CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
When Ellen emerged from her session an hour later, Gabe was relieved to see that she looked mostly neutral.
She came to him in the lobby and then they headed out and began driving home.
“How was it?” he asked.
“Kind of boring, honestly, but I figured it would be. It was a first session, so there were a lot of questions establishing kind of boring, baseline stuff. We talked a little about some of the bigger stuff still lingering and bothering me, but she let me know it was going to have to wait for future sessions to really dig into. Honestly, my biggest gripe is it’s feeling like we won’t have enough time to actually get to the meat of this shit.
An hour is apparently not that much time, it kind of just flew by...
you okay, you’ve got a funny look on your face. ”
“Yeah. I’m happy about all this, I was just thinking that I wanted to say I’m proud of you for doing it. But saying that makes me feel weird. Like...I don’t know, it might be insulting?”
“How could it possibly be insulting?”
“I don’t know! I mean...so I know you wouldn’t respond this way, but there’s this part of me that feels like me offering my pride to you might be insulting, like ‘oh wow, thanks, I feel so special that you feel proud of me’, you know what I mean?”
“Hmm...yeah, I think I know what you’re saying. But for the record, I am glad to receive your pride.”
“Well, I am proud of you for doing this. I imagine it wasn’t easy to get to here, and it won’t necessarily be easy going forward.”
“Thank you. And it wasn’t, even though it should have been.
And it won’t, but therapy is supposed to be hard, I guess.
Because they’re making you take a clear, hard look at the ugliest parts of yourself.
Parts you may not even be aware existed.
And then learning that you can’t just cut these parts out of you, you have to figure out a way to manage them.
We’re not surgically removing tumors, we’re dealing with a chronic illness,” she murmured.
“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to it myself.” He sighed suddenly. “How did we get to be such an asshole society? I mean, I know that’s kind of a loaded question, but I swear it wasn’t this bad when I was a kid.”
“No, you’re right. I think I remember in the two thousands, it was like everyone started trying to be edgier.
I specifically remember this thing that seemed to flood the schools and colleges.
You’d be saying something to your friend or coworker or classmate, whatever, and they’d respond with a question.
‘Who?’ or ‘What?’, you know, like they hadn’t quite heard what you’d said.
And so you started going through it again, and they’d interrupt with ‘No, who asked?’ or ‘No, what makes you think I give a shit?’. ”
“Yeah, I fucking remember that.”
“Right!? And it was kind of a fad, but I swear it stuck. Fucking everyone went through a phase where they were doing it, and I swear it made everyone meaner.”
“I think, it got everyone comfortable with being a dickhead. And now most of us have fucking trauma from it, always expecting people to snap back with some shit. I swear I knew a few people who couldn’t fucking turn it off.
Shit, I remember hearing a coworker telling me about how they’d managed to get a gym membership and stick to it for a month and were feeling healthier, and I said, ‘Congrats’, and they just snapped back with ‘Oh you think you’re that important to me that I’m just waiting for your fucking validation? ’.”
“Jesus. Was there more context to that?”
“No! That’s the crazy fucking thing. We didn’t have issues before then and I thought at first he was joking but it became obvious he wasn’t.
So I just awkwardly apologized and we didn’t talk for the rest of the day, but then the next day he started talking to me again like nothing had happened.
And after that, about every two weeks or so, he’d have some kind of similar meltdown.
And it would be one thing if it was just him, but it was common.
I mean, not that extreme, but the whole fucking ‘who asked?’ shit.
Like everyone needs to have a fucking edgy one-liner to everything. ”
“I’m going to have an old person moment here, but I genuinely think it’s the proliferation of the internet.
It didn’t turn everyone into an asshole, obviously, but I think it shot jerk particles into the atmosphere, so to speak.
Everyone got more comfortable being an edgelord behind the screen and teenagers got their worst tendencies pumped full of steroids and that made everyone more comfortable with being a fucking shitheel in real life, too. ”
“That sounds right...ugh, sorry. I was trying to explain why I’ve been traumatized into expecting the worst outcome from all social interactions, and...well, I was going to say got off-topic, but we didn’t really, it’s just a shitty topic.”
“Well, now we can talk about something else, more pleasant.”
“Like?”
“Like how it’s high time you indulged Liz in her favorite fetish. Well, her two favorite fetishes.”
“What are they? We haven’t had too much time to talk about that.”
Ellen smiled broadly. “She enjoys, shall we say, rough roleplay, and being tied up.”
“Ah.”
“I think I actually heard your erection.”
He laughed awkwardly. “Is it weird that I’m into this? I’m mostly cool with it, but sometimes I feel weird about it.”
“It’s not weird, babe, it’s fine. Honestly, it’s a huge bonus for everyone involved.
The submissive ones gets to get off hard to being dominated, the dominant one gets to get off hard to doing the dominating, and everyone else also gets to get off watching you both do it.
And if anyone’s not into it, then they don’t have to participate. ”
“That is a good point,” he murmured, turning back onto their street.
“And I really fucking want to see you wrestling Liz around. That woman...is a fucking sculpture. Her body is just incredible.”
“It truly is.”
“I am so glad you have an apparently vast love of types of women. I mean physically as well as personality-wise. I feel like most other guys imagining this situation would probably just get Holly in different shades of hair.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Gabe replied, pulling into the driveway.
“Someone’s eager,” Ellen said as he almost fell on his face getting out of the car.
“Yep!”
She laughed, following him into the house. As soon as the door opened up, he heard Holly call out, “Guess what came in!?”
“What?!” he called back, kicking his shoes off.
“Come and look!”
He got his hoodie off and dropped it on the floor trying to hang it up, gave up, and hurried towards the living room. He had an idea of what it might be, but they’d ended up ordering several things online this week, and–
“Oh...wow,” he muttered as he saw Holly standing in the living room in nothing but a t-shirt short enough to reveal the fact that she wore no panties.
She had on a choker collar with a green medallion hanging off it.
“Yep,” she said, grinning and putting her hands behind her back and tilting her head back a little as she leaned forward.
He came to stand before her, looking at the medallion. Emblazoned in polished silver were two words.
GABE’S
GIRL
“This came out looking amazing,” he muttered. “I also cannot believe I convinced five women to wear these.”
“Some of us are equally disbelieving,” Liz said, making him jump a little. He twisted and found her sitting on the loveseat behind him, grinning at him. She was also wearing a t-shirt.
And nothing else.
It was a lot more obvious on her because she was sitting down and not closing her legs in the slightest.
She also wore a choker collar with a turquoise medallion.
“I never thought I’d let a man label me publicly as his own,” she said with that smile that was almost, but not quite, a smirk on her face.
He could see her nipples plainly through the t-shirt.
“I am...uh...are you busy right now?” he asked.
Liz giggled. “Not particularly.”
“Do you wanna...do stuff together?”
She laughed and so did Holly, and Ellen, as she came into the living room.
“He’s having a very hard time thinking,” Ellen offered.
Liz looked down at his pants. “I can see that.” She stood up. “Yes, I would very much like to enjoy some time with you. Some...intense time.”
“Well, then,” he offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her up off the loveseat. “Let’s make that happen.”
“Downstairs. My and Krystal’s bed supports...these activities more than the one you’ve got upstairs, I think.”
“All right, then.”
“Where’s the others?” Ellen asked as she and Holly began following.
“I think they’re downstairs, Krystal had something she just had to show Chloe,” Liz replied.
Gabe lifted the t-shirt a little and settled his hand on her bare, broad ass.
“Good fucking lord do you have a nice ass,” he muttered as he squeezed it.
She laughed. “Thank you. I like yours, too.”
“Good to know.”
“You do have a fucking killer ass,” Ellen murmured as she followed.
“I think you win, though,” Liz replied. “Empress of the dump trucks.”
Ellen laughed loudly. “Empress, huh?”
“Yes.”
“She’s right,” Gabe agreed.
“I see.”
They headed down into the basement and found Chloe and Krystal standing near their walk-in closet talking about something. Krystal tossed something into the closet as soon as they realized the others were joining them.
“What are you whispering about over there?” Gabe asked.
“Nothing! None of your business!” Krystal replied.
“Uh-huh.”
“Is it my business?” Liz asked.
“It will become your business later, my love,” Krystal replied firmly.
“Chloe?” he asked.
“None of your business!” she replied.
“I could make you tell me, you know.”
“Don’t you dare tell him,” Krystal growled. “And don’t you dare make her! It’s a surprise, you fucking prick! For your benefit!”
“Then why are you being so weird about it?” he asked.
“We’re not!” Chloe snapped.
Gabe laughed. “Okay, luckily for you, I’m too horny to focus right now. Can I at least get a timeline on this surprise?”
“Friday,” she said.
“I guess I can wait until then.”
“Yes, you can,” Liz murmured as she shed her t-shirt, revealing her nude body in its entirety.
For a moment he was utterly struck by her and what Ellen had said just a few moments ago echoed back to him. How her body was like a sculpture. It really was. She was so wonderfully fit, her musculature so seductively well-defined without being too intense.
“All right,” he said slowly, coming back to himself. “Um...so what are we doing, exactly?”