Love Is Not a Number Chapter 05
It was the last day of the business trip, and the dinner banquet didn’t break up until almost midnight
Kimberly went back to her room and splashed water on her face The cold hit her skin, and she stared at her reflection in the mirror for a second or two. Her face was pale, with faint shadows under her eyes.
She shook the water from her hands and pulled on her phone. The screen lit up, the notifications bar empty. She opened her chat thread with Levi.
The last message she’d sent had been over ten days ago. That day, Levi had been sick in bed, and Gary had been trying on a suit in front of the dressing mirror while she sat there, checking her phone twice. She’d typed out à line: (Do you want me to bring anything back for you?]
He never replied. After that came the argument, then the silence, and she hadn’t sent anything since.
Ten days. In all their time together, she and Levi had never gone this long without speaking.
Whenever they’d fought before, it never lasted more than a day or two. She’d act a little sweet, send an emoji, and things would pick back up. Not this time.
Kimberly set the phone face-down on the sink and closed her eyes.
It hadn’t always been like this.
The night the System first bonded to her, she’d seen the number floating over Levi’s head and gone still for a long moment. The System told her it measured how much others needed her, on a scale to a hundred. His was thirty.
The next day, her eyes had welled up. “Do you not love me?” she’d asked.
“Not needing you doesn’t mean I don’t love you,” he’d explained.
She’d wanted to believe that. But every time he told her, “It’s fine, I’ve got it myself,” her eyes still drifted upward, checking
She’d pulled up Gary’s number once, just to see what someone else’s looked like. Sixty. Such a wide gap.
One evening after work, the rain had been coming down hard, and she’d driven Gary part of the way home. On the drive, she’d glanced over and caught Levi’s number briefly jump to thirty two. She’d frozen, checking it again and again to be sure
After that, she’d started bringing Gary up in front of Levi. He’d helped deliver some documents today, he was presenting at tomorrow’s morning meeting, he’d pulled his weight on last week’s project
Levi never reacted much, but his number would tick up a little each time, only to drop back down later.
Until that one night, when his number had plunged straight down to fifteen, his eyes calm and unreadable, without a single ripple in them.
Just thinking about it made her chest ache
She picked the phone back up, walked to her room, and sat down. She opened Levi’s profile, typed a line, and deleted it Typed another line, deleted that too. Locked the screen. Woke it again..
Finally, she opened her browser and searched, “what gift should a woman bring the first time she visits her boyfriend’s family” She read through the results for a long time and bookmarked several guides.
It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d had to swallow her pride, she told herself. If she could just make it to his family’s place by New Year’s Eve, everything could go back to normal.
He’d been right, she thought. She just needed to stop looking at the numbers. They were supposed to get married, after all.
She leaned back against the headboard and called out to the System. “Turn off every Demand Index.”
The System’s voice answered. “Once all indices are turned off, if none are reactivated within three days, the bond will be permanently severed. If reactivated partway through, that person’s index can never be turned off again. Does the host confirm?”
Kimberly paused for a moment.
“Confirmed.”
Her phone rang, and she snatched it up. It was Gary, She let her eyes fall shut for a second.
“Ms. Nicholl, could you come to my room and help me with something?” A groveling emoji followed the message.
She was staying right next door, just a few steps away. When she knocked, the door wasn’t shut all the way, left open a crack She pushed it open, and Gary’s voice carried out from inside.
“Come in, the door’s unlocked.”,
She stepped in. Gary was standing in front of the dressing mirror, just turning around. His shirt buttons were undone, his chest and abs on half display. His tie was knotted so tight it nearly pressed into his throat. His face and neck were flushed red.
“Ms. Nicholl, my tie’s stuck… could you help me untangle it?” His voice had a thick, clinging quality to it.
Kimberly’s pupils contracted slightly. Without thinking, she glanced up at the space over his head.
Empty. But right then, it felt like something forced its way into her mind, a line of text jammed into place: Current subject’s Demand Index: 95.
She shut her eyes and opened them again. Still empty. But that line kept turning over in her head.
The System’s voice sounded. “High-demand signal detected. View this subject’s current index?”
She clenched her teeth and stepped back until she hit the wall.
‘If someday his number gets high enough. High enough that he wants to sleep with you. Would you go through with it?”
The memory of that question surfaced, and her throat felt like it was being squeezed shut
“Ms. Nicholl…” Gary was still calling out softly.
She grabbed the door handle and pulled it open. “If it won’t come loose, use scissors. If that doesn’t work, call room service.”
She walked out without daring to look back, hurried to her own room, and locked the door behind her She stood there feaning against it, her heart hammering somewhere high in her chest.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Levi’s number. Busy signal.
She waited thirty seconds and tried again. Still busy.
The dial tone droned in her ear a few more times before it cut off. She didn’t dare try a third time
She raised a hand to cover her face, her palm pressed against her forehead, damp with sweat
