Very Important Person

Chapter 5

Elsa was seated on a toilet in the cafe restroom before she could open the email. Edna had demanded to know what was so important, but she had muttered something along the lines of "be right back" and excused herself; she couldn't remember now. Her entire focus was on what she was about to read.

'NorthMountainMan,

'I've never done this before, I don't message fans bc it makes them think we're really dating or something. Plus it isn't fair to the other fans. But like I could tell you were really upset by how I reacted. I'm sorry, I've had stalkers before and sure they never like found out where I live or anything craycray but it still spooked me. So I thought you were one of those. If you pay for VIP again (I can't do full freebies, I might have my own site but I still work for a company and all that lol) I can give you some extra minutes as an apology. But if I don't see you again I don't want you to feel bad. It's part of the business not what you did.

'XOXO, Roxanne'

Relief spread through Elsa like warmth from a bowl of hot chicken soup. She didn't hate her. After a minute, she found she was crying in gratitude, even though nobody would ever know it. Which made it a lot harder to type, so the message took a few minutes to compose.

'Roxanne,

'Thank you so much for your message. This is going to sound like a line but I never do this. You are the only camgirl I've ever watched for more than a minute or two, and the only one I've spent money on. Something about you caught my attention right away and you still have it. So when you disappeared from LL I tried to watch a few other girls but it wasn't the same... I just really liked you, I thought you were so cute and funny, and playful. Everything about you is what I dream of, and what I wish I could have in my life. The popup for your new site was like a miracle! But you probably get a million messages like this one so I'm sorry. I'll try to get on tonight and watch you again if my schedule permits. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful day.'

Too sappy. Elsa sighed, and went to hold down the backspace button with her thumb; she would just rewrite the whole-

Nope. She hit 'send' instead.

"WHAT?! NO!" she burst out, leaning further forward on the toilet seat. She heard someone clear their throat in another stall, but she didn't care about them; this was a lot worse. This was dire. Could she un-send an email? No, that didn't seem possible.

So now she would just have to deal with the consequences. Groaning, she forced herself to get up and wash her hands and head back to her table. She had an irate Edna to deal with for now.

~ o ~

It was hard working up the courage to log into the site again. She was an hour into Roxanne's scheduled camming time when she did; she knew the girl would be on there for another few hours yet, but still felt as if she were "late" - ridiculous. She was being ridiculous about this whole thing.

"-why applesauce is bullshit," she was saying with a light chuckle once the video loaded. Same bedroom, but a pale pink underwear set this time. "Like, when you can make hot apple cider or apple pie, why would you... oh."

There were a few messages from worried men when she stopped to blink at her screen. Elsa was also concerned for a moment until she realised she was the cause. Then her ears started to warm up. She hadn't even typed anything yet; was Roxanne watching the usernames for her? No way.

"Sorry, what was I saying? Oh, right; I'm, um, I like apples but applesauce is kinda not my thing. Next question?"

Trying to get over her hangups, she typed: 'How do you feel about wine?'

The girl bit her lip for a moment - how was that so attractive there ought to be a law - and then said, "Hey, NorthMountie. Um... I'm not much of a wine drinker. Not much of a drinker at all, but I'm totally a piña colada and daiquiri kinda girl; fruity stuff, fun stuff. Beer if I really have to get something cheap."

'So a sweet wine would be more your thing?'

"Yeah! Like, I don't even know what that means, but I've had some of that Arbor Mist stuff and it wasn't bad."

Not what Elsa meant. But she was smiling anyway, leaning back against her pillows. 'Then I have a few I would buy you if you wanted to try.'

"Well, if we ever find ourselves in each other's company, that would be lovely," she said with a delighted chuckle. Then she paused and snorted, "Calm down, Maximo, I'm obviously gonna try your mojito, too."

Other users. She wanted to be rid of them... and she could be. So she made the easy decision to spend a little more money and request more VIP time. Once the girl had prepared them a placeholder video, the screen changed...

And Roxanne looked much more excited. Real, not theatrical; Elsa could usually spot the difference, and even moreso now that she had watched this girl turn it on and off before. Performance.

"You came back."

'Hello.'

"Hi." She fidgeted, then smiled a little wider. "I, um... I feel just terrible about how bad I overreacted. But I'm glad you weren't too upset. I mean, I'm just some dumb hoe online, anyway."

'You're not. You're a person, regardless of what you do or who you cam for.'

"Well, yeah, but..." She squirmed, then sighed. "I feel like I'm letting you down. Like, you pay good money to go one-on-one and what, I act scared and don't even take my clothes off?"

'I didn't ask you to take them off, remember? So it's not like I didn't get what I paid for.'

"But..."

'Everything is fine.'

She had been about to protest further when she got the follow-up message, so she smiled in relief. Maybe this wasn't the world's worst disaster in the making.

To Be Continued...