Yawning, he noticed the flashing yellow at the bottom of the chat window.

Once, twice,
he clicked on the tab to see what his boss wanted.

new girl. 1 hour.specifically asks for you, the boss said.

He blinked once, twice, and said ok. While he often got returning clients for satisfactory
customer service, he would not have been surprised by new orders either. A week ago, he
presented an in-class presentation for the term project for his Sexual Diversity course. After his
recent blatant advertisement of his stint as an escort in the Second Life metaverse, he was almost
certain he had ‘entertained’ at least a few of his classmates rather intimately, if not passionately.
Switching over to his Internet radio, he changed the station to sensual Portishead to set the
mood. He moved his avatar to the fireplace in the Arabian-themed room. As his avatar sat down
on the deep gold-embroidered loveseat on the striped Bengal tiger rug, he checked out his
appearance to make sure nothing looked out of place.

She waited for the grey to fade away into rich red and gold, hoping the furniture and
especially that flat image of a stranger to rezz slower by the second. She was not sure she could
do this after all, yet the moment her best friend Leah heard Jason Matthew Lee was an escort
named JadeVon Aspen in an even more bizarre-sounding virtual environment, Leah signed her
up for an account (Melissa GossipGirl, what kind of name is that?) and sent her all the sexiest
transferable skins, clothes, hair, pronto.

“You won’t regret it.” Leah grinned as she hovered over behind her desk chair.

“Okay, now get out,” she said, biting her grin, her mind having trouble digesting the
information overload. Leah chuckled, some keys rustled, and the door shut close. Silence ensued.

first time?

She swung her avatar around and stopped breathing for a moment. There he laid,
JadeVon Aspen, lean and built, relaxing against a luxurious velvet gold couch in silky long
Arabian pants. His body was tan with a glimmer of gold from the fireplace, his seemingly firm
torso crowned by rich, thick black hair. My Aladdin, she attempted to breathe.

How did you know? she asked.

first, he smiled. you have no AO, or Animation Override. Second, you look too pretty for
Day 1. There came no reply but he knew he made her smile, and hopefully blush. It was always
the blush that got them.

What if I just happen to be a genius? She smirked. She was not about to give him the
satisfaction of being smug, even though, her cheeks felt rather warm.

JadeVon Aspen stands up and strides over the plush carpet floor to the dark brunette by
the entrance way. His lips slightly parted, he holds her gaze with his unyielding blue eyes. He
cements himself 3 ft. away from his fair princess in midnight black, mysteriously sheer and lacy
around the breasts; o’ how the perky ones call for his warm fingers to rip their cage apart!

Melissa GossipGirl laughs.

JadeVon Aspen: So the girl knows to emote.

Melissa GossipGirl: So the man knows to observe.

JadeVon Aspen gently put a finger on Melissa’s rosy lips for a full second. As he
attempts to tug at her soft bottom lip to pull her in, his lingering breath tingles her moist bottom
lips with warmth.

She closed her eyes. She did not think she could feel this much fluttering heat through
something as abstract as the Internet. She parted her eyes slightly to glimpse at her avatar.
Melissa looked like a 20-year-old, leggy, and well-proportionated with wavy red locks. Would
21-year-old handsome Jason Matthew Lee have went as far as he was going if he knew she was
that short, bottomless, brunette stick of a 30-year-old at the back of the class?

JadeVon Aspen: Are you there?

She shut her eyes once more. Concentrate, she commanded herself. Be in character, she
remembered. Back in those barely-lit classrooms during drama practices, she always told herself
again and again how she was strong and beautiful and carried herself just like a tall elegant
woman, perhaps from the 50s, like Audrey Hepburn with the exoticness of Bai Ling, who doesn’t
say much and cares even less, for she’s preserving herself, she has been keeping herself, just for
the right one, and now she has found him…

Melissa GossipGirl curls her lips; her eyes smiled. She pulls back, gesturing the awaiting
satin black four-poster bed behind them with her ruby head, all while she interlocks a tango of
courtship with fascinated dark eyes. Come, she mouths. When Jade didn’t seem to move, she
whispers, “please”.

His pupils dilated, his balls a little heavy; both grew more interested by the moment. He
was hit by a sudden awe of her dissimilarity and her immaculate articulation that reeks of sex
appeal (most people he had encountered could not write well, sadly). A conquest? Something
genuine? He was unsure. All he knew was that her actions, demeanor, and answers were now
almost unpredictable. Almost.

He knew he was wanted. Still, he was amused. There was nothing like her before. Maybe
she knew that too.

The white glow of their laptops reflected against their contemplative smiles.
 JadeVon Aspen moved surely towards the enticing redhead. As she walked backwards, he
lifted her small chin and graced her lips, sucking on the naughty bottom very lightly. Tipping her
over onto the plush sheets as he devoured her delicate mouth, the curtains slipped to a close,
trapping them in the night enclave.

Melissa GossipGirl moans softly, feeling the weight of Jade’s body against her soft flesh.
She shivers as she feels her lace corset unbuttoned and unwrapped by raw fingers, even more so
when she thought she could almost touch a large solid bulge down south with her wandering
hands. With bare tender breasts and come hither eyes, she watches Jade’s face wordlessly as he
pauses.

Silence.

JadeVon Aspen caresses your face.

JadeVon Aspen: You’re beautiful.

She blushed. As she slowly traced the little buttons on her keyboard, her eyes hardly
blinked as they lapped up all the little details on the screen, both significant and insignificant.
Her mind whirred. She could hardly believe what she was capable of writing. Was she lying or
actually being herself? She has never found this side of herself before. A steady breath. There
was almost nothing to suggest her next course of actions, no notes for reference.

Melissa GossipGirl: Can we stop here?

JadeVon Aspen: is there something wrong?

Melissa GossipGirl: No..just..I’m new at this…

JadeVon Aspen: i know,and i almost forgot about that. you were really good, actually.

Melissa GossipGirl: Really?

JadeVon Aspen: really. i actually felt turned on. any longer and i might actually get a
hard on lol

Melissa GossipGirl: lol.

Melissa GossipGirl: actually, i’m here on a class project. hope you don’t mind.

JadeVon Aspen: not at all. what class is it?

She blinked, her body static. Here goes nothing, she thought.

Melissa GossipGirl: It’s a sociology course called Sexual Diversity.

 He smiled at his screen. Knowing that someone could actually write the way she did felt
liberating. What was more intriguing was that she existed in his class. He finally allowed his
lonely heart to admit that he did miss dating.

Finally, he thought, and wondered how she would sound like in person.

One ring. Two rings. She tried to mask the zealous smile in her voice with a nonchalant
“Hello”. As she silently thanked God for a sweet and youthful voice, she proceeded with
inquiries of his health, career, ideals, perception, and what on Earth got him to have a ‘Second
Life’. They shared random sentiments towards the citizens of the world. She listened. He
listened.

The bronze ceiling fan languidly whirred as the conversation became silent. The room
felt cool and warm at the same time.

“You’re really something else, you know that?” he said.

“How so?”

“Your views, your perceptions, your understanding, the way you speak, act…everything.
You’re just…different.”

Her lips curled. She did not know how to react to a statement like that. “Thank you”
sounded a bit curt to her.

“How could I have never spoken to you before?” He asked.

She giggled. What a pleasure it was to feel so young, for she was 20 and hopeful all over
again. She wished the night would never end.

They said nothing. The slow ticking of the clock on her dressing table kept the silence
alive. They could feel the heat exuding from the mouthpiece. They did not mind it at all.

“You know, I’m just about four centimeters away from you,” she said.

“It’s probably about eight,” he said. “Four from your side, four from mine…Right now,
it’s almost like we’re whispering into each other’s ear…”

“Without the phone…you’ll be right next to me.”

Silence. The fan whirled at the pace of their heartbeats. One ear chased the other,
oblivious to the stillness of the warm night.

“I should have met you a lot earlier.” His voice was soft. Suddenly, the room did not
seem so dark anymore. Her heart smiled aglow. But it was a painful smile, because she knew that
tone—it was the tone of impossibility, foreseen by hindsight.
 “Likewise.”

He was now infatuated with her. Again, she knew that. In the past, men fell for her quite
quickly yet they could never be together, no matter how much she wanted.

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

Perhaps, this time would be different.

“After class? I’m working.”

It has been so long since she felt something real; something close to what she wanted.

“When are you free?”

And so she did not want to care anymore.

“I should be free around three.”

Outside her room, she could hear the grinding of wheels against the cracked marble floor.
It was the locomotive she bought her 5-year-old for his birthday, the toy the boy so wanted for
months; his holy grail.

The boy happily pushed the English train across the living room, oblivious to the speed
and momentum. Now was all that mattered to him. Ignorance is bliss.

Yet, little did it occur to him that one moment of oblivion could end the smooth journey
in a crash, with his mother’s prized vase.

A collision of dreams.