Chapter 10
TEN
Sophie
Casey is waiting for me with his helmet under his arm as I pull up to the cafe. He is a picture, breathtaking really. I give him a silly wave, smiling and climb out of my car and walk up to him. “Hungry?” I ask.
“Ravenous actually.”
“You go to the gym before work?” I ask, guessing that is partly to do with why he is so hungry.
“Yeah usually. I need muscles more than ever now,” he replies.
“Oh?” I question.
“If I’m throwing women around as per their instructions, I’m going to need the muscles to actually be useful as well as look good,” he grins as he raises up both arms to kiss each bicep like the goofball he is.
“Ah, I see. Do a bit of throwing your client around last night then did we?” I smirk, raising an eyebrow. Casey raises his chin a bit higher and puffs out his chest proudly.
“I did,” he grins, his eyes shining with pride and I can’t help but feel proud of him too. Then we both fall silent as we walk up to the register and order our food knowing what we’re going to eat.
When we’re settled in at a table inside the cafe gardens, I prompt Casey, “Tell me everything that is going on with you.”
“Soph, she was almost as old as my mum. I don’t know, could have been late forties, early fifties.
I couldn’t tell because she didn’t look old, she looked fit, Elle Macpherson fit, like she takes good care of herself.
Never did I think I would be bossed around and instructed as much as I was.
It was mind blowing how dominant she was and how confident she was giving me instructions.
I thought it was sexy, she turned me on, the whole experience turned me on.
And now I can’t stop thinking about her, my cock, sorry to be so crude Soph, but my cock won’t behave because I’m constantly thinking about her.
The amount of times I nearly had to excuse myself working with you today.
What is happening? Have you ever felt this way about one of the clients? ”
“Oh Casey, my sweet playboy, I sure have. A thousand times over I have. I’ve been at the Clarendon a few years now and some men can still do that to me.
My advice is always to get under another client to forget or move on from the last one.
There will always be clients who you just have that spark with.
You can’t escape that, and that is the ultimate perk of the job, the ones you really really enjoy.
I have a few clients who book me often and I always apply for their type of jobs hoping it’s them.
Sure, I never know whose job I’m applying for, but there are subtle hints to show it’s them.
And they always choose me. At least once a month I get to see one or two of my regulars and we just enjoy each other.
Me as much as them. But I don’t know them, I am not meant to know them.
So I do the jobs and go home. And I apply for the next job and that helps me move on.
We can’t get involved with them, Casey, we can’t ask questions nor can they.
We are each anonymous for a good reason.
” I’m saying all this whilst at the back of my mind I call myself the hypocrite I am.
Telling Casey to do one thing and here I am going out to dinner with one of my clients.
Here I am with an online Dom, who somehow knows what jobs are being listed and telling me to apply for them.
I am breaking every rule in the book. But I don’t want that for Casey, he’s too new and he needs to enjoy this job for every part of it like I have done.
“But what about if I don’t feel this again with anyone else?”
“You will, I promise,” I say, reassuringly.
“You just need a few jobs and weeks under your belt and everything will start sliding into place. You will get used to it and it will feel more like a job than falling in love every time. It just comes with experience. Don’t wait until next week to take another job, have a look tonight and see if there are any others you’re interested in.
I have a Shibari one coming up and I love that one. ”
“What’s Shibari?” asks Casey just before the waitress brings over our food. I answer as soon as she’s out of earshot.
“It’s intricate rope bondage. The word Shibari comes from Japan.
The guy I usually see is a master at it.
I put my trust wholly in him, tying me up in ways that are satisfying to him and me, that are safe because, ultimately, I really am putting my life in his hands.
Never has he given me pause or any reason to retract that trust. If anything, I feel more emotionally bonded with him than with any other client I’ve ever worked with.
He knows my body so well, I literally hand the power over to him to do as he pleases with my body and metres of long rope. ”
“Are you not scared he might stop circulation or strangle you? Keep you tied up forever?”
That makes me smile. “It’s a risk, but a lot of jobs I have taken have also come with a risk.
I have faith that the Clarendon doesn’t allow any psychopaths and so far I haven’t come across any.
In a way, the members are also putting their trust in me and the Clarendon to make sure I too am not a psycho. ”
“Hmm, seems to me, you are more at risk.”
“I trust in the process. I haven’t been wrong yet.
We all have to trust, the same as you and your client last night.
I am assuming that despite your client being super fit, should you have wanted to, you could have held her down and taken away her ability to move also?
She was putting her faith in the Clarendon, too.
We have all signed up for the same thing.
An exchange of pleasure for payment. I’m ok with that, are you? ”
“I would literally pay to play with yesterday’s member again, so I have no intention of leaving unless it’s with her.”
“Casey…”
“Joking. I’m just pulling your chain. I’m getting paid to worship women and fuck them. Even if I was to tell my mates they wouldn’t believe me. Not as if I would, I signed the contract, I have no plans on spoiling what I got going on here.”
“You just need more time in this gig to see where you fit and how you feel. It does get easier. Will you book another job soon?”
“I will if there is one that looks like I can do it. That has been on my mind. What if I can’t perform and do what they want? Will they complain or have me fired?”
“Casey, what could you possibly do wrong?” I ask, taken aback by his question. Then I rephrase it. “Did you make the lady climax yesterday?”
“Yes,” he replies bashfully.
“Did she look sated and happy when you left her?”
“Yes…”
“Then have faith in that. The lady who booked you, she knew who you were, it says it on your profile. She knew what to expect, especially as the job was posted on the Green board. So have faith in that, in yourself, ok?”
“I will try. I need to get out of my head I think. I am going to take off on my bike this afternoon and see if I can get some K’s under my belt.”
“Sounds like a plan. You can always talk to me, you know. I know you have your own mentor but I’m happy to take on that role if you don’t feel comfortable talking with Felix.
This job can get lonely if you don’t know who to share it with.
I had been feeling like that myself recently and I hadn’t even realised.
So it can get the best of us, even us old playmates who have been around the block a few times. ”
I look back at Casey who finishes his Pepsi as I wipe my mouth with a serviette. He looks better and less jittery already. I look down at my watch, “I gotta go Case, I have some serious self care arranged for this afternoon. I have a head spa and facial.”
“A what?”
“Just as it sounds, but I’m not going to explain this one, this one you have to experience before you believe it. I will book us both in the next time I go, what do you say?”
“Well it has the word spa in it, so it can’t be too bad.”
“Exactly, that’s the spirit.” I laugh as we both stand and head out of the cafe. “Give me your phone,” I say, holding out my hand.
Frowning, but being a good sport, Casey puts his hand in his pocket and pulls it out. “Open the screen, I want to add my phone number, is that ok?”
“Thank you,” he says as his face unlocks his phone and he hands it over to me.
When I’ve added my contact details in, I hand the phone back to him. “Have a good afternoon Casey, stay safe on that thing,” I say as I point to the shiny black bike.
“Always. Enjoy your head spa, may your head feel spa-ed.”
“Spa-ed?” I frown and then laugh when it clicks.
A few hours later, I get home from my blissful afternoon of self care. Take Snowy for a walk for an hour and return her happily back to her mama. Feeling inspired I call my own mum.
“Hey Mum,” I smile the words as I picture my dear mum out on her porch settling into the sunset with a good book.
“Sweetheart, how are you?”
“I’m doing well, how are you, how is Ron?”
“I’m doing well, I’m still here aren’t I? And Ron, he’s still kicking.”
“Mum!” I chastise.
“Oh honey, you know what I mean. We are making the most of every day we are allowed to rent a room in this lifetime.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” We have a motto in our house that life is too short to forget to live. Nothing makes me happier than knowing they’re sticking to it and shaking off the expectation that when you get old, all fun stops.
“How are you, Sweetheart? Will you be visiting the Sunshine Coast any time soon?” Ahh Mama, she always asks, never pushes.
“I want to. I should have done these past few weeks, everything has felt a bit stale… I just didn’t realise it. But then I met this guy and he’s really put a bit of sparkle in my world again, you know?”
“Oh I know that feeling honey. When Ron came knocking, I didn’t realise and didn’t want no part of it. But he knew I needed colour back in my life before I did and he painted my world every day until I began to see for myself.”
“And I am so glad he did, Mama.” And I mean those words.
Ron is a hunting, shooting, fishing non-stop machine who took one look at my mum and decided he’d put all her pieces back together again bit by bit, day by day.
It was a dark time after my dad passed, a hollow time of joyless living and hardship.
We had nothing left except each other and we put one foot in front of the other every day until the pain became lighter but not gone.
Ron walked into our lives four years later to fix our boiler and never left.
I am not very religious but I thank God for giving us Ron.
Maybe it was Dad’s way of sending us some light at the end of the tunnel.
I like to believe that anyways. They’re both retired now, living a slower life on the Sunshine Coast where I like to visit and eat my body weight in home cooked meals and read more books in a week than I do in a whole year.
It hurts my heart not to be honest about my lifestyle and my playmates job, but I don’t think they would understand.
They’re a generation from another time. And I wouldn’t risk hurting them, ever.
I know I believe in freedom of choice but that doesn’t mean the world has caught up with my views just yet, least of all the older generations.
“That you, Bumpkins?” I hear Ron shout from somewhere close to Mama. The man has never called me by my real name from the beginning. And we met when I was eighteen.
“Yes, it’s her. Ron’s got a new e-bike he wants to show you.”
And so I spend the next forty-five minutes catching up on their planned road trips, seeing Ron’s new bike and fishing rod and Mama’s new dress that she’s going to wear to her friend Pam’s wedding.
When we say our goodbyes, my heart feels full.
I make myself a light dinner of honey-soy chicken and salad and think about Mack.
I am so looking forward to seeing him. I wonder if an early goodnight would be possible so I could see Mack sooner; 9pm couldn’t come soon enough.