She left.
The door clicked shut behind her, clean and quiet.
Mike lay back and looked at the ceiling.
[DESIRE LEVEL: MADISON REED — 60/100]
He read the number and sat with it.
Sixty. The desire level had risen from zero to sixty in just one week, utilizing leverage as the initial step and following up with two conversations. It reached sixty although nothing about the process felt organic.
She was not predictable; she was contained. These were two distinct qualities, and he was beginning to grasp the difference between them.
He reflected on the fleeting almost-smile. It lingered for just a second, vanishing before she had fully decided to embrace it.
'You're getting there,' he thought. 'You don't want to. But you're getting there.'
He put the phone down and looked at the ceiling a while longer.
'One week... yeah... I had a plan alright... I filled her, and he's going to have this sense of longing towards me where I'm going to let her go and feel frustrated.'
