Ellie and I were a pretty typical Midwestern couple. I ran a tractor supply store, and kept up our little ranch on the edge of town. She worked part time at the library, more for something to do than for the money, and volunteered at our church. I had heard the guys in my college bragging about how they were going to move to the city, find some lingerie model, and drive fast cars. Honestly, none of that appealed to me. My life was pretty close to perfect.
Ellie and I met at community college. She was from the other side of town, but we were close enough in age that although we didn't have any high school classes together, we ended up in a lot of the same college courses. I finished my associate's degree and got back to work, while Ellie moved on to finish her bachelor's degree at state university. But I had made a bit of an impression on her by then, and she had made a hell of an impression on me. Although we didn't marry until the end of her senior year, she went to university with a ring on her finger, while I saved up for our first house.
After college, everything was perfect. I was married to the skinny blonde beauty of my dreams, making decent money, and we were each other's worlds. We hit our first real trouble when we started trying to have kids, and weren't successful. After a few years of trying, we brought in the doctor, who told us in some fancy diagnostic terms that we could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, adopt, or make peace with a childless family. We didn't rule out adoption, but decided for the moment at least to simply enjoy each other's company.
Ellie took it hard at first. Harder than I did. She had always pictured the Americana dream, with two little towheaded boys running around our acres. It was especially hard when her high school friends started having kids. It's a weird thing to be the childless couple; at first, everyone swears up and down that you're going to be a part of everything. But the longer you go with little in common, the further you drift apart. And so Ellie and I drifted apart from a lot of our high school friends, until she reunited with Danielle, and by default with Andy.
Danielle was in many respects the complete opposite of my wife. Where my wife was generally quiet and polite, Danielle had a laugh that carried across the street, and a bit of a sarcastic wit. Where my wife would look in the mirror and lament her skinny bust (although that also brought a skinny waist, and I had no complaints!), Danielle had curves that could be described as dangerous. With her dark hair and pale skin, it seemed the only thing she and my wife had in common was their high school. But when Danielle and Andy chose not to have children, and Ellie and I had that choice imposed on us, an unlikely friendship grew between us.
Danielle and Ellie had known each other in high school, but were by no means best friends. It wasn't a surprise that Ellie hadn't heard when Danielle married Andy, a salesman from the city who didn't want to live where he worked. She had taken him home one night from the local bar (where she was the favorite hostess), and that was that. Apparently he was quite a big shot salesman, although you'd never guess it from our interactions. Around the dinner table he was a quiet, unassuming man, who deferred to Danielle in almost every situation. He must have had a "switch" at work, because every salesman I knew was either borderline brash and arrogant, or completely across that border.
In any case, that was how it came to be a Friday night, the two couples sitting around our dinner table, finishing some lovely homemade pie with our second bottle of wine. Danielle was sitting across from me, but from the way she was leaning all over my wife, you wouldn't know that her husband was even in the room. Or that she even liked guys, for that matter. Danielle was funny like that, but even though I had asked my wife about it, she swore that as far as she knew, Danielle was completely straight in high school. (Of course my male imagination pictured a bit of experimentation between the two eighteen year old girls... but sadly, it was only imagination.)
Danielle liked to tease my wife, the "church girl" as she called her, and she was getting into her tonight. "So never? No handcuffs, rope... not even a blindfold?"
"No, Danielle," Ellie replied. "We just haven't tried it."
"Well, you don't know what you're missing," Danielle continued. "Andy loves to be tied down. Don't you, babe?"
Andy got up to clear the table with a "Yes dear."
Danielle laughed, and said "well, honestly Andy loves whatever I do to him. I get the feeling you're a little bit the same, Ellie."
Danielle winked at me, and Ellie blushed and looked down at her hands. I was going to chime in when Danielle interrupted me.
"I think there's a bit of a sub hiding under that church girl personality."
Ellie took a sip of wine, and questioned, "A sub?"
"Oh, honey," Danielle said condescendingly. "You're so inexperienced."
Ellie swatted her playfully. "Hey! Just because I don't play with handcuffs and blindfolds doesn't mean I'm naïve!"
Danielle moved a little closer, and put her hand on my wife's knee. Ellie was wearing a pale blue sundress, and with Danielle staring intently into her eyes and the feeling of her soft hand on my wife's knee, Ellie was a little less sure that her friend was as straight as she thought. Danielle seemed to almost ignore her outburst, and continued.
"Sub is short for submissive. In most relationships, there is a dominant and a submissive." I saw her hand move slightly, her middle finger tracing tiny circles on my wife's leg. "In some relationships, it's subtle. In others, a bit more pronounced."
Danielle hadn't broken eye contact since Andy had left the table, and I might as well have been a fly on the wall for all the attention being paid to me. Not that I minded. Ellie was captivated by Danielle, and honestly I was a bit enraptured as well.
Danielle continued, her voice now seeming a bit more sensual than I remembered. "For instance, Andy is quite submissive at home. Isn't that right, love?"
Andy didn't even turn around from the dishes to respond "yes dear".
"And although you might think that you're a strong, independent woman or whatever," Danielle continued, "I've been playing with your leg for quite a while now and you haven't had the guts to say anything to me about it, even though you're not sure if you're comfortable with it."
My wife blushed, and Danielle continued. "In fact, you're starting to feel like you quite like this, because the fact is, you are very submissive. Underneath that cute little church girl is a tight little body just begging to be dominated."
Ellie looked timidly up at Danielle, but didn't disagree. Suddenly Danielle turned to me, but her hand remained where it was, inching slightly higher on my wife's thigh.
"And you, Brett..." Danielle trailed off, appearing to think deeply. "I think you're a bit of a switch."
