Virtually Sterling (Chapter 1)
Jun. 17th, 2016 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sidhe_faerieChapter 1
Gail Rogers came over to her friend, Cassandra Sterling’s apartment early on a Saturday morning. She let herself in with her key and went into the bedroom. She sat on the bed and gave Cass a gentle shake.
“Wake up sleepyhead! There are sales out there for us to exploit.” Gail pushed back her long dark hair and gave Cass another shake on the shoulder. “Come on, Cass, before all the good shoes are gone.”
“I work in a basement. No one sees my shoes.” Cass opened one blue eye and glared at her best friend through a tangle of ginger hair. “Just come on in to my bedroom, why don’t you? What if I had someone over?”
“You don’t have a someone but I do and he likes to see me pretty.” Gail pulled the covers off of Cass. “Get up!”
Cass groaned as she got up and headed in the direction of the shower. “You are a menace.”
“Yes but I’m your favorite menace.” Gail laughed.
Twenty minutes later Cass came out of the bedroom to find Gail sitting on the sofa sipping coffee.
“This stuff is wonderful. Where do you get it?” Gail took another sip of her coffee.
“I got it at the market on the corner. They grind it in the store.” Cass poured a cup and inhaled the steamy goodness.
“You know, I was thinking.” Gail hesitated for effect. “Maybe, you should try online dating.”
“Online dating?” Gail, everybody lies online and most people don’t even use their own photos.” Cass looked at her friend like she was crazy. “I could end up with an ax murderer or worse.”
Gail laughed. “What’s worse than an ax murderer?”
“A married guy looking for an easy hook up.” Cass shrugged.
“You have strange priorities.” Gail chuckled.
“I’m an artist. It’s expected.” Cass looked around for her purse. “I don’t even know where I threw my purse last night. Work has been crazy. We have a fundraiser coming and I have to check every painting in the museum.”
“Don’t you miss doing your own paintings?” Gail asked. “You haven’t painted in a long time.”
“Yes I have. I’m working on something now. I painting off some sketches I made while I was on vacation.” Cass put her cup in the sink. “I’m almost finished.”
“Where is it?” Gail looked around. “I want to see what you have so far.”
“It’s in the workroom at the museum. I don’t have enough light here to paint.” Cass spotted her purse under the chair and knelt down to pull it out. “Found it. We can go shopping now.”
“You know that I’m not going to drop this.” Gail stood up and grabbed her purse. She headed to the door. “I’m driving.”
“Good! I hate trying to fight my way through Saturday traffic.” Cass followed her out the door.
“Seriously, you need a date.” Gail said when they got in the car. “You can’t be happy on your own.”
“I’m a modern woman. I don’t need a man to be happy.” Cass looked in her purse and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. “I make my own happy.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Gail started the car. “You can’t spend your life with a vibrator as your only lover.”
“They make some really cute ones these days.” Cass smirked.
“Weirdo!” Gail shook her head.
“I told you. I’m an artist.” Cass laughed.
Cass and Gail spent most of the day going from store to store. Gail made most of the purchases but Cass did pick up a few things.
Cass came in the door after Gail dropped her off and put her bags down on the sofa. She was tired but she had a good time with Gail. She always had fun with Gail but there was something missing. She was missing a someone to love.
It was late on Monday night when Cass finally got around to making a profile on a popular dating site. She wasn’t sure that she would even find someone to talk to. She decided to use the username redpaint25. She chose red for her hair and paint because she was an artist.
She filled out all of the fields on the profile that she thought weren’t too personal. She decided to forgo a profile picture. She didn’t have to wait long for someone to view her profile. The username “oldmasters11” sounded promising.
She opened up the chat and said ‘hello’. He said ‘hello’ back and invited her to look at his profile. Cass looked and she smiled. He sounded okay despite the fact that he didn’t have a profile picture. Who was she to judge on that front?
They chatted back and forth for a while before the conversation got a little steamy. Oldmasters11 was definitely a very naughty boy. At first, Cass blushed and didn’t know how to respond to him, and then she got into the spirit of it and started to get just as naughty back to him.
There were a few things that he said he wanted to do to her that made her flush with desire. She had never had a man say anything like oldmasters11 was typing.
Suddenly Cass looked at the time. It was after midnight and she needed to get some sleep. She told him good night and logged off. She closed her laptop and went to bed.
Over the next three weeks, she chatted with this man every night. She really didn’t know any more about him than she did when she started chatting with him. She was mostly amusing herself flirting and talking naughty to him.
Gail came over after Cass had starting chatting online with “oldmasters11” . She saw the open lap top and started to read the chat history while Cass finished getting ready for a girls night out.
Cass came out of the bedroom. “Oh god! Don’t read that!”
“I couldn’t help myself. You left the computer open. Wow! He is a very horny boy.” Gail laughed. “Are you going to meet him? He sounds like he wants to get really naughty with you.”
“I can’t be serious about a guy who tells me he wants to lick my toes.” Cass laughed.
“How do you know until you try?” Gail sighed. “Tell him you’ll meet him at Winston’s. It’s a public place and if you need to leave quick there’s an exit door by the ladies’ room.”
“Is that where you used to meet your dates?” Cass asked.
“Yeah. Before Jonas.” Gail shrugged. “Oh and don’t bring Mr. Kinky home. He may be an ax murderer.”
Cass sighed. “I’ll meet him at Winston’s but be ready to google him if I call you.”
“I’ll even check court records for you.” Gail grinned. “So when are you going to ask him to meet you?”
“I don’t know. I’m not ready for that yet.” Cass smiled. “Right now I want to go have a drink and do some crazy dancing. It’s girl’s night out.”
“Sounds good to me!” Gail opened the front door. “What are you waiting for? Let’s do this.”
Cass laughed and followed her out the door.
Cass had been chatting with her online lover for a while when she woke up in the middle of the night and realized she had been dreaming about her art school boyfriend. Paul Golden. She was imagining that he was the one doing those things to her that “oldmasters11” had said that he wanted to do to her.
Paul was the only long term relationship that Cass had ever had and she missed him, sometimes. Cass was just missing him that was why she was thinking that “oldmasters11” was Paul.
Cass rolled over and wondered what he was doing that moment. Was he thinking of her? Or was he in love with someone else? She hadn’t seen him for a while so she had no idea what was going on with him these days. She sighed and went back to sleep.
For the next week, Cass and “oldmasters11” flirted back and forth on line. He had asked for her phone number but she had refused. It was easy to trace a phone number to where she lived, much easier than an IP address. Besides she liked being able to log off and close the laptop when she wanted to. If they were on the phone she wouldn’t be comfortable hanging up on him when he wanted to continue to talk.
They had been chatting just about a month when oldmasters11 suggested that they meet. Cass hesitated and tried to get out of it but he was insistent. He wanted to meet the woman that was flirting with him as much as he was flirting with her.
It took another week for oldmasters11 to convince Cass to meet him. Cass finally ran out of excuses and she gave in against her better judgement.
They agreed to meet at Winston’s as Gail had suggested. It was an upscale bar in a downtown hotel called the Merryfield.
The Merryfield hotel was an art deco styled but modern hotel in the heart of downtown. The bar inside Winston’s was the favored spot of the more affluent residents of Greendale.
Winston’s also had that escape route via the back entrance that opened up into the parking lot. It was right very handy for ditching a bad date.
Cass arrived twenty minutes early and looked around for the signal. He was supposed to wear a red handkerchief in his jacket pocket. She was wearing a red silk scarf. She didn’t see anyone with a red handkerchief so she went to the bar and ordered a club soda.
Cass sat at the bar waiting for oldmasters11 for about forty minutes. She never liked to wait and he was making her wait a long time. He was not making the best impression on her.
After fifteen more minutes, Cass was swirling the last of her club soda around the lone ice cube in the bottom. She was wondering if he would even show at this point. It would be just her luck if he didn’t.
Cass was about to leave just as a tall dark man with a red handkerchief walked into the bar with a red rose in his hand. His eyes searched the room for a woman in a black dress and red hair wearing a red scarf. He spotted her at the bar and walked over to introduce himself.
“Excuse me are you redpaint25?” A man’s voice asked from just behind her shoulder.
“OldMasters11?” Cass turned and looked at the man standing there. “Oh! Ford Masters?”
“You know me?” Ford shifted on his feet. “How do you know me?”
“I’m Cassandra Sterling. I was in your senior English class at Brookhaven. I sat behind Missy Walker.”
“No! You’re the girl in the baggy shirts and glasses that used to draw in her notebook in class. You can’t be!” Ford seemed shocked. “I thought you were a lesbian or something.”
Cass shrugged. “I was a mess back then. I can’t believe I’ve been chatting with the captain of the football team. This is so weird. Not a bad weird, just weird.”
Ford smiled. “I never knew you were so funny. If I had known, I would have asked you out back then.”
“No you wouldn’t.” Cass smiled. “But thanks for saying that.”
“There’s a booth over there.” Ford nodded towards the corner. “Why don’t we sit down and have that drink we talked about. Maybe we could catch up on what we’ve been up to since high school.”
“That sounds great.” Cass slid off the bar stool and bumped into Ford’s chest. “Sorry. These heels are a little too high.”
“You can wear them anytime. It’s fine by me.” Ford chuckled as he held onto her hips until she recovered her balance.
Cass blushed and looked down. His hands on her hips had sent a wave of heat through her body. He was still gorgeous and he could still make her feel awkward.
Ford offered her his arm and they went over to the booth. He waited for her to sit before he slid in beside her. He sat close enough to smell the light floral scent of her perfume.
It was a corner booth with a horseshoe seat of red leather and brass studs. There were photos framed on the walls above it. It was quiet dark and very private.
“So what have you been up to?” Cass smiled up at him.
“I went to business school and now I work with my Dad at his marketing firm. And you?” Ford smiled back. He risked a glance at her cleavage and was pleasantly surprised.
Cass noticed the glance but let it go. “I went to art school then studied abroad for a while before taking a job as an art restorer. I mostly clean old paintings. I guess that’s why when I saw your user name I thought you were an artist. You know old masters?”
Ford laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you but I’m just middle management. So, no husbands or kids?”
“No.” Cass shook her head. “What about you? Any husbands or kids?”
“I deserved that.” Ford chuckled. “No kids but I have an ex-wife. Recently ex as a matter of fact. We filed the papers yesterday but it’s been over for a while now.”
“Oh!” Cass wondered if his online activity had something to do with his divorce but decided not to ask. “So I’m a rebound thing.”
“I played football not basketball.” Ford grinned. “No rebounds here. How about that drink?” He waved the server over to the table. “Cassandra, what’s your pleasure?”
Cass looked up at the server. “I’ll have a glass of chardonnay.”
“Bring me a scotch neat. Thanks.” Ford leaned his shoulder on the back of the seat and looked at her. “You’re a lot prettier than I remember.”
“Like I said I was a mess.” Cass blushed under his gaze.
Ford was starting to creep her out a little. He was being more than a little obvious that all he wanted was sex.
They sat silent a few minutes until the server brought their drinks. Cass was trying to figure out what his deal was and he was leering at her like she was a blow up doll.
“So, I was thinking that we could maybe go out to dinner after we have our drinks.” Ford broke the silence and moved closer. “I mean we aren’t strangers and we have been chatting for a while on line.”
“True. We aren’t strangers. Cass felt his hand on her thigh. “But I’m thinking that you would rather just skip the whole dinner thing and do some of those things you told me you wanted to do to me.”
“Smart and funny all in one beautiful package.” Ford gave her a steamy look. “Why don’t we go to your place?”
“No. I don’t think so. We’re sitting in a nice clean motel right here. Do you have protection?” Cass was playing with fire but she had a hunch that Ford wasn’t as wild as he seemed. She reached over and grabbed his crotch. “We’re going to need lots of protection.”
Ford swallowed. This wasn’t what he was expecting from that frumpy quiet girl he knew from high school. “I’ll get extra on the way.”
Cass smiled and removed her hand. She smirked when Ford downed the scotch in one gulp. She sipped her wine and leaned closer to him. Now she was just messing with him. “Do you want to flip for top?”
“Ladies first, I always say.” Ford shifted in his seat. “You don’t mess around do you?”
“We’ve been messing around on line for a while now. It’s time to get down to business.” Cass sipped her wine. She put down her glass and slipped out of the other side of the booth. “Pay the check. I need to powder my nose before we go.”
Ford nodded and pulled out his wallet.
(Chapter 2)
Gail Rogers came over to her friend, Cassandra Sterling’s apartment early on a Saturday morning. She let herself in with her key and went into the bedroom. She sat on the bed and gave Cass a gentle shake.
“Wake up sleepyhead! There are sales out there for us to exploit.” Gail pushed back her long dark hair and gave Cass another shake on the shoulder. “Come on, Cass, before all the good shoes are gone.”
“I work in a basement. No one sees my shoes.” Cass opened one blue eye and glared at her best friend through a tangle of ginger hair. “Just come on in to my bedroom, why don’t you? What if I had someone over?”
“You don’t have a someone but I do and he likes to see me pretty.” Gail pulled the covers off of Cass. “Get up!”
Cass groaned as she got up and headed in the direction of the shower. “You are a menace.”
“Yes but I’m your favorite menace.” Gail laughed.
Twenty minutes later Cass came out of the bedroom to find Gail sitting on the sofa sipping coffee.
“This stuff is wonderful. Where do you get it?” Gail took another sip of her coffee.
“I got it at the market on the corner. They grind it in the store.” Cass poured a cup and inhaled the steamy goodness.
“You know, I was thinking.” Gail hesitated for effect. “Maybe, you should try online dating.”
“Online dating?” Gail, everybody lies online and most people don’t even use their own photos.” Cass looked at her friend like she was crazy. “I could end up with an ax murderer or worse.”
Gail laughed. “What’s worse than an ax murderer?”
“A married guy looking for an easy hook up.” Cass shrugged.
“You have strange priorities.” Gail chuckled.
“I’m an artist. It’s expected.” Cass looked around for her purse. “I don’t even know where I threw my purse last night. Work has been crazy. We have a fundraiser coming and I have to check every painting in the museum.”
“Don’t you miss doing your own paintings?” Gail asked. “You haven’t painted in a long time.”
“Yes I have. I’m working on something now. I painting off some sketches I made while I was on vacation.” Cass put her cup in the sink. “I’m almost finished.”
“Where is it?” Gail looked around. “I want to see what you have so far.”
“It’s in the workroom at the museum. I don’t have enough light here to paint.” Cass spotted her purse under the chair and knelt down to pull it out. “Found it. We can go shopping now.”
“You know that I’m not going to drop this.” Gail stood up and grabbed her purse. She headed to the door. “I’m driving.”
“Good! I hate trying to fight my way through Saturday traffic.” Cass followed her out the door.
“Seriously, you need a date.” Gail said when they got in the car. “You can’t be happy on your own.”
“I’m a modern woman. I don’t need a man to be happy.” Cass looked in her purse and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. “I make my own happy.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Gail started the car. “You can’t spend your life with a vibrator as your only lover.”
“They make some really cute ones these days.” Cass smirked.
“Weirdo!” Gail shook her head.
“I told you. I’m an artist.” Cass laughed.
Cass and Gail spent most of the day going from store to store. Gail made most of the purchases but Cass did pick up a few things.
Cass came in the door after Gail dropped her off and put her bags down on the sofa. She was tired but she had a good time with Gail. She always had fun with Gail but there was something missing. She was missing a someone to love.
It was late on Monday night when Cass finally got around to making a profile on a popular dating site. She wasn’t sure that she would even find someone to talk to. She decided to use the username redpaint25. She chose red for her hair and paint because she was an artist.
She filled out all of the fields on the profile that she thought weren’t too personal. She decided to forgo a profile picture. She didn’t have to wait long for someone to view her profile. The username “oldmasters11” sounded promising.
She opened up the chat and said ‘hello’. He said ‘hello’ back and invited her to look at his profile. Cass looked and she smiled. He sounded okay despite the fact that he didn’t have a profile picture. Who was she to judge on that front?
They chatted back and forth for a while before the conversation got a little steamy. Oldmasters11 was definitely a very naughty boy. At first, Cass blushed and didn’t know how to respond to him, and then she got into the spirit of it and started to get just as naughty back to him.
There were a few things that he said he wanted to do to her that made her flush with desire. She had never had a man say anything like oldmasters11 was typing.
Suddenly Cass looked at the time. It was after midnight and she needed to get some sleep. She told him good night and logged off. She closed her laptop and went to bed.
Over the next three weeks, she chatted with this man every night. She really didn’t know any more about him than she did when she started chatting with him. She was mostly amusing herself flirting and talking naughty to him.
Gail came over after Cass had starting chatting online with “oldmasters11” . She saw the open lap top and started to read the chat history while Cass finished getting ready for a girls night out.
Cass came out of the bedroom. “Oh god! Don’t read that!”
“I couldn’t help myself. You left the computer open. Wow! He is a very horny boy.” Gail laughed. “Are you going to meet him? He sounds like he wants to get really naughty with you.”
“I can’t be serious about a guy who tells me he wants to lick my toes.” Cass laughed.
“How do you know until you try?” Gail sighed. “Tell him you’ll meet him at Winston’s. It’s a public place and if you need to leave quick there’s an exit door by the ladies’ room.”
“Is that where you used to meet your dates?” Cass asked.
“Yeah. Before Jonas.” Gail shrugged. “Oh and don’t bring Mr. Kinky home. He may be an ax murderer.”
Cass sighed. “I’ll meet him at Winston’s but be ready to google him if I call you.”
“I’ll even check court records for you.” Gail grinned. “So when are you going to ask him to meet you?”
“I don’t know. I’m not ready for that yet.” Cass smiled. “Right now I want to go have a drink and do some crazy dancing. It’s girl’s night out.”
“Sounds good to me!” Gail opened the front door. “What are you waiting for? Let’s do this.”
Cass laughed and followed her out the door.
Cass had been chatting with her online lover for a while when she woke up in the middle of the night and realized she had been dreaming about her art school boyfriend. Paul Golden. She was imagining that he was the one doing those things to her that “oldmasters11” had said that he wanted to do to her.
Paul was the only long term relationship that Cass had ever had and she missed him, sometimes. Cass was just missing him that was why she was thinking that “oldmasters11” was Paul.
Cass rolled over and wondered what he was doing that moment. Was he thinking of her? Or was he in love with someone else? She hadn’t seen him for a while so she had no idea what was going on with him these days. She sighed and went back to sleep.
For the next week, Cass and “oldmasters11” flirted back and forth on line. He had asked for her phone number but she had refused. It was easy to trace a phone number to where she lived, much easier than an IP address. Besides she liked being able to log off and close the laptop when she wanted to. If they were on the phone she wouldn’t be comfortable hanging up on him when he wanted to continue to talk.
They had been chatting just about a month when oldmasters11 suggested that they meet. Cass hesitated and tried to get out of it but he was insistent. He wanted to meet the woman that was flirting with him as much as he was flirting with her.
It took another week for oldmasters11 to convince Cass to meet him. Cass finally ran out of excuses and she gave in against her better judgement.
They agreed to meet at Winston’s as Gail had suggested. It was an upscale bar in a downtown hotel called the Merryfield.
The Merryfield hotel was an art deco styled but modern hotel in the heart of downtown. The bar inside Winston’s was the favored spot of the more affluent residents of Greendale.
Winston’s also had that escape route via the back entrance that opened up into the parking lot. It was right very handy for ditching a bad date.
Cass arrived twenty minutes early and looked around for the signal. He was supposed to wear a red handkerchief in his jacket pocket. She was wearing a red silk scarf. She didn’t see anyone with a red handkerchief so she went to the bar and ordered a club soda.
Cass sat at the bar waiting for oldmasters11 for about forty minutes. She never liked to wait and he was making her wait a long time. He was not making the best impression on her.
After fifteen more minutes, Cass was swirling the last of her club soda around the lone ice cube in the bottom. She was wondering if he would even show at this point. It would be just her luck if he didn’t.
Cass was about to leave just as a tall dark man with a red handkerchief walked into the bar with a red rose in his hand. His eyes searched the room for a woman in a black dress and red hair wearing a red scarf. He spotted her at the bar and walked over to introduce himself.
“Excuse me are you redpaint25?” A man’s voice asked from just behind her shoulder.
“OldMasters11?” Cass turned and looked at the man standing there. “Oh! Ford Masters?”
“You know me?” Ford shifted on his feet. “How do you know me?”
“I’m Cassandra Sterling. I was in your senior English class at Brookhaven. I sat behind Missy Walker.”
“No! You’re the girl in the baggy shirts and glasses that used to draw in her notebook in class. You can’t be!” Ford seemed shocked. “I thought you were a lesbian or something.”
Cass shrugged. “I was a mess back then. I can’t believe I’ve been chatting with the captain of the football team. This is so weird. Not a bad weird, just weird.”
Ford smiled. “I never knew you were so funny. If I had known, I would have asked you out back then.”
“No you wouldn’t.” Cass smiled. “But thanks for saying that.”
“There’s a booth over there.” Ford nodded towards the corner. “Why don’t we sit down and have that drink we talked about. Maybe we could catch up on what we’ve been up to since high school.”
“That sounds great.” Cass slid off the bar stool and bumped into Ford’s chest. “Sorry. These heels are a little too high.”
“You can wear them anytime. It’s fine by me.” Ford chuckled as he held onto her hips until she recovered her balance.
Cass blushed and looked down. His hands on her hips had sent a wave of heat through her body. He was still gorgeous and he could still make her feel awkward.
Ford offered her his arm and they went over to the booth. He waited for her to sit before he slid in beside her. He sat close enough to smell the light floral scent of her perfume.
It was a corner booth with a horseshoe seat of red leather and brass studs. There were photos framed on the walls above it. It was quiet dark and very private.
“So what have you been up to?” Cass smiled up at him.
“I went to business school and now I work with my Dad at his marketing firm. And you?” Ford smiled back. He risked a glance at her cleavage and was pleasantly surprised.
Cass noticed the glance but let it go. “I went to art school then studied abroad for a while before taking a job as an art restorer. I mostly clean old paintings. I guess that’s why when I saw your user name I thought you were an artist. You know old masters?”
Ford laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you but I’m just middle management. So, no husbands or kids?”
“No.” Cass shook her head. “What about you? Any husbands or kids?”
“I deserved that.” Ford chuckled. “No kids but I have an ex-wife. Recently ex as a matter of fact. We filed the papers yesterday but it’s been over for a while now.”
“Oh!” Cass wondered if his online activity had something to do with his divorce but decided not to ask. “So I’m a rebound thing.”
“I played football not basketball.” Ford grinned. “No rebounds here. How about that drink?” He waved the server over to the table. “Cassandra, what’s your pleasure?”
Cass looked up at the server. “I’ll have a glass of chardonnay.”
“Bring me a scotch neat. Thanks.” Ford leaned his shoulder on the back of the seat and looked at her. “You’re a lot prettier than I remember.”
“Like I said I was a mess.” Cass blushed under his gaze.
Ford was starting to creep her out a little. He was being more than a little obvious that all he wanted was sex.
They sat silent a few minutes until the server brought their drinks. Cass was trying to figure out what his deal was and he was leering at her like she was a blow up doll.
“So, I was thinking that we could maybe go out to dinner after we have our drinks.” Ford broke the silence and moved closer. “I mean we aren’t strangers and we have been chatting for a while on line.”
“True. We aren’t strangers. Cass felt his hand on her thigh. “But I’m thinking that you would rather just skip the whole dinner thing and do some of those things you told me you wanted to do to me.”
“Smart and funny all in one beautiful package.” Ford gave her a steamy look. “Why don’t we go to your place?”
“No. I don’t think so. We’re sitting in a nice clean motel right here. Do you have protection?” Cass was playing with fire but she had a hunch that Ford wasn’t as wild as he seemed. She reached over and grabbed his crotch. “We’re going to need lots of protection.”
Ford swallowed. This wasn’t what he was expecting from that frumpy quiet girl he knew from high school. “I’ll get extra on the way.”
Cass smiled and removed her hand. She smirked when Ford downed the scotch in one gulp. She sipped her wine and leaned closer to him. Now she was just messing with him. “Do you want to flip for top?”
“Ladies first, I always say.” Ford shifted in his seat. “You don’t mess around do you?”
“We’ve been messing around on line for a while now. It’s time to get down to business.” Cass sipped her wine. She put down her glass and slipped out of the other side of the booth. “Pay the check. I need to powder my nose before we go.”
Ford nodded and pulled out his wallet.
(Chapter 2)