human | [kaylor] [au]

one;

"Karlie, when was the last time you let someone care for you, when you connected with someone without it being for work?" The mousy haired therapist leant forward, anticipating the woman's response.

The CEO sat with her back pressed against the leather chair and her arms crossed in front of her, "What does it matter?" She pushes.

The therapist sighs and pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Since, Josh left - "

"Do not say his name" Karlie's eyes turned cold,

"Since he left, have you had any sort of human touch? Platonically, romantically, anything? You know I wouldn't be saying this to you if I didn't know how important it is for you. Human touch is something we need to survive Karlie, it's not something I'm just saying for the sake of it." Karlie grumbles,

"I've survived nearly 14 months, Carol, I can survive without it." Carol sighed once again and placed her notepad on the coffee table in front of her, only to reach under it and pull out a business card,

"Karlie, I know you, and I know you believe you have to deal with everything yourself. But please, before our next session, please take this and at least look into it?" Carol reaches over to the icy blonde and holds out the light blue business card. Karlie eyes it suspiciously before unfurling her arms to take it.

The tall woman stands up and places the business card against her phone as she smoothes out her pencil skirt and goes to walk out of her therapists office, she faintly hears a 'please think about it, karlie' as she makes her way down the hall.

Her car drops her back to the Klossy&Ko head office, she wordlessly travels back up to her office and sits at her wide, glass desk. Floor to ceiling windows behind her showed all that is the upper east side, while in front of her is a very clinical feeling white-based design of two couches and bookshelves. The CEO sighs as she realises the time and that she shouldn't really be coming back here to work some more, but what else was there to do? Ever since Josh left, she had no one. Sure, she had her assistant, Edith, but anyone to talk to about more than schedules and coffee orders? Karlie was certainly lacking.

The blonde pulled out her phone from her purse, the pale blue business card from earlier flying out and landing across from her leather chair. Karlie's green eyes glanced over it, her gaze holding a little too long for her to deny her interest in the words on the card. Before she knew it, she was opening up a new tab on her personal laptop and typing in the website listed at the bottom of the card;

cuddlers.com

Karlie almost backed out, thinking about how juvenile and ridiculous just the URL sounded; but once the page loaded she couldn't tear herself away. Karlie looked through the entire FAQ and the code of conduct. Upon seeing the strict laws of confidentiality, the fact that all the 'cuddlers' were certified and had complete background checks, the guarantee of privacy and strictly platonic touch, the CEO wiped her sweaty palms on her skirt before minimising the tab and buzzing in her assistant.

"Yes, Ms Kloss?" Edith came bustling in, notebook in hand.

"Edith, its late, go home." Karlie spoke,

"You said I wasn't allowed to go until you - " the assistant mumbled,

"Well, now I'm saying go home. Go, before I change my mind." Edith wordlessly nods and heads back out the large double doors. Karlie watches the small woman leave and waits a few beats before re-opening the tab. Clicking the 'Book a Session' button, Karlie was again prompted by the site

Location: _________

Her hands shook a little as she delicately typed Upper East Side, NY. Soon, a plethora of 'cuddlers' were listed for the area. Karlie blinked back a little bit of shock at the amount, having never heard of this service before, she wasn't quite sure what to expect. The popularity of it shocked her, though she thought, it shouldn't have. Carol would never recommend something that wasn't legitimate and well known.

She scrolled for a bit, shuddering a little every time she came across a male 'cuddler', knowing then, that she had to go with a female. Just as the cuddler varied, their cost per hour varied, not that that was ever an issue for Karlie, but it did make her wonder if those who were more expensive were more trustworthy and 'in demand'.

As she scrolled longer she sighed to herself, if she was going to do this, she was going to do this tonight and get it over and done with. She clicked on the filter and changed her 'appointment date' to today, which immediately cut down the pool of candidates. It left her with two male and one female; the female looking to be around Karlie's age, soft wavy blonde hair hung by her face as she grinned, a cat in each arm. Karlie almost scoffed at that, but yet, she also found it endearing as she clicked on her profile.

Taylor Swift, NYC $90/hour

As Karlie read, she learned that the woman usually was only available on Wednesday – Saturdays, looking at the calendar she confirmed to herself it was only Tuesday, which was probably why she had an opening. Karlie read on, Taylor was an aspiring musician and currently worked as a barista at a café not too far away. She had three cats, one of which was a kitten she recently rescued from the streets, Benjamin. Karlie shook her head a little at the human-like names given to all three of the felines. When the CEO gets to the end of the profile, she hovers over the request session button for a minute, before pressing it. Karlie picks the slot for 8pm-9pm. In just under 2 hours, she feels doubtful that her request will be accepted. But, she just wants to get this over with, because as much as she could lie to Carol next session about having tried the service, she was a little too curious to go down her usual route.

Karlie fills in her details on the page, debating a bit before submitting a fake name, Elizabeth Preston. The last question on the page catches her a little off guard;

Is there anything your cuddler should know prior to your session?

Karlie hesitates again, before typing in her response

I haven't really had human touch in a while, I'm not sure how comfortable I'm going to be.

The blondes breath shudders as she clicks submit.