Chapter 12
Victoria
I wasn’t getting any work done.
I didn’t even recognize myself. I was aching for her, needed her, and when I got into my car at eight-forty and looked at the clock, I’d never felt like five was so far away.
I liked work. Liked being at work. I’d never been the type to count down the minutes until five.
But the promise of what would be waiting for me…
She’d—said I could—look at whatever I liked.
Fuck. I felt myself blushing clear through my foundation as I opened my phone, making sure no one was around the car.
Not for anything serious. Just to look. Opened a private window and navigated to Bridget’s page again, and this time I felt like a kid in a candy shop.
An adult in an… adult shop. All these things I could have with her.
She wanted me to look. Wanted me. I had no idea such an incredible, sexual and gorgeous woman could want me.
I was in the middle of scrolling through Bridget’s half-naked pictures when I got a text from my brother, and I almost threw the phone. God. I’d lost track of time a little. If this was our roleplay, I was showing up late to work. Because I was thinking about Bridget…
I closed the page and pulled myself together enough to read the text from Kevin. Holding up okay after the Sunday disaster?
Ugh—I’d never even checked in with him after that. Too busy trying to figure out how to face the fact that I’d masturbated to Bridget. I started typing a reply before I sighed and asked if I could call, mounting the phone on the dashboard as I put the car in reverse and his call came through.
“I’m sorry about the way it went for you and Sam,” I sighed.
“I’m sorry Pamela Bone didn’t show,” he said, his every bit as sad.
“I think I’ve healed from that. Is Sam okay?”
“Sam bounces back from everything. It’s me who’s still recovering. I didn’t think it would go well, but… I didn’t think it would go this badly.”
I pulled out of the lot, driving through the familiar snow-dusted morning streets. Used to drive these streets to work all the time, listening to the same couple albums in a hypnotic rhythm. “If there’s some way I can back you up, I want to know.”
“We’ll be all right,” he sighed. “Worried about you too. Don’t really know how things went on your side.”
I cleared my throat. “Uh,” I started, focusing on changing lanes before the light, traffic picking up as I got towards the city. “Well,” I said. “Mom was devastated that I wasn’t dating Bridget.”
“Huh?”
“She said she was a fool for ever having had reservations about me with a woman, because Bridget was everything she could have ever asked for in a partner for me, and when I told her we weren’t dating, she cried and pleaded that wouldn’t I at least consider it, give it a chance, because I’d never meet someone like Bridget again… ”
Kevin was quiet for a long time before he said, “Say, there’s no chance Mom wants to tap Bridget, is there?”
“Ew.” She could have seen some very good Bridget content online if that was what she wanted.
“No, Bridget just complimented her really well when they met, so now she thinks Bridget is the perfect partner. I played dirty and told her Bridget liked Sam and that she should try to curry her favor by being nice to him.”
“Oh, is that why she suddenly laid off after dessert?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Well,” he said brightly, “I guess that makes things easier. Now you can just date Bridget and we’ll all be happy.”
Thank god we weren’t on a video call. He didn’t need to see the way I blushed, hands tightening on the wheel. “I’m not going to date her.”
“Kidding. Mostly. Sammy’s right you two were cute together.”
“So, what are you and Sam going to do now?”
He let me change the subject, and we discussed family plans for the holidays while I drove, and as always, it diverted into random chatting by the time I got to the coffee shop where I used to go for meetings out of the office.
It wasn’t too busy right now, Wednesday morning after the rush, and I parked behind it and said cordial see-you-laters with Kevin before I went inside and faced the fact that I’d only picked up about sixty percent of my conversation with him. Distracted. Somehow.
The barista at the counter recognized me, but thankfully they weren’t looking to dig up my life story, just said it had been a long time and it was nice to see me again.
Probably assumed I was in town for the holidays, which would work well enough.
I got my oat milk latte, and I sat by the window, and I thought of Bridget.
I did everything in my power to get work done, but my mind kept drifting, and the thought of her was…
sticky. Every time my mind came across it, it took all my force to pull it back away.
Away from questions like whether her eyes would look the same in person as they did in that video.
What she would want to do. What it would be like with a woman…
let alone that woman. What would happen with us now.
Was this just her offering this one time? Come tomorrow, we’d be back to normal, except that we’d slept together? Would that be enough for me?
Of course, if I had her permission now to look at whatever I wanted, that was one thing, but I knew just looking at her posts right now wouldn’t satisfy me.
We’d cross that bridge when we came to it. For now, I’d do some work.
Right. Work.
I’d do some work.
I stared for a long time at my computer.
I didn’t even know what kind of work I did. What did I do for a living?
It was a few hours of that, and then I ordered another drink, and I tapped through job listings.
I wondered what Bridget was doing.
I needed to stop thinking of her. But we had sort of a… roleplay thing going on right now, and my part in the roleplay was to think of her. So I gave myself permission to fantasize about her, just a little. To think about that video.
I’ve been waiting so long for you to get home, baby…
My brain was fully melted by lunchtime, when I ordered a sandwich and took it back to my table, staring into the middle distance while I ate, and I had a heart attack when the doors jingled and the familiar figure of Mark Castle came into the shop, my old coworker from the job Bridget and I had worked together, and I froze up and tried to keep still—like he couldn’t see me if I didn’t move.
He wasn’t a T-Rex. He saw me even though I didn’t move.
“Victoria Jameson,” he said, lighting up and coming towards me for a hug. I squirmed awkwardly and put my whole mess away long enough to give him one of the company-polite half-hugs with pats on the arm and all. “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. Back for the holidays?”
“Back to… figure things out altogether,” I laughed awkwardly. “Seattle didn’t work out.”
“Oh, yeah? Sorry to hear that. So what are you doing now?”
“Looking for jobs.” I pointed to my computer. “Figuring out the next steps. The job in Seattle was nice enough, but my boss pushed me over the edge, and in the end, I quit without really much of a backup plan. So I’m figuring things out.”
“Rough. Hope things will be okay. Staying with family?”
“With Bridget from our team, actually. She happened to have an open room when I was looking.”
He beamed. “I haven’t seen Bridget in ages. What’s she doing these days?”
Me, soon enough. I smiled. “She’s an independent media creator. Very impressive stuff.”
“Is she? We’re in need of more media specialists right now.”
“Ah.” I don’t think they wanted what she did. I mean, Mark probably did. He seemed like the type. But… I didn’t want to share that right now. “Well,” I said, and I was saved by the bell—they called his name from the counter, and he nodded.
“Maybe we’ll get in touch with her. Well, it’s good seeing you. Be in touch, we’ll catch up. Might be able to get you some leads. You always were good to work with.”
“Thanks, Mark.”
“Tell Bridget I said hi.”
I made a note of it on my computer. I wouldn’t remember to when I saw her again, if all went according to plan.
I barely got anything done all day, and I was buzzing all over by the time five o’clock rolled around, and I texted Bridget I’m coming home, want me to bring anything back? She had a reply by the time I got back to the car, and I got a shiver down my spine at the sight.
just you, need to see you right now, with a kiss emoji at the end. I swallowed hard, shivering and not just from the cold, as I typed a reply.
Me too… I’ve been thinking of you all day
then hurry up, please, she sent, and I made a noise in my throat at the picture she attached—her legs, with a little peek of the same lacy panties she’d worn in that video.
I’m coming as fast as I can.
you are if I can help it, she sent with a heart emoji, and it was a miracle I didn’t crash on the way back.
I counted down every street to get back, and then every step back to the door, and I took two tries to get the key fitted into the lock, opening the door to where the sight of Bridget in the kitchen knocked the wind out of me.
“Hey, beautiful,” she said—leaning against that counter, just like in the video, wearing the same camisole I could see her nipples through, those same panties, as she circled her hips against the counter in the same way. “I’ve been waiting so long for you to get home, baby…”
Oh, fuck, this was actually happening. “Hey,” I said, locking the door behind me. “I’ve been waiting… a while too. Thinking of this.”
She bit her lip, slipping her hands down her front, hooking her thumbs into her panties, and she did that fucking…
head-tilt gesture… I don’t even know what it was, but something about it was so seductive and hit me deep in the core, and I felt like I melted in those big, beautiful blue eyes.
“Mm… yeah? Were you thinking of me doing this?” she murmured, tugging her camisole up, just a bit.
I hooked a finger between the top two buttons of my shirt, my breath getting short.
“A lot more than just that.”