Page 184 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

EVE

I was emptying the filter from the large coffee brewer when the bell above the door jingled. In walked Frank, the mailman. He set my pile of mail–with probably a few bills–on the counter.

“Thanks!” I called as he turned and left, his letter bag slung over his shoulder. He offered a little wave as he shut the door behind him, moving to the architect firm next door.

Ignoring the filter and wet grounds, I flipped through the mail.

Bill. Bill. City flier for winter events. Bill.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

June came over. “No luck with the bank loan?”

I shook my head. Frowned. “The three local banks won’t give me one. I’m guessing it’s my father. The owners all play golf with him. No doubt he told them to turn down my loan.”

Nothing like the good ole’ boys network fucking with me. Why wasn’t my father my champion instead of my business nemesis?

She huffed, then practically growled, “That’s totally wrong.”

“It doesn’t matter that your last name is Hunter and your family’s loaded? That you are?”

I shook my head. “If my father’s involved, then yes, but in his favor. Not mine.”

“Maybe the bank doesn’t know your assets are locked down by Asshole Ex. I didn’t give him enough laxative.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her deviousness.

“They check things. Whatever they are. Or they listen to my dad. Either way, they said no. I’m still waiting to hear from the bigger bank in Missoula. That’s a national chain, so maybe they won’t be so stingy.”

“Take Bridget up on their loan program.”

I shook my head. “No. Absolutely not.”

She tapped her finger on the counter.

“I may have an idea.”

I turned to face her directly. “What is it?”

“Remember, I keep mentioning stripping?”

“I’m not stripping. My parents are losing their shit over me and my little business. Can you imagine them finding out I’m stripping at the Pink Pony out by the highway?”

They’d have me committed.

“So what? You’re an adult. There’s nothing wrong with taking your clothes off for money.”

I heard the hurt tone of her words. “You’re right. I’m sorry. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. But me stripping is the issue. I can’t dance. I have zero rhythm and if there was a pole involved, I’d end up in the hospital with a head injury.”

“That’s true,” she replied, tapping her lip. Her mouth turned up at the corners at the visual I made. “You can’t even line dance.”

“I can’t. I really can’t. Those women who strip, while I haven’t seen any of them perform, have talent. They’re gorgeous and skilled and… I can’t keep up with their waxing regime.”

“I wasn’t suggesting the Pink Pony or waxing your body from the neck down.”

Neck down?

I frowned, waiting for her to continue. She bit her lip.

“Out with it,” I prodded.

“Ever wonder how I pay the bills between working here and ski patrol?”

“Are you saying you want a raise?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’m a cam girl.”

I blinked. “What? I don’t know what that is.”

“I sorta strip. Online. In a chat room.”

I stared at her. Blinked. “Um… what?”

She looked to the two moms who were chatting at a table while their toddlers napped in their strollers.

They were too far away to pick up our conversation.

Or interested. Then she peeked at the table by the window where Bridget and Mav were seated.

Mav’s dog was at his feet, asleep. Bridge must have sensed we were looking her way because she looked up from her laptop and glanced over.

She stood, making Mav glance from whatever papers he was reviewing. She grabbed their coffee mugs and gave him a kiss on the cheek before coming our way.

“Hey, you gave me a funny look,” she said, glancing between us. “Something like, rescue me now.”

I bit my lip because June’s secret was just that, her secret.

“I was telling Eve about being a cam girl,” she shared.

So much for the secret.

“Oh, right,” Bridget replied.

“You knew?” I asked her.

With a quick glance over her shoulder, it was clear Mav nor his dog cared about our conversation.

Bridget looked to June and shrugged. “Sure. We skied together a lot when I got back from MIT last winter.”

As if that explained it all.

June nodded, then looked to me, continuing where we left off.

“I set up a web cam in my bedroom and I do things viewers want. It’s through a streaming site.

Technically, it’s live porn, but I’m alone and I don’t have sex with anyone.

The viewers make requests and donate money when I do what they ask for. ”

My mind was blown. June. June stripped in her bedroom.

“What kinds of things do the viewers want? Like sex stuff?”

She shrugged. “I take my clothes off and talk to them.”

“Talk?”

Bridget filled one of the coffee mugs at the self-serve coffee urn on the counter and listened in.

“Yeah, sexy stuff,” she added. “Asking them if they’re hard, what gets them hot, asking them what I should take off first… Sometimes I sit there and fold laundry and–”

“You fold laundry and people watch? They pay extra for that?”

Bridget laughed, set the full cup on the counter and picked up the empty one. “Can you believe it?” She blushed, then offered a sly smile. “I think Mav would be all into me naked and doing laundry.”

Huh.

“I’m in my bra and panties or naked or on the way to naked and do it,” June continued. “Or I paint my toenails. Or…”

“I get the idea. People pay for that?” Unbelievable.

She lit up. “Yes. A lot.”

“I’m not a prude and I’m not knocking you for taking your clothes off, but that’s not me. I don’t think I could do that. Go naked.”

I wasn’t ashamed of my body. In fact, I considered it to be above average. But this was different.

I thought of Silas and how he walked around bare assed naked and imagined he wouldn’t have an issue with it. Hell, he technically did his own cam show at five in the morning. Just for me. And he didn’t know it.

Me? I liked being bent over a desk and ridden hard, but I wasn’t so sure about naked in front of strangers from all over the world. Silas, sure, but randos? “I mean, I get up really early in the morning and sometimes I forget to shave my legs and–”

“You don’t have to get naked,” she clarified. “We could make up a persona for you. You could…”

“Make coffee?” I offered.

Bridget held up her hand. “Wait. You think you want to be a cam girl?” she asked. “Because you won’t take the loan?”

I glanced away. “I can’t take the money from Silas. I just can’t.”

She nodded. “I know and I understand. Streaming live on a webcam is not a bad idea though. It’s safe.” She paused, bit her lip. “Well, reasonably safe if you don’t get any crazy stalkers.”

“What?” I asked, startled. “I don’t want stalkers. I just want to make some money. Wait… what if someone recognizes me?”

June shrugged as if this wasn’t a concern. “No one’s recognized me yet and if they do, do you care?”

“My mother will,” I countered, then realized what I said. “Yeah, okay. She’d lose her shit, but she loses her shit over my earring choices.”

“Again, all of what you’re freaking out about is why you go tame. You can do what you feel comfortable with and yeah, you could make brewing coffee look hot!”

June laughed. “That could work, but that’d be a lot of coffee to make. How about”–she looked me over as if inspecting me for sale–“oh! How about a virgin librarian!”

My brows went up and I stared at her wide eyed. Had I heard her correctly? “Excuse me?”

“If you think you’ll be nervous on camera, then play that up. Be a virgin.”

“I’m not a virgin,” I said. A virgin didn’t get fucked–and watched–in the back of a bar. Or on a conference room table.

“Be a cam virgin. Let them think you’re sweet and innocent. Dress the part.”

“Mav loves my glasses,” Bridge said, leaning in and whispering. All three of us looked to Mav who was reading obliviously.

“It’s the whole nerdy girl genius with the hot bod thing you have going on,” June said, pointing up and down Bridget’s body.

“What does a virgin wear specifically that screams I haven’t had sex?” I asked.

“A cardigan. Pearls. Lacy bras and panties that are demure.”

“You just described my mother,” I grumbled.

“I’m just going to ignore you said that,” June said. “I know you’ve got a shit-ton of cardigans your mom bought for you shoved way in the back of your closet and probably grandma’s pearls in your jewelry box. We can find you a little plaid skirt at the thrift store and–”

I held up my hand. “I’m not doing schoolgirl stuff. That’s… not okay with me.”

Bridge nodded. “I agree. That’s not you.”

June hugged me, then stepped back, a little too happy.

“What?”

“You said you’re not doing schoolgirl, which means you’ll do something else.”

I frowned at how she spun that around. “What kind of money are we talking here?”

She leaned close and told me an amount.

“A week?” Wow.

She shook her head.

“Oh, a month?” I asked, suddenly disappointed. That wasn’t going to get me very far.

“A day.”

“WHAT?”

“Wow,” Bridget added, obviously overhearing.

June glanced at the moms again, then pulled me over to the pastry case. As if that would block our voices. Bridget came around the counter to join us, her coffees forgotten.

“I want to see this camming. Show me.” I made grabby fingers and then held out my palm.

Pulling her cell from her jeans pocket, she swiped a bunch of times as I waited impatiently.

I was trying to get my head around the fact that my friend, that June, was a cam girl. A naked cam girl for money.

“I’m proud of you,” I murmured.

She looked up from her swiping and gave me a sappy look. “Really?”

I nodded. “Yeah. You’re doing your thing. I mean, I think every woman the world over would like to get paid that much money for doing her laundry.”

“Well, here’s my thing.” She pushed the phone into my hands. “Push the start button. That’s my free video. I turned the sound off.”

Bridget stood beside me, her head close to mine to share the preview.