Page 29 of Asher's Answer
“Where’ve you parked?” he asks me after I assume Charlie replies.
I rally enough to answer, “I caught the bus.” I still haven’t bought a new car, and I didn’t want to risk mine dying again. “I was only going to buy a few things.”
He taps away on his phone screen again, then slides it into his pocket and takes me to his car. He drives a white, late-model sedan, and I have a private laugh that it’s not a motorcycle. His look screams ‘biker’, but I know better than anyone not to stereotype. It’s only as I’m buckling myself in that I start to come back to reality.
“Didn’t you need to buy anything?”
Matt shakes his head. “Nothin’ that can’t wait.”
I accept his words at face value, acknowledging that I’d do the same for him in a heartbeat, and let him drive me home. He hangs around and we talk about everything and nothing -how our fantasy football leagues are doing, our thoughts on the most recent NHL draft, who the best character onOnce Upon A Timewas- and by the time Charlie walks through the door, I’m pretty much back to my usual self.
Charlie claps him on the back and thanks him as he goes to leave, and I hug him and do the same. He shrugs our thanks off with a sheepish grin and leaves, and once again I find myself musing on how lucky I am to have stumbled into a life with these people. Charlie and his friends have become my found family. And, having just faced the last of my biological family, I know that the grass is definitely better on this side of the fence.
“You okay, baby?” Charlie asks me once he’s closed the door. He’s holding my face in his hands and looking me over as though I’d gotten into a physical fight.
I smile brightly at him. “I’ve never been better.”
It’s not even a lie.
* * *
It turns out that getting closure with my father was something I desperately needed. It was kind of like I had to physically face my fears and, once I did, all that self-loathing and those fears of being abnormal and embarrassed about what I wanted started to fall away faster.
It wasn’t instantaneous, not by a long shot. But after publicly telling my asshole father that I’d found a Daddy, it’s been easier with each passing day to tell Charlie when I need something.
“Daddy, I need cuddles.” “Daddy, I want a bottle.” “Daddy, play blocks with me.” “Daddy, help me potty.” “Daddy, I’m horny.”
Okay, so that last one has always come pretty easily to me.
But every time I vocalize my needs, I watch Daddy’s eyes light up and he tells me I’m a good boy and nothing feels better than that. We even start going out to The Grove on littles’ nights.
The club turns out to be nothing like the dingy, oppressive space I’d imagined. Instead, it’s a huge warehouse space on the edge of the city, heading into the industrial part of town. It’s unassuming from the outside, and the entrance is a plain black door on the side of the building with an olive tree imprinted on it. Stepping inside, the room we enter is bright and kind of bland. It reminds me of the waiting room to my childhood dentist’s office. There’s a pretty woman manning the counter, and she looks like a sexy librarian in her pencil skirt, blouse and cat’s-eye glasses.
Charlie’s a member and she greets him by name, handing over a selection of colored paper wristbands which he fastens to his right wrist. Then she turns to me.
“And you must be Ash,” she says cheerily. “Your Daddy called to book you in for tonight’s session. Has he run through the rules?”
I nod because Charlie has been very thorough about the club’s non-disclosure agreement, the house safe word (monitored electronically as well as by the moderators in each room), the whole ‘flagging’ thing (hence his wristbands) and the sorts of things to expect once we’re inside. I’m nervous but excited.
She beams and asks me to sign the NDA she’s pre-prepared. When Charlie called ahead to book us in for the event, he filled in all of my details ahead of time, so I don’t need to fill in a temporary membership application for the night, though I do have to sign that and the indemnity waivers, too. I hand over my ID and she passes me my wristbands to indicate my preferences. Charlie helps me put them on. After she makes sure I know the house safe word (‘turmeric’), she sends us through the two large metal doors on the far side of the room.
Once we pass through those, my jaw drops.
There must be significant soundproofing around the building, because the bass and general wave of sound from the music pumping into the large, open nightclub space in front of us as the doors open is intense. There’s a bar and a dance floor and dimly lit booths lining the walls. There’s also an elevated stage at the far end of the space, and Charlie’s already told me that they host scenes and demonstrations here.
There’s a wide hallway that surrounds the club space, traveling around the entire building. It leads to the locker rooms and bathrooms, as well as the back staircase and elevators to the second floor, which is host to the playrooms. That’s where we’re heading.
We ride the elevator to the second floor, and it feels like a hotel up here. Two parallel hallways greet us, and the one we walk down is lined with doors to rooms Charlie says are themed playrooms. The other hallway is apparently the same. These spaces can be booked for specific scenes, and Charlie points out a couple as we walk past. There’s a classroom, a corporate office and boardroom and a sauna. Then there’s the space we want: the littles’ playroom.
When we walk in, I blink. It’s a massive, brightly lit space full of color and toys and everything a little could want. It looks like it runs the entire width of the warehouse building and takes up at least a quarter of the top floor.
“Holy shit,” I breathe, staring with wide eyes as the door closes behind us, “is that a bouncy castle?”
It’s at the far end of the space, taking up the bulk of the end of the room from ceiling to floor. It looks like it can only take three or four adults comfortably at a time, but it’s definitely a freaking bouncy castle.
“Yep,” Charlie acknowledges. “Wanna bounce?”
I itch to, but I shake my head. Tonight, I’m not comfortable being little. I just want to see what this place is all about. I look around a bit more.
