All Kris could do was sit there and blink a few times, looking at the sight in front of him, before asking, “Are you going to look for a new job as a maid or something?”

For standing in front of him… was none other than Lucy wearing one of Rachel’s spare maid uniforms. The chest section wasn’t as filled out as much compared to when Rachel wore it, but it still fit her pretty well.

“You are into maids, are you not?” Iris asked Kris as she gently pushed Lucy closer to him.

Lucy, still rather drunk, was so confused by suddenly being changed into a maid uniform that she had no idea what was going on. She couldn’t even remember how she ended up alone with the maids in the bedroom getting stripped and clothed. All she remembered was being asked if she wanted to make Kris fall in love with her, and she told them she did.

“I’m into you,” Kris answered. “But you being maids has nothing to do with it.”

All of Kris’s girlfriends blinked when they heard that.

“Seriously?” Emily asked. “You mean you didn’t fall for us because you have a thing for maids?”

“What does being maids have to do with it?” Kris asked in response. “That’s just your job. I wouldn’t fall in love with a janitor because they’re a janitor, or with a doctor because they’re a doctor. I love you and you just happen to be a maid.”

Emily had to pick one of the small pillows up off the couch, turn around so that Kris couldn’t see, and then punched it several times to get the overwhelming love out of her system.

Rachel then spoke up and asked, “If… if you’re not into maids, then… what if all we brought only our replacement uniforms to wear?”

“That’s kind of silly,” Kris answered. “But if that’s what you like wearing, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Oh, but if you want to buy more clothes, I can give you one of my credit cards. I read this article online about how you can make your girlfriend happy by giving her unlimited access to a credit card with a high limit on you, so you can take it and buy whatever you want.”

“Kris… that sounds like kind of sexist advice that’s tailored toward gold diggers.”

“Oh. Sorry. It’s kind of hard to tell when advice is good or bad and I don’t want to annoy my bro by asking him about all of it. But uh, I have more money than I need, so if you want to use it anyways to buy some different clothes, you can.”

“I… want you to know that I’m not a gold digger, alright?”

“Alright. I believe you. I never thought you were anyways.”

“That—that being said… as a girl who grew up basically homeless until our lady and her father… letting me spend a bunch of money still has a strong effect on me…”

“Then you can spend as much of it as you want. If I need more then I’ll just do another job. It’d take me like. I think three hundred years at my current rate to go through all of it, so yeah.”

Rachel was not a gold digger by any means. However, as a girl who grew up never being financially secure, the promise of financial security was still enough to make her swoon and back out to let the others step up.

Iris cleared her throat and said, “You might not be into maids, but you still like these uniforms, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Kris answered. “I’d like anything that you wear. Whether you want to wear like, those string bikinis that barely cover anything up, or like, baggy pants and sweaters that cover everything up, I’d love whatever you wear because you’re the ones who would be wearing it.”

Iris almost took a step back, but she regained her composure. “Then—then what about having us serve you? Don’t you like having multiple girlfriends eager to satisfy any request at any time?”

“It kind of makes me feel bad sometimes, because you do more for me than I get to do for you, but we talked about that already. But I mean, it does make me happy that you want to do so much for me. It makes me feel loved that you’re willing to try so hard to help me however you can, and that’s why I want you to let me help you just as much.”

Iris couldn’t stand against him any longer. She was forced to abandon Lucy and stepped back to join Emily and Rachel.

“What about maid play?” Anastasia asked. “Acting as a master who has the right to order his maids to do anything for him no matter how perverse it may be—that is something any man would like, isn’t it?”

Kris looked like he was thinking about it for a few moments, making Anastasia smile and feel like she finally won one for the team… but then he asked, “Like playing house but with maids? I’ve never done anything like that, but I could try it out for you.”

Anastasia’s smile probably would have died down were it not for her mind immediately jumping to imagining Kris playing with their future child by acting like a butler for them.

Given that using the word “perverse” was already as blunt as she was willing to go, and the fact that she got distracted thinking about playing a maid and butler version of house with her future children alongside Kris, she took a step back to join the other defeated maids.

That meant it was up to Abigail.

Abigail was the only one left to help Lucy.

Unfortunately, the battle plan was a disaster. The women thought that making Kris fall in love with Lucy would be as simple as dressing Lucy up in a maid uniform. Considering that he fell in love with them when they were all wearing maid uniforms, it only made sense that he would fall in love with Lucy, too, if they dressed her up like a maid.

But how was Abigail going to convince Kris to love Lucy?

How could she convince him to fall for her just as he fell for them?

Abigail thought about it for a few seconds before realizing what the problem was.

She and her fellow maids might have thought that they thought their plan through, but really, they didn’t do any thinking at all. And if they did, then they failed to consider the most important element of all.

They forgot to consider what Kris wanted outside of simply assuming he wanted girls in maid uniforms.

No matter what they tried, it wasn’t going to be worth it if Kris didn’t want another girlfriend in the first place, and wasn’t it wrong of them to try and convince him that he did if he didn’t?

Rather than stand behind Lucy to try and push her onto Kris, Abigail instead got between them and signed to Kris, “I have a question.”

Kris signed back, “What’s up?”

“Would you ever accept more girlfriends?”

“Is this one of those trick questions I read about?”

Abigail smiled and shook her head. “No, I promise.”

“Alright. Is it okay if I say my person and you read my lips? I’m not sure I can put my answer into sign language without messing up and losing track of my thoughts.”

Abigail nodded. “Of course. As long as I can look at you directly like this, I have no problem reading your lips.”

With a nod of his own, Kris switched over to speaking to say, “My first thought is no. I already have all of you and I don’t need anybody else as girlfriends, because why would I need somebody else when I’m already in love with you? But… I mean, I always thought I’d only need like, one girlfriend. But then I got all of you. I didn’t know it was possible for me to fall in love with more than one girl, but now I’m in love with five of you. So even though it doesn’t feel like I would ever need or want another girlfriend, I guess like, it’d be kind of stupid to assume it might not happen, because it’s already happened? Does that make sense?”

Abigail nodded some more. “It does! And your answer makes sense.”

“Also like… because I’m dating all of you, and I know it’s possible I might fall in love with somebody else, then it’d be wrong if I wasn’t okay with it happening to you, so if any of you ever fall in love with somebody else, let me know, alright?”

“I am sure we will. Would you please answer this next question of mine with signing?”

Kris already switched back to signing to give an answer. “Yeah.”

“Thank you. I should be honest about what is going on here and why we suddenly disappeared into the bedroom with Lucy only to come back out with her dressed as she is.”

“Is everything alright?”

“Yes. For us, at least. Perhaps not for Lucy. Are you aware that she is in love with you?”

“I guess now I am since you said that.”

“I see. Well, she has loved you and has been saving herself for you for as long as she has known you. The reason for her sudden departure and drinking earlier is due to what I believe is shock from discovering that you are suddenly dating five women.”

“If she loved me, and she didn’t believe me when I told her I have girlfriends now, then I guess I can see why that’d be so shocking.”

Abigail nodded once again. “After learning of her heartbreak, we discussed the matter amongst ourselves. We believe that she is cute, and she must be a good person if she has fallen in love with you just as we have, so we would not mind sharing you with her. That is why we decided to try and seduce you using her so that you would fall in love with her and accept her into our relationship. Seeing her so disappointed in not being chosen by you… is an outcome we all feared and can emphasize with. But we did not discuss it with you first when we should have. For that, I apologize now, but now you know the intent behind our actions. We wanted to make you see Lucy as you see us so that you would love her, and we decided that making her look like a maid was the best way to make you love her.”

“I think I understand,” Kris signed back before looking around her at the maid uniform-wearing Lucy. “She does look pretty good in that. And I used to like her. I just thought she didn’t like me like that anymore after I was ready for a relationship, so I didn’t bother. And I’d be happy with only dating you, Emily, Rachel, Iris, and Anastasia for the rest of my life, but I think I can probably learn to love Lucy. She’s always been there for me and helps me out all the time, plus she’s fun to be around. I might not love her right away, but yeah, I can probably learn to.”

“I think that would be fine. After all, most relationships do not start with feelings of love.”

“They don’t?”

“They do not. Most relationships start as nothing more than simple dates with simple feelings that grow over time into more.”

“Oh… I thought most people fell like, super hard in love at first sight, like I did with you.”

Abigail was doing a great job at maintaining her composure until she was hit with that. At that point, her cheeks turned a shade of red and she took a half step back. “You… flatter me, and I dare say I felt as strongly about you at first sight. However, most do not feel that way immediately, and their love is not less for it. Somebody who does not immediately feel that love may even grow an even greater love for their partner than somebody who did feel that initial love.”

“But if my love for you keeps on growing, and I already start with that strong love, then wouldn’t my love stay stronger?”

Abigail took another step back. “That… is true in theory, but… maybe their love could grow faster.”

Kris shook his head. “I don’t think anybody’s love could grow faster than mine for you. Every single second I spend with you, I feel like I love you way more. I would have to really try loving Lucy as hard as possible for any love for her to catch up to you.”

“And—and we… are perfectly alright with that,” Abigail managed to sign back to him before turning away and covering up her face with her hands. The lovey-doveyness from Kris was too much for her to handle, and so she was defeated just as the others were.

That left Lucy on her own, still in a drunken and confused state, against Kris.

With all of Kris’s girlfriends now back behind Lucy in various states of being flustered, Kris had nobody to face but the one who loved him for so many years.

“Lucy,” Kris said, standing up from the chair he’d been sitting on to look Lucy directly in the eyes.

“Heh… why are you… so hot,” Lucy giggled before playfully poking him in the cheek and then almost tripping over nothing. Fortunately for her, Kris was there to save her from falling.

And at that point, their faces were right in front of each other, and their eyes were locked onto each other.

That was when Kris remembered one of the most important things he ever read when it came to dating and love advice.

When with a woman in the position that they were in…

Kris held Lucy by her shoulders…

And pushed her away, holding her at arm’s length.

“I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend, but not before you’re sober,” Kris said.

Lucy’s eyes widened as soon as she heard that. “E-eh? What? Seriously?”

“Yeah. But I know that somebody can’t make a consensual decision when they’re intoxicated, so you can’t answer me until you’re sober, so I won’t bother asking yet.”

Little did Kris know that Lucy immediately sobered up upon hearing his answer. “I—I’m sober now! I swear! I promise!”

Kris sighed and shook his head. “The alcohol is only making you think that.”

“Nu—nu-uh! I’m sober! I can even walk in a straight line! Let me prove it!”

Kris shook his head again. “We have to get you to bed. You need to rest until you’ve sobered up. If I let you walk, you might trip again.”

“Please! I swear! I’ve never felt more sober than I feel right now!”

“Alcohol is scary, isn’t it? It can make somebody sound like they’re actually sober which might trick somebody else into believing they’re sober, and then mistakes might happen… but don’t worry. I know you drank a lot, and I won’t take advantage of you.”

“I wouldn’t care if you took advantage of me even if I was passed out drunk!”

Kris placed one of his hands on top of Lucy’s head to rub it as he said, “It’s okay. You’re safe. Let’s get you to bed, alright?”

“I’m telling you! I! Am! Sobe—”

Lucy shut up as soon as she felt Kris pick her up and hold her in his arms like a princess.

“I’m going to put her to bed, alright?” Kris said, looking at his girlfriends.

They didn’t know whether to be jealous or happy for Lucy. They did nod, though.

As for Lucy, she was too overwhelmingly happy to be carried like a princess by Kris that she surrendered despite being a hundred percent sober.