Right as he was about to leave, she sat up and planted a quick peck on his cheek, then buried her head in her sheets.
—
Daniel sat at his desk, pondering. He thought her progress was quite fast. She’d drunk wine for the first time, maybe after a few more dinners and suggestions, he could introduce her to hard liquor. Perhaps he hadn’t given her enough credit. She’d even bought almost a hundred bucks’ worth of beauty products on her own.
Not to mention that she would sometimes sneakily sniff the pack of cigarettes on her nightstand. The third hidden camera’s angle was perfect for that oh-so-exciting view.
The first time he’d seen it, he busted a nut in less than a minute; a new record.
She was much more adventurous and open than expected, and that made him both happy and worried.
“The biggest issues are her family and friends. She said she calls her Mom a few times a week, and if she changes too much, her mom will definitely find out. Then it’s game over. Some dudes I can get rid of, but not my beloved’s mother. I already have an idea to get rid of her phone, make her more dependent on me, and find a way to reduce the calls back home. I’ll also take her phone and fiddle with it. Some hidden parental controls should help in the long run, and the obvious keylogger is a no brainer. For her friends…”
And so he kept planning and scheming.
……
…
The next evening, Daniel complimented my looks for the first time. Incidentally, that was also the first time I combined my new makeup skills with the expensive Gucci set.
Modest mascara, light eye shadow, red lipstick, etc. I showed a picture to my mom, and she couldn’t stop gushing over it. But as much as I appreciated Mom’s love, I wanted a man’s compliments even more.
And I wasn’t disappointed by Daniel’s reaction.
When I showed up to dinner, I felt his gaze scrutinize my face and roam all over my body. I got goosebumps when I recognized the approval in his eyes and the slight smile on his lips.
‘I never knew it felt this good to be appreciated by a man’, I thought, ‘even if it’s for something superficial like my looks.’
“You look amazing, Lisa. If you looked like this every day, I might have trouble eating dinner and just focus on admiring you every day. Though I appreciate pink or purple lipstick more, personally.”
“Oh, um, thanks a bunch. It’s just light makeup. I might try pink next, hehe.”
I blushed and looked away. He always knew how to make me feel good about myself. I also made a mental note about his preference.
For no particular reason, of course.
As we ate and chatted, I kept thinking about what he said. Why not wear makeup every day? I mean, I’m saving a lot by having Daniel make all of our meals already. I’d always felt jealous of the divas in high school who had all the boys trained like puppies. I wondered if the boys at college would look at me like that too.
I decided to find out.
And find out I did. The next morning, as I walked into my first class of the day, I immediately noticed the difference. Guys would pretend to look at their phones or someone else while checking me out, and girls were noticeably friendlier, but also more guarded.
The positive reactions from my surroundings made me express myself even more. Slightly darker eye shadow, different colors, and bright and dark lipstick. Mostly pink and purple, but I didn’t want to make my feelings too obvious to him, so I also tried other colors.
For the rest of that week, I felt much more confident throughout the day, and that helped me make my first real friend, Stephanie.
She was also a gender studies student, and we took mostly the same classes, plus we’d immediately hit it off when she asked about my make-up. Much like me, she was on the petite side and a shy, awkward person, but her long blond hair and green eyes made her stand out more.
She also had a boyfriend, her high school sweetheart, which made me a little jealous. She said she’d introduce us soon, but seemed strangely apprehensive about it.
As for Daniel…
‘He keeps showering me with compliments about my make-up every day, and it never gets old, because he actually notices the very subtle differences I make to my looks every day. It motivates me to keep changing make-up styles, and I can’t help but make frequent stops to shop for new products.’
I could feel myself falling in love with this thoughtful man, and it worried me a bit.
Another source of anxiety is that I now lose a lot of confidence at night, when I remove the thick layers of make-up. I also noticed Daniel didn’t pay as much attention to me then.
Still friendly, but less passionate.
‘But I can’t talk about these things with Mom, it’s so embarrassing.’
Also, all of this is starting to drain my wallet. Normally things would still be fine, but Steph and I also go shopping, and the clothes and bags we buy aren’t always cheap. If I don’t buy new beauty products, I’m afraid Daniel will stop paying me attention every day, and while I know it’s irrational and we haven’t known each other for long in the first place, I don’t want to disappoint him.
On the other hand, Steph is my first friend here, but we could always do other things, so I decided to stop shopping for clothes for now. Steph wasn’t happy, and while she didn’t say anything, I could see her expression cloud over.
At dinner, I must’ve let my disappointment show, because Daniel looked at me with concern.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong, Lisa? If you’re worried about the rent next month, I can give you a few weeks’ leeway, you know?”, he asked me.
It felt magical to me that he could guess my worries. I felt warm at the generous offer and smiled.
“I’m fine, but thank you. No, it’s just.. it’s stupid, nevermind.” I looked away.
“Come on now.” He spoke strictly, and I quickly looked down, fidgeting. His tone wasn’t threatening, but I felt like I could never say no to him.
“Well, okay, I guess some leeway would help. I’ll try and return it as soon as possible! So I told you about my friend Stephanie, right? She…”
……
…
As Lisa told him about her issues, Daniel knew this was a huge opportunity that could speed up his plans to corrupt the girl.
“So I’m not happy, but it’s fine. But don’t you think Steph is also wrong here? She didn’t say anything, sure, but she still showed her displeasure. She should be more considerate of my means, right? Not to mention, she spends way too much time with her boyfriend. I should have priority as her new best friend, you know? She’s so stupid at times.”
Lisa went on and on about her new friend, but Daniel had already zoned out.
‘This Stephanie is also interesting, but more importantly, I think Lisa might play for both teams. I have to speed things up. This is risky, but it should be fine.’
“I might have a solution for your issue.”
“And then she–what?” This girl had been talking about other things for so long that she didn’t understand what he meant.
“I mean, I might have a side gig for you to make some money so you can keep shopping with S–, your friend.”
He quickly retracted Stephanie’s name. Girls were strange creatures who could get sensitive to men saying other girls’ names. He successfully dodged that minefield.
“Besides, it works out for me too, I like seeing you in new clothes and happy. Those sheer stockings you wore today looked wonderful.”
Now that his girl was starting to become addicted to beauty products and her personality was changing, it was time for phase two of his plan. He would thoroughly corrupt her innocence.
……
…
I blushed and didn’t know how to react. He liked seeing me happy; that made me giggle. I also made a mental note to buy more sheer stockings. It felt like his taste was a little lewd, but I was happy about it. I would’ve called other guys perverts for the same comment, but Daniel was different.
“Um, I appreciate it a lot, but what job is it?”, I asked through sips of wine.
“Well, it’s not really a job per se. I told you that I’m pursuing a PhD in psychology, yes? I’ve wanted to include data on something specific, but I never found a volunteer. If you’d like, I would love to pay you to participate in this social experiment.”
I was shocked and impressed. Daniel was an intellectual, a real man in pursuit of knowledge. I first thought of rejecting payment and participating for free, after all, he had done so much for me this past month. But his next words stopped me in my tracks.
“Of course, I’ll make sure to pay you for this effort. Let’s see, how about halving your rent for the next year?”
“Sure!”, I answered immediately, and blushed after realizing my mistake.
‘Now he knows I’m both poor and a miser.’
I couldn’t help it. Halving the rent for a year meant saving thousands of dollars. This deal was almost too good to be true.
“Ha.. Hahahaha.”
For the first time, I saw the man on the other side of the table double over and laugh his heart out. I felt slightly sour at being made fun of, but I also found this side of him cute and charming.
“Come ooon, stop making fun of me!”, I couldn’t take the embarrassment anymore.
He wiped his eyes and looked at me, obviously trying his best to hold back the laughter.
I pouted.
“Sorry, my bad. I didn’t mean to make fun of you, but that ‘sure!’ was too cute.”, he winked at me.
I looked down and felt like I was dying of shame.
“Well then, let’s talk about what the experiment is, shall we?”
I took a quick sip of wine and fidgeted. Maybe I should’ve listened to this before accepting.
“Y-yes.”
“No worries, it’s quite simple. I want you to do a few things regularly for a period of time, then tell me how you feel so I can record it. You also have the right to refuse to record anything you want, in which case only I will know. But I’d appreciate you not leaving things to yourself, even if they may be embarrassing. In reality, the recording is just a formality, and this project’s purpose is mostly to satisfy my desire for knowledge.”
“Sure, but uh, what things?”, I felt that this was the crucial detail.
“Well, I have a ton of things that I want to test out, but I don’t want this to last too long and disturb your studies. How about you pick one to three experiments at random from a pool, then decide which, if any, you wouldn’t mind doing?”
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