Would You Ever?

Men being visual animals, Daniel let his mind go on auto-pilot as they talked about Julie's courses, particularly the one on entrepreneurship. Speaking about determining target markets and forecasting initial demand were like second nature to Daniel, so he allowed half his mind to take in the beauty that was speaking to him from the other side of the connection. Her flawless skin, the sparkle of her deep brown eyes, the sway of her hair in the ponytail, the easy smile captivated his eyes. Her enthusiasm and personality engaged his interest the same way it did across the table in that diner in Las Vegas.

FOR HER PART, Julie was quite happy that she had decided to re-connect with Daniel, and felt very lucky that his dog had helped break the ice. They quickly covered off what she needed to for her classes in less than an hour. They could have ended it there but found that they had much to talk about and began to delve into more personal parts of their lives.

Julie learned that Daniel lived alone in Toronto with his dog. He had attended business school an hour and a half out of the city after his parent divorced, just to get away. He had worked in sales and business planning most of his career, making the switch to consulting about five years ago when many Canadian companies went through a slew of layoffs. She was surprised to find out that he really disliked MBAs and other consultants, calling them "nothing more than snake oil salesmen".

She was saddened to hear that he was not very close to his parents due to the bickering of two people who loved their son but didn't much like each other as he grew up. His mother came from an French Canadian family from the very urbane city of Montreal, while his father came from a small farming town from outside of St. Thomas, west of Toronto. If there were two people that were opposites, they were it. She also understood his need to maintain a friendliness with people but to have very few true friends, having grown up in a lonely childhood.

Daniel found out that Julie had graduated high school only four years ago, but had never taken the opportunity to go to university, even though her mother was an administrator at a big one in her hometown of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her interest in business stemmed from her father, who worked in one of the major banks there. She also was not in touch with her parents, which saddened her. "They didn't want me to move to LA," she said when Daniel asked why. "They think it's a 'sinful city' and would be a bad influence on me," she prevaricated, feeling guilt build again for lying to Daniel. Her father had met her mother in Hawaii, where he was stationed as a logistics specialist with the Navy. They married and moved back to her father's native Charlotte where Julie was born, her mother's mixed Asian, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Puerto Rican, and Caucasian heritage lending her a slightly exotic look, which showed up in fleeting ways.

After an additional two hours exchanging their personal details and backgrounds, Bruno whined, indicating his need to be take out one last time. "Gotta head. Little mister poop-tank needs to go again...," Daniel sighed. "Want to talk again soon? Maybe after your classes the day after tomorrow? You know, if you have any questions...," offering an excuse for them to connect again.

"I would love that!" Julie agreed happily. "It's a date!" They arranged for another call and signed off, both feeling a glow from the seemingly innocent call.

* * * * *

First Week of April, 2020 - Toronto, An Hour After the Call

DANIEL CAME IN from a forty-minute walk and unleashed his little monster, who promptly plopped himself onto the couch and started snoring. Daniel took his cue from the dog and quickly went to shower the day off and settle down for the evening.

Still riding the emotional high from the call, he brought his tablet into bed and opened up his favourite erotic literature site and scrolled through the stories, settling on a simple erotic romance. As he read, his breathing started getting heavy, and he felt his heart start pounding harder. He pulled his boxers off and started softly stroking his shaft, teasing himself, looking to prolong his pleasure and time his climax to that of the characters on the page. As he neared the peak of the story, his mind pictured Julie and himself in the characters, his breath became shorter and his hand started to move quicker along his sensitive erection. With a satisfied shudder, he erupted all over his chest.

He lay still for a moment as he gathered himself, then he went into the shower again to clean off. Daniel hadn't cum like that in a very long time. He wasn't celibate, but he also didn't engage in too much dating, preferring to focus on one woman at a time. His last relationship ended just before Thanksgiving last October, so it had been quite a dry spell. Even then, his self pleasure had usually been pleasant, but not as good as it had been, until tonight.

He chalked it up to Julie popping into his imagination, and felt a touch of guilt, assuming that all she wanted from their relationship was something platonic. Even then, as he made his way back into bed and drifted off, his thoughts were on Julie.

* * * * *

First Week of April, 2020 - Los Angeles, An Hour After the Call

JULIE WENT TO get ready for filming after her call with Daniel. Since lockdown, she had really stepped up her camming and creating content for her subscription service. When she was steadily filming, she had only cammed occasionally, and would post short clips of behind-the-scenes footage from her sets. Both were a nice additional stream of income, porn not being as lucrative a career as it once was.

Now with everyone stuck at home in lockdown she was camming three nights a week and creating and posting new content twice a week. She was now earning quite a good living doing solo work and sharing it with her fans during COVID. That night she was filming content for her website and got herself ready, dressing the part in a sexy bobbysoxer outfit with Charles doing her makeup and hair, giving her an innocent, fresh-faced, girl-next-door look.

Setting up her various cameras and lighting around the bed in her camming room she prepared some era-appropriate background music and stepped in front of the camera. She began dancing for the recording, starting off quite lively and bouncy, the glee evident on her face.

As the music transitioned to something slow and sensuous, Julie planted her feet in front of the main camera and threw a smoldering stare into the lens. She started swaying her hips back and forth as she caressed her body, teasing the hem of her sweater up, showing glimpses of her stomach. Throughout this, she kept a steady monologue, emulating a fifties teenager, interspersing it with little gasps and moans. Slowly she inched the sweater higher, teasing her lacy white bra, the demi cups barely concealing half her areolas. She finally pulled her sweater off and shook her ponytail, taking a moment to cup her breasts, running her fingertips across her bra clad nipples, just peeking over the lace.

She ran her hand down her sides and settled them on her hips, swaying to the music. Her hands began playing with the elastic of her very short poodle skirt, slowly shimmying her skirt down her legs. She stood in front of the camera in her lacy white bra, matching thong, ankle socks, and saddle shoes, hands on her hips. She raised her arms above her head in the sexy way only women could, and danced in a circle, letting the camera catch her beauty in her lingerie.

She sat down on the edge of the bed, coquettishly, reaching down to take her shoes and socks off, making a show of it. Slipping her socks of, she looked directly into the camera while she caressed her feet, her toes painted a very light blue, to match her sweater. Her foot fetish fans were going to have a good time with this video!

She turned onto her hands and knees, her shapely rear to the camera, as she slowly crawled toward the middle of the bed. She flipped over and drew her knees up and leaned back onto her hands and arched her back teasing the camera again with a view of her. She sat back up, continuing her striptease, reaching behind her and unclasping her bra, bringing her hands back forward to rub the cups to her breast before letting them fall, the pale globes of her breasts capped by the puffy pink areolas and eraser sized nipples slowly crinkling in the cold of the air-conditioning. She took a moment to put her finger in her mouth, sucking on it before drawing out her wet digit and rubbing her nipples, wetting them and causing them to come erect.

Julie came to her knees and stuck her thumbs into her panties, wiggling back and forth, pulling the panties down her hips, the panties coming off smoothly save for a brief moment when the gusset clung to her body, held on by the moistness of the excitement beginning to leak out of her pussy.

She leaned back again, her feet on the mattress, her knees up and legs spread, giving the camera an unobstructed shot of her plump, shaven, puffy vulva. Her thin, pink lips began to flower out in her arousal, the clit coming out of its hood, her juices glistening. She reached down and caressed her finger up her cleft and tease her clit, a small moan escaping her lips. She began to frig her clit in earnest, alternating between circling it and directly stimulating it. More moistness leaked out her pussy onto the bedspread as the lips of her vagina darkened from its usual pale pink, engorged with arousal. Her breathing became shallower, her eyes closing.

As Julie reached behind her under the pillows propping her body up for the slim pink vibrator hidden there, an image of Daniel flashed into her mind's eye behind her closed eyelids. Her eyes shot open in a mild shock at who she had though about. Usually, when she was performing solo, her fantasies would involve vague faceless men or women, but tonight her mind zeroed in on Daniel. She leaned into the image, closed her eyes and lay her head back, going all in on the fantasy.

As she continued to caress her breasts and nipples, stimulated her clit, and slipped the vibrator into her pussy, her thoughts were of Daniel. It was his hands that caressed her body, his tongue pleasuring her nipples, and his cock filling her up. Sometimes when Julie performed, she would have an orgasm, sometimes she would have to fake it. Tonight, Julie's body was rushing to climax, with the picture in her mind of a man that was supposed to be a platonic acquaintance.

She felt the desire build into a ball in her stomach, her fingers a blur on her clit as she fucked herself faster with the vibrator. Her skin felt like one whole erogenous zone, the air moving in the room caressing her, causing sparks to move through her body. Her moans became small screams between quick, huffing breaths. Julie took a deep breath and her orgasm released in one large explosion. Her back arched as her feet pushed her ass off the mattress and her body tensed, her jaw clenched. The cords on her neck visible in her rictus, a flush coming across her face and upper chest in her moment of breathlessness. Flashes of pinpoint light sparked behind her closed eyelids as she let out a scream of release, expelling the breath she held.

As quickly as her body tensed in orgasm, her body freed up in the second wave of her climax, like the aftershock of an explosion. Her knees drew up and her feet tightened toes pointed, shudders racking her body. Her body curling up into a fetal ball, tremors continuing to course through her body. Julie lay there for a few moments, sobbing softly, tears falling from her eyes. She took a deep breath, raised her head and brushed the few tendrils of her hair that had escaped the ponytail and stuck to her face, bathed in perspiration. She gave a tiny, shaky smile to the camera, reached for the covers and drew them over herself.

A SOFT KNOCK roused Julie from her slumber. She looked over at the clock and was surprised that she had only been out for a half hour. She sat up and moved around the room, turning off the cameras and lights that she had used for filming, checking the memory sticks to make sure that the footage saved. She grabbed a short robe, pulled it around herself, tied it off, and opened the door.

"Hey sweetie, are you OK?" Charles asked her, looking deeply into her eyes. Julie nodded as she gave him a tired smile.

"I'll be good Charlie, tonight was just intense," she replied quietly.

"I'm sure sugar. Sounded like a banshee in there!" Charles chuckled. Julie blushed and cast her eyes downward sheepishly. "And then, nothing for a while. I was worried you had a stroke or something!"

"Shut up!" Julie laughed as she slapped him on the arm. "Funny though, I had the best orgasm tonight," she revealed as she went to the fridge for a bottle of water.

"Did it have something to do with a certain Mr. Nerdy? You were talking with him for a long time before you filmed," Charles noted with a sly smile.

"Maybe...," Julie acknowledged contemplatively. "Thanks for checking though Charlie. I've gotta go and edit the footage now. I'm sure I got at least two hours combined that I can stitch together to 20 minutes."

"Back to work girl!" Charles said as he pushed her back towards the camming room.

* * * * *

April, 2020 - Toronto & Los Angeles

OVER THAT MONTH Julie and Daniel fell into a comfortable rhythm of video calling each other at least four times a week. Usually, Julie would cam or film afterwards, able to relieve the building tension between them. Daniel would either go have a very cold shower or have a date with Mrs. Hand and her five daughters.

Gradually as Julie became more comfortable with her academic material, their conversations dropped the pretense of scholastic mentorship and grew into a deep sharing that could only come from the limitations of contact. Sharing that is, except for the secret that Julie wasn't willing to share with Daniel yet.

ON ONE OF those rare nights that Julie and Daniel weren't chatting, Julie was curled up in her favourite corner of the couch with Charles. She was pretending to binge some trending streaming show before she went off to cam for the rest of the evening. Instead of watching, Julie was texting back and forth with Daniel, giggling like a schoolgirl while she did. Charles glanced over as he paused the show, smirking when he saw that she hadn't even noticed.

"Girl, every night you're not chatting, you're texting. Why don't you just give him a call?" he asked.

"I'd like to, but it's hard to make an excuse to call. After all, I can't look like I'm asking him to do all my schoolwork, ya know?" she pouted. "Anyway, he and Ravi are working on some off-the-books project, so they're working on it on their off time."

"Really girl? Why don't you just drop the whole 'Mr. Bell, can you help me with my homework' crap anyway?" doing a pretty bad imitation of Julie. "Anyway, maybe it's time to just stop pretendin' and just call him what he is, your boyfriend!" he said in a singsong voice and batting his lashes.

"I'll call him again tomorrow, but I just feel like we'd be kinda stuck when I haven't told him that I'm also Candi Kaine," Julie sighed. "Anyway, he really is busy tonight," she said as she signed off her phone and went to get ready.

"Maybe you should tell him, girl...," Charles said under his breath as he went back to watching some show about lions, tigers, or bears or something.

"I FOUND A few paid invoices with small overages or extras in the sample I pulled and I'm afraid that we'll find more!" Ravi looked and sounded frustrated, even over a video connection. "And it's all coming from a terminal in the office, even though we shut things down weeks ago!" Ravi turned and yelled out of the room "Boys! Keep it down! Just because you don't have to go into school doesn't mean you dont have classes!" He turned back to the camera "Man, without Priya here it's nuts! I love them both but I don't know how she puts up with these little psychos sometimes!"

"Mother's love buddy, mother's love," Daniel nodded sagely at the camera, even though he knew not of what he spoke. "Why don't we pull the last three years and divide them up between us. I'll get Wendy on some and you can get George on another stack," he suggested, referencing their respective admin assistants. "I still can't figure out how these are happening though. The building's shut down and we can't get in there without Colton AND HR's signoff," Daniel puzzled. "Maybe let's start by going over the invoices. That'll take a few months in everyone's downtime. In the meantime, maybe it's time to put some brandy into the boys' bedtime milk," Daniel joked.

"Don't think I won't...," Ravi warned. "No call with Julie tonight?"

"Nah, she knows we're working on something. No worries. I'll call her tomorrow," Daniel brushed off. "Gotta say, I thought she was just a cute girl, but I'm getting to really like her as a person. Maybe when this is all over, I'll go over to LA to see her."

"It'll do you good I think, and it'll get Priya off my back, which means it'll get me off your back. She's says if you can't lock this down, there are some cute nurses at her hospital staying at their front liner's hotel she can set you up with," he warned.

"I'm tryin' buddy, I'm tryin'. Anyway, take care of those boys!" Daniel advised as he hung up.

* * * * *

Mid-May, 2020 - Toronto & Los Angeles

"SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE ready for your midterm. I know I don't have a right to feel it, but I'm proud of the work you've been putting in!" Daniel praised Julie.

"Of course, you have the right! You don't know how much you've helped me! It's been a while since I'd had to study so you really helped me over the hump while I learned how to be a student again. Thank you, Dan," Julie said as she placed her hand over her chest. Daniel blushed, never having become comfortable with receiving gratitude or praise, despite many of the awards and bonuses that he had received over the years. "How's the special project going with Ravi?"

"It's going. It's been pretty tedious, going over reams of paperwork, but we'll get through it," Daniel replied vaguely. "How about you? Any news on productions re-opening?"

"Nothing for us yet. Some of us have work we can do at home, but folks like Charlie need live sets to work," Julie replied, equally vague. "Hey, let me change topics for a sec," Julie requested nervously. "How have you been coping being alone for COVID?"

"Me? I'm not alone, I've got eighteen pounds of furry vengeance stalking me every day!" Daniel chuckled. Julie laughed at that, her peals of laughter like musical bells to Daniel's ears. "But I get what you're asking. It's a bit lonely. My last relationship was before COVID, and I was going to ask her to move in but she didn't much like Bruno, so that was a no go for me."

"Nope, that's a big no!" Julie shook her head. "How could anyone not love that furry face! Hi Bruno!" she waved to the dog sleeping on an ottoman behind Daniel, who raised his head and barked in recognition, then went back to sleep.

"He loves you too," Daniel said, feeling the heat creep up from under his collar, wishing he could say that to her too and hear it back. "Ravi and I talk almost daily, and Priya checks in from time to time. She's busy at the hospital helping out in the ICU while they have her surgeries on hold. The local takeout places know me by my eyes now. And I see people at the grocery. And hey, I talk to you! That's usually the highlight of my day!" Sadness quickly flashed across Julie's face when he described his interactions but smiled when he mentioned her.

"That's kind of lonely Dan. And all we do is talk," she said a touch sadly as she hugged her knees up to her chest. "I wish I could see you and give you a great big hug! My heart hurts thinking about you all alone there," she frowned. They went silent for a moment, then Dan broke the silence.