The Heart System

Chapter 621

I let out a quiet chuckle and held her a little tighter. ”This’ll have to do, huh? I paid a fortune for these parts, Esme. Do you know how much sixty-four gigabytes of RAM costs these days?”

”Thank you,” she said, her face buried against my shoulder. ”Really. Thank you.”

”No problem.”

I was about to make another joke when I noticed her shoulders start to shake. A moment later, I felt something damp against my shirt.

She was crying.

That caught me off guard. I slowly reached up to lift her head so I could look at her, but she refused to let me. Instead, she buried her face even deeper into my shoulder, hiding from me like she didn’t want me to see her like this.

”Esme?”

”N-nothing,” she mumbled. ”Let’s just stay like this for a second.”

”Okay...” I muttered, clearly confused but trying to keep the mood calm. ”If that’s what you want.”

I wanted to ask more, but I figured pushing her right then would just make things worse. So I changed the subject instead.

”Where’s Cora?”

”Outside,” she replied, her voice still shaky but quieter now. ”She said she was watching someone. Daniel... Dora... Dennis, I think. Or maybe she said something like Dorathy. I don’t know.”

”Dakota?”

”Yes,” she said, and her voice sounded a little steadier now.

She finally pulled herself back and turned away from me, quickly wiping her tears before walking toward the kitchen like nothing had happened. I followed her, leaning against the counter as she opened the fridge and pulled out two bottles of orange juice.

She handed one to me and kept one for herself.

”Thanks,” I muttered, taking a sip. ”You, uh... you alright?”

She nodded. ”I am. Thank you.”

”Yeah, yeah. Sure.”

She hesitated for a second, then pointed toward the couch. ”Um... sit?”

I followed her gesture and walked over to the couch. We both sat down, and she tucked her legs beneath her while sipping her orange juice. The TV was on in the background, some weather report running again. Rain. More rain. Of course it was rain. This city seemed to take some kind of sick pleasure in that.

I leaned back and glanced around the room.

”Want me to set up the computer for you?” I asked. ”I used to be a tech wizard, if you can believe it.”

”Used to?”

”Yeah,” I said with a faint smile. ”Had to sell my computer and console back in college just to cover rent.”

Her expression softened again. ”Oh... I’m sorry.”

”It’s fine,” I said, finishing the orange juice in one go. ”Come on. Let’s get this thing set up.”

”O-okay.”

I stood up and picked up the first box. ”Where do you want it?”

She looked sleepy now, her eyes half-lidded from crying and probably from exhaustion too. ”Here,” she said, standing and walking toward her bedroom. ”Come.”

I followed her down the hall and into her room, where she pointed at her desk. It was a simple setup, nothing fancy, but it had enough space for a serious rig. A monitor sat off to the side, along with a few messy cables and some decorative nonsense that made the place feel a little more lived in.

”Alright,” I said, rolling up my sleeves. ”Let’s build you something nice.”

I set the boxes down and started unpacking everything one by one. First came the case, which I carefully opened and placed on the desk. Then the power supply, the motherboard, the CPU, the cooler, the RAM sticks, the storage drives, the graphics card, and all the cables that came with them.

Esme hovered nearby at first, but I could tell she was trying not to get in the way. She kept glancing at the parts with a kind of quiet excitement that was hard to miss.

I started with the motherboard, fitting the CPU into place and locking it down carefully. Then I attached the cooler, making sure it sat properly before moving on to the RAM. The sticks clicked in with a satisfying snap, and that always felt good no matter how many times I did it.

”Hand me the SSD,” I said.

She immediately passed it over.

Nice. She was learning fast.

I mounted the storage drive next, then worked the power cables through the case. I had to stop a few times to line things up properly, route the wires cleanly, and make sure nothing would interfere once everything was powered on. Esme watched in silence while I worked, only speaking up when I asked for something or needed a second pair of hands.

A little over half an hour passed before I finally stepped back and wiped my forehead.

The computer was built.

It looked damn good too. Clean and all white like I’d hoped. The lighting inside gave it this polished glow, and with the transparent side panel, the internals looked almost too perfect. I’d gone with the white color because I couldn’t tell what she preferred, but honestly, it suited her.

”She’s a beauty, huh?” I asked, leaning back slightly to look at it properly. ”I didn’t know what color you’d want, so I went with all white.”

”It’s nice,” Esme said softly, still staring at it. ”But... this is really expensive, Evan.”

”It is.”

She looked at me again, guilt written all over her face.

I shrugged lightly. ”But it’s worth it.”

”Worth it?”

”Worth seeing you happy,” I said, then reached out and gave her shoulder a gentle punch.

That got a small smile out of her immediately.

There it was.

That little expression was worth every cent.

══════════════════

WOMEN - INTERACTIONS

──────────────────

Jasmine: Interest: 40 / 60

Kayla: Interest: 38 / 40

Tessa: Interest: 40 / 60

Kim: Interest: 100 / 100

Delilah: Interest: 100 / 100

Cora: Interest: 100 / 100

Mendy: Interest: 20 / 40

Nala: Interest: 100 / 100

Penelope: Interest: 5 / 20

Minne: Interest: 38 / 40

Ivy: Interest: 57 / 60

Eleanor: Interest: 25 / 40

Amelia: Interest: 12 / 20

Esme: Interest: 72 / 80

══════════════════