Suzie and Jim are sitting out on his deck as they often do, each sipping on their beers. She is widowed, he is divorced. She had been married to a much older man who had died a few years ago. Jim's wife had divorced him and left town with a much younger man. He was embarrassed by the whole thing, but at least he got to keep the house.
Suzie lives across the street in a nice condo, one of three that make up a little faux row house look.
They have settled into a nice "neighbor friendship." That is they don't date they don't go out to dinner or movies. They just share a drink in each others homes from time to time and every now and then they will watch a TV show together. They are both in their mid 40's.
Suzie is a little pudgy, but has a sweet face and is one of those people that is friends with everybody. Jim is not a bad looking man, but he keeps to himself and if he thought much about it, would admit that he is a bit lonely.
They have gotten in the habit of getting together on Tuesday nights to watch some police procedural they both liked. This particular night the detectives are tracking down a murderer who frequents different fetish clubs. The show goes deep, which is a little awkward for the two friends, so they drink more than usual to hide their discomfort.
After the show ends, Suzie can't bear the silence and says "which club would we find you in?"
"Whaaat," says Jim?
Suzie doesn't answer. She just smiles.
"Well, honestly, you wouldn't catch me in any of those places."
"Oh you're a boy scout, huh?"
He laughs, "no, I just meant none of those particular fetishes speak to me."
"Ooh," she says, so what is it then?"
"Oh no, you first."
"Well Suzie says, "I guess if you were going to find me in any one of those clubs, it would have been the one with all that spanking."
"Really," says Jim. "You would be okay with some stranger spanking your bare bottom?"
"God no, are you kidding me?! I would be the one doing the spanking. I'm not a big fan of pain. I can dish it out, but I can't take it. Besides, nobody gets to see all this for free." And with that she makes a sweeping gesture over her body with her hands.
Jim laughs, "So you are a Dom?"
"A what?" Suzie asks, "you mean like a Dominatrix, with whips and stuff!?
Jim laughs again. "No, I just mean like Dominant as opposed to Submissive.
"Oh," she sighs, "honestly, I'm not really anything. I have never been to a fetish club or done anything like that."
She looks kind of sad and Jim feels bad for her. He surprises himself and says "they didn't go to a CFNM club or party."
"What, who, didn't go where?" Suzie asks.
"On the show, Jim says. Then he takes a long sip of his drink.
"What is CFNM?"
"Oh God," Jim thinks, here we go. "It stands for Clothed Female, Naked man. Although it is usually more than one female." I guess if I had a fetish, that would be it, to be naked and at the mercy of a group of clothed women. Like you, it has never happened. I too am way to Vanilla.
Suzie didn't like being referred to as Vanilla, although it was deadly accurate.
Then she brightens and teases him, "I should invite you to my Wine Club sometime, it's all women."
"Don't think I haven't thought of that he says," surprising them both.
"Really!" Suzie laughs. "Well I just hosted last month, so let's see, Barb, Sarah, Connie, Diane and then me again. So September! Can you wait that long!?
"Yeah right," says Jim, rolling his eyes.
Trying to change the subject a little, Jim asked a few questions about the practicalities of the Wine Club.
"Well," Suzie answered, it started as a book club, but nobody ever got around to reading the books, except maybe Barb. We tried Bridge, but that was worse. The one constant was wine. We all liked drinking wine. So we decided just to make it a Wine Club. At first, the host would pick a wine, tell the group all about it and then we'd drink. Pretty soon that was too much too, so now we just get together once a month and drink. Sometimes the host will invite a guest, like a relative or neighbor, just to mix things up a bit. I have invited Meghan, my next door neighbor, but she can never seem to make it.
She teased again, "should I put you on the list?"
Jim ignored the question and asked about driving arrangements. He'd noticed cabs and Ubers and wondered what that was all about.
"Well, we do drink a lot, so we often pair up and take a cab so we don't have to limit ourselves where the wine is concerned. Except Barb of course, she never drinks enough to worry about it.
"Oh good," said Jim, "I thought maybe you were running a prostitution ring out of your condo."
"Ha, if I was, I'd be in a much nicer condo!"
A few weeks later, Suzie broached the subject again. "We had our Wine tasting at Barb's last night and I tried to picture your fantasy. It just seemed weird, like a bad porno! Hey big boy why don't you take off your clothes for us and show us your hot bod! Do you really think woman think or act this way?"
"No, of course not" said Jim, a little uncomfortable and a little irritated with Suzie for bringing it up again.
"It wouldn't just be me standing up and taking my clothes off, something would have to instigate it. It would happen organically."
"So how would it happen exactly?" Suzie asks.
"I don't know," Jim says acting like he hadn't played this out in his mind a few hundred times.
"Of course you do", said Suzie, calling him out on this, "you told me you fantasize about it. What happens in your fantasies?"
Jim sighs, embarrassed that this is being drawn out. "Sometimes its strip poker."
