Love’n’Lust

“Guys, what do you think about a guy named Ben?” Belle asked as she looked at the man’s bio on her phone. She had just downloaded an app named Sex Mate, where she could meet a random person to hook up with.

She was new in City S and was staying with her cousin and her roommate, who had just discovered she was a virgin and suggested the app for hookups.

It had been Belle’s decision to remain a virgin all this while, but now she didn’t find it such a good choice anymore, especially since she knew her cousin wasn’t.

They had both grown up living with their grandma, who strongly believed in abstinence until marriage. But Belle was older now, and she knew she didn’t want to be a virgin anymore.

“Ben who?” Brie, her cousin, asked, applying lotion to her body even though she was about to go to sleep.

“Just Ben,” Belle replied.

“But did you read his bio? Is he the kind of man you would want to have sex with?” Cherry, Brie’s roommate, asked.

“I don’t know. There isn’t much on his profile.”

“There isn’t much on your profile either. Just pick any of them and fix a date,” her cousin urged, getting into the big bed they all shared.

“And pick a date before Monday. You have to go to that media office for the internship, remember?” Cherry added.

“Alright, alright. I’ll pick Ben. He seems okay,” Belle said, tapping the green button, which meant accept.

“I’m going to sleep,” Brie announced, yawning, while Cherry just sat there scrolling through her phone.

“How do I know if he’s online?” Belle asked again, addressing the question to no one in particular.

“I don’t know. I think there should be, like, a green dot or something,” Cherry suggested.

“I’m not seeing it. I guess he isn’t online,” Belle said, almost disappointed. She was hoping she could fix a date with him now because tomorrow she still had to send an email to the media house concerning her internship.

Switching off her phone, she turned in bed, trying to find a perfect sleeping position. Before she slept, she said good night to Cherry. Then she heard her phone’s notification sound beep.

Checking her phone, she saw a notification from the Sex Mate app. It was a message from him.

It was just a waving-hand emoji. She didn’t know what to reply since she wasn’t the best at starting conversations.

“Ben,” she typed.

“Belle Miller,” he texted back. “You do know that you don’t have to use your full name on this app, right?”

“It’s my first time here. You must be active on this app,” she texted again, smiling, hoping it was a good joke.

“It’s my first time, actually. Some things aren’t hard to figure out—common sense,” she read, not knowing how to reply. “You stay here in City S, right?” he texted after she didn’t respond.

“Yeah.”

“Good,” she read, still not knowing how to reply again. “You are beautiful,” he added, a little surprised when he didn’t get a thanks from her.

“Let’s fix a date,” she finally typed after a short while.

“Pick a place,” he replied when he noticed she wanted to get straight to the point.

“I don’t know any places here yet, so I can’t be the one to pick.”

“So you’re not from here?” he asked, and didn’t get a reply from her.

“Cherry?” Belle whispered when she noticed Brie was already asleep. Cherry turned to her to see why she was being called. “He’s asking me to pick a place.”

“Like a hotel?” Cherry asked.

“Like a hotel?” Belle ignored his last question and replied directly. “Pick a place.”

“Yes,” she saw his reply and nodded to Cherry.

“Pun,” Cherry whispered.

“Pun?” Belle asked.

“Yeah. It’s a new hotel. It should be okay.”

“Pun,” she texted him.

“Took quite a long time to think of a place,” he replied. She didn’t know what to say again. “Is seven o’clock good for you?” he asked.

“Seven o’clock when?”

“Saturday.”

“Tomorrow. Okay. Good night,” she typed, just because she was used to it, and didn’t wait for his reply.

She put her phone in the drawer next to the bed and lay beside her cousin, trying to adjust into a comfortable position before sleeping.

“Are you done chatting with him?” Cherry asked, looking up from her phone.

“Yeah. We fixed tomorrow, 7 p.m.”

“Okay. Tomorrow you fill us in,” Cherry chuckled.

“Good night,” Belle said before finally laying her head on the pillow, thinking about what he would look like and how it would work out.

She hoped it would go well tomorrow.

***

Saturday evening.

“Belle, come walk me to the laundromat, please,” Brie begged, as it was her turn that week to do the laundry.

“Let her be. She needs to rest for tonight,” Cherry said.

“It’s just first-time sex. It’s not like she’s going to a boxing match or something.”

“I shouldn’t have told you guys about any of this,” Belle said, slapping her forehead as the two girls laughed.

“Are you coming with me?” Brie asked again.

“No, I’m sorry. It’s past six already. I should be getting ready.”

“Don’t be sorry, Belle. She had all day to do it,” Cherry said, and Brie rolled her eyes.

***

“Sir, I rescheduled the meeting you asked me to cancel yesterday to today,” a woman said as she walked into the office, a tablet in hand.

“When will it be?” the man asked, looking up from the laptop on his neatly arranged desk.

“In the next twenty-five minutes, sir,” she answered, and he looked at his watch.

“Seven p.m.?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Reschedule the meeting,” he said, looking back at his computer.

“But sir, I already—” She stopped speaking when he looked at her. Knowing how much he disliked repeating himself, she turned and walked away.