Ryan: Her parents might be devils indisguise.
I talked to Sadie for a while on the phone. She was getting ready soon for what she called a play party. The term made me laugh, and I felt brave enough to ask her aboutit.
“What is a play partyexactly?”
“Well, the parties that we go to are gatherings with other like-minded people in the kink community. There are Dominants with their subs there, who can either take part, or play, in a kinky atmosphere. Remember some of the furniture that I showedyou?”
“Oh yeah,” I recalled something she had called a spanking bench and instantly could feel myself gettinghard.
“Some of the houses we go to for the parties have some furniture like that. In fact, you remember Russell? He has a massive room in his home that has a bunch offurniture.”
I remembered Russell. He was Sadie’s husband’s best friend. Sadie called him something different, but I couldn’t remember what. It was like a dominant, like Nick, but somethingdifferent.
“Sorry, I know I keep forgetting, but what did you say that Russellis?”
“What Russellis?”
“Like Nick, I think you’ve said, but a little different,” I tried to explain as best as I thought that Icould.
“He is a Top,” she remindedme.
“That’s right!” I slapped my desk and then reached for a pen and wrote that title down. “A Top. What is the differenceagain?”
“He’s like Nick in that they’re both Dominants, but because Russell doesn’t have his own submissive, he takes on the role of what’s called a Top. So, at parties, even though he doesn’t have a submissive, he could still engage in play with Dom and sub couples, orbottoms.”
“Bottoms?” I was writing all of this down because I thought this would make a wonderful screenplay.Someday.
“Bottoms are people like me, or submissive. That title is sometimes given to people who don’t have their own Dominant. So, bottoms or Tops can play with oneanother.”
“And you said that Tops can also play with Dominants and subs?” I asked as I was drawing lines between the titles of people that could interactsexually.
She’d explained this all to me before, and I was not saying that it went in one ear and right out the other, but it just hadn’t seemed as important to me before as it was right now to me. I feverishly made notes as she spoke and after we got off the phone, I sat back and stared out my window. Tops met the needs of submissives. Tops could apparently meet needs for Dominants,too.
Was that kind of like what a Dominatrix does; meetneeds?
Truth be told, I was jealous of the relationship Sadie and Nick had. They lived a life that I didn’t even know existed. Before I met Sadie, all I knew about people who were into BDSM stuff had been completely false. They weren’t “sick” individuals, but the more I read up on it and the more I was around Sadie and Nick, I had learned that they were the most well-rounded people I knew. Maybe it was the discipline that made them so put together. Nick and Sadie had a fairy tale life. Not only did I see their strong bond, but Ifeltit when I was around both of them. The respect and love they had for one another wasobvious.
I wanted something like that. Nick and Sadie had “the more” factor in spades. Maybe it helped that they were both into that whole kinky world, or maybe it was because they both knew everything about oneanother.
I slumped back in my chair and tossed the pen on the desk. Nick knew everything about Sadie, and that’s a huge piece to the equation that made them such a perfect couple. I wanted a relationship like that, too. If I could wave a wand and Nikki would magically and suddenly know everything about me, then I would. But it’s not thateasy.
I didn’t let myself sink further into a depressed state. I was already lingering there since my visit with Nikki’s parents. I sighed and decided that I needed to try to tell Nikki stuff, and we could work towards the perfect relationship. I was determined to have that withNikki.
Chapter Sixteen
January2006
“Ryan,you have three semesters left. Why the sudden change?” my advisor asked during my statusappointment.
“I’m getting married next year, and I’m about to start a family. I need to be able to find a good job that will support myfamily.”
I showed him a picture on my phone of Nikki and me on New Year’s Eve. I proposed to her at midnight while we were on the Strip. We had decided to wait a year before we got married because she wanted a big spring wedding, but she felt there wasn’t enough time for her to plan a wedding for thisyear.
My advisor understood my reasons, and we planned out my classes for the newdegree.
“I’ll be honest, Ryan. This change is probably going to add four, maybe fivesemesters.”
“Iunderstand.”
