Melinda relaxed in the slowly cooling heat of a Saturday evening, another long day of work finished. She reclined in her comfortable corner chair, laptop perched on her knees, clad in shorts and a spaghetti-strap top. The days of dressing so lightly might soon be coming to an end - she'd ordered a brand-new air conditioner with some leftover money from the photo shoot. She'd miss seeing Dylan and Justin wear so little around the house, but she wouldn't miss the sweltering heat.
Besides, if she liked, she could always continue to wear relatively little herself. Dylan would probably enjoy seeing that.
Tertiary Existence was running on the laptop, a modded date scenario in progress. The point of dates in the game was to score in a variety of categories while boosting relationship score and sharing interests between the participants. In the early days of the game, the scenarios had only been open to heterosexual pairings. Outcry from the fan base had put a stop to that, and a patch had allowed for same-sex couples. The modding community had risen to include the rest, and all manner of permutations were possible, including poly dating and dating between family members of all persuasions.
The most recent mod Melinda had installed took things one step further still. It was called Texhibitionist, and included options to toggle the behavioral scripts that prevented the characters from getting nude or performing sexual behaviors in public.
At the moment, Josefina Philips, one of Melinda's fictional characters, was feeling up her daughter Jana as they tongue-kissed at the table of a crowded upscale restaurant. The mod author had helpfully looped in all the "shame" animations, so the onlookers at nearby tables seemed appropriately scandalized. Reputation points were either plummeting or skyrocketing, depending on the personalities of the characters.
Melinda liked this mod. Squirming a little in her seat, she added some notes to the scenario to share to the community later, knowing her fellow players would enjoy the story of Josefina seducing her teenage daughter in public. She also made a note to file a bug report with the mod author, as the waiter kept trying in vain to serve the dessert course, entering an awkward loop and refusing to leave the table as his stress levels topped out.
A shadow fell across the screen. Justin stood over her, glancing at the screen. He smiled a little as he saw the perverse scene unfold, but he didn't remark on it. It was a known quantity between them, something they never talked about - like Justin's browser history.
"Mom, I'm going to bed," he said. As it was still uncomfortably hot in the house, he wore a loose basketball jersey and a pair of shorts. His muscled flesh shone with a thin layer of sweat. "I have an opening shift at the car wash in the morning."
"Okay, sweetheart. Sleep tight."
He leaned down for a hug, and she wrapped an arm around his waist. Before she'd even thought about it, her other hand went to his cheek, and her lips met his, not in a chaste motherly kiss, but a full lip-lock, lasting a second too long to seem anything but what it was.
Melinda drew back, aghast. Between the game, and her frequent carnal trysts with Dylan, and the countless times she'd thought about Justin sexually in the last few days, she'd forgotten herself.
He stared at her, appearing surprised but not displeased. She tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. For a split second, she thought about doubling down and just kissing him again. Why not? What further sin would that constitute at this point?
"Okay," Dylan said, as if this were all an amusing curiosity. "Goodnight."
As he turned and walked toward his bedroom, Melinda thought she saw the burgeoning of an erection in his shorts. But she couldn't be certain. A part of her ached to know.
"Shit," she whispered.
Before she could consider pursuing this further, a flag came up on her Tertiary Existence window with a tiny balloon-pop sound. A notification superimposed the image of Josefina laying Jana out on the restaurant table, smothering her bare, tawny flesh with kisses:
[Emily Carter has appeared in your neighborhood.]
Melinda sat up in surprise. Emily Carter was Beth's central character in Tertiary Existence, twin sister to Melinda's central character, Krystal Carter. The two of them had played together for months, Emily and Krystal engaging in all manner of relationship drama and sexual escapades - although never with each other. The fun lasted until Beth had bowed out, claiming too busy a work schedule.
Melinda had not expected to see Beth's fictional sister again; once Beth gave up a recreational activity, she tended never to revisit it. Melinda occasionally sent her characters to Beth's neighborhood (which would send Beth an email with gentle notifications), but it was more for the fictional points than out of hope her sister would return to the game.
[Emily Carter is visiting Krystal Carter]
She grinned. So Beth was playing again. She resisted the urge to start spamming Beth with chat messages, afraid she might scare her sister off like a startled deer. The game offered options to accept or reject a visitation; Melinda accepted. Now the screen showed a running sidebar of Emily and Krystal's fictional interactions: greetings, small talk, expressions of affection, depicted in a scrolling parade of icons.
Melinda decided not to interfere and went back to trying to maximize her score with her incestuous public date, which had turned very scandalous indeed. Mother and daughter were in flagrante delicto on the restaurant table; now the onlooking characters who approved were taking smartphone pictures, which sent Josefina and Jana's reputation points soaring. She giggled at this delightful coding detail.
It was a few moments before new interactions between Emily and Krystal caught her eye: hearts, batting eyelashes, icons of flirty glances. Melinda squinted, wondering at first if she was misinterpreting what she was seeing.
She wasn't. Emily was flirting with Krystal.
Melinda tapped her fingers on the laptop surface, pondering. What was this all about? Had Beth's account been hacked? Was someone trolling her? It certainly wasn't out of the realm of possibility.
The date scenario was winding down; Melinda could no longer reasonably screw it up. She clicked over to where her avatar Krystal resided. The scene changed to the moonlit koi pond behind Krystal's palatial hillside mansion. (Krystal was Melinda's first character, and unreasonably wealthy even by the game's ridiculous standards.) The sisters faced each other, clad in silky cocktail dresses, hands clasped coyly behind their backs, flirting with slowly rising heat.
Melinda had the option to reject and undo these advances at any time with a tap. The mod author, knowing how much the alteration of code could open the door to harassment, had been careful to include tools for shutting it down. But Melinda was more interested in why they were happening in the first place.
On impulse, she grabbed her phone from the desk and texted Beth's number.
[is this you playing right now?]
The response came back almost immediately:
[yes <3]
"Okay," Melinda whispered in amused puzzlement, a near-perfect duplication of her son's statement only minutes before. What was this? Did Beth really want their fictional avatars to get together? Why? Why now?
With some chagrin, Melinda remembered the many times she'd commanded Krystal make advances on Emily, which Beth had always rejected. Melinda had merely thought of it as a fun bit of perversity, maybe a bit of a turn-on. There was no reason to think Beth thought anything different now.
With a shrug, she tapped the accept icon. Krystal nodded eager consent, radiating happy lines of arousal. Melinda decided to take a laissez-faire approach to the proceedings, and sat back to watch the digital romance unfold. Within moments, the two digital sisters were touching each other hesitantly, confessing fictional feelings in a flurry of fleeting pictographs.
Within minutes, they kissed; first hesitantly, then with rising enthusiasm, various meters and scores rising into desirable red as their affinity improved. Digital clothes were discarded, and the sisters soon lay naked on the 3D rendered grass, caressing each other in a passionate embrace. A torrent of floating hearts punctuated their union, and a flag popped up to notify her they were now in a romantic relationship.
"That was easy," Melinda said with a grin. Beth instructed Emily to invite Krystal to bed; Melinda accepted. The sisters retired to the cavernous bedroom, hand in hand.
Melinda was still trying to work out what all this meant when Beth sent another text.
[come over for dinner monday. just you]
She stared at the text for a long time, decided she wasn't going to get any close to an answer without accepting the invitation, and replied:
[ok]
Life had certainly become interesting.
# # #
"So, are we going to talk about it?" Melinda asked over take-out pad thai and chicken satay that Monday.
Beth halted in the middle of a mouthful of noodles, then chewed and swallowed. The two of them sat cross-legged on Beth's couch, another Hulu show playing unacknowledged on the television. Beth had opened the windows to let in the balmy night air.
"Talk about what?" she said at last. She knew what, of course - she'd known since the moment Melinda had arrived on her doorstep with a puzzled-but-intrigued expression. The question now was whether or not Beth could draw out Melinda's feelings without tipping her own hand.
Or you could just tell the truth, Beth thought - but she couldn't throw Cliff under the bus like that. They'd started this scheme on the sly, and it had to stay that way for now.
"The game," Melinda said, poking at her white cardboard container with chopsticks. "Tertiary Existence. Our digital sisters."
"Oh, yeah," Beth said, fetching a piece of chicken satay from the pile on the coffee table and toying with it. "Things have slowed down a little at work. I have more time in the evenings. I wanted to reconnect with you."
"You picked an interesting way to go about it." Melinda sipped wine.
"It got your attention, didn't it? I wanted to see if the mod worked as advertised. Don't tell me you've never thought about it."
Melinda raised an eyebrow. "Thought about it in the game?"
That was a surprisingly frank play. Now it was Beth's turn to squirm a little. She took a bite of food to mask her discomfort.
"Sure," Beth said, and smiled, deciding to keep her answer vague for now. But she held Melinda's gaze for a moment, opening her own expression up to let her sister know there was more there if Melinda wanted it.
"I'm glad you reached out," Melinda said. "I've been wanting to talk to you for awhile. I have something I really need to tell you. I really need to tell someone."
"Oh?" Beth said, trying to look nonchalant and interested. Was this it? Was Melinda about to spill about her and Dylan?
"Yeah." Melinda finished off her wine glass. "I've been bad, Beth."
She went on to explain about her money problems, Cliff, the mysterious benefactor, and the offer of money in exchange for a mother-son photo shoot. Beth listened closely, trying to look concerned yet supportive, instead of delighted.
"Are you thinking about doing it?" Beth said, hoping she sounded innocent.
Melinda made a guilty face. "I already did it."
"Oh," Beth said. "When?"
"A couple of weeks ago."
"You and Dylan were naked together?"
Melinda nodded, then hid her face behind her hand for a moment. "There's more. I don't know if I can tell you. But I have to tell someone or I'll fly apart."
"It's okay," Beth said softly, touching Melinda's bare arm. "You can tell me anything."
Melinda uttered a long sigh. "I jerked him off, Beth."
A thrill rushed through Beth's body on hearing the words. "Really?"
