[<– continued from Finding the Key]
“Seriously, he walked out on you like that?”
I was at the Red Door with my girlfriends, Ashley and Melody. The Red Door was a neighborhood place across the Ship Canal from where I lived in lower Queen Anne, in the Fremont neighborhood, and one of our hangouts for girls’ night out. On a Friday evening, it was a crowded, noisy place, and that was perfect for sharing an embarrassing story. Yes, of course I told my girlfriends. What did you expect?
“What an asshole!”
Melody didn’t mince words. Ashley giggled.
“I’d have paid good money to see your face when he left you cuffed to your bed.”
“Yeah, well, you can keep your money, I don’t plan to let something like that happen again.”
Melody took a pull from her cider. “Seriously, Liv, I can’t believe you did that. Did you really want him to spank you? Why would you want that?”
“Wow, Mel, you sound kinda like Paul. Want his number?”
“Hell no! He’s a jerk. Even if you are a weirdo, he shouldn’t have just walked out.”
“Well, thanks for the boost to my ego. Just what I needed, to know that I’m not only asexual, but a weird psychotic asexual at that.”
“Hey.” Ashley took my hand in hers. “She doesn’t mean it like that, and you know it. We love you, Liv, and we want you to be happy. Even if we poke fun at you once in a while.” She giggled again. “Personally, though, I think it sounds kinda hot. Ropes and cuffs and paddles and such… who’d have thought our little Olivia would be such a free-spirited pleasure-seeking Bohemian.”
I smiled and gripped Ashley’s hand tightly. I should have known she’d be on my side. I sipped my IPA.
“Yeah, well, I don’t know about that yet. I mean, it didn’t work, did it? So what do I do now? I have no boyfriend, and I’m not about to let some complete stranger cuff me and spank me.”
Melody looked scandalized at the thought. “Of course not! God, that sounds so dangerous. I don’t think I could ever do such a thing.” She paused. “But… you’re brave, Liv. I’ll give you that. Paul’s an asshole, but you get points for trying.”
Ashley looked thoughtful, looking up into the corner of the pub.
“Hmm, maybe there’s a way to find out safely.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s not like there aren’t other people into this stuff, right? And so surely there’s a way for people with similar interests to safely meet each other, especially with something like this. Isn’t there a club in Seattle that does this kind of thing? Has classes even?”
“Classes?” asked Melody. “What, for bondage and stuff?”
“Yeah. I mean, people can get hurt if they don’t know what they’re doing, can’t they? Anyway, I think I saw an ad for it once. They have dances, and beginner’s classes, and… I don’t know, I guess they’re events of some kind.”
I looked at Ashley in a new light. Who would have thought that innocent girl would know about such things? Then again, that’s what they had thought about me, and I shattered that illusion.
Ashley was right, of course, and it didn’t take very much searching through The Stranger to find what I was looking for. Not in the Lustlab personals (though those were still fun to look at), but in the online archives I eventually found an article about a place called The C-Spot. That gave me a chuckle. Anyway, it was indeed a club, with a physical location and a website, and on the website there was a calendar of events that ranged from meet-and-greets to lessons on technique to out-and-out “come here and have kinky sex with each other” raves and dances. Wow! What really caught my eye was the membership requirement — everyone was vetted — and the prerequisite safety and ethics training they made everyone go to before attending any of the more ‘serious’ events. They looked like a serious but fun-loving group with a real focus on safety and education. Perfect!
But, oh my God, that meant I would have to actually go there and face these people. What would I say to them? Hi, I’m Olivia, and I want to find out if I’m into kinky stuff, whips and chains, oh my! Well, why the hell not? That’s what everyone there would be into, or they wouldn’t be there, right? I wouldn’t need to worry about whether they’d think I was weird for wanting to be tied down and spanked, because if the website was anything to go by, most of them wanted to be tied down and spanked. Or to tie down and spank others.
Perverts of the world, unite!
I called up Ashley.
“Wow, Liv, you really are serious about this. So you found the place, cool. When are you going over to check it out?”
“See, that’s just the thing. I think I need some moral support. Will you go with me?”
“What, and watch you have kinky sex with strangers? I’m not sure about this, Liv. I mean, I think you should check it out, but I don’t know that it’s my thing.”
“No, I mean just come with me to the orientation or the newcomers social mixer. No sex, just talk to the people there and find out if it’s going to work or not. This is hard! I need to know someone there has got my back, you know?”
Ashley paused.
“Ok. Just to the orientation or whatever. I’m not having sex with anyone, I’m not getting tied up, and the moment you start taking off your clothes, I’m out of there!”
I laughed. “Ok, deal. I really don’t think it’s going to be like that, though.”
[–> continued at A School for Kinky Stuff]
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