The Probation Period

Chapter 3. The Probation Period

Taking my first steps in this new job, Myrna had made clear that she wanted me to focus on the problem of recruiting and training subs to meet specific demands. Just by putting the word out through her own contacts, she had already found six potential clients who would snap up suitable lifemates as soon we could offer them. There were:

• A gay politician with a long-time friend, side-kick and lover who now served in public as his press secretary. In effect, without knowing it, they were lifemates already. All they seemed to need was to be awakened and educated in the nature of their relationship. The proxy might need some training as a submissive; the Alpha might need some training in corporal punishment (CP) or other aspects of Dominance, but only if they wanted to take their relationship in that direction.

• A recently divorced corporate CEO in search of a private secretary who would also do for his personal needs; we had offered him Petra, but he did not take to her, while she had made it clear that she'd prefer a woman.

• A wealthy dominant seeking a gorgeous and experienced submissive, largely as arm candy, to advertise his wealth, standing and desirability in the BDSM community; he wanted us to find this girl for him, having given Myrna a description of her ideal specifications and his range of tolerance for each. These were exacting, and he did not propose (he said) to waste his time looking for the broad (his word). When we found her, he would tell us what further training she needed.

We had not yet accepted this last guy as client; and Myrna was stalling him. On one hand it would be easy money and great publicity if we ran a well-advertised contest (which our client would pay for) offering prizes either to the winning 'titbit' (sic), or to whoever gave us the name of a consenting girl who satisfied his requirements. On the other, Myrna despised the guy and wanted no responsibility for such a relationship, if and when it developed. In the end she decided (and I agreed) that business was business, and that our conscience could stand it.

Three other clients would be rather more difficult:

• A widowed, best-selling author in need of a friend and lover who would also read and discuss her drafts, and serve as proof reader and editor;

• a fifty-something gay neurosurgeon who hoped for a protege/assistant -- a younger version of himself; and

• the female owner/CEO of several Health Food stores in Montreal and Ottawa who hoped to expand to several other Canadian cities, but was afraid of the increased workload, and wanted a close partner, with training and experience in organization design and retail management.

These three, and especially the last two, exposed what we knew would be a crucial problem for the whole lifemates concept: the demand for submissives with highly specialized skill sets and knowledge. Everyone would want a proxy who shared their values, but complemented them in some essential way. Our success would depend on our ability to find and recruit such people -- as Myrna, with the backing of KI and the help of one of its contract officers, had succeeded in finding and recruiting me. The problem would be difficult, but it was not hopeless. Its solution, Myrna and I came to agree, lay in changing public acceptance of the D/s culture, and the submissive role -- to a point where high-calibre people with submissive desires and tendencies would come out of the closet, eager to advance their careers, while satisfying their D/s interests by accepting lifemate apprenticeships.

* * * * *

Life at the Westmount house, soon settled into a routine. After a buffet breakfast set out by Guido each morning, I spent the next few hours working on the memoir, my still outstanding contract. As all the interviews and research and much writing had already been done for it, five weeks of part-time work produced a manuscript ready for my client's review. I sent him his copy electronically by email and also in hard copy by courier, and waited for his change requests. This left me free to study the current state of LifeMates, and start doing my new job.

Between us, Myrna and I decided that my first priority should be to put the word out in the BDSM community that we were looking for skilled submissives to take on high-level jobs and figure out how to train them. A second would be to write a handbook of LifeMates philosophy and practices. The first was a social task that I could do alone, but better with Myrna when she had time to spare for it. The second was a solitary task that would need extensive discussions -- over dinner, with Bernice and Petra joining in, or with Myrna after she'd reviewed my drafts. Both tasks could be tackled immediately: I could start by compiling a list of clubs to visit and of Scene magazines and Websites that would accept our advertisements; I could write a couple of articles, to be published in a men's lifestyle magazine like Esquire, in a women's equivalent like Cosmopolitan, and in suitable blogs on the Web, about the LifeMate company, its philosophy and its human product; I could prepare an outline of the handbook and its main points, and start discussing them with Myrna. Also, I (or both of us) could start visiting the clubs and other BDSM events, meeting submissives and also potential clients, to get them thinking and talking about us.

Myrna approved this general plan, adding suggestions of her own. Then, for the first few weeks, every morning at breakfast, she reviewed my plans for the day, sometimes changing them, before I went to my office and started in. She usually spent the morning in her office with Petra, paying bills and doing other admin work, making future appointments and planning the rest of the day. She spent a lot of time on the phone, and soon would need another assistant to answer and screen calls and take messages. Petra already had almost a full-time job handling her correspondence, though we were barely in business at that time!

Unless we were travelling or meeting with people, almost every afternoon at 1 o'clock, the four of us -- Myrna, Bernice, Petra and I -- would sit down together for what was usually our main meal. The food was either prepared by Guido under Bernice' supervision or brought in by them from a catering service, but then unpacked and re-warmed by him. Guido would serve and pour while sitting with us at table, participating in the conversation -- practising to be convivial and serviceable at the same time.

Bernice managed and directed the various household services but did little of its work herself. Her real domain was the 'dungeon' area where she punished KI submissives who had somehow earned a session with her strap; also, she plied her skills on some paying submissives who came (or were sent) to her for punishment or training. Some of these we would recruit for training as lifemates; and it brought in some income which helped meet our current expenses.

After lunch, Myrna and I often worked together for a few hours. At the beginning we mostly talked about the things we needed to do, taking notes and making tentative plans. Later we got more involved in reading client requests, training reports and doing managerial work as the business grew and we took on subordinates. The rest of Myrna's afternoons were taken up with meetings, and with scheduled appointments and interviews, or with her own work of planning and arranging the marketing and client training. This last was an interesting problem that we discussed a lot. Everyone knew how to train submissives (assuming they had the temperament for that role) but little was known about training Dominants beyond the skills of using the toys. How should we train our clients to:

a) get the most out of their (considerable) investment in a well-trained lifemate? and

b) make of that lifemate an intimate and contented proxy and life companion who would cheerfully stick around through the stresses of a busy, demanding life and, ideally, into the relative loneliness of retirement?

In human sensitivity and intelligence, the ideal client would resemble Mistress Myrna, or be a male version thereof; but if we depended on finding such people, the business would surely fail. Worse, we had to expect that most clients would not feel that they needed much training, but would tend to treat submissives like employees being paid to make all the adaptations required. We had to teach them to see their lifemate relationship not as a personnel issue with employees who could be hired and fired, but as a kind of arranged marriage with promises of mutual fidelity and, hopefully or eventually, with some mutual love. We could explain the concept; we could offer each lifemate couple a trial period with free mentoring before they finalized their 'marriage' and were on their own (apart from re-contracting or mentoring services purchased later). Would that be enough?

Probably not in all cases. As a device for training our more 'difficult' clients, I suggested that we keep a few 'training subs' on staff who could be assigned as temporary matches to clients who needed hands-on experience in the art of handling submissives before choosing a sub of their own. In this way, we'd make a virtue of the familiar BDSM vice of 'topping from below.' Many aspiring subs have successfully trained a partner into the Dominant of their dreams. We could systemize the practice of 'topping from below' as an effective and lucrative training tool by training professional 'teaching submissives,' who could be rented out to inexperienced or pig-headed clients, or to clients who wanted a taste of the lifemate relationship before committing to it.

Myrna thought this was a brilliant idea, saying "I hope you realize that you're going to be the first of these teaching subs, before we train anyone else for that job." I gave her a cheeky bow, and it joined the list of our advertised services.

The training of proxies was another story. Many different standards for a well-trained submissive, and many training systems have been proposed; and LifeMates was fully entitled to develop its own. In practice, however, there was a rough consensus on how well-trained submissives should behave, with some divergence on details only. For our purposes, these were completely negligible; they could be left to the taste and judgment of the client Alpha. On the other hand, we could not propose candidate proxies who were not obedient, respectful, and sexually both versatile and proficient -- with whatever specific limitations, documented up front. It would reflect poorly on our reputation if we did. For that reason, we had to screen or train our candidates to acceptable levels in each crucial area before we could propose them. If clients brought us their own subs, we could design a training program to suit their wishes. We could require candidate proxies to invest in their own training, and would do so. But there would be unavoidable 'production costs' for candidates kept as 'inventory': At a minimum we would have to test them. Then, if desirable proxies were unwilling or unable to pay for their own training we could either require them to work off the cost of their training in unpaid labour, or offer them a kind of 'scholarship,' and bear their training cost ourselves.

Beyond the question of cost, there was a problem of organization. Regardless of who was paying, our training would have to be organized into well-planned modules and delivered to fairly small classes of pupils who could be observed and judged by their instructors on an individual basis. We decided that in most such classes, the pupils could take turns being each other's Dominants. That way, they would gain experience in submission to a variety of different styles and temperaments, and would gain some understanding of the lifemate relationship from an Alpha's point of view.

Finally, for specialized training to meet the needs of individual clients, we would need to enroll our pupils in existing training programs (passing on the costs of these to the client), and/or arrange for tutors and apprenticeships to meet their individual needs. For example, if clients wanted a private, live-in barber, chef or bookkeeper, their subs could be enrolled in pre-existing courses at costs passed back to them. All this would require planning and administration, and would be part of our cost of doing business. I worked these requirements out in detail, and wrote them up for Myrna's approval. This was almost the first useful work I did as Myrna's proxy and lifemate.

* * * * *

As I came to think of it, my new life had two aspects: my job with LifeMates and my personal service to Myrna. These were closely related, of course, but they were not the same. As 'vice-president' in charge of the submissives -- their recruitment, selection and training -- I could and sometimes did disagree with my Mistress. As Mistress Myrna's obedient submissive, I would do whatever she ordered -- from chores that she assigned me to sexual services in bed. Ultimately, of course, my role at LifeMates was just one special service that I performed for her; and she could over-rule my decisions at any time. But she did not micro-manage, and would not over-rule me without good reason. She expected me to run that aspect of our business; early on, she even punished me a few times when I came to her for instructions that she did not wish to give, or with questions she wanted me to settle on my own before reporting what I had done.

Finally, she expected me to bear ultimate responsibility for the training of individual candidates, however much of this effort was delegated to others. My role with Guido and Petra was a case in point. Both had been recruited and largely trained before I arrived; Guido was working under and being trained by Bernice, as Petra worked for and was trained by Myrna; but their training was still in progress and their matching to clients was still to be done. Myrna decided that even this far along, it wouldn't hurt to involve me in their training if only to be in some position to advise on their placement with clients.

* * * * *

Petra came home from visiting her parents, just a few days after I'd moved in. She was a petite, lovely, studious 24-year-old submissive, lesbian in orientation, who hoped to be someone's proxy when we could place her but was obviously in love with Myrna at that moment. Myrna wonderfully reciprocated that love, seeing a potential in Petra which she sought to develop for Petra's sake, apart from any personal or business interest in doing so. Quite spontaneously, through explanation and personal example, she taught the young woman to be proud both of her sexuality and her chosen lifestyle.

This was sorely needed. Petra's family could not understand their daughter's choice of lifestyle, and did their best to make her feel ashamed of it. In Myrna's service, she learned to be proud both of her sexuality and her collar. Having sex with Myrna, and learning that her own Mistress was in turn the uncollared sub of Mistress Amanda, CEO of Keyholders, gave her a confidence previously lacking in her own submission.

Almost as soon as Petra got back, she summoned both of us to the training room, introduced us, and told Petra that in addition to her current duties she was to attend to my male needs as well, while helping me learn to be a Dom. "In this way," she said, "I want you to train each other. You Richard, will learn to make demands on a submissive partner -- but kindly, never pushing her farther than she can go. Her experience with men has not been good in the past. You will teach to serve a competent Master who can be firm, but never degrading or cruel."

"And you Petra," Myrna continued, "must learn to submit to a male and serve his needs without losing your dignity or feeling threatened. Even as his submissive, you will find that you have much power in the situation while never openly resisting his commands and wishes. Having learned to cope with my demands, you will find that men are not so different -- much easier, in fact, for a skilful and experienced woman."

"Now Richard, Petra's ancestry is Greek, and I've made a reservation for you both at an excellent but casual Greek restaurant on St. Denis for 7 PM this evening. I want you to take Petra out for dinner and get to know her, while she is getting to know you. Pretend, both you, that Petra has been advertising on a D/s dating site for a generous Daddy. You have answered her ad, and the two of you have arranged to meet. This is your first date. You want to attract her while helping her feel comfortable and safe, while she is eager to 'hook' you, but is sensibly cautious as well. Take it from there, both of you, and have a good time! Tomorrow, you will let me know how it went." She dismissed Petra, removed my cock cage, and then dismissed me as well.

This was a first in our relationship. Not only was Myrna telling me that as her proxy, I had to be a Dom too when the occasion or relationship called for it; She was also turning me loose -- as part of my job, as part of my service to her -- to have sex with another woman.

I went downtown early, did some shopping and arrived at the restaurant just before Petra was due to meet me. She was a few minutes late and was shown by the head waiter to the table where I was already sitting. I stood up as she arrived; the waiter pulled out her chair, and we both sat down. "Dr. Livingston, I presume," she grinned cheekily.

"No. More like Aladdin to your genie," I replied. When I rub, you will obey my every command!"

"Seriously," she said. "I know who you are, and you know who I am. Can we really pretend to be strangers?"

"Except that we're both subs to Mistress Myrna, we don't know very much. We know that we're supposed to help each other. You will help me pretend to be a Dom. I will help you pretend that you like men."

"I don't actually dislike men," Petra replied. Mistress was exaggerating. I had a couple of bad experiences with men who came onto me too fast, and got unpleasant when I tried to slow them down. Since then, I've felt safer with women. But I know that men can be nice. You seem to be."

"Maybe what Mistress wants you to recognize is that as a lifestyle sub, you can't slow anyone down," I told her "You will have to do as you are told, or be discarded. You will be matched with another woman as you've requested; but (unless you've specifically excluded it), if your Alpha wants to give you as a present to a man she knows, or wants to watch some guy have his way with you, what are you going to do?"

The waiter came over, and I ordered Bloody Caesars for us, without asking her what she wanted. I also told him to give us 15 minutes before coming to take our order.

"I've thought about this," she replied. "You're not telling me something I don't know. I know that I'm a submissive. I can accomplish more and be happier working under a strong woman like Mistress Myrna than I could on my own. As a submissive like myself, you will understand that. I also know that I could have my matching contract specify that I not be given to others (male or female) without my consent. Myrna has explained that to me. But for some reason, she wants me to consider living without that protection. I'm not sure why."

"Maybe she wants to make you think harder about what obedience means to you. No matter how detailed your contract is, no matter how much forethought goes into drafting it, you will sometimes be told to do things that you don't want to do -- perhaps, that you have some real aversion or fear of doing. How will you handle that?"

The waiter came with our drinks. Petra waited until he left and until I had taken a sip before continuing. Then she answered me. "I will obey," she said, looking at me steadily. "Mistress hasn't given me orders about you, other than those you heard. But if you order me into your bed tonight, or if Mistress does tomorrow, I will do as I'm told."