It was a Friday night, I was tired and my heart hurt. It had been a long week of meetings, of professional pleading, and interactions with people who cloaked personal insecurities with rudeness.
Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. It was the city, and cities were filled with important people doing important things, and though I lived in the city and earned good money, I didn't even try to pretend I was important. I'd been a cog in the mighty wheel of business for eight years now, ever since I graduated university, but I still frequently felt sad and alone in the city streets, and I still hadn't learned the art of self importance.
My personal phone beeped to alert me to a message. It was from Tyson, the man from the internet, the man who was coming around tonight to try new things. I'd been talking to him all week and he'd been keen to meet me. I didn't know what I was, other than tired.
Sorry, boss kept me back late. I'll be there at eight. Is that OK?
He was supposed to be here at seven. By eight o'clock I'd probably fall asleep. I lost my temper, frustrated that nothing had been going right.
'Not if you want me to still be awake. Just come straight here
,' I texted.
'I'm still in work clothes.'
'It doesn't matter.'
I sent my final text vowing to tell him to go and get fucked if he contacted me to argue. I'd wanted him to come tomorrow night, on Saturday, but he'd told me couldn't and had specifically requested Friday.
My phone beeped.
'Ok. You brave woman! I'll spray LOTS of deodorant.'
I sighed and walked over to my bedroom window. My home was a two bedroom flat in an older style block at Kangaroo Point. From the outside it was hideous, an exercise in nineties chic. The interior, and the views, were another matter. Think polished floors, high ceilings and breathtaking, never-to-be-built out views of Brisbane City and the Story Bridge. I'm good at making money for myself. Really, if I were to list my attributes they would be; I can make money, I can wax my own twat and I have a good complexion for a thirty year old woman.
As I waited for my guest I started to feel guilty about demanding he drive directly here, rather than go home and shower. He was probably tired. If he was anything like me, he'd have accepted that he'd had to work back late, but kept an eye on the clock, secretly panicking as each minute ticked by.
Nah, not likely. Who was I kidding? He wouldn't be like me. He'd just be another disappointment. Someone who didn't want to pay a dominatrix and figured a regular old Domme would not only give him what he wanted but save him a few dollars into the bargain.
I went and showered. I stood under the water and wished I'd just told Tyson to fuck off home. I wasn't in the mood to dominate anything more meaningful than a steakburger, and I was so hungry I could have
decimated
one of them.
With an experienced sub, and a committed relationship, I love preparations. I knew what games I wanted to play, what clothes I wanted to wear, and what sort of reactions I was going to receive. The struggle with a corset was worthwhile, the application of make-up a joy and as for tightening the straps of my strap-on harness, well, that was a thrill that was second to none. I loved pulling the leather tight and buckling it around my thighs.
I didn't know much about Tyson, or Ty, as he told me everyone called him. I didn't even have a picture. He'd said something about being ugly, and of worrying that I'd see his picture and tell him not to come. Some bizarre nurturing streak within me had told him looks didn't matter, but I was starting tow wonder if that was true. I knew nothing of this man, other than that he was thirty-five and divorced with two young kids, both girls.
Tyson had only seen a few, flattering, non-identifying pictures of me. I was a bigger girl; five foot nine and eighty kilos and I had a stereotypical fat girl's good nails, skin and hair. The nails were painted a subtle, neutral shade, my skin was white and near flawless, and my hair was dyed a rich, burgundy colour that required a hell of a lot of upkeep but was worth the investment.
I sifted through my cupboard and scooped out red lace lingerie and covered it with a mid-thigh length black dress with a criss-cross pattern up the top. I styled my hair and was almost done with my make-up when Ty texted me to say he was five minutes away. That was my cue to go downstairs and let him into the parking bays.
It would be my first and only opportunity to turn him away and trust me when I say that if I didn't like what I saw - if he struck me as scary, or unkempt, or aggressive - he was going to be turned around and sent back home. And if he decided to be stupid and force things, well, his license plate and face would be caught on any one of a number of CCTV cameras. I'd warned him about that, in as nice a way as I could, and he'd said it was fine, he wasn't the sort to cause trouble.
I finished applying my make-up, slipped on my heels and went down to the complex gates. I was just stepping out onto the pavement when a Lancer indicated and pulled to the side of the road. That's what Tyson had said he had, a silver Lancer. I was nervous, my hands were sweating, and I braced myself to come face to face with someone physically unappealing.
The man behind the wheel wasn't Tyson.
'Oh, sorry,' I apologised, smiling nervously at the driver. He had a shaved head and a goatee, and had the overall appearance of someone who'd been arrested for bikie activities and was claiming innocence. 'I'm waiting for someone in a Lancer and I thought you were them.'
'I might be who you're waiting for,' he said. 'Tyson. Are you Jade?'
That's when I idly wondered if I was going to die.
Men don't have those fears. Apparently they worry that women will be fat, but I'd already told Tyson I was fat, and given him a body shot to prove it, so he could hardly feign surprise, but I had the stereotypical fear of a woman that she was about to get assaulted by her sexual partner.
I wasn't sure I wanted him inside my apartment. He had broad shoulders and he looked like a physically strong man, the kind that could easily overwhelm me. If he decided to get violent then I'd stand no chance whatsoever.
'Yes,' I replied, forcing a smile. 'Hey, I was, uh, just thinking I was kind of hungry. Do you mind going and getting some dinner?'
'Sure, no worries. I haven't eaten myself and I'm starving. I just didn't want to be any later than I already was. What do you feel like?'
'Anything.'
'Anything? That doesn't narrow it down,' he said. He gave me a smile. His teeth were perfect. 'You want to hop in and we'll go for a drive?'
I looked at the complex. There was a camera pointing where his car was parked.
'Sure,' I agreed. 'We'll find somewhere to eat.'
I opened the passenger side door and slid in. Tyson was in dark blue cotton workpants and one of those shirts that's fluoro yellow and navy blue, with reflective stripes on it, but he didn't smell too bad. Not gross or anything. And he, oh, he just didn't seem half as scary now that he'd started speaking.
'Sorry for not giving you a picture of myself,' he apologised. 'I have the sort of face that makes it impossible to buy cold and flu tablets. You know,' he added uneasily. 'Lots of people think I'm a criminal, but I'm not in an outlaw bikie gang, I've never been to jail, and I've never been arrested.'
'You just look tough,' I half-teased, half-remarked.
'I live with my brother. He's a personal trainer and coach, and he trains a lot of bodybuilders and wrestlers. When he started his own business he didn't have many clients, so my old man pulled me aside and told me it might be an idea to book a session or two with him each week until he was on his feet.'
'Parents,' I said with a knowing smile. 'I take it you had no choice in the matter?'
'None whatsoever,' he agreed good-naturedly. 'I don't normally mind, but at the moment he's trying to monitor my diet and that's pushing the friendship.'
'Are you starving? Sick of eating broccoli?'
Tyson grinned. 'Both. I'd kill for a Big Mac.'
'There's a Maccas down the road. I'm happy for a Big Mac meal. If you don't mind paying for it, I'll give you the money for mine when we get back to the apartment.'
'No, no, I'll pay for it,' he said. 'You're all good.'
He had a different way of speaking to me than the men I'd had in the past. There was no 'Goddess' or 'Ma'am' or squirming, he treated me completely and totally as an equal. It wasn't unpleasant.
'What do you do for a living?' I asked.
He told me he was a transport manager for a large, well known, retailer.
'Tell me something unusual about your job,' I requested.
'Oh jeez, that's a bit of a stretch. There's not too much that's interesting about it. I took a three year break a few years' back, does that count? Bianca - the girls' Mum - is a doctor and she'd only just graduated from medical school and didn't want to take maternity leave. I went to uni to keep myself from going mental, then went back to work.'
'That definitely counts. I'm impressed.'
'Nah, my grades were pretty shit. I had to retake three subjects.'
It wasn't the degree that impressed me, but I didn't say anything. I had the feeling he was the kind of man who
was
a feminist, rather than the sort who described himself as one.
'How about you?' he asked. 'What do you do with yourself?'
'I'm a contracts manager for a commercial real estate company.'
'You enjoy it?'
'No. I hate it. It pays well, though.'
'I've had jobs that make me question how much I really liked eating. Every time, I thought I should stay because the money was good, or it was close to where I was living, or some other shit, but it was all bullshit. If you hate it, find a new job.'
'Easier said than done. I'm not sure I know how to do anything else.'
'What do you want to do?'
I smiled at him. 'Write. Bake. Get in my car and drive wherever I feel like it. And on the topic of cars, I'd like anything other than my white Corolla.'
'I'd kill for a muscle car,' Tyson mused.
'Me too. Something that makes rumbly noises.'
'The fuel bill would probably send me bust.'