Unluckily for a crowd holding their breath, the bra didn’t come off.
Understandably, Cat’s previously spotless credit score had been dragged through the mud and was sitting at a value that would make a meth head look like a real estate mogul. She couldn’t use leverage on her positions and she started too late on the day. With meager money reserves and less than ninety minutes to floor close time, she still made close to four thousand.
Once the stream ended, she was tackled on the bed by Theresa. “I could kiss you now!”
Cat found the small portion of her that still thought like a male and found the prospect of kissing Theresa enticing. Unwittingly, her lips parted as her tongue licked her front teeth.
Theresa grinned. “Don’t move. Girl, remember this face you’re doing now. Remember how your facial muscles are, and how to repeat the expression. Your face is so hot right now I think I’m going to ravage you.”
Cat burst out laughing. Mr. Mouser came to check on her. Theresa also laughed. “Do you have any idea how much money you made?”
She did, but only on the day trading side of things. “No?”
“Dione is still doing the math but you are already the highest-grossing clothed webcam model premiere ever! I bet the bitches downstairs are green with envy. They might even have grown a zit or two. Right in their foreheads.”
“That’s… good. But don’t wish bad things to others.”
“Fuck them. You’re the real deal. Were you really trading or was it just an act? With all these graphs and numbers on the screen, I couldn’t tell.”
“I earned four thousand dollars trading on top of the tips.”
“Fuck you too, rich girl,” Theresa joked, pretending to be envious. Or maybe she was. “If I hadn’t earned all the referral bonuses in a single session, I’d be very mad at you. But I’m not.”
Mr. Mouser poked his head between the two women and growled.
“Theresa, either kiss me and we make out or you let me go.”
“Sorry, mate. I like men,” Thresa snickered. “But I know some girls down there that would love to play a slave in your money dungeon.”
“I’ll pass, I’m not ready for a relationship right now.”
“But maybe...” Theresa inched closer. “Maybe I can make you mine and then you’ll be a slave in my money dungeon.”
“Okay. Come, I’ll help you get up.”
Dione was on cloud nine dreaming of magical machines spitting banknotes. The other models were all slightly angry though. The ones betting on her failure lost, the ones hoping to copy her were shot out of the water. They could use some market graphs as background but they didn’t have a decade of expertise working at Wall Street as William did.
To placate the “bitches’ anger”, as Theresa put it, Cat bought everyone dinner and refreshments, letting the girls order whatever they wanted, from Chinese to pizza.
Over the rest of the week, she streamed with almost the same schedule as her earlier day trading marathon, when she was trying to build up a mining company position. She didn’t use the pre-market and post-market windows to preorder, instead of working from eight to five, with a few half-hour breaks in-between.
She had found her unique camgirl style and the news outlets were already tearing it apart and turning it into clickbait news articles. Some even questioned if she could trade but she updated her personal website with her certifications and links to the investor.gov and FINRA online search pages because information on registered brokers and financial advisors was public. The next step in her plan was to offer online financial advice in her private shows. The general public would remain under the disclaimer.
Her unusual streaming hours made her lose most of the heavy traffic on the camgirl sites but she gained another type of audience. Since she never took off her clothes and there wasn’t anything naughty on her bed like dildos or the ever-present pink antenna vibrator, her chatroom was deemed safe for work, despite the site. A few investors and brokers started to join her room during business hours, using her as a sort of trading mascot or pin-up. Some even talked shop with her and she gladly engaged, impressing some of them with her (William’s) knowledge of the market.
But all these Wall Street types (they weren’t just from New York City) had one thing in common, they had money. While her reluctance to put her private parts on display drove away some of the paying customers that had money to pay for the shows, she attracted another audience who didn’t mind tipping a few bucks (or in some cases, a lot when she gave them a winning tip) to break the drab boredom of working at a bank or brokerage firm.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Her schedule also didn’t clash with the other girls as most of them worked during the night where the patrons were eager to see some female flesh. Some of them wanted to schedule the previously neglected chroma key room to try their luck. One of them started reviewing Anime episodes, playing a few scenes over the green canvas. Another dressed up as a mermaid and put oceanic footage behind her. They had varying degrees of success.
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Already in the second week of January, she had enough money to rent her own apartment. Theresa’s studio apartment was too small for both of them and Cat wanted her stuff that was still in New York with Oliver. She had the money to pay the transportation fee now. Her roommate had other ideas, however.
“No, you’re not moving out. I was waiting for a good opportunity to tell you this, but I’m going back to college. I took a sabbatical during the fall semester, but I have to go back for Spring. Classes start on the 24th. I already got a roommate in a nice house next to the campus. I was hoping you’d take over this place and save me from breaching my contract. I already talked to the landlord, and she doesn’t mind switching tenants so long she gets rent. And if you don’t thrash the place when the current rent agreement is over, I get my deposit back. I don’t want to pay early termination fees.”
It was a lot to unpack. She knew Theresa was here just for the season but she led herself to believe she would stay longer than that. But the girl was like the cicada in the fable. Always fooling around.
“You’ve done a lot for me, Theresa,” Cat mellowed out. “I’ll take over the unit from you, but I want to sign an addendum with your landlord to make sure the transfer is official. I’ll also give you the deposit money back.”
“No, keep it! I know you need working capital to invest. You are doing a fantastic job and I’m even tempted to leave some of my money behind so you can invest on my behalf.”
Cat shook her head. “No can do. What I do is extremely risky and I won’t feel comfortable playing with other people’s money.”
Theresa squealed and hugged her, “Don’t give me money yet, sugar momma. Just saving me from the fees and keeping the apartment in top condition is enough.”
As they left the landlord’s (lady) office, they noticed a military jeep parked next to it. Once they were on the sidewalk, the doors opened and a familiar figure left the vehicle. Captain Jack Murphy.
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Cat froze, her eyes darting in search of an exit. She felt ambushed and Mr. Mouser started to lick her. Theresa sensed it and whispered in her ear, “Your ex?”
“No,” she paused because she wasn’t sure she could call Jack ‘just a friend’. Instead, she went with a safe option, “My former bodyguard, he protected me during the Bridge attack.”
“Damn, he looks good in a uniform,” the tanned model purred.
“Catherine, I...” Jack started to talk but Cat cut him off.
“Captain, good afternoon,” She said all stiff. “What brings you here? Official business? How did you even find me here?” She challenged. Jack’s eyes focused on a black sedan parked on the other side of the avenue. Cat scoffed, “Oh, right. I’m Uncle Sam’s sweetheart niece, ain’t I?”
“I didn’t come here to fight,” Jack tried to placate her budding ire. “Can we talk?”
Theresa was rubbing her back while Mr. Mouser pawed her chin. Cat took heavy breaths to steady herself, “We can, but I don’t think we should, Captain.”
She felt betrayed. She had made a deal with the demon, put her life on the line, all to protect them and her mother, only to have Jack spit on it all. Sputter might be a better word.
“May I have a moment?” He politely requested. Anyone could see he was embarrassed by the situation and harbored a great shame but Cat was blinded by her emotions.
“Dude,” Theresa intervened. “I don’t know your story, but you’re making a girl uncomfortable. Get your shit together, Steve Rogers.”
“Not my intention, ma’am. I’m even keeping my distance and I swear I won’t get any closer.”
He was standing next to the jeep, about three yards away.
“Why, Jack?” Cat sniffled. “Why did you betray us and re-enlist?”
“I had no other choice.”
“Liar. Go read Sartre. You always have a choice, even if it is a bad one.”
He lowered his head and stared at the concrete sidewalk. “You’re correct. I had a choice. They told me they’d either have me re-enlist or you in jail. The government wanted to arrest you, Catherine. Didn’t you find it odd you had no charges whatsoever when you woke up last month?”
She sucked on her lower lip and whispered. “You should’ve asked me.”
“You were unconscious and hospitalized. They didn’t give me much time to choose. None at all, to be honest. Catherine, please let’s talk. Your country needs you.”
“BULLSHIT!” She shrieked. “If America needs me, they should unfreeze my assets and let me do my thing so we can get ourselves rid of that--” She froze. “No, I’m not falling for it.”
Her outburst had drawn some attention. She wouldn’t say the D-word out loud.
“I’m fighting the good fight, Jack. For my country, for my family, for my friends. You know better than anyone why I’m in Vegas, why I’m camming, why I so desperately need money.”
“We found a couple of mines here in Nevada that may be what we were looking for. But without… them, we have no way to tell if that’s what we need or how to get it without ruining the material.”
Of course, the government would find a silver mine with a snap of their fingers, she thought. Also, they weren’t stupid and would’ve probably figured out why she moved to Nevada. Cat scratched Mr. Mouser’s scruff while the feline purred to calm her down.
Theresa hugged her protectively and whispered in her ear, “I can scream like a Disney princess to draw attention and scare them away if you want.”
“Thanks, my friend. That won’t be necessary. Jack is right, he wouldn’t hurt me. At least more than what he did already.”
Theresa used her handkerchief to wipe Cat’s tears. “You can always count on me.”
“Jack, can Theresa come with me?” Cat asked, offering an olive branch. “Look, I don’t even know how to reach them. I suspect you already tried asking Martinez, if she doesn’t know either, we are out of luck. But may I go and see these mines? With Theresa?”
Jack smiled and bowed, “Miss Kelly? Would you like to go spelunking with us?”
Theresa rolled her eyes, clearly thinking of the “Urban Dictionary” interpretation of the term. “Should we?” She asked her roommate.
“We should,” Cat answered. “Jack is right, this is for the greater good.” She faced the officer and stared with hard eyes. “I’ll put my personal feelings aside, Captain. I’ll go with you if you promise to bring us back and let us go after we’re done. Today.”
“It’s a good thing we have a bird ready to lift us there, then,” he said and opened the jeep door, pointing inside with a hand. “Ladies, if you please.”