All characters are over 18.
Chapter 1
It began on Facebook. Well, what story doesn't nowadays? I was looking through people's updates and I paused over a friend's photo of a trip to the zoo with her boyfriend. Some of her other Facebook friends had left appreciative messages and it was one of those that caught my eye. Not the message, which just said "Gorgeous!" (which indeed the photo was): the name. Belinda Stokes. I knew it was her, even without the little avatar photo of her, which proved it beyond doubt. It was her all right. Belinda. I felt a tingling going through my whole body. Suddenly I was back there, back at school in those mad last weeks of the summer term before we all left. The time I had tried so hard to shut out of my mind but had never quite managed to. The time I always went back to in my daydreams and my fantasies. Belinda. Fran. Those two boys – what were their names? Martin? Simon? The white shirt. The boots. That party – and what happened afterwards. And the school uniforms. Oh yes, those school uniforms. Even after twelve years, I hadn't forgotten those school uniforms and the effect they'd had on me. On all of us.
I paused and thought hard. Let's be sensible here. I was in a stable job, Head of Year in a large London comprehensive, between relationships but quite happy on my own for the moment. Certainly not looking for any sort of complication. And now this had come up. I don't usually believe in premonitions but I knew – I knew – I was asking for trouble if I made contact with Belinda. And it would be so easy to do – a couple of clicks and I'd have revealed myself. Of course, I could just add my own message to Harriet's photo and Belinda would see it and realise it was me and then she could make contact with me if she liked. That way I could let her know I was around and leave it to her to choose whether or not to make contact. If things went wrong it would be her fault, not mine. Then I realised that she must have seen messages from me to Harriet before, yet she hadn't made contact. Or maybe she had only just joined Facebook, or only just Friended Harriet – after all, I hadn't seen any messages from her before. Or maybe – and I stopped. This was ridiculous. I was worrying myself silly like some lovesick teenager trying to work out what it means when her boyfriend doesn't ring.
I came off Facebook and did some online work for a while, but I couldn't shake her out of my head. Belinda. Still around, and suddenly back in my life. Well, she would be if I wanted her to be, that much I did know. And, I realised, I did want her. Back in my life. I could handle it, I told myself, I knew I could handle it. Yeah, right. So, with a feeling of inevitability, like going to the headteacher to own up to something, I went back onto Facebook, found Belinda's message to Harriet, clicked on her name, went to her Wall and sent a Friendship request. There's a space where you can write a message to go with the request, but I didn't write anything. There was no need.
* * *
"Louise! Hi! Great to hear from you! We must meet up!" ran Belinda's reply: she'd accepted my Friendship request of course. And, being Belinda, she gave a day and time. She didn't ask or offer: she just told me where to be and when. I think she just assumed I'd be free, or that I'd make myself free for her. Just like at school. And so it was that the following Saturday I was walking to the tube to go and meet her for coffee in a café in Notting Hill. She would live in the fashionable part, of course: I had to come across London from decidedly unfashionable Hammersmith.
It was one of those bright November mornings when you can sit outside as long as you keep your coat on, and it was one of those very chic cafes with tables where you can. In fact, it looked as if it had somehow escaped from Paris. She was already there, of course; I even wondered if she had deliberately got there early so as to gain the upper hand from the start. Probably. She was very elegantly dressed: expensive camel coat with a matching polo neck jumper and black trousers and boots. Simple but devastatingly effective. I felt very dowdy next to her. She already had a coffee and she ordered me one as I sat down – needless to say a waiter was on hand the second she needed one.
We didn't talk about it. We quite definitely didn't talk about it. We talked about everything else. About what we had been doing over the past twelve years – university, teacher training and two teaching jobs in my case; some sort of high-flying business role in hers (it all sounded rather vague but glamorous. As I would have expected). We talked about London. We even talked a bit about politics, I remember. She was genuinely interested in my work and in how the government's education policies were affecting it. She hadn't changed at all, though I don't think people do really: not just in their looks but in their relationships. I was actually quite a confident, go-getting character at work but here I fell instantly back into the subservient follower role I had played under her devastatingly powerful lead at school. I couldn't quite decide if I liked it or not: I rather thought I did.
And then something strange happened.
I think I noticed them first. A married couple, I assumed, in their fifties I would guess, walking along arm in arm and off to do the shopping or go to the estate agent or whatever else happily married couples do in Notting Hill on a bright Saturday in November. They wore sensible coats and scarves against the morning chill. I hardly registered them but then they stopped and the man looked over at us. Or rather at Belinda. She hadn't noticed them yet and she stopped mid-sentence, wondering what I was looking at. The man was walking over to her, very deliberately. And as he drew level, he sank to his knees. Not one knee: both knees. I was so taken aback I didn't know quite what to say; Belinda too looked a bit startled for a moment but then she recovered. He was kneeling in front of her, his head bowed; one or two people had obviously noticed and were watching to see what would happen. I glanced at his wife. She was watching it all, quite impassively. That was when I knew.
Belinda placed her hand on his head and leaned forward to say something in his ear. She seemed very kind. He smiled, said something that looked like "Thank you" – but it wasn't just that, was it? – got up onto his feet, turned round, walked over to his wife, and they linked arms and walked off as if nothing had happened. I looked at Belinda, though I knew what she was going to say.
"One of my regulars. Wasn't that sweet of him?"
"What did you say to him?"
"I said I was very touched by his loyalty and he could go freely back to his wife."
"And what did he say?"
"You know what he said."
"He said 'Thank you, Mistress', didn't he?"
"Yes, he did."
I looked at her. I should have known this. "So you still do it? You carried on?"
"As a domme? Yes, I carried on. It's a funny thing: men like to say dominatrix – I think it gets them excited – but I find it a bit of a mouthful. I prefer domme. Yes, I still do it. Are you surprised? I bet you're not. It's all right, I'm not one of those lifestyle ones you read about. You do read about them, don't you?"
"I have".
"Of course you have. No, that's not for me. Too much of a good thing: I think I'd get bored with it. I do it on the side, at weekends, sometimes on a Friday night. I do genuinely work for a finance company, Louise. You can look me up."