12. Chores That Bore
TWELVE
CHORES THAT BORE
TATUM
Out the door she goes, lime-green crossbody bag and all.
The app on my phone plays the video feed of her pulling out of the driveway in her tiny car before she’s out of sight. A small sense of anxiety bubbles in my chest, but I swallow it down. I have no reason to be anxious, but at the same time, I’m literally never alone in this house.
While Josie is away, I have plenty of content that I need to edit and upload, memberships to approve, harassing emails to delete, and users to block.
Some days, I consider hiring out for admin work, but it’s hard to know who you can trust. Plus, I kind of like getting lost in the mindlessness of admin work.
Being a sex worker isn’t for the weak, and protecting yourself as a woman is for the even tougher.
I’m not sure how long I sit at my desk, scrubbing audios.
Between the sound of the air conditioning kicking on, weird noises I make mid-orgasm, and clipping out the awkward readjustments, I’m nearly spent.
Conveniently, my phone chimes the little tune letting me know there’s motion in the driveway, and now seems like the perfect time to take a break.
“Did you get everything you needed?” Lylah’s on what seems like her second, maybe third, trip in with more bags. She certainly brought home a haul, even with a smaller list, and I can’t help but be curious.
“No peeking!” Her pep startles me away from the cloth bags, and I raise my hands in defeat, slowly stepping away from the bags, and taking my place at the kitchen bar.
She takes a deep breath, seemingly to prepare herself. “I want to show you everything and yap about the haul.”
Well, fuck me.
That's cute as hell—oh, to be young and excited over groceries again.
“Of course, how dare I intrude,” I tease her.
She rolls her eyes in return and starts to scrounge around the bags to pull specific items together and lay them on the counter.
My mind wanders as she tells me about a chicken pasta dish she saw online, pointing to each fresh herb, the block of parmesan, and then…only touching the chicken breast package through a bag over her hand?
“Do you not like touching meat?” I interrupt before I can stop myself from being so rude while she’s clearly excited.
“Not one bit.” She laughs. “I still do, obviously. I did try to go vegetarian once, but unfortunately for me, I’m a big fan of chicken nuggets.”
I have to cover my mouth to hold back an obnoxious laugh ready to burst free .
Lylah continues pulling out each meal’s worth of items, explaining how she plans to prepare the dishes each ingredient belongs to. I can’t figure out if the posted job listing required cooking experience, because that definitely wasn’t one of my requirements.
“Are you hungry now, or did you already eat?” She pauses while neatly stacking and organizing her haul into the fridge.
“I haven’t. I was actually just coming to do so when you got ho-” I pause, not wanting to call this her home just yet. “When you got back.”
“Perfect, I can make us lunch, then!” Her green eyes sparkle with enthusiasm. I was worried that last night would put an awkward air between us. Then that thought was a definite possibility with the way she reacted this morning, but any worry of that is sloughing off quickly.
“Do you mind letting me know when it’s ready?
I could use all the time I can get to work while Jo is away this weekend.
” My mom has sent me a million and one photos of Josie making the exact same faces, photos snapped milliseconds apart each time.
I welcome it, though. Her not taking a bottle for nearly six months of her life put more of a toll on my body and mind than I ever thought it would.
I can’t deny how much I miss her tiny chubby cheeks, despite how desperately I needed time for myself.
“Of course, shoo shoo.” She waves me out of the kitchen.
Back in my office, I notice that my uploads are complete, so now it’s time to check video requests and see how many of them I’m actually willing to do.
I usually ignore the weirder stuff, like food for lube requests. Like, no, I won’t be putting peanut butter anywhere near any of my openings. I’m not new to fetish content by any means, but I value my vaginal health.
One specific request catches my eye.
User: NotYourBabes
Have you ever done any girl-on-girl videos?
I’ve never featured content with another woman on my channel.
It’s my way of keeping my sexual orientation a secret, I guess.
My way of keeping one more identifiable trait about myself hidden.
The username isn’t one of my regular commenters, and when I click the profile, I see why.
They joined less than twenty-four hours ago.
The username is far from telling, but I don’t need any clues; I watched Lylah scan that QR code in my room. Bubbles thought no one was watching, but I haven’t been able to take my eyes off her since she first walked through my door.