CHAPTER 98: ANALISE (1)

As Jack walked across the quad, headed towards the restaurant Analise had picked for their lunch meeting, he hoped the walk would get some blood flowing and maybe lesson the soreness he was feeling.

After dancing at Club Velvet and then spending a day in his soul space trying to learn a martial art from his training dummies, he had decided to make it a regular habit. One day in the physical world, one day in his soul space.

He had gone back to Club Velvet and danced with Miranda and a few other girls there, then returned to their hotel room and entered his soul space to sleep, exercise, and sleep again.

Because he could choose what changes to export, he was able to export the knowledge, muscle memory and results of physical exertion, without also exporting the slight aging that came from being a day older. So he didn’t need to worry about aging twice as fast as everyone else, but still benefitted from twice as much time.

Spending two and a half hours in his soul space in linked self mode made him a little nervous because he had no way to monitor his body while he was away. Once he owned a home, he could install a security system and strong doors and feel safer while away.

Madison had already designed a device that would make it easy to send data back and forth between the physical world and his soul space using linked templates. It would not allow streaming video or live web browsing, but it would still allow bulk transfer of data. This would be enough to have near real-time access to security video for his house.

And, because Jeeves could do anything he was allowed to do, he could have Jeeves manage the regular import/export of the linked templates associated with the data transfer device, so he didn’t have to babysit it. It did mean paying the EP cost for having Jeeves active, but that was fine with him.

The one downside was that his total soul space EP/sec cost would exceed his generation rate when he maxed out the time ratio.

If all his soul bonds disabled parallel self, then his EP costs were reduced by 5000 EP/sec but his infrastructure costs, mainly Madison’s solar room and server room, cost nearly 1000 EP/sec so when combined with Jeeves cost, the total would be around 11,000 EP/sec.

That was fine though, because he could regain that loss when he reduced the time ratio for the physical world day. And he had plenty of EP saved up so he could afford to go over his generation rate periodically.

As he approached the restaurant, he saw the sign above the door and laughed to himself.

The name of the restaurant was Purrfect Pickles, and the sign depicted a large pickle between two slices of bread with a cat on top, licking the pickle seductively.

There were two tomato slices poking out the back of the sandwich and bits of lettuce sticking out the sides, so the overall image was very suggestive.

When he entered the restaurant, he saw a sign that said, "Seat yourself."

Analise had messaged him to let him know she would be there in a few minutes, so he started looking for a table.

Soon, he spotted a table by the window that a waitress had just finished clearing, so he walked over and took a seat.

The waitress that he’d seen clearing the table returned and immediately and said, "What can I getcha?"

"I’m waiting for someone, but you can get me a lime soda to start."

"Sure thing, honey! I’ll be right back." Then she rushed off. Putting more sway in her hips than when she walked up. She was decent looking, maybe early twenties, but not in the same league as Madison, Miranda, Robin, or Analise.

While he waited, he thought about how Analise might react when he told her that he already had two girlfriends. She knew about Madison, but she might think that Jack had relegated Madison to the friend zone.

The waitress returned and plunked a huge glass of soda on the table in front of him, then set a straw next to it. Instead of setting the glass on the side of the table nearest him, she leaned over to set it on the side close to the window.

When she leaned over, she did so in a way that let him see down her shirt. She was wearing a bra, so the view wasn’t as appealing as it could have been. While she was reasonably attractive, with decent sized breasts, she seemed a touch thick around her waist.

Before Genesis Heart, her obvious attention would have been immensely flattering, but now he was just not interested.

"Still waiting?" she asked with a gin. There was a note of hopefulness in her tone, like she wanted him to say no.

It rubbed him the wrong way that she was hoping he got stood up. Not his kind of person.

Ignoring her question and tone, and remembering his thoughts about the restaurant sign, he asked, "Did the owner ever think about putting a drop of mayonnaise on the tip of the pickle?"

"She sure did!" exclaimed the waitress. "But her lawyer said it was too risky. However," she pointed at the wall at the back of the restaurant, "she still did it for the inside mural!"

When Jack turned to look, he saw that, sure enough, there was a mural on the back wall that mirrored the sign, but the mural depicted a drop of white sauce sliding off the tip of the pickle.

He chuckled, "I like the owner’s sense of humor. Does she actually sell pickles?"

The waitress giggled, then said, "Not by themselves, but she does make her own pickles. For the menu items, thus the name."

At that point, Jack spotted Analise walking by and tapped on the window. She turned to look, saw Jack, waved excitedly, then dashed towards the restaurant door. Once inside, she rushed up and, ignoring the waitress entirely, leaned over and grabbed Jack in a hug.