Chapter 549 (1/2)

Tia Alexandra, before the System, was the girl who at 16 was creating plans to sleep with the 40-year-old musicians at the concerts her father took her to. By the end of the concert, her father was far too intoxicated to pay attention to her, so she would worm her way to the front of the crowd and wait.

There was a very specific way to get the attention of an older man, Tia knew. The first and most important was to be attractive. Thankfully, her mother had blessed Tia with overly large eyes and an expressive mouth. Her other assets weren’t particularly notable, but Tia had played soccer and volleyball since she was a child. Her limbs were long, toned, and tanned.

The second thing was to have the man look at her with a suggestive eye. Most of the time, this was the simplest part. The only trick was that the man had to be the initiator of the look. It was very important not to be caught looking.

Once the man looks, you catch him. You maintain eye contact.

Then, instead of looking away, you smile.

Which was how Tia lost her virginity in a tour bus, probably not 100 feet from her father.

As she grew older, Tia became more adept at utilizing this technique. It had never failed her. Until she met Randidly Ghosthound. Even now, her stomach did flip-flops as she remembered the way they met.

Not that Tia had truly considered this strange, pseudo-political figure an object worthy of her affections. Not at the beginning. He was attractive in a serious way, Tia originally thought, but that image was shattered when you saw his almost childlike grin.

At the insistence of her manager, Tia performed for some newly rescued refugees from the borderlands. It was part of an initiative to make them feel more in control of their lives, and also to prove that the government-sponsored refugee camps were fun too. The young people they were vindicating had been leaving for the relatively similar Unity Church refugee camps in droves; mostly, this was due to the attractive young men and women who came to the government camps to promote it.

Tia was the answer to this problem.

When she encountered him there, he was speaking to some of her techies before the concert. The group of men and women didn’t even notice Tia’s arrival, so enthralled were they in Randidly’s story. One of them appeared to be laughing so hard she was crying. As she casually approached, Randidly looked up. She caught him looking at her.

She held his gaze and smiled.

He smiled back.

He turned back to the techies and continued to tell his story.

Now, Tia didn’t want to say that she obsessed over the fact he hadn’t shown her any real attention, but it remained in her mind through the concert. And afterward, the next day. Through sheer force of will, she had charmed her way into meeting Senator Firefly, knowing that he was a close friend of Randidly. Unfortunately, he was on his way out as she arrived.

But for some reason, even know she couldn’t understand, Randidly stopped as he was leaving and approached her.

“Hey. You’re that singer, right?” Randidly said, his emerald eyes blazing. There was an easy smile on his face.

Tia smiled back. “That’s me! Are you a fan?”

“No,” Randidly said, shaking his head. “But I’ve always wanted to sing. I just think… my throat is the wrong shape. My singing makes people… well... Anyways, you should teach me sometime.”

“Are you free for dinner?” Tia said, just as surprised as Randidly seemed that she asked in such a direct manner.

Randidly simply smiled back.

The rest was history.

The history of Randidly absentmindedly forgetting about their plans and Tia growing increasingly infuriated. But for some reason, the more that he blew her off, the more Tia couldn’t help but throw herself at him.