My Infinite Investment System

A receipt-paper box had replaced his pillow by the time he woke in the equipment office, strawberry electrolyte on his tongue and every sore muscle remembering Mika.

For three seconds, the locked room returned in pieces, her knees, wet lips, one eyebrow lifting while his hand failed beside her hair.

Then her voice crossed the front room as she called, "Mr. Keller, somebody is trying to steal my regulator again."

The last name finished what the concrete floor had started.

He sat up, checked his phone, then regretted both decisions.

His mother had sent a photograph of groceries on her kitchen counter.

**look what your money did ❤️**

Ryan locked the screen before read receipts could turn love into questions.

Northstar’s front room smelled like rain pushed through broken seals, burnt coffee, and the bitter electrical trace left by Mika’s stabilized pathway.

She stood near the doors in yesterday’s tactical leggings, though her cropped jacket had been zipped to the throat, her hair tied back and phone already streaming.

No part of her looked like the woman who had swallowed with her hand around his cock six hours earlier.

’Mr. Keller,’ he thought, straightening a stack of blank receipts nobody had asked him to touch, ’apparently my mouth lost first-name privileges overnight.’

The repossession supervisor waited outside with four workers and a fresh white order clipped over yesterday’s manifest.

His name badge read **Dario Ferreira**, and Ryan committed it to memory because grudges were among the few things he could still afford.

Dario raised the document toward the stream and announced, "The amended order authorizes removal of all listed medical support equipment pending fraud review."

Mika angled her good side toward the nearest camera while asking, "Did you print that at home, or does the city issue documents with wet corners now?"

The bottom of the page had bled blue ink in the rain.

The supervisor protected it beneath the clipboard and said, "Payment origin remains unverified."

She pinched the screen wider on the bank receipt and replied, "The bank verified it."

His finger tapped the amended order as he insisted, "The lien holder requested review."

She tipped her phone toward him and said, "The lien holder got paid."

Ryan stepped through the doorway before the exchange became a loop, and Mika’s mouth almost moved before she corrected it for the camera.

The supervisor’s eyes found the suit and hardened as he said, "You are not listed as counsel."

He adjusted one damp cuff and replied, "Good, legal invoices make me miss unemployment."

He held out his hand and said, "Let me see the amended order."

The supervisor tucked the clipboard closer to his chest and said, "Authorized parties only."

He turned his open palm toward her and said, "Then show the authorization to Ms. Santos."

The title sounded colder than he intended.

Mika heard it, one finger pausing against her phone case before she offered her palm.

The man could refuse Ryan, but refusing the owner live looked different, so he passed her the clipboard.

Mika held it between them without turning off the stream, while Ryan read the first line and understood the entire fraud.

The medical regulator serial ended in **CR714**, while the amended order named **CR741**, two digits reversed because somebody had rushed.

He kept one finger beneath the mismatch and said, "Read both endings."

The supervisor’s jaw shifted before he answered, "The item category remains subject to review."

He tapped the page once and repeated, "Read the numbers."

The street became quiet enough for rain to tick against the loading rail.

The supervisor looked at the page as rainwater crept toward his polished shoes.

She turned the phone so the stream could see his face and said, "He asked for six numbers, Dario, I believe in you."

{bonked_wizard: the clipboard boss has entered phase two}

The supervisor placed one thumb over the serial, so he caught the lower corner without pulling and said, "Covering it doesn’t change ink."

The man’s thumb remained over the evidence as he said, "This is an administrative discrepancy."

He looked past him at the waiting workers and replied, "Then administratively remove your crew from her door."

The supervisor’s confidence thinned as his workers checked the case for themselves.

One of them, the same man whose bolt cutter remained buried in Northstar’s wall, stepped away from the loading rail.

The supervisor noticed and snapped, "Nobody moves until the lien office responds."

His humor disappeared as he blocked the rail and said, "Your order names a device that isn’t here, the regulator inside belongs to Mika Santos, move the truck."

The worker looked toward the clipboard, waiting for permission.

Mika lowered her phone by an inch, her public smile staying in place while the hand holding it stopped moving.

Dario gave the smallest possible signal, and the crew began folding the loading rail.

{gsnn_: he defeated fraud with reading}

Ryan returned the clipboard, and Dario took it without meeting his eyes before saying, "The payment investigation remains open."

He released the page and replied, "Bring the correct serial next time."

He walked to the truck while Mika called after him with one hand cupped beside her mouth, "Keep the amendment, your printer worked very hard."

The truck pulled away, and Northstar’s viewers doubled before it reached the intersection.

Mika ended the stream, then her shoulders dropped with the screen.

For a moment, they stood alone beside the open doors, and Ryan could still feel the shape of her head beneath his palm while she appeared to feel nothing at all.

He looked toward the regulator rather than her mouth and said, "You should test the pathway," choosing the only subject she had left available.

Mika locked the doors before replying, "The regulator held through the night."

He folded his sleeves back from his wrists and said, "Holding at rest isn’t growth."

Mika checked the zipper at her throat before replying, "I know how my body works."

He held her stare and said, "Then prove it."

Her eyes sharpened before the camera version could soften them as she said, "You don’t get to order me around after one purchase."

He looked at her hand instead of the phone and replied, "That isn’t why."

Color touched her cheekbones before she zipped her jacket higher and said, "Keep it medical, Mr. Keller."

The name hurt more when she used it deliberately.

He stepped back, held both palms open, and offered, "One spark, your choice."

Mika watched the distance appear between them, then looked away first.

She unzipped the jacket enough to reach the grounding contact, pressed it against her ribs, and lifted her left hand.

Pink current gathered across her knuckles.

Yesterday it had snapped out before the wrist.

Today it crossed the joint, circled her forearm, then returned through the regulator in one unbroken route.

Mika stared at her own hand.

The current lit her brown eyes from below.

Her real smile began before she could stop it, crooked and young, nothing like the version she sold to cameras.

Ryan forgot the office for one clean second.

The system opened across his vision as the gold routes sharpened.

[Growth confirmed]

[Return acquired: Spark Sense]

Gold lines spread across the room, revealing current inside the walls, heat leaking from the regulator, and a clean route running through Mika’s arm.

A red fracture also crawled along Northstar’s main support beam, branching beneath old plaster where no ordinary inspection would have found it.

The building groaned, Mika’s smile vanished as white dust fell between them, and somebody knocked on the front doors.

This time, the visitor wore a city inspection jacket and held an orange condemnation notice.

Rain darkened her short silver braids and dotted her square glasses as she pressed it against the glass, then pointed from the cracked beam to the notice.

**Forty-eight hours to establish licensed hunter use or vacate**