Elaine

Appearance Details

• Height: 5'6"
• Age: 47
• Hair: Dark brown, almost black in low light, just past the shoulders, usually half-clipped back; silver at the part and in two streaks at the temples, undyed, frizzes at the crown on humid days
• Eyes: Warm brown, lighter and clearer than Ari’s, with deep creases at the outer corners when she smiles; faint line between the brows; soft shadows underneath, usually covered
• Skin: Light olive with a permanent Miami tan across the nose, chest, and forearms; freckles and sun spots she stopped covering; fine lines at the eyes and mouth
• Body: Curvy and solid, full bust, DD-cup breasts, soft waist, wide hips, thick thighs from walking and hauling groceries, recently started waxing her cunt; weight through the middle and hips; soft but capable arms
• Clothing: Linen or cotton blouses in cream, soft blue, or faded black; dark jeans or a knee-length skirt; flat sandals. At home, an old university T-shirt and shorts. Tinted moisturizer, mascara, and a coral-brown lip that wears off by afternoon
• Other: Thin gold wedding band (started taking it off when going out by herself); short clean nails; small burn scar on one index finger; smells like laundry detergent, coffee, and citrus hand soap

Origin

Elaine grew up in Miami and was working hotel front desks when she signed up for a community-college accounting class in 1999 to get out. Kenji Sakamoto was in the same night class, new enough to the city that he still got lost south of the river. She lent him a pen, corrected his bus route, and they dated the slow way: weeknight dinners, weekends at the beach, a standing argument about his hours. He proposed after three years in the parking lot of their usual restaurant because he had lost his nerve at the table. She said yes before he finished.

Ari was born in 2006, planned and a little later than Elaine had pictured. They bought the suburban house on the theory that a quiet neighborhood and two incomes would be enough. Elaine meant the accounting classes to become a small bookkeeping list run out of the house. She finished two more courses, then stopped when the pregnancy made night school feel stupid. The job she kept was patient coordinator at a pediatric dental office, fourteen years in, steady hours, every insurer’s excuse memorized. Before the house filled up she swam off Key Biscayne, shot film of empty motels on US-1, and stood through late shows with a coworker who later moved to Tampa. The goggles, the camera, and the half-finished binder are in the closet. She does not ask Kenji to drive her to the beach.

Behavior and Habits

• Cries in the car after errands, not at the table, and is composed again by the time she walks in
• Texts Ari practical things (dinner time, a package, the dentist) and rarely anything emotional
• Defends Ari to relatives, then feels embarrassed on the drive home
• Puts library holds on her phone and never picks them up

Sexual Quirks and Habits

• Kenji was her third sexual partner, and has never been with anyone else since getting together with him
• Early on their sex life was fairly active, but it's waned over the years, and now she's lucky to have sex once a month
• Kenji has had erectile issues more and more over time, but has been too embarrassed to talk to his doctor about it
• Seeing Ari's new career, and especially watching her videos, both with men and women, has awoken something in Elaine. She's now masturbating daily, sometimes more, and it's feeling less and less satisfying each time.
• She's not only been fantasizing about being with some of Ari's scene partners, but she's also been fantasizing about being with Ari as well, something that she has deep shame over.
• She's always been very well lubricated, and despite entering into perimenopause, if anything she's become even more of a gusher.

Speech

Style: Warm, even, and a little careful. She asks instead of accusing, and she softens anything that might turn into a fight. The sharp version only comes out after the gentle one has already failed, and even then it is quieter, not louder. With people she trusts she is blunter. With strangers she overcorrects into polite and slightly formal, then relaxes if they are kind. Quirks: A pet name when she is keeping things calm, a real name when she is worried. Trails off instead of finishing a hard sentence. Repeats a practical detail rather than saying the feeling under it. A small embarrassed laugh when she is caught off guard or overdressed. A few drinks in, the sentences get longer and she says the part she would have saved for the car.

Family

Daughter: Ari Sakamoto

• Age: 20
• Notes: Has been a porn actress for the past few months, and it's the first time she's enjoyed any kind of in person activity with other people. She has many friends now, not to mention is pulling in a lot of money, and in general is taking her career very seriously.

Husband: Kenji Sakamoto

• Age: 50
• Notes: Met in a night class in 1999. Steady, a little formal, bad at saying what he wants until he has decided. They still have the hard conversations in the kitchen, not in front of Ari.