CHAPTER 55
Amina simply hugged me tightly, before whispering, “I can smell tour hair, love. Connie picked me up. Time to go home. This… not on your own, aye?”

I squeezed her back, saying nothing, because I now realised how right she was. Eventually, Tom and I were tugged outside to his and Connie’s car, and they ran Amina and me home. Very, very few words; it took me a long while to get to sleep, even after Amina wrapped my dressings in clingfilm and shampooed my hair.

Cursed by a phantom technomage with a forced gender assignment and a dimensional shift that rewrites his history, a trapped boy chooses survival over suicide after discovering the trauma is awakening his dormant ancestral technomagic—a power he must master to shield his soul, and heal without vengeance.

CHAPTER 53
We went into the Cedar for food, and both pigged out a bit with a carvery plate , as mich veg as possible piled precariously on top of the meat. I don’t like drinking in the daytime, as it puts me to sleep, so we were on large cokes followed by coffees. After the first assault on her plate, Amina sat in silence, toying with an impaled roast potato.”

“Jen?”

“Yes?”

“I did hear what you said”

Tim Johnson is having a thoroughly unremarkable bad day involving a dead car, an expensive mechanic, and a bus that seems personally committed to disappointing him. Things take an unexpected turn when an impossibly glamorous woman approaches him outside Maison Belle, a boutique where Tim suspects even the empty space between the dresses costs more than his car repairs.

Allison Kensington is accustomed to getting what she wants, and at the moment she seems unusually interested in a software engineer wearing jeans, sneakers, and a jacket that has clearly seen better days. Her questions are becoming suspiciously personal, her attention to his appearance borders on professional assessment, and Tim is beginning to wonder whether he's accidentally wandered into the world's most expensive recruitment interview.

Whatever Allison has in mind, she appears to have the confidence, connections, and financial resources to make it happen. Tim, who makes a living finding flaws in complicated systems, is discovering that asking the right questions only seems to encourage her.

By the time the conversation turns toward Paris, Tim's delayed bus is rapidly becoming the least interesting problem of his afternoon.

Saturday morning arrives with an emergency. Dennis has apparently been kidnapped. Again!

Steve would like to point out that Dennis is a drawing on a cocktail napkin, but he's beginning to suspect that nobody in the Blush group chat considers this a relevant objection. Meanwhile, five women are having a rather interesting conversation about their newest acquaintance, and Steve has an ordinary Saturday to get through. His laundry needs attention. Unfortunately, so does his search history.

There are chores to finish, messages to answer, and a few things Steve has never thought to look up before. He's an engineer. Research is practically a reflex. By lunchtime, his browser has seventeen open tabs, his laundry is still waiting, and he has considerably more questions than when he woke up.

This picks up where that leaves off. So let's see what Steve and the girls are up to. Life does complicate things sorry for the delay. this is AI fun. Steve came to Blush for one drink. His sister insisted he needed to get out more. She neglected to mention that an evening with five women might require the emotional equivalent of legal representation.

Now Chloe has flirted with him, dancing has happened, and the table seems to know something he doesn’t. Steve decides it’s time to clear up one potentially important misunderstanding: he’s a man.

Surely that will simplify things.

Instead, his carefully supplied facts meet an audience with excellent questions, terrible poker faces, and absolutely no intention of letting him escape a conversation. Nat wants his entire life history. Tori objects to the interrogation while quietly enjoying it. Sofia discovers that he cooks. Maddie offers assistance nobody is brave enough to accept. And Chloe keeps looking at him as though his clarification hasn’t changed the most interesting thing about the evening.

For a software engineer who prefers predictable results, this is inconvenient.

“Relevant Information” brings sharp banter, unexpected tenderness, and the particular horror of realizing that people you barely know are already very good at getting under your skin. Steve can defend his logic, explain his choices, and identify a bargain with impressive precision. Whether any of that will protect him from these women is another question entirely.

Especially once they ask about his car.

Read Chapter Three of A Life in Plain Sight for an evening of affectionate chaos, increasingly personal questions, and a man discovering that being understood can be considerably more unsettling than being misunderstood.

My Secret Life
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman
Sequel To
Magnolia Blooms & Sakura Petals

-4-
Volunteering for the Dunking Booth

CHAPTER 52
Breakfast, to my surprise, wasn’t awkward, as all we did was smile at each other over our cereal and toast. In between her smiles, she asked, “What are we up to today?”

I thought for a few seconds before I answered.

“Depends on whether we have transport”

“Mam’s out in her work car, lo--- Jen. We could borrow her own”