A Matter of Seconds

by Alyx

“Oh nooooo!”

The wail was heartfelt, and Lauren was startled out of her concentration. She’d been doing research for her latest children’s story and was deeply immersed in the habits of pelicans, when Danika’s exclamation drew her attention.

“Honey, what is it? What’s wrong?!” Lauren left her laptop and rushed to Dani’s studio, half expecting to find her agonizing over some ceramics piece gone wrong. Instead, she was staring at her phone with a dismayed expression.

“Bitcoin has tanked! And all the other cryptos are following suit!”

“Oh good grief, is that all? I thought that big vase you were working on had fallen on you or something!” Lauren rolled her eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘is that all’?! Honey, this could finance the house we want to buy, you do realize that!”

Lauren glanced over at her lover, whose work jeans were every shade of dusty paint imaginable. She even had a streak of clay on her cheek and dust in her hair. How does she manage to get so dirty? Lauren wondered, not for the first time. It’s like she rolls around in it or something!

She frowned. “Darling, aren’t you supposed to be working on that big commission? Why are you even looking at your phone in the first place?”

The expression in Dani’s blue eyes shifted from distressed to faintly guilty. “I am working on it,” she said quickly. “I was just taking a short break.”

Lauren narrowed her eyes and stepped into the studio. The large block of clay on the table in the center of the room was still covered by a damp towel. She raised a brow at Dani and held out her hand.

“Aww, honeyyy,” Dani complained. But she dutifully handed over her iPhone.

“Don’t you ‘honey’ me,” Lauren said sternly. “You knew we had a discussion about your focus. Or rather, lack thereof!” She put the phone in the pocket of her cardigan and made a twirling motion with her fingers. “Turn around, missy!”

Dani pouted, but turned around as ordered. Then yelped as four very hard swats landed on the seat of her tight denim work pants.

“How can your hand be so hard?” she complained as she rubbed her warmed bottom. “It’s not like you do any manual labor!”

“Keeping my brat focused on her work is manual labor enough,” Lauren snorted, dusting off her palms in satisfaction. “I’ll come back in an hour to check on you. And if your progress is sufficient you can have your phone back then.”

She walked back to her office to the sound of Dani grumbling, but she knew it was just for show. Her lover’s work ethic was as strong as her phone addiction, and she knew that after a few minutes of concentration Dani would be utterly absorbed in her creation.

As she sat down again before her laptop she gave a long-suffering sigh. Dani’s remark about the house they were hoping to purchase brought to the surface the frustration she’d been feeling. She’d hoped they would’ve been moved in together by now. Instead, she was on her fourth trip to Melbourne, and her pocketbook reflected it. Dani herself had been to Hawaii six times during that same period, so she’d spent even more. But finding just the right property was tricky. And it was complicated by the fact that whoever moved to be with the other wouldn’t just be leaving her apartment….she’d be leaving her country and her family behind as well.

Neither of them had a huge reserve of cash, but Lauren had had more of a “traditional’ employment record – and therefore more of a traditional retirement savings built up – than Dani did. While Lauren had the usual savings and IRA accounts, Dani had invested some of her money in cryptocurrency.

“It’s the wave of the future, babe,” Dani had assured her. “They say the old system of banking is going to crash one day, and your cash will be useless.”

“They’ve been predicting that forever, and it hasn’t happened yet,” Lauren replied drily. Though to be honest she didn’t have the greatest confidence in the financial system herself. As far as she was concerned the concept of money was just a collective hunch, and the stock market was just a big Ponzi scheme. She didn’t believe either would fail during her lifetime, but you never knew. In her opinion the best strategy was to both live in the moment and plan for the future in a carefully balanced way.

Part of her cynicism was based on the fact that she had a hard time grasping financial concepts to begin with. Economics had been the one class she’d failed in college, mainly due to lack of interest. Inflation, deficits, and depreciation seemed very much like stuff cooked up by rich people to acquire and maintain their wealth.

Dani, on the other hand, had a remarkably mathematical brain for an artist. And finance in particular interested her. It made for a good balance in their relationship, since Lauren wasn’t comfortable with some of the more risky (and therefore more profitable) investments that Dani was. Like bitcoin, for example.

“Isn’t bitcoin what drug dealers and porn sellers use to do business?” she had asked doubtfully, when Dani had first broached the topic.

“You’re thinking of the Silk Road,” Dani said, chuckling. “We’ve moved way beyond that, honey.”

“I thought the Silk Road was the ancient trade route that connected the East and West,” Lauren said, becoming even more confused.

“It was,” Dani explained patiently. “But it was also the name of an online black market that was part of the ‘dark web.’ They used bitcoins a lot on that site, and most of the dealings were for drugs.”

“Oh great, and this is the currency you want to invest in?!”

But in the end it was Danika’s money, earned from her art sales, and as they weren’t cohabiting yet or co-mingling their funds, Lauren didn’t really feel she had the right to forbid it.

“Promise me you won’t put all your money into it?” she asked.

“Don’t worry, honey,” Dani said. “I am only investing an amount I can afford to lose.” And Lauren had to be satisfied with that.

She recalled the day Dani had actually purchased the bitcoin, how excited and nervous she’d been. They’d been Skyping as they usually did every day, and Dani was describing her every move.

“Okay, I’m on the website now….here goes nothing.”

Lauren could hear the clicking of the keys as her lover punched in the information. Then there was a soft “ding” as a message arrived on Dani’s phone.

“I’ve got to go, babe,” Dani’s voice was urgent.

“Why? What’s happening?”

“I’ve only got two hours to make this transaction! And I’ve got to bring cash.”

“Do you have that much cash?” Lauren asked, frowning. Despite Dani’s assurances of the legitimacy of this currency, it sounded exactly like a drug deal to her.

“No, of course not! I don’t keep thousands of dollars in my apartment. But there’s a teller in the middle of the market.”

Lauren knew she was referring to the huge open air market near her apartment, as she had been there often when visiting. It was a wonderful place full of vegetable and vendor stalls, but she didn’t remember any banks there.

“A teller?? In which building??”

“What? No building, it stands alone!”

“Wait, are you talking about an ATM machine?”

“Yes, yes, an ATM!”

“Aussies have the weirdest expressions.” Lauren rolled her eyes. The miscommunication between two people who supposedly both spoke English was laughable sometimes.

“You mean Americans do. But I don’t have time to argue with you now, I have to get my bitcoin!”

“All right, all right, don’t panic. Call me as soon as you’re done?”

Dani agreed and rang off. While she was waiting, Lauren decided to do some research on this new interest of Dani’s. As much as she hated finance, she would feel more comfortable if she knew a bit more of what was involved. Thanks to Google, she learned that the “dark web” Dani had mentioned was on a part of the internet that was not indexed by search engines. The websites could only be accessed using special networks, such as TOR, which used encryption to provide anonymous browsing and hosting.

The darknet is also used for illegal activity such as illegal trade, forums, and media exchange for pedophiles and terrorists, Lauren read. She snorted. “Of course it is! Who else would be interested in complete anonymity?”

But it turned out lots of legitimate people were too – whistleblowers and dissidents of repressive governments, for example. One of TOR’s developers claimed that the most visited site on their network was Facebook.

“Huh. So I guess Dani has a point,” Lauren muttered to herself. “There may be times regular people just don’t want to be tracked. Goddess knows I can identify with that.”

Bitcoin, she discovered, was just the first and best known of a number of cryptocurrencies, so called because they use cryptography (code-writing and solving) to secure and verify transactions, as well as create more currency. The “public key, private key” encryption they talked about was something Lauren had come across in her work at the bank, and she knew it was considered nearly impossible to crack.

The inventor of bitcoin (a person or group using the name of Satoshi Nakamoto) created it as a type of peer-to-peer electronic cash system, which wouldn’t require users to put their trust in a central bank. Even though Lauren considered the company she worked for to be trustworthy, she could understand why people wanted to avoid big banks. They had certainly screwed a lot of innocent people in their quest for profit.

Next, Lauren looked up “blockchain,” because Dani was always talking about it. She found out it was basically just a ledger of the bitcoin transactions – each time the currency was bought or sold, it had to be verified, then it was packaged with other similar transactions in a “block,” and that block was added to the ledger. Because both the verification of the transaction and adding it to the ledger involved encryption, it was a secure way to maintain records. And the fact it was a distributed database – hosted on a large network of computers rather than in one place, with each computer having its own copy – it was less vulnerable to fraud as well.

“Geez, I haven’t studied this much since I left school,” Lauren sighed. She tore open the package of Tim Tams that Dani had sent her and munched on a heavenly chocolate-covered cookie as she read paragraph after paragraph.

I can understand why Dani’s so excited about this technology, Lauren found herself thinking, the deeper she got. It could be used to make all kinds of things more secure and efficient, not to mention cheaper! Crowdfunding, protection of intellectual property, land title registration, and stock trading were just a few of the transactions that were ripe for improvement by the blockchain process. “Though I’m pretty sure my love is mainly interested in the investment potential,” Lauren said wryly to herself. “Speaking of which, where the hell is she? It’s been 3 hours now!”

As if she’d been summoned by Lauren’s thought, a Skype hail from Dani popped up suddenly on Lauren’s screen.

“Finally! Did you get it?” Lauren asked, as soon as they were connected.

“Yes….hang on, baby, I need a drink.” She sounded rather frazzled.

“A drink?! What kind of drink?”

“A shot of Talisker.”

This was a brand of expensive single malt that Dani saved for special occasions, so Lauren became even more alarmed.

“Honey! Are you okay? What happened?!”

There was the sound of the whisky being poured, and then a healthy sip. When she finally spoke again Dani’s voice sounded a bit shaky.

“That was the oddest experience ever!”

“Did you get it? What the heck happened?!”

“Well, you know I had to order it online on this website, right? Then they send you a special QR code, and they tell you where to go to pick it up.”

“Right. Go on.”

“And you have to get it within 2 hours, and you have to pay with cash only.”

“Yes, yes, I know that part!” Lauren said impatiently. “And you were going to get it from the ATM in the market.”

“That’s the other thing! The market was closed today, so it was really deserted. I felt kind of nervous taking out that much cash, you know?”

“I can imagine!” Lauren said, frowning. “I hope no one was following you!”

“It almost felt like it,” Dani said, taking another gulp of her whisky. “It’s one of those really hot days, where the breeze is coming from the desert and the sky is all dark.”

“Oh yes, I know those,” Lauren said, with feeling. She remembered visiting Melbourne during the summer, when the wind was like someone aiming a blow dryer at her.

“So I was walking along, sweating like a fucker…”

Lauren clicked her tongue, though she’d learned early on that Aussies swore very freely.

“Sorry. I was sweating like crazy, walking really fast but trying not to look as nervous as I felt. And the day felt positively apocalyptic, with this searing desert breeze and me carrying a bag of cash!”

“Oh honey, I wish I’d been there with you!”

“Me too!” Dani said with feeling. She took another drink of whisky. “So there I was, walking through some dodgy alleys with the clouds gathering overhead, trying not to look like a target.” In spite of still feeling unnerved, she began to laugh. The surreal nature of the situation appealed to her sense of humor.

Despite her worry, Lauren had to join in. Dani could be so dramatic at times.

“So did you get it, or not?!”

“Hang on, I’m getting to that part!” Dani said, still chuckling. Lauren could hear her settling down on her bed to get more comfortable. “So I had to go to this tiny hole-in-the-wall of a news agency. There were dusty, yellowed newspapers all around…it was like some ancient shack.”

“What?! That’s where they sell the latest technology? Are you sure this place was legit?”

“That’s what I thought!” Dani said. “But there was this old guy behind the counter…I swear he looked like he’d been there for 700 years…and he’s looking at me waiting to see what I want. I said, ‘Uh…I have to pay for my bitcoin. Have you ever done that?’ And he rolls his eyes at me and says, ‘I do that ALL the time!'”

Lauren laughed. “Can’t judge a book by its cover, I guess!”

“Then he pulls out an iPad, scans the QR code on my phone, and comes up with a bill. I paid it, there was a couple of ‘dings’ and it went through. I opened up the ‘wallet’ on my phone, and it said there was one bitcoin inside!”

“Wow,” Lauren marvelled. “And that was it?”

“Well, except for the fact that I struggled home on shaky legs and had to pour myself a drink! I’m telling you, baby, it was so odd. It felt like such a dodgy process – associated with drugs and crime, and then that old geezer in his decrepit surroundings, selling this high-tech product!” She started giggling again at the incongruousness of it.

Lauren shook her head. “I’m just glad you’re home safe, baby. And no more buying dodgy currency unless I’m there with you!”

Thinking about that conversation several weeks ago, Lauren had to smile. Since that time, Dani had purchased a few other cryptocurrencies – such as Ethereum and Litecoin – though none had required the same dramatic procedure that that first purchase had. And if Lauren was slightly uncomfortable with the amount of time Dani spent on her new hobby, she had to admire her intrepid nature when it came to investing.

She checked her watch. “Okay, it’s been an hour and I haven’t heard a peep from her studio….I guess she’s earned her phone back.”

~~~~~

The next day started as it had every day of her visit, with Lauren being wakened by the sound of Dani’s You Tube videos.

“Do you listen to those reports every morning?” she asked with a yawn.

“Uh-huh,” Dani answered distractedly from the sofa in the living room. “I have to keep up with what the market is doing.”

“You know, if you spent as much time on your ceramics as you do researching cryptocurrency, you’d be rich by now!”

“Uh-huh,” Dani replied again, but it was clear she wasn’t really listening.

Lauren stirred herself from the warmth of the bed, quickly putting on a robe to protect herself from the cool winter air, though Dani had thoughtfully lit the gas heater for her. She sighed in pleasure as she slipped her feet into her Ugg boots, which were a deep steel blue and felt like standing in a field of cotton balls. “Simply heaven,” she murmured, not for the first time.

She could see Dani through the doorway, similarly attired in pajamas, robe, and boots, though her boots were covered in clay dust and paint splatters. Lauren settled on the sofa and snuggled up to her lover from behind.

“You ready for breakfast, honey?” She kissed the spot on the side of Dani’s neck where her hair was silkiest.

“Mmm, okay,” Dani agreed, closing her laptop and turning to put her arms around Lauren. They shared a long sweet kiss. “But first I need some coffee.”

“Of course you do,” Lauren said, watching as her girlfriend assembled her espresso coffeepot and set it on the stove. Dani claimed that Italians and Aussies made the best coffee, and that Americans could learn a thing or two from them. Lauren couldn’t argue with that, since she didn’t drink coffee herself. It sure seemed as if Dani went to a lot more trouble than using the drip coffee makers that were so familiar in Hawaii. “What was the last video you were watching talking about? Something about a ‘bot’?”

“Oh, yes, I wanted to tell you about that!” Dani said, her eyes lighting up. “Honey, I’m going to get one!”

“A bot? I thought a bot was malware,” Lauren frowned.

“Not that kind of bot, baby. A trading bot! It’s a program that will help me track the market and buy or sell automatically. That way I won’t have to monitor it constantly, you see?”

“I see,” Lauren nodded. “You want some banana in your cereal?”

“No, thanks…it’s too ripe. You can have it.”

Lauren looked at the perfectly ripe banana in her hand, and shook her head. Dani only liked the fruit when it was just a touch green. “Artists are so weird,” she murmured to herself.

“So what do you think?” Dani added milk to her cereal as Lauren spooned yogurt onto hers.

“Well, I’m definitely in favor of something that will lessen the time you spend playing with your bitcoin,” she said, licking the yogurt off her spoon. “Is it going to cost much?”

“They have some free ones, and that’s what I’m going to use first. I have to learn how to program it, see….”

She continued on, excitedly talking about her plans for the future, and Lauren nodded attentively. But as terms such as “arbitrage,” “EMA” and “MACD line” started being thrown about, Lauren began to mentally glaze over. It was just like discussing grammar – no matter how hard she tried to follow it, her mind refused to take it all in.

“That’s nice, honey. Sounds like a good idea.”

~~~~~

Perhaps if Lauren had followed along more closely, she would’ve had an inkling of just what Dani was letting herself in for. In the days that followed, far from taking up less of her time, her cryptocurrency obsession seemed stronger than ever. Except now it was this bot that took up all of her time.

“For something that’s supposed to automate things, it sure seems to require a lot of attention,” Lauren complained, as she watched Dani frowning over her computer. “If bitcoin is the technological future, why’s it so ‘manual’?”

“That’s just for now, baby,” Dani reassured her. “These are the beginning stages, but the future will be another story! It’s going to change the world!” She had a gleam in her eye as she began to rhapsodize over the potential of blockchain technology, and Lauren decided it was a good time to go start dinner.

They watched some Netflix that night, snuggled in bed together, and Lauren was happy. In spite of Dani’s little quirks, the quiet moments with her lover made everything worth it. She drifted off feeling very lucky.

Only to be jarred awake at 2:00 a.m. by the insistent beeping of an alarm, and Dani swearing.

“Wha?! What’s happening?” Lauren shot up in bed, her heart pounding. “Is it a fire?!”

Dani continued to fumble in the dark, and finally located her laptop under the bed. “No, sorry, it’s the alarm I set. I need to be alerted when the price of bitcoin makes drastic changes, so I can turn off the bot.”

Lauren was shaking off the last of her grogginess, but couldn’t quite believe her ears. “You set an alarm to notify so you can make changes to your automated process?! Do you hear yourself?? Can you hear how little sense that makes?!”

In the light of the computer screen, Dani’s expression was sheepish. “Yeah, I know it sounds daft,” she began, typing frantically, “but until the bot is fine-tuned I can’t have it making bad trades. I could lose a lot of money! It’s kind of a red alarm situation.”

Lauren began growling, which should’ve warned Dani, had she not been concentrating on her program. She didn’t see her girlfriend reaching under her side of the bed and bringing out the black leather paddle which was Lauren’s favorite implement.

“I’ll give you a red alarm situation,” Lauren said grimly, grabbing Dani by the ear and pulling her over a strategically placed pillow.

“What?! Wait a minute! You don’t understand!” Dani began frantically.

“Oh I understand,” Lauren assured her as she pulled down Dani’s pajama bottoms. “What I understand is, you are driving me crazy with your stupid bitcoin!” She lifted her paddle and brought it straight back down on the fullest part of Dani’s bared bottom.

“Ow! Hon-ey! That’s not fair! It’s not my fault the market is volatile!”

“I’ll show you volatile!” Lauren said, lifting the paddle high and bringing it down with a loud crack. She ignored the way her girlfriend’s bottom jerked in pain, and began peppering the entire surface with hard whacks. “I’ll show you explosive, and combustible, and ignitable, and incendiary, and inflammable….”

“Ow! Baby, wait! Damn it, why do you have to have a writer’s vocabulary?!” Dani was squirming in bed, trying to avoid the worst of the smacks. How come her girlfriend was so wide awake when she was sound asleep just a moment ago?

“I’ve had enough, do you hear me?! You will NOT be setting any more alarms that wake us up in the middle of the night!” She was winding down now, swatting slower but stingier.

“Yes, I mean no, I won’t have any more alarms, I promise!” Dani said. “The bloody bot wasn’t working anyway,” she grumbled, rubbing her flaming backside. “I’m better off doing it myself.”

“I don’t care what you do, as long as it stops being such an obsession! I’m glad you have a hobby, but not every waking moment!” She rested the leather against Dani’s tender skin. “It’s not going to take over our lives, is that clear?!”

Dani herself must’ve been more groggy with sleep than she thought. Because to her horror she heard the following words come out of her mouth: “Okay, okay….but you would’ve been the first one to spend the money if we got rich!”

Oh shit, she thought, in the ominous silence that followed. What have I done?

Lauren took a deep breath. She put down the paddle carefully. She liked to use her hand for what she was about to do – it curved and molded to all the most sensitive areas. Without a word, she raised her palm and brought it down swiftly to land on the innermost cheeks of Dani’s buttocks. The howl that followed told Lauren that her aim had been true. Once more her hand rose and fell, scorching the delicate skin, twice…three times…four…five…..

Dani began babbling her apologies, agreeing with Lauren’s request, promising anything to end the spanking. But the roasting of her inner ass cheeks didn’t stop till ten unyielding whacks had been delivered, and she was whimpering in submission.

“Good, I’m glad we agree,” Lauren said with satisfaction. She pulled up Dani’s pjs, stuck the paddle back under the bed, and closed her girlfriend’s laptop. “Bed,” she instructed, as Dani gladly put away her computer and lay down on her side.

Lauren spooned her from behind, putting her arm around her waist and feeling the heat against her midsection from Dani’s well-punished bottom. It was her favorite way to fall asleep. And she knew Dani, for all of her complaints, would sleep very soundly as well.

“They ought to invent a bot that monitors you brats,” Lauren yawned into Dani’s ear. “There could be an alarm to remind tops when a spanking is due.”

Dani groaned. “Honey, that’s not funny!” But she began to giggle in spite of herself, which made Lauren giggle as well.

It was the perfect way to fall asleep, and Lauren had the sweetest dreams about them living together one day. But that’s a story for another time. 😉

The End