Queen of Love

”Is that so? Aya hadn’t mentioned it. Anyway, I’ll give you her card. I have it here, somewhere.” She slightly blushed. “Only one, though.”

“I’m not buying any property anywhere soon,” Terry said. “Not sure about Cindy.”

“I’m quite content with what I currently have. Tell me more about this bar you’re opening in Tokyo, though. You said it was lesbian?”

“Oh, yes.” Genevieve handed the embossed business card to Wendy, who immediately pocketed it in her clutch. “I bought a bar in Shinjuku Ni-chome that had recently closed due to the pandemic. It was called Ladylike. Don’t suppose any of you had heard of it?”

Everyone was noncommittal on that front.

“Anyway, I accepted a bid from a contractor, and remodeling starts next week, which I am flying into Tokyo to supervise. We’re planning to open by August at the latest. With any luck, tourism will be opened back up by then, but a soft launch for the locals isn’t a bad idea, either. Only thing is I still don’t have a name, and the contractor will want to know by the time I show up. I have to order the signs!”

“You don’t have a name yet?” Cindy asked.

Genevieve’s phone buzzed in her purse. She absentmindedly reached for it while apologizing. “No. It’s not going well. I suppose I’ve been distracted whenever I’m in Tokyo. I should be doing market research, but uh…”

Terry snorted. “She’s doing a totally different kind of lesbian research.”

Before Genevieve could pretend to be prim and proper about the whole thing, she pulled out her phone to see a text from an unknown number. It was flagged for having an attachment that may or may not be suspicious. Nevertheless, she opened it. I just won’t click the attachment.

While the other three women changed subjects, Genevieve read the text. “Do you remember this, Genny?” a stranger asked.

The photo attachment auto-loaded. There, in all her half-naked glory, was Genevieve in a private room in Paradise, her dress bunched around her stomach and her hand between her legs.

Oh, my God! She shoved her phone in her lap and immediately excused herself from the table. When her friends asked if everything was all right, she merely told them she had to make a business call. Most of them understood. Except for Wendy, who tapped her finger against her cheek while watching Genevieve sneak away to the ladies’ room.

Good. It’s empty. Genevieve leaned against the sink and looked at the text again. More photos of her masturbating for Aya’s enjoyment appeared. As stimulating as they were to look at, Genevieve had to make sure this was her girlfriend messaging her from an unknown number. “Are you texting me dirty pictures right now?” she sent to Aya’s real number.

Like clockwork. Aya responded. “Someone is certainly messaging you something. Is it me? Could be. Maybe it’s my evil twin. You should go respond.”

Genevieve was relieved, but she was still confused.

“Of course, I remember,” she told the mysterious stranger who was totally not Aya, uh-huh. “Why do you have these pictures of me? What are you planning to do with them?” Hm. Was she already getting into character? Was this what Aya wanted from her?

“I want $50,000 US American dollars.”

A gasp ripped through Genevieve. “What!” She immediately went back to her conversation with the real Aya. ”Is this some kind of joke? It’s not funny.”

Stranger Aya sent another message. “I will give you the bank account information. Immediately transfer the $50,000 by the end of the hour, or I will upload the following video online where everyone can see it.”

This had to be a joke. A very rude one.

Yet Genevieve was still blindsided by the video that appeared on her phone. She knew Aya had taken a video of her girlfriend touching herself and talking dirty in Mandarin, but that was… this was…

Private!

“What is going on?” Genevieve texted back. “This isn’t funny.”

“It’s not supposed to be funny.”

“Then what is it supposed to be???” The extra question marks were for emphasis. “Come on. Knock it off.”

“You have until the top of the hour,” Aya reiterated. “If I don’t see the money pending in the account by then, I will upload this to the internet. I will send it to all of your friends, your business associates, and I will definitely send it to your exes. I have their numbers. Some of them freely gave me their numbers when I was at your party. They’re about to see what a dirty girl you really are, Genny. They’ll see what I see every time we are together. They won’t get to touch you, but they’ll be jealous. Because it will turn you on so much you’re already thinking about jumping me.”

Genevieve didn’t know if she was more livid or humiliated. She also didn’t know which thought turned her on more.

God. Damnit.

This was a game, wasn’t it? Aya wasn’t going to really upload this crap to the internet. The extortion – because that’s what this was – only served to be a kinky domination game.