I have one week to be more adventurous. If my life sucks now, surely the punishment must be worse. That's what's driving me today. The fear that somehow this can and will get worse. But everytime I think "Today's the day". I recoil. I jump back. No it can't be worse. I'd rather be punished than give up my last shred of masculinity.
Emma finally contacts me with a text message. I've really missed her the last couple of days. "I'll be there soon. We need to get you sorted." The best response I can muster up is "Okay". She's been a lot more forthcoming with me lately. I think she's getting tired of seeing her former captors face. In fact the sheepish Emma that I knew at the beginning is starting to become a memory. She's becoming drunk in her independence to do things. She's had her share of one night stands and coffee dates, meanwhile I've been eating takeout and watching porn.
She got here quicker than I thought. I quickly hid the vibrator and dildo as I've become accustomed to doing. Waltzing in with a spare key I had made for her, she sits down at my desk and immediately begins typing.
"Erm Hi?" I stand almost flabbergasted at this event. I look over her shoulder and see what she's doing. She's literally checking my internet history. I try to move to stop her but she can already see. "What the fuck?!" I shout at her.
With a look similar to what Jane had for me, she stares daggers back. "Look Ray. I'm not the one who's visited 7 videos today. I'm not the one who's going to get the biggest magical 'fuck you' in a week. You are. Have you even tried looking for some creepy virgin to get it over and done with?"
"What?" Emma's new found attitude threw me. "How d- How would-"
She rolled her eyes. "Same way you got tricked. Tinder. Match. Bar. Drink. Done." She said it so matter of fact, so devoid of anything else. Like a simple work task a manager instructed must be done. No room for compromise. She must have seen me taken aback. She regressed to her more caring demeanour. "Look Ray, I know who she was. I know what she's capable of. I've tried being patient with you but if you do nothing it's going to get worse. Much worse." Her arm was caressing my back, her gentle touch trying to remind me the world wasn't awful.
"How about you let me handle it, it's the least I could do for you. I could get something set up asap. Something quick and easy, a loser who will be there for 2-3 minutes tops and then gone. You wouldn't have to deal with the situation any longer than you need to."
She wasn't exactly convincing but I knew she was right. I awkwardly nodded my head. She clapped her hands, removing the tension in the air. "Okay, let's get you something sorted." With a dominant hand she snatched my phone and got to work. I couldn't see what she was doing but it was clear she was messaging a handful of pre-existing matches as well as using her own phone sniffing around for any desperate guys who needed a release.
I paced around the flat, sickeningly anxious, part of me thought maybe I should pay attention the other part thought best to just leave it to Emma and play my part as and when needed. Either way I dreaded the result. Eventually I peeked back into the room, I had settled on cancelling it and went in with the intent on preventing Emma from doing any more damage. However my delay was my undoing. "Oh good. I've sorted it, we're gonna go out tonight, double date style." She was already picking clothes and pairing them with others.
"Erm Em maybe-" As if to stop me whining more. Emma immediately interjected.
"This will be good for you. Trust me. If you think life is bad now, it would have got much worse. Plus you're a straight girl now, you can't live a lie. Literally in your case."
"Try this on" she said, shoving a tighter showy dress into my hands. My mouth jar ready to speak, she turned around as if to deny any compromise.
I decided it might be best to do as she said, I began changing, removing the grey joggers and plain white tee.
As I looked over she had been rifling through various draws. Already laying down some risque lingerie. It was one of the few things I hadn't tried on, I knew that washing them was an alleged pain and I hadn't wanted to add additional trifles into my chaotic life.