Daryl frowned at the app that had apparently installed itself randomly on his phone. The K App, the caption said. He almost deleted it, but then tapped the glowing red letter instead. He frowned...why had he done that?
*Congratulations!* the pop-up informed him, *You have received a reward!* Below the stylized text was a swirling miasma of colors that coalesced into words: *Hypno Aura: Friends & Family*.
"What the hell?"
"What's up?" Daryl's wife Lori called out from the bathroom.
"It's..." He found that he couldn't tell her about the app. "...nothing."
"Mom, hurry upp!" Hailey, Lori's 18-year-old daughter (and Daryl's stepdaughter), whined from outside the bathroom as she did the peepee dance. Three people with only one toilet between them made for some arguments, especially with the young woman's seemingly small bladder. "Finally!" the pixie-ish girl with the curly blonde locks harrumphed as she pushed by her mother and closed the door behind.
Lori rolled her eyes at her husband, finished adjusting her wavy brown hair, and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast.
"The toast's burnt," Hailey groused as she crunched the dark bread. "You can't cook, Mom...god."
"Your mom's doing her best," Daryl informed the girl, "you should be nicer to her."
"Okay, Dad...sorry, Mom." Crunch.
The adults glanced at the girl and then shared a look between each other. Hailey had never been so easygoing before. Her mother shrugged, turned, and finished up the eggs.
---
Daryl's mind wandered at work and he popped the app up on screen again where it continued to show 'Hypno Aura: Friends & Family'...but what did that mean? Hailey had listened to him that morning, but was that due to the app? He got up and headed to his manager's office. "Hey, can I get Monday off with pay?" he asked the man.
His manager grimaced. "Uh, no...you're serious?"
"No, of course not...silly joke." He headed down the hallway, knocked on another door, and opened it. "Hey, Nora, Lori and I are going to visit you and William tonight for dinner," he told the short, curvy Hawaiian woman sitting there, his friend for years prior to them working together.
She gave him a smile. "Sure, Daryl...I'll let him know."
"Uh, okay, then." He returned the smile and headed back to his desk. Nora was a planner by nature, and he hadn't given her enough time, especially on a Friday...without his 'reward' from the app, she would have given him a big, fat 'no'. Still, that wasn't a decisive test...that would come later that night.
---
"Heyy!" Nora cried out as she pulled Daryl and then Lori into a hug as they arrived. "Oh, thanks!" She took the proffered wine bottle and headed to the kitchen.
"She's so pretty," Lori remarked to her husband.
"Uh, I suppose."
She gave him a little shoulder check. "Whatever...I saw you checking out her ass in those tight jeans."
He blushed and paused. "You'd be okay with me having sex with her." He framed it almost like a question but not quite.
"Yeah, of course."
Daryl's eyes widened. He'd been willing to pass the comment off as a joke but it seemed that he did have a hypnotic aura for family and friends! "Wow, I love you, babe!"
"Love you too." She gave him a hug.
Daryl knew William through Nora but he considered the generic white guy to be a friend as well. "Hey, William, pass the salt," he asked. When the bigger man passed it over, he added, "and the pepper." Once again, William did as asked. "And...the ketchup." They were eating chicken Alfredo.
William got up, grabbed the ketchup from the fridge, and handed it to Daryl before sitting back down.
"And...dish soap."
Once again, William got up, though this time he went to the sink for his quest item. As he handed the green Palmolive bottle over and sat back down, the women stared at both of them.
"What?!" Nora asked, her face screwed up in confusion.
"Uh, this is normal," Daryl informed them all.
"Oh," the women responded and returned to eating.
Daryl could barely eat, he was so giddy.
After dinner, he suggested that his wife and William watch a movie while he and Nora talked and nobody naysayed that. He pulled the pretty Hawaiian woman into her bedroom.