Emily Cooper [02]

After pouring the contents of the vial into the glass bottle, Samuel was waiting for Emily to return with a paper towel. When he called out to her earlier, he felt like he had shocked her out of her drunken state, and so he was a little worried that she would not end up drinking the remaining wine in the bottle, causing his right leg to bounce in anxiety.

'Haa… it's fine. You still have the other potions that you can use on someone else if things don't work out here.'

Reassuring himself, Samuel took the napkin that Emily offered to him from wherever she came back from, before taking his dishes and placing them in a dishwasher. As Samuel's family wasn't so well-off to be able to afford a dishwasher, he had his inhibitions about it's effectiveness at cleaning, but he tried not to think too much about it.

'It's the way they do things here. As long as they're not pissing all over the plates, it should be fine. Wait… how do I even verify whether the residents of the house are pissing, or god forbid, pooping on their plates?'

With a lesson learnt the hard way about overthinking things, Samuel accepted the offered cup of water while thanking the woman. Just as he was about to drink the water however, he realised Emily was just watching him and looked as though she was waiting for him to drink and leave, as if the natural course of events.

If he left, however, he would have no way of telling whether or not she would continue to drink from the wine bottle or go to sleep and so he put his brain to use and thought up a plan to have her drink with him.

'But well… it's going to be kind of awkward saying this in real life. Should I just leave it?'

With the ideas of reluctance and surrender floating within his mind, a shimmer of light suddenly sprung up and removed all the negative thoughts.

'Why shouldn't I do it? I need to take this step in order to change. I don't want to be how I was in my past life. Not anymore. And now that I have the backing of this system I know that if things go awry I will still be fine at the end of the day.'

With his newfound courage, Samuel put the glass down earning himself a curious eyebrow raise from his hot, and still tipsy, neighbour.

"Mis- I mean, Emily. Why don't you drink with me?" Samuel offered while pushing the bottle of wine towards Emily who was leaning over the other side of the island.

"No, I'll pass. I think I've had enough for one night already." She replied disinterestedly.

'Fuck. Just drink the damn drink, woman.'

Realising that he was starting to sound like a creep within his mind, not that he wasn't given his intentions behind offering the drink, he calmed himself down and decided to continue with the plan of action he thought up earlier.

"Oh, come on. Then… Why don't we have a toast to my uhh… newfound adulthood status, as you said earlier?" Getting out what felt like an embarrassing request to Samuel took all the sheer willpower within him, causing his head to droop. The buxom lady in front of him took the droop of his head in a different meaning- a plea to accept the request. Feeling her heart soften at Samuel's antics, she accepted the bottle in her hand.

"You plan to toast to your adulthood with a cup of water?" Emily looked at him with a smirk, while flitting her attention between the cup of water and his face. While she wasn't encouraging him to drink alcohol, she wondered why he didn't even ask to try. She could imagine most teens would use the opportunity to try out how it tasted if they hadn't already done so before age.

But, Samuel only just nodded to her mild provocation as though expressing his discomfort at the prospect of drinking.

"Fine. Fine. Come on." Feeling as though the quiet child from next door was acting out of the norm, she decided to take the toast into her own hands to save himself from the embarrassment.

'Is he trying to make me feel better in his own way? How cute!'

If Samuel knew that Emily was thinking his little actions were endearing in her eyes, he might have felt too guilty to continue. The only one he wanted to make feel better was himself- inside of her guts.

"To becoming an adult!" She cheered, bringing the bottle forward to clink with Samuel's raised cup. He only mumbled his reply as he watched intently as Emily began to drink the remaining contents of the bottle. But just as she was slowing down, Samuel realised she was probably going to stop before drinking everything and leaving it at that.

Samuel quickly drank the entire contents of his glass to pressure Emily to follow suit, but his efforts were in vain as she just placed the bottle with liquid still swirling about down on the island.

'System! Will the potion still take effect?'

[Rest assured Host. Even a drop of the potion is enough to bring about the complete effect. However, the remaining potion is invalidated and will eventually evaporate.]

Sighing in relief internally, Samuel just dumbly sat there staring at Emily, while she stared, equally dumbly, back at him. It was at this point that the guest would naturally decide to leave, especially when the host was not offering them to stay. And even if she wanted to offer to let him stay for longer, she was drunk, sad, and tired, so she didn't feel like prolonging his stay, no matter how pleasant she found his quiet company.

But Samuel just continued to watch Emily, making her grow increasingly uncomfortable.

"Samuel?"

With his name suddenly called, the young adult was brought out of his shutout and started to profusely apologise to Emily. He was expecting her to fall asleep moments after downing the wine, but she looked just as alert as she had before the drink.

'System?'

[Grade 1 Sleep Serums require Host to wait a few minutes before the intended effect can take place.]

Internally recoiling at the fact that he would have to put off his departure from the house for a few minutes longer, Samuel slowly got off the stool.

"Thank you for having me, Emily." He said. He was planning to ask whether she was fine after the argument with her husband just to drag the time, but with the little emotional intelligence he still had, he knew asking that would probably cause an unintended, or the opposite, effect.

"It was my pleasure, Samuel. Make sure to come around more often. It was nice to see you again. And invite your mum over as well." She politely replied, extending her invitation to Samuel's mom- someone she considered to be a close friend of hers after knowing each other for several years.

But to Samuel, the mention of his mother caused him to wince slightly, which did not go undetected by the Cooper matriarch. Deciding not to bring up the matter for now, she followed him down the hallway to the front door.

'Why is he walking so slowly, hm?'

Suddenly, Emily felt a wave of drowsiness come about her, which she pinned to the exhaustion she faced after the argument with her husband and the subsequent wine. She quickly ushered her neighbour towards the front door, but just as Samuel was about to take a step out of the door, she crashed into his back, out cold.

'Finally! I was getting a little worried there.' thought Samuel, as he supported the weight of what felt like an unusually heavy woman on his chubby back. His eyes held a wicked glint within them, as he stared at the sleeping face of the lonely wife.

"Hm… Let's take this upstairs."

— — —

Samuel was currently having a coughing fit while gasping for air, as Emily lay on, what the young man assumed was, her bed. Carrying her up the stairs had proven to be an extremely exhausting endeavour in itself, but after failing to princess carry the woman, who had some generous pounds in just the right areas which Samuel deigned to admit were worth the trouble, and half-carrying, half-dragging her up the stairs on his back, he finally managed to get her upstairs and in a position where he could start farming points.

'System, how long have I got left.' Thought Samuel, after catching his breath and looking upon the curvaceous form of his sleeping neighbour.

[55 minutes and 26 seconds Host.]

"Perfect."