Raleigh and I shared a look, grinning at one another, because we knew what most people who looked at Phoenix never would have guessed.
He was as submissive as they came, in the right hands, with the right person, when he was able to let his guard down enough to trust them. With game night slated to kickstart a few days after we got back, there would be plenty of opportunities for Phoenix and Aspen to interact outside of the shop and runway shows. I couldn’t wait for them to let fly the one-liners and innuendoes, because I knew that if anyone could match Aspen’s snarky comments with equally lewd and snarky ones, it would be Phoenix.
And if the universe should require a bit of help in getting them to see that they’d be absolutely perfect for one another, well, Raleigh and I were more than willing to lend a hand.
“Here we are,” Daddy declared a short time later, as he parked as close to the bridge as he could get.
It was a short walk to the bridge itself and the bright, colorful collection of trolls attached to it.
“See, Daddy, every one of them tells a story,” I said, pointing out one with tricolored hair held in place with a sparkling tiara. “I bet whoever put that one there loved princesses.”
“And look, this one over here looks like a superhero,” Raleigh said as he pointed to one who had a cape, boots, and even a mask to round out its costume.
Aspen chuckled and pointed to one in purple lingerie similar to the red and black outfit his troll wore. “There’s a whole fetish party of trolls going on over here.”
“Okay, okay, I stand corrected,” Daddy said, throwing up his hands.
“I’m just going to add mine to the gathering,” Aspen said while Raleigh and I hunted for the perfect place to attach ours with the silken rope we’d brought.
“There’s space for three here, Daddy,” I declared, pointing to a patch of weathered wood I could easily reach as long as I stood on tiptoes.
“Well then, let’s see about trussing these three up,” Daddy said, with his own troll held in his hands.
His troll had wild yellow hair and was dressed in caveman attire with a bone club held in its hands.
“Now you can protect us forever, Daddy,” I declared, and secured his doll in the center of the space before attaching mine on one side of his and Raleigh’s on the other.
The very last thing I did was pull one of the silken cords apart to make smaller strands so I could bind the hands of our dolls to the hands of Daddy’s doll to show that they were meant to be connected forever.
“A caveman and his pets, I love it,” Daddy said and let out a caveman yell as he beat his chest.
It was a good thing Raleigh and I had a good, long drink this morning back at the hotel, or he’d have started leaking through his shirt when he did that. I made sure to take a bunch of pictures too, for the photo album Raleigh and I had decided to put together after we’d found an amazing scrapbooking kit and a few books on scrapbooking techniques at the same flea market where we’d found the trolls.
We posed for several pictures with our trolls and took photos of Aspen with the kinky troll slumber party he’d added his troll to before taking the time to photograph the entire bridge.
“You know what I think?” Daddy said.
“I’m afraid to ask,” Aspen muttered.
“I think I need to design my own trolls, so my imp and fairy have props for their next performance,” Daddy declared. “It’ll be a challenge, but if it works out, I think it would be an amazing accessory.”
“Even if it doesn’t work out well enough to put in the shop, I’d love to have a troll that you designed just for me,” Raleigh declared.
“Me too,” I added, vigorously nodding my head.
“Well, then let me make a note of it,” Daddy said and pulled out his notebook.
While Daddy was busy writing, Raleigh posed for several more pictures beside the bright troll and some of the awesome trolls on display, including one that was dressed up like a cowboy, with leather chaps and boots with spurs and everything. Therewas a rockstar troll with a guitar on its back holding hands with a ballerina troll someone had posed mid-twirl. The whole thing was just so fucking cool!
It was a good thing my phone backed up to the cloud because I couldn’t stop taking pictures of Raleigh and those trolls. He was clowning around beside a jester troll when I heard Aspen’s phone let out a series of blips, but I didn’t think anything of it until the man burst out laughing, scaring away a couple crows who’d been cawing to one another from nearby trees.
“Oh, oh, this is perfect. This is, oh holy shit, this is the perfect time and place to show you this,” Aspen declared. “Talk about the highlight of the trip, I am sure this is it right here.”
“Alright already,” Daddy said. “Calm down and show us why you’re frightening the birds.”
Aspen waited until we’d all gathered around him before hitting repeat on the video someone had sent him. It took a moment before I realized who the camera was trained on, then Sean turned his head enough for me to see him fully as he approached a long-haired man seated at a bar I immediately recognized asChase’s, a little goth club on the edge of town. The object of Sean’s desire wore a leather jacket over a black chain link crop top, with matching skintight leather pants and high-heeled, chain covered boots I would have loved to have in my own closet. The tips of his hair were dyed bright purple, and he swirled a thin straw around in his drink as he watched a music video playing on the television above, completely engrossed in it before Sean tapped him on the shoulder.
The guy eyed him up and down, sneered, and turned back to the video. His words, "fuck off, creep,"came through loud and clear.
