10. April 19th
APRIL 19TH
Sylvan
“It’s been six days,and he hasn’t come online? Hasn’t texted you? Hasn’t called you?”
Sylvan stared out the window of her sanctuary, barely registering her friend’s voice over the phone.
“No, he hasn’t. I’ve gone online each night, I’ve waited the prescribed amount of time, and he hasn’t shown up.”
“You didn’t text him or call him either?”
“I thought about texting, but I’ve never initiated that before. Besides that, he left without saying goodbye. I’d say that’s pretty conclusive he doesn’t want to speak to me again.” She’d really wanted to, though. “I assume he had to leave for work again. That’s usually why that happens. Look, Tabitha, it’s not a big deal. You hooked us up for research, and I’m forever grateful. The scene was a bonus. I went, I got to experience it, and he was great. But I’m not exactly the kind of woman he’s going to play with on a regular basis. I’m just a tad vanilla,” she said with sarcasm.
“Vanilla is not the issue, and stop calling yourself that. I hate that term. I happen to love vanilla.”
Sylvan snorted. “I’m not talking about the oil being poured all over your body and then licked out of your belly button.”
“Neither was I. Although, it does sound good right about now.” The clicking heels stopped, and an icy pause occurred before Tabitha’s suspicious tone came over the line. “Did he do that with you?”
That brought a genuine laugh to Sylvan. “You almost sound jealous. No, he didn’t. And even if he had, I wouldn’t tell you. I don’t think I’m supposed to share that information. Doesn’t that violate some sort of club or BDSM code?”
The heels began clicking again. “Nope, nothing in our rules about that. Your experience to share as you two agreed upon,” she answered a bit grumpily.
“Well, we never discussed it, so I’m putting that on the ‘Do Not Share’ list. And none of this matters, anyway, since it wasn’t a date. It was research.” It physically hurt to say that. She actually felt a sharp pain where her heart was and a lurch in her stomach.
“Yeah, well, no ‘research’ I’ve ever done has left me so blissed out that a friend had to drive me home. You were so gone I couldn’t even put you in a rideshare.”
“In his defense, it was probably awkward. I don’t think it’s supposed to take that long to come back to life.”
“Hmph. It’s called subspace. And if you were there, he did his job well.” She paused. “Looking back, I guess I should have answered your questions instead of sending you to Lobo. After we chatted, I just thought a pure Dominant would be better than a switch. I should have connected you with a submissive. It literally never occurred to me that you two… that things would end like this.”
“Again, Tabitha, it’s okay. I definitely wasn’t expecting a relationship out of it. Not even a repeat performance.” She needed to get off the phone before she broke down. “Look, you have to get to work, and I have a deadline looming, so I’ll talk to you later. Don’t whip anyone too hard.”
“Ha! As if. I can’t remember the last time I picked up a flogger.”
“Bye, Tabitha.”
“Bye, Sylvan.”
Sylvan disconnected the call.
For the next six hours, she tried to write, but no words would come. Her characters still weren’t speaking to her. She tried everything she could think of to get back on track. She ate a whole pint of ice cream. She tried taking a nap. She tried watching an episode of Firefly. None of it helped. She didn’t write a single word—just stared at the mocking cursor on the page. When ten o’clock rolled around, her hand hovered over the keyboard to open the private chat room, and then she simply shut down her computer, crawled into her bed, and stared out the window into the darkness until she fell into a fitful sleep.