I first met Yvonne a few months ago when we both joined an evening art class and we became firm friends from there. She was a few years older than me, somewhere in her late thirties, but we hit it off together almost at once. It helped that we'd joined not only because we had an interest in art but also because we both found ourselves alone in the evenings - though for slightly different reasons. With me it was because Carl, my husband, had begun to work a late shift and was regularly out until the early hours, and with Yvonne it was because hers had walked out on her altogether.
At first we merely shared an after class coffee, but that soon developed into us meeting up at each other's homes at other times just for a good old-fashioned girlie gossip. That is, until one day at my place Yvonne took our chat off in an entirely different direction. She'd been looking a bit distant and preoccupied since she'd arrived, and then she suddenly looked directly at me as if she'd just come to a decision.
'Debbie, can I ask you a very personal question?' She asked me cautiously, sounding as if worried how I would react.
'Yes, of course.' I knew it was important by the way she'd called me 'Debbie' instead of the usual 'Debs'.
'I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to.' She was playing nervously with the hem of her pale blue skirt.
'No, it's fine. Fire away.' I was both puzzled and curious.
She looked up from gazing at her knees. 'Do you ever use a vibrator?'
That one caught me completely by surprise. I knew it was going to be something she found difficult, but that seemed so out of character. I just sat there with my mouth open and stared at her.
'It doesn't matter.' She was embarrassed by my startled reaction. 'I shouldn't have asked.'
'No,' I told her. 'I don't mind Vonnie. You just surprised me, that's all. The answer is yes, with Carl out so much I often have to.'
Her face cleared a little. 'What are they like?'
'They're better than just a finger.' I answered with a grin, trying to make light of the question. 'Why do you ask?'
A silly question really. I mean, the answer was pretty obvious. But maybe I just wanted her to spell it out. I hadn't expected a woman of her age not to know from her own experience.
'Well to be honest, I'm not sure.' She sighed. 'Ever since Jim left me I've been on my own.' She paused with her fingers still uneasily working at her skirt, and then continued. 'Well, we all have urges and I get really frustrated, but I'm not ready for another relationship yet. So I wondered if I should buy a vibrator. The trouble is that I know next to nothing about them and so I'm looking for advice.'
I thought about it for a moment and then told her. 'Well, I wouldn't be without mine, and that's a fact. Take a look through the online catalogues to see what kind you want, and then buy one through them, it's much less embarrassing that way.'
'Yes, I think that's what I'm going to do, but I've had a look at some online stores and there seems to be so many different kinds it's just confused me. They all seem to assume you know exactly what you're after.' She stated, sounding lost. 'You see, Jim wouldn't entertain the idea of anything like that. He said he should be enough and to be honest he was, in fact at times he was more than enough.' Her face brightened. 'Sometimes it gets me going just thinking about what we used to do together. So I never took a lot of notice of vibrators and such because I never needed to, but now he's gone, well it's a different matter and I need your help.' She stopped, and then asked suddenly. 'What sort do you have?'
The truth of the matter is that I have several different ones, so I wasn't sure how to answer.
'I've got more than one, but it depends what works for you.'
'I don't understand.' She said, sounding genuinely puzzled. 'How do you mean what works for me? Don't they work for everyone?'
'Well, different people like different things.' I waved my arms about, trying to explain without embarrassing myself. 'And so different vibes suit different people with different tastes.'
She still looked puzzled and so I tried again. 'It's simply that different designs are better at different things.'
'Yes, I've seen that's there's loads of different designs, but how am I supposed to know which one would suit me?'
This was getting awkward. I'd never dreamed that a grown woman could be so naive. I wondered which would be more embarrassing, to try and describe them or to show her some of my little collection. I opted for the latter, but I wasn't about to run up and down the stairs with different toys.
'Come upstairs, and I'll show you what I've got.' We got up together and made for the stairs, both of us looking thoughtful but for different reasons. She was no doubt wondering what she was about to see, and I was wondering what to show her. This was a side of my friend that I hadn't seen before.
I keep all my bedtime toys in a chest of drawers alongside my bed and so I sat on the bed next to it, indicating to Yvonne that she should sit the other side of me. I did that so that she wouldn't be able to see into the drawer. Carl and I don't get it together as often as I would like, but when we do we can be fairly experimental, kinky even, so there were some things in there that I wanted to keep private. Then as soon as she was settled I opened the drawer and fished around until I came up with my bog-standard seven inch white plastic vibe. It seemed a good place to start.
'Here Vonnie, this is just an ordinary one, but it can certainly get you off. Switch it on and see what it feels like.'
She looked at me incredulously and I suddenly realised what she thought I meant.
'Well, you can if you like.' I giggled. 'But I really meant for you to try it in your hand. You twist the bottom to turn it on.'
'Be careful what you say then, I might have taken you up on it.' She laughed. 'And Debs, twisting my bottom doesn't turn me on.'
'I'm glad to hear it.' I laughed back, our nervous amusement relieving some of the embarrassment.
She turned the knurled end cap of the vibrator and jumped as it buzzed into life. Then she wrapped her hand around it and began experimenting with the speed, turning it up and down, and then up again.
'I can see that feeling really nice.' She commented finally, holding it in her palm.
'It does.' I sat watching her, seeing the fascination in her eyes. 'You can use one like that either up inside you or just on your outside bits, or anywhere else for that matter. I think it works best with the tip pressed against your button. That really gets me going.'
'Don't say things like that?' She protested, smiling. 'You'll have my imagination working overtime.'
'You wanted to know about it.' I reminded her.
I was surprised how quickly our embarrassment was receding now that we had broken the ice on the subject. There was a lot less awkwardness than there had been to begin with.
