Business woman and cam girl on special vacation – part 4

I declined to correct his assumption of gender. It would only confirm his suspicions in any case.

“My reasons are personal,” I said instead.

“Of course. Well he’s a lucky man, whoever he is. I never thought I’d see the day our Juliana fell for someone so hard.”

I stood up. “Ok, I’m just gonna leave now.”

“I haven’t said yes yet.”

“You don’t need to. I know you pretty well too, and you wouldn’t be teasing me like this if you weren’t going to say yes.”

My boss chuckled and shook his head. “Fair. Of course you can work remotely. Half the office is these days, seems like. And I know I can trust you to get your work done. You know I’m still going to call you when the madness out there gets too hot for me.”

“I fully expect it.” I paused before leaving. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Enjoy yourself.”

****

I half expected feelings of regret or panic on the drive back to my cottage. I’d made a fairly significant life decision, after all. It was probably a good sign that even with hours to process it, I couldn’t find any real fault in my logic or actions.

I was brimming with nervous energy as I pulled into my driveway. Tired from the drive, but excited and a little anxious to see Isabel again.

There were, however, a pair of vehicles in her driveway, sitting alongside her slightly beat up old car that I was used to seeing. It was a bit confusing to me, as I’d never seen her invite anyone over, other than me of course. I bemusedly wondered what that was about.

Without knowing more, I didn’t want to skip over and knock on Isabel’s door. It might be fine, but it might be awkward, and I was admittedly a little too worn out from my drive to deal with awkwardness at the moment.

I opted instead, once I’d dragged my stuff in from my car, to do a teensy little bit of spy-work using my classic maneuver of stepping out for a smoke.

My mission was almost immediately successful. Once on my back deck, several people were immediately visible in Isabel’s yard, and had every appearance of being her family. Her parents for sure, I assumed, and a guy who seemed like probably her brother. There was another woman there who could have been the brother’s girlfriend, or wife, or maybe Isabel’s sister. Did Isabel have a sister? I didn’t remember one. But there were a couple kids as well, which probably indicated brother and sister-in-law. I’d have to ask for clarification at some point to be sure.

Isabel herself didn’t actually notice me at first, but once her mom smiled and waved at me, Isabel turned around and I got to watch her face break out in the biggest, happiest smile. It was all I could do to stay calm and poised with that weapons-grade smile turned on me like that. I only bothered with the facade at all because I didn’t know if Isabel would have mentioned me at all, let alone our relationship.

Apparently I was the only one worried about that though. Isabel said something to her family, then was dashing off at an almost comical pace around front of her cottage. Her family’s cottage, technically, not just hers. I was so used to it just being her there, and thinking of it as belonging to her.

As calmly as I could, I slipped back inside, then darted gracelessly to meet Isabel at the front door as soon as I was hidden from view. We reached it at about the Isabele time. Isabel managed to barge in just before I could open the door for her.

“You’re back!” Isabel exclaimed, leaping into my arms.

“So I am,” I said, staggering back a step or two under her exuberant greeting.

“You didn’t tell me you were back early.”

“Sorry. I… made some decisions. I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well you did.” Isabel kissed me while I was unprepared, taking my breath away in a very physical sense. “So, uh, my family’s all here.”

“I see that. Is that–“

“Do you want to meet them?” Isabel blurted out, interrupting me.

“… do you want me to meet them?”

“I think so? I mean they were coming anyway, and I was getting so anxious about it, ’cause I was gonna have to introduce you, and it’s earlier than I’d like for the whole meeting thing, but then it didn’t matter ’cause–“

“Because I left.”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry about that.”

Isabel shook her head. “No, it’s fine. You had work stuff.”

“I did. You could have told me about your family coming though. We could have made better plans.”

“I mean… it was kind of a relief to push back the introductions, in a way. But also I was kind of sad that you weren’t going to be here. It was… confusing.”

I cupped her cheek. “I don’t want to make you sad.”

“I know. It’s not your fault. Just… circumstances.”

I nodded. “Isabel, do you want me to meet your family, or do you want to keep it low-key for now? I don’t mind either way. I’m… I’m kind of nervous about the idea, honestly. But I also really hope that you’d introduce me some time, so….”

Isabel smiled crookedly. “I want to. This whole time they’ve been here, I kept feeling bad that I couldn’t show you off some.”

I snorted. “Show me off, huh?”

“Yeah! You’re smart and nice and beautiful and sophisticated, and really really good for me. Why wouldn’t I show you off?”

“I’m older than you, Isabel. They could think–“

“Oh pff. Not enough to be weird and you know it. Plus also… the whole me liking girls thing will take some pressure off you anyway.”

I tilted my head. “They don’t know that, huh?”

“Hasn’t come up,” Isabel said innocently.

“I see. Awfully brave of you to come out like this.”

“Lucky I got you to hold my hand while I do it then, isn’t it?”

I pulled her close and kissed her some more, making out with her as long as we dared before straightening ourselves out and heading back to her yard. I could have done with more alone time than that, but if we took too long it would just make the meeting weird.

Isabel was blushing furiously as we stepped out together, and her hand squeezed mine almost painfully tight. I did my level best to remain steady and feed her reassurance.

“Hey, so, uh, this is Juliana,” Isabel said, shifting her weight awkwardly. “We’re, um, kind of seeing each other.”

I felt a flush on my face too. There were too many eyes on us all at once, and I’d never met anyone’s family all at once like this. It was usually a more gradual thing.

Happily, the appraising glances and flashes of disapproval I half expected were nowhere to be seen. There were, in fact, only smiles and words of congratulations.

I squeezed Isabel’s hand gently, and she relaxed her death grip on me while also giving me a quick look of relief at the reception. I felt the Isabele. So far so good.

I got slightly grilled afterward as I sat down with the family, which was only to be expected. Who I was, what I did, how we met, that sort of thing. I told the truth mostly, accepting anything to do with Isabel’s career and how our initial meeting had been so dependent on her total lack of clothes at the time.

I idly wondered, when I had a few moments to think, whether Isabel and I would have grown so close so fast, or indeed whether we would have met at all, if not for her nudity and online sexual work. It was just one of those things, I supposed. Relationships could be built on so many things, and yet so often were initiated because of horniness and desire. Surely there was a better way than that, even if it had worked out quite nicely for me this time.

Isabel stayed firmly by my side at first, either for my protection or her own comfort. Either was fine with me. After a while she ranged a little further, leaving me more and more on my own. I tried to silently convey that yes, I was doing fine on those occasions when she shot a glance at me to check in. She eventually went for a quick walk with her brother and her niece and nephew, promising she’d be back soon. I assured her I’d be ok in her absence.

Somehow, the number of people around dwindled quickly until it was just me and Isabel’s mom, Nancy. We still chatted away like we’d casually known each other for some time, rather than only just having met. It was fine, but I soon ran out of things to say without getting into insipid small talk.

“Hey, uh, you don’t mind if I step away for a minute for a smoke, do you?” I asked.

Nancy gave a small, impish grin. She looked around. “Don’t suppose I could bum one off you?”

I gave her a surprised look, then shrugged and offered her my pack for her to select one.

“I’m not supposed to, of course,” she said.

“Me either. That’s the thing about cigarettes.”

“Fair.”

We lit up and I got to watch Isabel’s mother draw a surprisingly smooth breath, then slowly exhale the smoke.

“Do you ever try to quit?” she asked conversationally.

“Um… I haven’t made a serious effort yet.”