Rachel sighed as she stripped down. It had been too many days since her last shower, and it was starting to get to her. Those little routines were starting to break down. At first being able to work from home during social distancing had seemed like a blessing. Not having to put on makeup. No driving to the office. No getting dressed up except for those rare occasions when a meeting was scheduled and she had to be on camera. Slowly but surely though the little things had started to slip.
She pushed back the red hair that went down just past her shoulders as she tested the shower. The water was warm. With a sigh she got in. It felt good to have the water running over her body. In short order the twenty three year old was feeling much better. As she went about the no longer routine task of bathing, she couldn't help but to think of how she looked.
The redhead slid her hands under her ample breasts, feeling them gently. They had always given her trouble in gym class, and they had definitely made running a chore. Once she had joked about getting them reduced to her boyfriend, but he had blanched at the topic so it had stayed just a joke. Sometimes the way that people stared at her chest had gotten to her in the past. Now though, after spending so many months in the cramped little apartment, the attention might have been more welcome.
Only when she finally couldn't take the heat anymore did she get out of the shower. Wiping away the fog she looked at herself in the mirror. Seeing her own green eyes framed in her pretty face looking back at her, she sighed again. She put on makeup, another of those little routines that had slipped away recently. Mostly she did it to remind herself what she looked like with it on. Not that it would be appreciated.
Wrapping just a towel around her body she walked through the apartment. Lucas was sitting on the couch in a pair of stained sweatpants and a t-shirt. The same thing that he had been wearing for most of the week, although the stain hadn't been there on Monday. He was watching his laptop screen like a zombie. Rachel glanced over his shoulder, hoping for at least some kind of reaction to her nudity.
"Are you playing a game?" she asked.
"Huh?"
Lucas glanced up at her. Rachel leaned in, hoping that her slightly made up appearance would catch his interest. He barely seemed to register the change at all.
"Oh, no, I'm watching a stream. See someone else is playing the game, and I'm watching them play it," he said.
"Okay. Not sure why you'd rather watch someone play video games than play yourself though."
"It's just... different."
Lucas's attention turned back to the screen. Rachel walked into the kitchen to grab a beer. Empty calories, but fuck it. She hunched her shoulders in slight disappointment, but not in surprise. During the first few months of being confined together in the apartment their sex life had been wild. They had made love multiple times a day, at first because they were happy about all of the free time that they had. Then just to have something to do. Slowly but surely sex had become something that they had gotten bored of.
Popping open the beer she headed back to the bedroom, leaving Lucas to his streaming. They had been together since college. Moving in to save money during the pandemic and the whole work from home thing had made a lot of financial sense, even if it was a big move relationship wise. In retrospect though it had made things... stale.
Rachel shook her head. She thought to herself that now was not the time for doubts about her relationship. Frankly they were going to be stuck together for who knew how long here, so if she was having second thoughts then she probably needed to shut them down for the immediate future. Rent as a single person was high enough as it was, even for a tiny apartment like this.
With this in mind she performed her usual ritual of turning on her own laptop to at least escape mentally. There was a plethora of options available to her online, after all. She could doomscroll through her news feed and read about all of the terrible things happening in the world today. She could watch videos posted by influencers where they shilled products that never quite turned out to be as good as advertised when Rachel ordered them. Or she could get on social media and read all of complaints from her friends about how lonely they were in between people's batshit insane political tirades. Truly a world of options at her fingertips.
She wondered if she wasn't being a bit of a pessimist right now. Still, she had a job. It paid her half of the rent and utilities, and even for the occasional splurge on takeout. Cooking, that was yet another thing that she had started getting too lazy to do. Maybe she could read up on recipes and get some ideas? Maybe photos of tasty food would give her a little bit of inspiration?
Logging onto a much more anonymous social media site, she browsed through photos of food that people had cooked. After the fifth or sixth post though her interest was flagging. She tabbed over to reading about the interpersonal drama of complete strangers. Half of them were probably fake. Still, she got a moderate level of enjoyment reading about people's relationship problems. Posts purportedly by a husband catching his wife having an affair with a coworker. Then some family drama where it turned out that the crazy narcissistic sister was the product of an affair. Someone backing out of a marriage when she discovered that her future mother-in-law was an insane narcissist.
It got repetitive, and while they were probably fake scenarios written like cheesy soap operas with the same stock of recurring characters, they did alleviate her boredom. What they unfortunately didn't do for her was help her blow off some steam. At the moment nothing was really helping her with that. Lucas was busy with watching other people play video games, and she wasn't really in the mood to pester him for sex. Rachel mostly just wanted to be appreciated a little bit.
Taking a swig she contemplated her options. Socializing with online strangers, or doing something frisky? Deciding to split the difference she went looking for strangers to have dirty conversations with. Talking about sex with a stranger that she'd never end up actually meeting wasn't cheating, really. It was more like reading erotica being written in real time by another person while they read erotica being written in real time by you.
Settling in for yet another night online, she made a post using a dummy account. There were a few bites. She sifted through messages. A few just wrote off as too strange, or too outrageously horny. One or two were good enough writers that she wrote back to. Messages back and forth. A little bit of casual roleplaying. Just a regular Friday night.
One Week Later
Rachel sat looking at her inbox. Waiting for a reply. She had been talking to someone for a few days. They had done a fun little roleplay of meeting as strangers in a bar. They had exchanged a few more messages, and she had to admit that she had been enjoying the conversation.
She had been careful not to tell him much about herself. Just little bits and pieces. She worked in an office but was bored and telecommuting. He had been a little bit evasive about what he did for a living, but he seemed to be up at night a lot.
Still, he was funny, and Rachel found herself habitually checking her inbox around noon, which seemed to be when he got most active online. It wasn't so much that she was interested in telling him her life's story, but he was a good listener. She started typing a message out.
Good morning.
Immediately she felt a little bit dumb typing that. Weren't you supposed to wait for the guy to message you first? No, she thought, that only applied to dating. One of those weird power dynamic things. That didn't apply to an online pen pal, right?
Rachel minimized that browser and went back to answering company emails for a while. She checked a few things on various spread sheets and sent the information forward, updating a few things in the document while she was at it. When she was down she got up and got a drink of water. Then she went back to her laptop and sat for a minute. She opened the browser back up.
Good morning.
Smiling to herself she started typing.
How'd you sleep?
Just fine. Hotel was a bit noisy, but it died down eventually.
Upstairs neighbors stomping around or something?
Nope. Hooker in the next room.
Rachel laughed out loud.
Well that must have kept you up a while.
It did. She's definitely getting a lot more action than you're getting at home.
She rolled her eyes.
Yeah yeah. She's doing it for money though.
What's wrong with that?
Nothing I guess. Why, did you go over and visit her after our little roleplay session?
Lol no. I don't pay for sex. It's against my principles.
Rachel grinned and tried to come up with something witty to keep the conversation going.
Awww, too bad baby. That could have been our next roleplay.
Oh yeah? You think you'd make a good little hooker?
Sure thing baby. For the right price I could do anything you want.
Definitely not a trick. I could be your Pimp though.
We could roleplay that out next time maybe.
Sure. You cook anything good for lunch today?
Nope. Roommate is going to want to order takeout again tonight even though apps are expensive as hell. So I'm not bothering with cooking since I want the kitchen clean. I think I'll just microwave something.
The conversation went on like this for a while. There was a pause when they both ate lunch. Rachel had to admit that it was nice to talk to someone every now and then. Sure he was a stranger she met on the internet for dirty conversations, but it was harmless enough.
After lunch Rachel sent another email. Then she checked her inbox again. Nothing. She waited. Scrolled through a video on youtube. Influencers selling beauty cream. Absentmindedly she considered adding it to her Amazon cart before remembering that the previous thing she had bought that was being shilled by that influencer had been cheap garbage. She switched tabs and saw that she had a new message.
So your roommate just hangs around watching livestreams all day?
Ugh it's terrible. I can understand playing video games, especially with how bored we are, but watching other people play them? It doesn't make any sense to me.
Hmm.
Hmm what?
Hmmmmmm....
Come on, tell me what you're thinking.
