment Lofts took thirty-seven minutes due to evening traffic on Pacific Coast Highway. Jordan drove while Chloe occupied the passenger seat reviewing the financial documents Rina had emailed to her phone. Kumiko sat in the back seat eating mochi and providing running commentary on everything they passed.

"Ooh, that restaurant has good reviews. Three point seven stars. Wait, that’s not good. Never mind. Jordan-kun, have you ever eaten at that place with the giant lobster sign? I heard they have decent crab but their parking situation is terrible. Also there’s a bird on that streetlight. I’m going to name him Gerald."

"Gerald the streetlight bird."

"Yes. He seems wise."

"You saw him for approximately two seconds."

"Wisdom transcends time." Kumiko pressed her face against the window as they passed. "Goodbye Gerald! I’ll remember you!"

Chloe didn’t look up from her phone. "The onsen’s profit margins are actually more impressive than Rina’s initial presentation suggested. She’s conservative in her projections, which is good. Better to under-promise and over-deliver."

"You’re still thinking about the financials?"

"I’m always thinking about financials." Chloe scrolled through another spreadsheet. "It’s a survival mechanism I developed around age sixteen and have been unable to turn off since."

"Chloe-chan." Kumiko leaned forward between the front seats. "You’re supposed to be relaxing. We just spent two hours in mineral water specifically designed to reduce stress."

"Reviewing profitable business operations is relaxing to me."

"That’s concerning."

"That’s accurate."

Jordan pulled into the Cooper Garment Lofts parking garage at 8:47 PM, finding his usual spot near the elevator. The three of them gathered their bags and care packages before making the familiar trek to the fourth floor. Kumiko’s apartment was on the third floor, one level down from Jordan and Chloe’s adjacent units.

"I should go home," Kumiko announced as the elevator doors opened on four. "Art history tomorrow. Sliding art movements. Sideways brushstrokes."

"You mean artistic movements and brushstroke direction?"

"Same thing." She rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to Jordan’s cheek, then did the same to Chloe. "Tonight was wonderful. All of it. Even the part where Jordan-kun had an existential crisis about money he didn’t earn."

"I didn’t have a crisis."

"Your jaw did the thing four separate times." Kumiko pressed the button for the third floor. "Chloe-chan kept count. Goodnight! Love you both! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!"

The doors closed on her wave.

Chloe turned toward her apartment. "Are you coming over or going to yours?"

"Yours. Unless you want space."

"I want to not think about anything for at least an hour." She unlocked her door and pushed it open. "TV. Couch. Silence except for whatever mediocre streaming content we decide to half-watch."

Jordan followed her inside.

Chloe’s apartment had become increasingly familiar over the past two weeks. The minimalist aesthetic, the carefully positioned furniture, the purple LED lights that cast everything in soft violet tones. Her laptop sat open on the desk by the window, the StellarNote dashboard still displaying her disappointing follower count. The grey sectional dominated the living area, positioned perfectly for both the wall-mounted television and the industrial windows that overlooked the street below.

Jordan dropped onto the couch while Chloe disappeared into the kitchen area. He heard cabinets opening, water running, and the distinctive click of her single-serve coffee maker despite the late hour.

"Decaf," she called out, anticipating his question. "I’m not completely self-destructive."

She returned a few minutes later carrying two mugs and wearing different clothes than she’d left in. The white sweater had been replaced by an oversized black t-shirt that hung off one shoulder, revealing the strap of whatever she wore beneath. Her jeans had become shorts so brief they barely qualified as coverage. Her legs stretched from the couch cushion toward the coffee table, bare and still slightly pink from the mineral bath.

Jordan accepted his mug and tried not to stare. The effort was largely unsuccessful.

"Eyes up, McKnight."

"They were up."

"They were on my thighs."

"Your thighs are up from my current position."

Chloe’s mouth twitched in what might have been amusement. She grabbed the remote and started scrolling through streaming options with the energy of someone who intended to watch exactly zero percent of whatever she selected.

"I’m not hungry," she announced. "The mochi killed any appetite I might have developed."

"Same. Kaori force-fed me three different kinds during the tour."

"Four. I counted."

"The fourth one doesn’t count. It was tiny."

"It still contained calories."

Jordan settled deeper into the couch cushions, the tension from the day slowly unknotting from his shoulders. The hot springs had helped. Ayaka’s massage had helped more. But there was something about being here, in Chloe’s space, with the city lights visible through the windows and the soft glow of the television casting shadows across the walls, that helped most of all.

Chloe selected something that appeared to be a documentary about marine life. She didn’t actually watch it. Instead, she curled her legs beneath her on the couch and leaned against Jordan’s side, her head finding the space between his shoulder and chest like it belonged there.

"The onsen changes things," she said quietly. "You know that, right?"

"I know."

"Not just financially. The fact that you own a business. An actual, successful business with staff and revenue and an established reputation. That’s different from Nova Network, which is still theoretical and unproven."

"Hada no Yu isn’t mine yet. Not officially."

"It will be. Once you meet the inheritance conditions." Chloe’s fingers traced absent patterns on his forearm. "Which you still haven’t fully explained."

Jordan had given her the carefully edited version. The inheritance. The conditions involving personal development. The timeline. He’d left out the supernatural phone application tracking their relationship like a stock portfolio, the gacha system that had literally manifested a real estate asset from golden light, and the attraction percentages currently ticking upward in the background of his existence.

"It’s complicated."

"Most things worth having are."