Chapter 1
@page { size: 21cm 29.7cm; margin: 2cm } p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; background: transparent }
Chapter 1
Rookie Mistake
Lara held her hand to her heart. She’d seen Reilly naked before but knowing that this picture had been shared without her consent put a sour taste in her mouth. In the picture, Reilly was standing totally naked and holding her phone high over her head, leaving nothing unseen. Even her tongue was hanging out for the camera. Lara understood that her best friend could have been swept up in the moment to send this kind of picture, but to a stranger? Not even a boyfriend?
Lara got it, she did. She’d sent a picture to someone online before. She’d kept her face and her wrist tattoo well out of it, only showing a close-up of her boobs. God, the idea of showing anyone her boobs now made her skin crawl, they’d been four cup sizes smaller back then and significantly firmer and perkier. Even at the time, Lara had been more nervous than excited, and her reward? A twenty second video clip of the guy pounding away at his boner like his life depended on it. Lara hadn’t done anything like that again. She’d been just eighteen then and she was twenty-six now. She’d been lucky though, that picture she’d taken had never been posted anywhere, probably forgotten in a folder full of other girl’s pictures that would be lost to time when the guy’s phone eventually broke. Even then, the picture from eight years ago may as well have been a different person. Lara sighed out loud.
“Fuck, what am I going to do, Lara? I’m not a slut!” Reilly put her head in her hands and yelled through gritted teeth in frustration.
“Well, not gonna lie, this makes you look like one.” Lara immediately felt bad for saying that. She didn’t pretend not to be a little jealous. Reilly was pretty, she had perky little boobs that didn’t need to be wrestled into an overpriced bra that couldn’t even hold them up properly and to top it off, she ate nothing but burgers and was still half of Lara’s size.
“Don’t be a bitch, come on!” She said.
“Alright, I’m sorry. It’s just… did you have to put your face in it? Couldn’t he have just gotten off to your ass or something?”
“I thought I could trust him! He made me feel so comfortable… I don’t mean like he just said ‘oh you can trust me wink wink’. We were talking for months! I wanted to make him happy.”
“Well, that’s how they get you. You’re a fish.”
“What?” Reilly asked.
“They head out to sea, to the spots they know have the most fish. Then, they set up a net, throw in the right bait and wait as long as necessary. You know men in real life and you would not believe how much patience they can actually have when they want something.”
“I mean, deep down, I knew that.” Reilly replied with a shake of her head.
“To make it easy for you: Cock. Bad.”
“But, I like cock.” Reilly rolled back onto the bed, in mock death.
Lara had a vibrator at home that was pretty old. It would drain a new set of batteries in minutes and buzz itself out in a few seconds of weak disappointment. That summed up Lara’s whole experience with men.
“How am I supposed to trust anyone?” Reilly said, throwing her arms around.
“Take a leaf out of my book,” Lara said. “Don’t.”
***
Three weeks later, Reilly had mostly forgotten about what had happened and so had everyone else in town. At least, anyone that remembered soon forgot after Lara got to them. She could tell Reilly was still hurting, she was three years younger than Lara and wasn’t very independent. She needed people to be close to ever since her parents split up. She was struggling at work too but Lara was more than busy balancing her life and her own job. Everyone in offices across the country were using AI but there was still more work to do than ever, how was that fair? Every day felt like the same slog, like a time loop movie but without a handsome lead to solve everyone’s problems. That was fine, Lara was used to being her own handsome lead.
The closest their little town got to handsome was Jake, and he wasn’t handsome. He had a great body, which was probably halfway to handsome, but only just. He was the IT guy at Lara’s office and was always organising bowling events for work and friends of work. He liked two things: looking at women’s butts and looking at computers. Lara had used to think he liked bowling too but he’d never bowled a strike in six years. He hadn’t looked at Reilly’s ass since her pic leaked, so he got points for being kind of considerate at least. He still stole the occasional glance at Lara’s. Dump trucks were supposed to be the fashion but it didn’t feel like it. Everyone cheered as Reilly scored a strike. She was good at everything physical without needing to try. Jake went next and left the two furthest apart pins standing. Again. His second bowl missed totally. Again.
“Looks like the Girl Bosses win again.” Lara shouted.
“Only because of Reilly and since she doesn’t work at our office, technically The Manospheres would win.” Jake adjusted his boxy glasses and Reilly laughed at his logic.
“Huh, that’s strange,” Lara mockingly scratched her chin like he often did, “I don’t see any office here. It says ’Petey’s Pins Bowling.” He laughed in response.
“Reilly, could I interest you in joining the Manospheres? Since you aren’t from the office, you’re technically a free agent.”
“Well…” Reilly teased.
“Like she wants to catch shitty bowler’s disease from you guys.”
When they’d all said their goodbyes, Lara offered to drive Reilly home. She always did. The only other person Reilly lived with was her dad and he usually stayed out drinking so late that he went straight to work from whatever bar hadn’t kicked him out yet.
“Do you think Jake likes me?” Reilly asked from the passenger seat.
“Of course he likes you. You’re the only woman outside of the office he’s ever met. I don’t think he even has a mom, I think they grew him in a lab somewhere. A terrible science experiment gone wrong.”
“He’s cute though, right?”
Lara imagined him with his shirt off, climbing on top of her. Faster than he’d be able to finish, she pushed him and his blue balls back into the friendzone where he belonged and shivered.
“Definitely not. No.”
“Oh come on, he is and you trust him, right? He’s a nice person.” Reilly was definitely looking for some kind of permission.
“I’d trust him to fix a printer or to grow a t-rex out of a fossil, sure.”
“Sounds like a useful man to have around.” Reilly pulled that smile. The one that always got her in trouble.
“Useful is not enough. Anyway, whose to say he isn’t the guy that…” Lara stopped. It hadn’t been mentioned in so long now, she didn’t want to reopen any wounds.
“Why would it be him? It could have been anyone. The chance of it being someone from in town is like zero.”
“Well… He’s good with computers, right?”
“What does that have to do with it? It wasn’t like I got hacked… Oh my god, you want him for yourself!”
“I want nothing to do with him. The only time I will ever want him is when I need help with a spreadsheet.”
“You want him to spread your sheets.” Reilly teased.
“I will slap a bitch.”
Lara was just happy with how much better Reilly must have been feeling. She was still smiling when Lara dropped her off and drove home. Lara lived alone in her parents old house and spent the rest of her night trying to coax that old vibrator into working long enough to get her off. At least it got to finish.
