“I think Maxence is happy with it. I mean, it’s beautiful. Why wouldn’t he be?”
Mairearad raised her eyebrows a lot. “Again, I’m not talking about Maxence or anybody in particular, but sometimes people get swept up in the process and don’t think about the end result. I’m glad he doesn’t regret it.”
“Oh, I don’t think Maxence regrets it at all. I think he’d have his whole body done if people wouldn’t talk.”
Mairearad blinked hard but didn’t say anything. She resumed eating her salad.
Dree said, “It’s really extensive. It must’ve taken a long time.”
Mairearad nodded again while toying with her fork. “Years.”
It was time to ask a pointed question. “Where’d you get the inspiration for it?”
Mairearad rolled her eyes up at the sky like she was thinking about how to phrase the answer. “All our inspiration comes from our clients. We never do anything except at the direction of clients.”
“Well, of course. I mean, you couldn’t do anything else, right?”
She nodded.“Right.It’s amazing how many people don’t think about consent in my line of work.”
“Why would that be? I imagine there’s all kinds of paperwork. Don’t you have a contract you have to sign?”
Mairearad rolled her eyes. “There are certainly liability waivers. The Devilhouse has boilerplate legal forms of course. Extensive stuff like Maxence wanted requires extra forms and signatures. Maxence never wanted to do a contract, though. That’s not his thing. He’s—you know.”
“Oh, I know!” Dree laughed.
Mairearad bit her lip as she laughed softly. “Yeah, I’ll bet you do. And again, I’m not saying anything about any particular client, but I don’t know how you handle a personal relationship with someone like Maxence. Obviously, I’m not the right person for that. If I had a relationship with someone like him, it would be a constant battle for dominance. We’d be like two tomcats in a house, eternally squabbling over who gets to be the alpha. I have nothing but respect for subs.”
Subs?
That was kind of odd. When Dree had been working as a nurse, she had subbed for other nurses on the schedule. Everybody called her to sub because she could slip right into any of the departments. “Yeah, I’m a good sub. I’m really flexible.”
Mairearad pointed at Dree with a forkful of salad topped with Thai chicken. “I can tell that about you. You’ve got that sweet aura around you that subs have. This salad is fantastic, by the way. You were right.” She stuffed the food in her mouth and chewed with her eyes closed with happiness.
“I work hard at it.”
“I’ll bet. And I never thought anything different, you know. Both sides take work.”
“Right.”
“Especiallywith someone likeMaxence Grimaldi.”
“Yeah,” Dree said.
Mairearad toyed with her wine glass. “So, when I worked at the Devilhouse, we spent a lot of time with our clients. Maxence came in up to a couple of times a month for over a year. One time, he came in four days straight until I told him his skin needed to heal before we could do any more.”
Dree nodded sympathetically. “I suppose that’s a problem in your profession.”
Mairearad nodded. “More than you’d think. Some people just want to go again and again.”
“I was an ER nurse. I have seen people’s skin all marked up like you would not believe. It really is a beautiful art form.”
Mairearad glanced up at her, her eyes a little wider with a little bit of hope in them. “So, you are into the lifestyle.”
“I think it’s really cool.”
Mairearad leaned over her salad a little bit at Dree. “I shouldn’t ask this, but with all the consultations and talking before we actually do our work, people in my profession getattachedto clients. We can’t pursue relationships with them, and I wouldnever,of course, but we worry about them after they’ve left.”
“I imagine you have to instruct them about aftercare, so they don’t get infections.”
