The Cam Girl

'Would you like to know the baby's gender?'

'Yes.' Jarno and Mackenzie replied together, which was unexpected since they'd never talked about it.

'Well, in that case, let me offer you my congratulations on your future little girl.'

'If her teenage years are anything like mine,' Mackenzie said, once Jarno and her were outside in the car park, copies of the ultrasound in their hands. 'you are not going to be very peaceful in your thirties...'

'Peaceful is overrated.' Jarno told her, kissing her head as they walked. 'Besides, I was kind of hoping my first kid would be a girl.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, I'm curious to see how different the childhood years are going to be, since my family has a history of having boys almost exclusively. Must have been your side that tipped it over. Oh, almost forgot, do you have a driver's license?'

'Yeah...?' She responded, curious.

Wordlessly he handed her something small that he'd gotten from his pocket. It clinked when it fell into her palm.

'If you're not too busy I was hoping you could drive us somewhere, because I wanted to show you something.'

'Yeah, Jarno? Are we not going to discuss the thing that you just gave me?'

Mackenzie was still following him, though she wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings since Jarno had deposited the red car keys in her hand. He had a self-satisfied grin on. She realized they'd stopped and looked in front of her. In front of them, reflecting the few late afternoon rays of sunlight, was a red car that had the same black horse badge on its front as the one on the key he'd handed to her.

'Holy shit!' She said, loud enough to turn the heads of the people that weren't already staring at the red Ferrari. 'Wh- what? How? Why?'

Jarno smiled, looking as though it was the reaction he'd been hoping for.

'Well, one of the perks of driving for Ferrari is that, as it turns out, no one wants to say no when I go into any dealership and ask to take one out for a spin...' He winked, heading to the passenger side door. 'Come on, unlock it.'

Mackenzie clicked the button on the keys and got into the driver's seat, the last one taking quite a lot of time both due to her pregnancy and how low the car was.

Once she closed the door behind her she was greeted by the sight of black leather with red stitching everywhere. There were also a few patches of another material that she identified from a documentary as carbon fibre. The steering wheel was covered in buttons. A yellow analogical rev counter was in the middle of the display. There were flappy paddles for gear changes, there was... a lot to take in.

'Okay,' Jarno leaned towards her. 'traction control is fully on, automatic gearbox is engaged, the turning signals aren't levers they're right there next to where your thumbs go on the wheel. Any questions?'

'Ah... Why is the steering full of buttons?'

'To make sure your fingers don't fumble over anything when you're changing gears they put all the tasks that usually are in the levers on the steering wheel. Like in an F1 car. See, the philosophy behind it is that it's for your driving pleasure, so your hands almost never have to leave the wheel- what?'

'Does it make noise and go fast like every other Ferrari?' Mackenzie asked, raising an eyebrow.

'I, well, yes, but it does it in this really cool way...' He tried to make sure she understood the importance of it, to no avail. 'Fine, put your seatbelt on and let's go.' Jarno gave up with a childish pout.

Starting the engine up was incredibly cool. It grunted into life, making her feel the vibration through the seat, before settling back down on its revs. To her it was as if a tiger's leash had been handed to her. It was both exciting and terrifying.

But she soon realised the tiger liked to play the part of a kitten as well. Reversing it out of the car park, driving through the city traffic... These things it made sure were as easy and manageable as doing so in a small Fiat. She was so in awe of what she was driving she hadn't even payed attention to what address Jarno had placed in the satnav. Whatever it was, it took her away from the city for a few miles.

At one point, she voiced her tiger gone kitten thought to Jarno. He said nothing until they got to a long straight empty road.

'Put your foot straight down for about five seconds. You have enough time to slow back down.'

Mackenzie did exactly that and instantly gasped. Her back was suddenly pushed onto her seat, and a deafening sound came from just behind her head where the engine was, as the revs climbed. Two gear changes and it was still inviting her to continue, however Jarno had said five seconds and so she lifted her right foot and let herself go back down to the speed limit.

'You can forget that it has sharp teeth and claws.' Jarno told her, as she recovered from the exhilarating feeling. 'But it won't.'

Just after the corner that followed this remark, Jarno pointed to an entry gate which was open and Mackenzie drove inside. A man in his sixties appeared and headed to the driver's door. As he approached he seemed to realise Jarno wasn't driving and went around to his side.

Jarno opened his window and the man leaned in, before shaking hands with him.

'Merlo, I was expecting you wanted the place to yourself actually...'

'Thought I'd share the experience. Hawkins, Mackenzie.' She shook his extended hand.

'Well,' Hawkins said. 'everything is ready, so for half an hour it's all yours.'

'Thank you.' Jarno replied, as the other man took his leave into a garage to the right.

'Where are we?' Mackenzie asked, not comprehending what the two were talking about.

'Can you spot where we are?'

She followed his extended finger and finally properly looked to her left. The road she thought was a road wasn't actually one. The white markings on the asphalt of a pit straight gave it away. It was a race track. Not a very modern one, but one with a smooth surface.

'No way! You want me to drive this on a track!?'

'If you feel up for it, yes.'

Mackenzie looked at him, still amazed at this turn of events.

'You know what, no.'

'No?' Jarno asked, looking surprised, his smile faltering.

'No, you've seen me doing what I do best at my job, now it's your turn. Show me what it's like to take this to the edge.'

'Alright!' He said, almost jumping out of his seat. She took a little longer to get out and go to the passenger side, noticing his happy skip and the childlike excitement etched on his face.

To her left, Jarno adjusted the seat position and started to fiddle with the steering wheel buttons.

'I'm turning off the traction control and putting it on manual gearbox again.'

'Why turn the traction control off...?'

'It's going to try and be too smart for its own good. It's going to ignore some of my throttle inputs because it thinks they're a bad idea.'

'I mean, he was designed by Ferrari, he ought to be smart enough to know...' Mackenzie observed.

'It's designed to make sure the average millionaire doesn't think he's Schumacher and suddenly find himself in a wall. We can go much faster without its help.' Jarno said, smiling in a cocky way.

'You know,' She said as the engine rumbled and he placed it neatly in one of the white markings on the ground. 'smug isn't a look that I find particularly attractive on you...'

Jarno rolled his eyes, before turning forwards again and putting his foot on the throttle. Unlike her, he wasn't concerned about being kind. There was a loud squeal of rubber on tarmac and Mackenzie's every organ inside her (plus baby) dislocated slightly backwards as the car launched itself forwards.

The numbers in front of the wheel that indicated speed were climbing too fast to positively say how fast they were going. When they climbed a little slower she realised it was still useless to her: it was in kilometres. Whatever three hundred of those an hour was, they reached them before Jarno braked for the first corner.

The Ferrari gave out a loud tyre squeal throughout the entire corner and twitched nervously, clearly on the edge of losing grip. But it didn't.

For three laps Jarno drove to the limit. Every corner they reached made Mackenzie think he was going too fast to be able to make it. The car jerked, made more noise, violently made the rear try to make them lose control and every time Jarno's hands moved lightning fast, his feet danced across the pedals and it grudgingly fell back in line. It was incredible.

'Everything okay?' Came his shouted question after those three laps.

She laughed loudly as he went through a fast corner. He seemed to understand that was a yes. His face was a curious mixture of concentration and childish amusement as his focus shifted entirely to the task at hand.

'See? If I had traction control, he would have made me slow down just now. I mean, I'm obviously wearing the tyres out much more aggressively, but there's something to be said about understeer versus oversteer when setting up-'

'Oh my God! Stop! Stop!'

Very quickly the brakes sprang into action, slowing them down from at least one hundred and fifty miles an hour to a standstill.

Jarno instantly turned to her, deep concern filling his features even further when he noticed Mackenzie had her hands frenetically searching her abdomen.

'Gimme your hand, gimme your hand! Quick!' She told him grinning wildly. It seemed to both ease his concern and puzzle him but he let her guide his hand to her skin, where she moved it around until his face shifted into an incredulous smile. 'She's finally kicking!'

'But are you okay, does it hurt more than normal?'

'By normal you mean all the other times a human being has poked her foot on my skin from inside me?'

'Just...' Jarno made a face at her. 'Do I race to a doctor or not?'

'No, I'm good. And I think it was the racing bit that did it. It got her and me excited... Maybe you're going to have a successor when you retire! Have there been women in F1?'

'Yeah, but only five in actual races. The really good female racers tend to refuse to get sponsors that make them do shitty vaguely sexist crap so they don't usually get to the top.' He replied, only seemingly half aware of what he was saying, his eyes glued to where his hands were caressing Mackenzie's skin.

Mackenzie had no idea if the baby could be aware of her father's caresses yet, but it was sure making her feel goose bumps at her spine. It was at that point Mackenzie also became aware she had no longer referred to the parasite by its previous name in her own mind ever since she'd been told the sex of the baby.

Her left hand ran through Jarno's curly black hair softly. He looked up, beaming at her.

'Could you bring her when you visit? I mean, not every time, but a couple of them, or... something. I don't know... I'm sorry, I'm an undecided fucking mess...'

She felt foolish at her sudden impulse to say what she did, but took a little comfort from the fact that his hands never stopped rubbing her rhythmically.

'You're an amazing fucking mess, for the record. And I have something to show you in response to that. Mind making a detour on the way home?'

'Okay...' Mackenzie replied, not understanding what he could possibly show her and worried by him not giving her an answer.

Without another word Jarno turned his attention back on the road and drove them into the pitlane and back to the gates of the circuit, stopping just long enough to explain to Hawkins that everything was okay with them despite the sudden braking. From there, he drove calmly until they were back in the city before heading downtown. Just shy of it, he headed into a street where he went into one of the skyscraper's garage entries.

Parking into a slot that appeared to belong to the inhabitant of one of the apartments, Jarno took her hand and led her into an elevator. Once the doors closed, he punched in a floor as well as a number which Mackenzie thought to probably be an unlock code. They rose for quite some time before the doors opened and she exited unprompted, looking around.

It was a vast open space with a high ceiling, windows that went from bottom to top with the exception a slightly lower left corner that appeared to be perfect for placing some sofas around a flat screen. There was no furniture. With a quick glance up she realised there was an upper balcony of sorts behind her with doors to what she assumed would be bedrooms.

Silently, Mackenzie walked to the windows and admired the skyline, as the setting sun was becoming hidden by the surrounding buildings, despite the fact that the apartment was higher up than most of them.

'So, what do you think?' Jarno asked, standing just behind her.

'This is amazing! But, what is this?'

He appeared to be carefully choosing his words.

'This is a place I have just bought to make sure I don't have to abuse your hospitality. And Hailey's.'

'But why? You know we like you in our...' Mackenzie's lips twitched in amusement. '... hospitality.'

'I know.' Jarno smiled, looking down in his usual shyness. 'But just in case you don't, that is, if we're not together sometime in the future, I want you to know that I'm still going to be here every chance I get with the parasite because I'm keeping my promise. You can be as present or not present as much as you want in our daughter's life.'

She watched his eyes attentively, his kind brown fading into green eyes.

'Is that even remotely practical for you?' Mackenzie asked, tonelessly.

'Fuck practical.'

He meant it, she could tell.

'You win.' Two tears rolled down her eyes slowly. 'Okay? You win. Fine, I'm fucking in love with you.'

'You...?' Jarno looked as though he'd been hit over the head with something heavy.

'Yes. Enough "I really like you" euphemisms. I'm in love with you.' She looked defiant, as if daring him to mock her for saying it. 'Happy?' She added, the defiant effect slightly ruined by a loud sniff.

With a sigh Jarno tucked a few strands of her purple hair behind her ear, his other hand at the small of her back.

'Mackenzie,' He whispered against her lips. 'I've been in love with you since you were bullshitting your way through explaining the Battle of Little Budapest.'

Her relieved laugh never left her because he was instantly kissing her with passion, as if he could never get enough of the taste and feel of her. Mackenzie reacted in the same fashion. For the first time in her life she knew exactly how it was like to feel that way about someone and she was sure as hell going to let Jarno know about it.

///////////////

Shaking his head like a dog, Jarno managed to remove most of the whiteness from his hair. His black curls became visible once more as the snow fell off. Searching his pockets for the keys and humming happily to himself with the hand that wasn't holding the heavy groceries, he finally managed to enter Mackenzie's building.

It was December and his new apartment wasn't furnished, still. Mackenzie was helping him decide, looking up 1001 catalogues and giving him a review of each. It was a lot of fun but the progress was slow, so whenever he was in town he was still crashing at her place helping out with the groceries. It had the added benefit of Hailey joining in on the fun, so much so that the previous day all three of them hadn't left the apartment even once, enjoying the warmth of the heating and their bodies.

He was far too high on happiness to even care about the sounds of someone in one of the apartments having a row. Climbing the stairs, the noises of the altercation started to rise and he thought to himself that either Mackenzie's apartment had good sound isolation or this was a rather unusual event for the building. When he was about to reach the right floor, the words reached him.

'We have let this shame our family name for far too long! If she wanted to prostitute herself alone, fine! But I will not allow my future grandchild to be raised in a whorehouse!'

'I don't give to shits what you want. You are not welcome here. Get out!'

'Believe me, I take no pleasure in being here... We have arranged a good marriage to stop this abomination immediately! A good man, willing to look past her disgusting past. Now move, so she can come with us!'

'You lay a finger on her and I will fuck you up!'

A heavy footstep followed by the unmistakable sound of someone's fist making contact with a person reached Jarno's ears as he raced to the door of Mackenzie's apartment, the groceries dropped instantly. The door was slightly open and he pushed it wide. There were four people in front of him. A man and a woman he didn't know, but could very easily guess who, were with their backs to him. Hailey had her fists raised and pure fury etched on her features as she stood in front of them, Mackenzie behind her curled into a ball, her arms desperately covering her large belly and pure fear in her eyes.

Hailey had hit his nose hard enough to make Mackenzie's father take two steps back but he raised his fist to retaliate. Feeling his blood boil, Jarno grabbed the man's wrist and pulled it back on itself, taking savage pleasure in the cracks that made themselves heard.

Grabbing the back of his neck, Jarno pulled him back, in practice switching their position, as he was now the one in front of Hailey, albeit with his back to her. He felt Hailey's movement more than he saw it and grabbed her arm before she tried anything and made her get behind him. For once she obeyed him and didn't move after he let go of her.

Jarno quickly scanned the two unwelcome people, trying desperately to stop his hands from shaking due to his anger. The man was very thin with tiny eyes, wincing in pain on the floor where he'd fallen. The woman looked as though someone had described Mackenzie to an untalented painter: the similarities were there to see, but they lacked all of the beauty that her daughter possessed. She had her nose flared like an eagle when he'd entered, as if she was too dignified to look at either of the two girls. His hatred for her passive self-righteousness even outweighed his hatred for the poison her husband had shouted.

'Get up.' Jarno commanded the man, his voice filled with contempt but not shouted.

The man got up, filled with outrage, and Jarno could see him prepare to shout more garbage but instead his jaw twitched and he seemed unsure. He was a natural bully that had found someone bigger than him, and, like in all cowards, his bravado dissipated.

'I told you to get up,' Jarno spoke just above a whisper but clearly made himself heard to everyone in the room. Anger never made him shout, it made him icy cold. 'because I want you to see that I've got six inches on you and you're giving up at least forty pounds. I'm not a five foot six girl. Raise your hands above your hips and I will knock you the fuck into next week.'

He seemed to shrink before him and all thoughts of speaking appeared to have fled. Jarno took a step forwards until his head was right alongside the man's ear. His eyes found the woman's who seemed unwilling to do anything to help her husband.

'If you ever get anywhere near either my friend, the mother of my child or my daughter ever again I will stab you in the heart.' It wasn't a threat, it was a promise, so he still didn't elevate his tone from the icy murmur. 'Get. Out.'

They both moved to leave fast, neither looking back. It would have been comical if Jarno hadn't just had to actually fight a very powerful urge to choke the life out of them moments before. He turned back, noticing Hailey still looking at the open door with the same angry glare he probably had on his face as well.

'Let's check if they've really left.' Jarno suggested, his voice back to normal.

'I got it.' Hailey replied, and repeated the path their unwelcome guests had just gone through.