I shrugged.
“Are you more of a middle?”
I worked my lip between my teeth, my stomach starting to knot up. “I don’t think so. Aren’t they usually… bratty?”
Sam giggled, then put his hand over my mouth and looked around furtively.
“Shhh,” he said, which made me smile because I’d actually been really, really quiet, and did he really not know how loud he always was? He giggled harder, yanking his hand away and shaking it out. “That tickles. But at least you’re smiling now.” Then his brow furrowed again. “But if you don’t want to play, it’s okay if you don’t play. You know that, right? That’s the best part about the Plum! Bradley and Dennis make sure we can always be ourselves here. They won’t hire anyone who isn’t kink-positive...” He frowned for a moment, but then shook whatever had caused it off, and went on, “And most of our guests only choose us because they know they don’t have to hide their lifestyle while they’re here.”
“So guests wander around the hotel in diapers and puppy masks all the time?” I asked, the idea making me smile again. “Not just because of the Cuffd event this weekend?”
Sam nodded enthusiastically. “Sure! If that’s what they’re into. And none of us who work here are going to blink an eye if we run into a sub kneeling at their Master’s feet in the breakfast room or whatever. But that’s my point! If you’re a Little who doesn’t like to play, then you can just...” He flapped a hand around for a second, like he was trying to think of an alternative. “Color! Or suck on a bottle? Whatever you need to do to find your happy place. I bet if you wanted to sit on a Daddy’s lap and just watch, like you did at the park, one of these ones would let you.”
He pointed at the row of Daddies, and I shook my head frantically. I didn’t like coloring and I didn’t want to suck on a bottle, but I’d take either of those over having to sit on anyone’s lap who wasn’t Edward.
Sam sighed, long and loudly. “Stockholm Daddy isn’t even here,” he said, hands on his hips.
“I know,” I said, smiling a little at the way he’d seemed to read my mind. At least, about that part. “But he, um, he is my Daddy now? Just for the weekend, I mean. But he’s the only one I want.”
“Ugh,” Sam said, flopping down on one of the beanbag chairs. “I don’t know what you see in him. Besides being hot and giving you a free room, I mean. Oh, and saving you from Mean Fake Daddy yesterday. And I guess it was nice how he bought us all dinner. But Rene! He’s going to tear down the Plum! And then where will we go?”
For a moment, he looked truly miserable, and my heart hurt for him.
I sat down on the beanbag next to him. Well, I sat, anyway… and then it sort of swallowed me.
I struggled to resurface, pushing and squirming until I had sweat beading at my hairline and Sam was giggling again.
Once I finally managed to extricate myself enough that I could perch on it without getting sucked back into the depths, I patted Sam’s arm. “Maybe he won’t sell it?” I said, blowing a hard puff of air in the direction of my bangs, to get them out of my eyes, and then wiping my brow.
“Really?” Sam said, his whole face lighting up.
“Um, maybe,” I hedged, because Daddy had sort of said something like that last night, but then we’d done… other stuff, so I didn’t really know what he’d meant and probably shouldn’t get Sam’s hopes up. So, before he got all excited about it, I grasped onto the other concern he’d mentioned, trying to divert his attention. “Who’s we?”
He blinked. “What?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.
“You said, um, you said where will ‘we’ go? If Daddy, I mean, if Edward…”
Dang it. I’d been trying to get Sam’s attention off the sad subject of The Plazerra possibly being sold… and then I’d just brought it up all over again? I was as bad at friendship as I was at being Little.
And yet, somehow, my diversion still worked.
“We!” Sam said, waving a hand around at the entire room. “You know, everybody. The staff here at the Plum, and the kinksters who find us through apps like Cuffd, and all the people who just want a place where they can stay and still be themselves. If the Plum wasn’t here anymore, we wouldn’t have a place for events like this! And then where would we all go?”
I bit my lip. I didn’t know. Probably just… just normal places, where all the people he described would feel like the odd one out or like they had to hide bits and pieces of themselves all the time.
Sam sighed, long and dramatically. Then suddenly got a wicked look on his face, his mood changing faster than the seasons during climate change. “And,” he said, leaning in closer and lowering his voice… by about a quarter of one half of a decibel, “there wouldn’t be any sex demos if the Plum was gone!”
I blinked. “Any… what?”
“Or I mean, lifestyle demos,” he said, grinning mischievously. “Like the one tonight! I mean, there are a few kink clubs in Asheville, but you know I don’t drive, so that wouldn’t work. Not for me, at least. And anyway, it’s not like we could have had this whole weekend thing at one of the clubs, you know?”
I shook my head. No, I didn’t know. Also, I was still stuck on what a sex demo might be.
I knew what it sounded like it would be, but… but would they really do that? Here? Tonight?
“Hello, Earth to Rene,” Sam said, waving a hand in front of my face. Then, in a sing-song voice, “You’re thinking about sex demos!”
I blushed, my whole body suddenly feeling hot and squirmy. “Does that mean… does that mean people actually having sex in front of other people?” I asked in a whisper.
