“I like those boots,” Anne said immediately. They were a pair of brown boots that extended up my calf, and probably the only thing that was keeping my extremities from freezing right off.
“Thanks,” I said. I looked up and down her body, looking for something to compliment other than her hair. “I like your jacket.”
“Thanks,” she said back to me. We walked in silence for a few more moments before she said, “So, he's your brother.”
“Yep. Well, my stepbrother anyway,” I said.
“So that must be why he's not your type,” she said.
She was clearly fishing for some kind of response. “There's more to it than that.”
She perked up a little bit. “Really?”
Oops, that might have been the wrong thing to say, I thought. “Yeah, really. He was a real jerk to me when we lived together as kids,” I clarified.
“Oh.” A silence hung in the air for another minute. “I'm sensing that this conversation is making you uncomfortable. Mind if I tell a joke?”
It was the last thing I expected. “Sure, go ahead.”
She smiled. “What do you call a lesbian dinosaur?”
I laughed, already thinking the joke was funny. “I don't know, Anne, what do you call a lesbian dinosaur?”
“A lickalotapuss!” She began to laugh at her own joke.
I couldn't help but laugh too, even though I wasn't sure what dinosaur she was supposed to be referencing. “I am not a lickalotapuss,” I said after my laugh ended.
“Figures,” Anne said, still laughing. “How about a Bi-rannosaurus Rex?”
I laughed at that one even harder. “I don't know, I've never met the right lickalotapuss.” I remembered the offer I had in high school to join in on a threesome with a couple. I totally would have for the girl, but the guy was kind of a creep so I backed out at the last minute.
“Well, I guess I can deal with thinking of you as a Bi-curious-rannosaurus Rex,” she said.
“Listen, Anne, I-”
“No, don't sweat it. I just figured that if you were going to be coming around the coffee shop a lot more often that I should make a move now rather than pining away. Trust me when I say that I appreciate your honesty.” She looked up at me with those big eyes, and I could tell that she was a completely honest person herself. “I'd love to just hang out with you some time, if you're going to be in town more often.”
I nodded, somehow feeling completely at ease with her. “Give me your number.” If I was going to be with James, I would need a friend here in Boston, and I had a feeling that Anne was just the girl for the job.
***
When we got to James' apartment building, the doorman nodded to Anne. Either he knew her or James had called ahead. Up at the apartment, Anne pulled out a key to James' apartment and unlocked the door.
“I didn't see James give that to you,” I said.
She shrugged. “Several of us have keys to his place. Apparently, he's not too worried about theft.”
“Yeah, but surely any CEO is going to be worried about theft, right?”
Anne gestured upward, up to the corner of the room behind the TV. A small webcam pointed down to take in the whole room. Right in the center of the camera's field of view was the couch.
The couch where I just happened to play with myself a couple weeks ago.
It was hardly a breach of privacy, I was in his home. But I still felt a little violated. And this was just the camera I could see. Who knew how many other cameras he had?
Had he recorded us having sex?
Had he watched me playing with myself?