Joining an online platform

After surfing the Net for a while, Anna stumbled on an online platform called Tumblr—at least, that’s how she thought it was pronounced.

At first, Anna decided to join as a single person but quickly threw that idea out of the window. What if her husband got to know about it? Wouldn’t that spell trouble for her?

Slowly she talked herself into not joining as a single woman but as a married woman. She would just talk to people and nothing else. It was not as if she would be cheating on her husband, right?

After completing the required stages of creating an account, Anna’s Tumblr profile was finally created, and she could see and add people.

She felt so happy because it would be her first time joining an online platform. She was so excited that she kept on adding and accepting friend requests simultaneously.

CHAT:HOLDER:Anna

CHAT:Unknown: *hello beauty *

Anna received a message from someone immediately after she accepted his request. Clicking on the profile, she saw that the person was as old as her husband, and she instantly blocked him.

What the hell!

She hadn’t joined an online platform to meet old geezers; she was already married to one, and she didn’t intend to ever have another as a friend.

Maybe she should just go and get a canvas and some other painting materials first, then she would come back to looking for friends.

Anna picked up the debit card her husband had left for her and left the mansion in blue jeans, a tank top, and sunglasses that she had recently gotten some weeks back when she had gone to get her phone.

When she got out and finally breathed in the air of London, she couldn’t help but feel the gush of loneliness wash over her again.

It was really nice to be outside among people, she thought after breathing in new fresh air.

Even though her husband had left his car for her to take anywhere she wanted to go, Anna couldn’t drive, so she had to order a ride from an app called Uber.

After a few minutes, a red Toyota car pulled up in front of their mansion, and Anna went closer to it after checking the plate number as instructed by the app.

“Mr. Christ?” Anna asked the driver in a low, melodious voice.

“Yes, ma’am, Raphael Christ.” The driver confirmed the name written on the Uber app, and Anna reluctantly entered.

With the way she was acting, all cautious and hesitant, even the driver was able to confirm that this was the first that his beautiful rider was experiencing their services.

“First time?” Raphael asked, bringing up a conversation to ease the stuffed atmosphere after setting G****e Maps to the destination the rider had submitted on Uber.

“Yeah, first time,” Anna replied awkwardly with a stiff smile, because she was shy and she wasn’t used to talking to people.

“You can feel relaxed. The system is better than before, and you will be safe if you follow all the necessary safety cautions set up by our company. This includes not entering the car until you confirm that the name and the plate number of your driver tally with the one on your phone,” Raphael advised.

Since she was a newbie, it was very necessary to take precautions and not end up getting kidnapped or something like that.

“Thank you,” Anna replied after a while, and she smiled gently at the driver in appreciation.

It was very rare to see someone that actually looked after other people in this day age, so Anna was happy that she had actually met a very generous driver on her first time booking a ride.

Maybe she should always book from Uber until she learned how to drive. She didn’t think her husband would want her to spend money on transportation after he left his car for her to use.

“Are we there yet?” Anna asked when she noticed that the journey was longer than she expected.

“No, ma’am. You are going to Diva’s Painting Shop, right? We will get there in a few minutes,” the driver replied after checking the map again.

Anna, who had no idea how far away the painting shop she had found online was, instantly became bored and decided to check her Tumblr to see if she had received new friend requests.

Scrolling through the new friend requests she had just seen, Anna blocked some and accepted some because honestly, most of them weren’t even what she wanted.

In fact, she didn’t know what she wanted.

In her mind, she had thought that she would meet the kind of men she had always read about in the romantic books that Maria always got for her in the bookstore, but she was very disappointed—until she came across a profile.

~“Dark, thirty, single, and ready to make friends. Don’t add up if you are not naughty,”~ she read to herself under her breath.

Because of the last write-up and also because of the handsome display picture she saw on the man’s profile, Anna decided to add him.

~Naughty? Am I naughty~? Anna thought as her cheeks instantly heated up, and she had to fan herself with her fingers in the air-conditioned car.

“Are you feeling okay, ma’am?” Raphael asked when he saw her action. He was genuinely concerned because he could see that her cheeks were getting red. “Are you comfortable?” he asked again.

“Yeah, I am. Thanks for your concern,” Anna quickly mumbled when she saw that she was overreacting.

Okay fine, she was definitely not naughty, but wasn’t it just an online chat? She could be anything she wanted since she wouldn’t be seeing him.

After sending a friend request, she saw that the man wasn’t online, so he couldn’t accept the request at the moment.

When Anna looked up, they had arrived at the painting shop. She quickly paid the driver and thanked him for his advice, then went inside the shop.

When she got to the canvas section, she saw that there were different types of cotton and polyester canvas, and she was suddenly confused about which one to buy. The price range was also hefty.

After selecting one with a medium price, she moved to the brush section to get painting brushes, rollers, spray guns, and many other things.

When she was finally done shopping, she requested another ride as she pushed the cart to pay for her goods.

When Anna got back home, after much consideration she set up her studio in a room that wasn’t far from the master bedroom.

Having totally forgotten about her phone or the fact that she was expecting a particular man to accept her friend request, Anna delved into painting.

Immersed in creating the image in her mind, Anna didn’t feel the time passing. It was already the evening when she could finally drop her brush and look at what she had created.

It was beautiful, she thought as she looked at her painting.

It was a picture of a young girl, her body filled with scars, about to accept the outstretched hand of a man, even though the man’s hand was filled with thorns.

While she was admiring her work, Anna’s stomach churned with hunger. That was when she recalled that she hadn’t eaten since she had left to get the new canvas, so she quickly went into the kitchen to prepare pasta for dinner.

It was when she was eating that she got a notification on her phone that said that her friend request had been accepted by the profile which said “Jackson Michaelson.”

She also saw that she had a pending request from another Michaelson, named Jacob.

She instantly became baffled. Was he the same person? Why did he open multiple accounts?

Anna ignored the other friend request, as the person on the display picture was the same person, until she received a message from her new friend Jackson Michaelson.

CHAT:HOLDER:Anna

CHAT:Jackson Michaelson: accept the other account pending request, so we can chat better.*

Was the other account private? Was that why he wanted her to accept? Anna wondered, and reluctantly accepted the request, then finally returned his chat.

CHAT:HOLDER:Anna

CHAT:Anna Danish: Accepted. Hi?*

Anna typed on her phone as she patiently waited for a reply, then she dropped her dish in the kitchen sink and went to take a shower.

After bathing and cuddling under her bed with a huge duvet around her naked body, Anna decided to open her Tumblr again, as she already saw that she had different messages from Jacob and also from Jackson.

~Why is he chatting with me on two different accounts? Is that, like, a new social media thing?~ Anna thought strangely as she opened the messages.