"That was a waste of time," I grumbled to myself as I set my keys and wallet down on the table.
"What was?"
I looked into the living room as I fished for a soda in the fridge. "Sorry, didn't realize you guys were here."
"No worries. What's up, how was your evening?" Colette was watching me from the couch, her head resting on her friend Stacy's lap.
"Hey, Stace," I said. I twisted the cap off the Sprite, walked into the living room and sat down heavily in the chair across from them.
"That bad, huh?" the blonde asked, nuzzling her friend's leg.
Colette and I had moved in together. Sick of living with our parents, wanting somewhere to call our own, wanting somewhere to bring various partners back to without embarrassment, we'd rented a small two-bedroom in a reasonably safe part of town. I'd taken up a finance program at the local tech college, and was plowing through that every second I wasn't at the bank.
It seemed natural, now that no four-year college wanted to have anything to do with me, to drop my programming career aspirations and focus on something I was already good at - money. The bank was even paying for my classes, so long as I held ninety percent grades and kept making my sales metrics.
In my spare time, I was trying to plow through as many women as possible. The primitive dating apps on app stores of the burgeoning smartphone industries were helping with that, but not nearly as efficiently as I wanted.
I wanted the sex I had with Cady. Correction, I wanted sex LIKE I'd had with Cady. Kinky. I wanted to dominate. I wanted to get my partner off by using them, and I wanted my partner to want that. I was always very upfront in my conversations with potential partners about my desires, and that weeded the list down considerably. Not that there weren't more than a few women in Minneapolis that liked to get tied up, but it seemed like about one in eight conversations went the direction I wanted, and one in four of those were actually fruitful.
Like tonight...
"Dude was bi. Not that I have a problem with that..." I tilted my head toward the couple on the couch. "But he expected me to be too. Didn't bring that up when we were texting. I get there expecting that we're going to be doing his girlfriend together, and he wants me to do them both. That's obviously not going to happen."
"That was rude of them," Stacy commented.
"Little bit. Anyway, sorry to intrude on your evening. I'll go to my room, give you guys some privacy."
Colette had enlightened me before moving in that she and Mike were not exclusive at all, and that she enjoyed the company of women as well as men. Stacy was one of her longer-term female partners, and since I'd expected to be out until the wee hours of the morning, my roommate had invited her over for some girl time.
"No worries, it's cool. We'll go."
"Sure?"
Colette stretched and yawned. "Why don't you just write your own dating app?"
I rolled my eyes. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. You were talking to this couple through that one, and weren't able to filter them out. I imagine they were disappointed as well... Write an app that will let you filter and then filter more. I know you still do programming."
"Yeah, like the Apple app store is going to allow me to market a dating app that lets people pick whether they want to get tied up and paddled. Two, do you know how much processing power you need for something like that? Those dating apps take up, like, entire server farms!"
"Just an idea," Colette said defensively.
"And it's a good one, I just wish someone out there would make it. I'm sick of Christmas card lists."
Stacy snickered. "Christmas card lists?"
"Yeah, that's what he calls them." Colette rolled to her back to look up at her girlfriend, reached up to stroke her face. "Collects the information of kinky people, puts them in touch with each other."
I grinned. "Roughly."
Stacy slid one hand beneath the blanket covering Colette, and the blonde stiffened, moaned slightly. "Let's get out of here, shall we?"
"Yeah..." my roommate's voice was small and submissive, and I felt blood rush to my groin.
Colette rose from the couch, the blanket falling away from her long legs and long torso. I saw her in her pajamas constantly, but the sight never failed to tighten my pants. She had a body that was best described as coltish, a runner's physique, and a narrow face that was gorgeous without makeup. I could easily see what Mike saw in her.
Stacy was leaner, sleeker even than her friend, short brown hair over a triangular face, and a sleeve of tattoos that, now that I saw her in shorts and a tank top, seemed to go all the way over half her chest. The two women tangled fingers as they walked past, stopping only to rub my head. "We'll try and keep it down, sport," Stacy said jokingly.
"You don't need to for me."
That got a laugh out of them, and moments later the door shut to Colette's bedroom, and I was alone in the darkened, empty house. I looked around the living room and sighed. It was cozy and familiar, my roommate's plants everywhere. Colette liked dark wood and greenery, and she maintained dozens of plants on shelves and stands and hooks throughout the house.
It was like living in a jungle.
I heard a quiet cry from the hallway behind me, and smiled ruefully.
Those two...
I pulled my laptop out of my backpack, sat back down, and put on headphones so I wouldn't have to hear the sapphic tryst going on a just few walls and a door away.
It was short work to create a program with a generic icon in my emulator, and I clicked on it. The text message I'd programmed popped up.
"Hello World."
I gave the screen a rueful smile. "Hello, computer."
"Hello World" programs were well below my skill level, but it amused me.
More work, and clicking past the message caused a menu to appear.
I clicked the tab "Partners."
Up popped the message "Hard to find."
I cleared that and clicked on the tab "Love."
"None" then "I miss Cady."
I stared at the screen.
Dammit.
###
Cold wind in the house brought me back to consciousness, and I heard a door slam. There was weight on my lap, and I realized I'd fallen asleep while working on my laptop. The screen was dark, battery long dead. I pulled my headphones off and shifted the computer to the floor next to the chair, then sighed and tilted my head back against the puffy chair. This was as good a place as any to sleep.
Feet padded into the living room, and Colette's slim figure was outlined as she pulled the curtain aside to view the early morning sun rising outside our window. Dressed in her boxers and tank top, she sat down on the couch and watched me. After a moment, she asked if I was alright.
"Yeah, why?" I shifted into a more comfortable position in the chair.
"Don't usually fall asleep in the living room with your computer on your lap."
I shrugged. "I'm good."
"Disappointed?"