‘Katie!’ Several of them spoke at once.
‘Who’s your friend?’
‘You’re late, young lady.’
The last speaker was a good-looking, rugged guy in a plaid shirt. I was willing to bet, by the way Katie blushed and quivered at him, that he was one of her tops.
‘Sorry, sir,’ she said, and there was laughter as she slid into the seat beside him.
‘You will be,’ he said. More laughter.
‘This is Ellie,’ she said, as I reestablished my position as the focal point of the group. ‘We got chatting on Safeword.’
‘Welcome, Ellie,’ said the floral-blouse woman, pulling a stool over for me. It was lower than the chairs the others sat on, and I felt immediately like a little girl surrounded by adults. ‘You’re new to this?’ she continued in a lower voice, leaning in to me. She smelled of some very heady, spicy perfume.
‘Yes,’ I said, staring at the grain of the table. Now I was here, it all felt very dangerous somehow; a real lion’s den.
‘Sub?’ asked one of the men, eyeing me rather intensely.
‘I…think so,’ I said.
‘Only one way to find out,’ he replied, and there was more laughter and an admonition to ‘Calm down, Tim,’ from the floral-blouse woman.
‘You’ll frighten her off,’ she added, then she patted my shoulder and stroked it. I think it was intended to be reassuring, but it made me tense up far more than the joshing remarks. ‘Poor little newbie. It isn’t easy, you know. Is it, Ellie? You’ve been very brave to come here like this.’
‘But you needn’t worry,’ interjected Katie’s beau. ‘We don’t bite.’
‘No,’ agreed Floral Blouse. ‘We just sting from time to time.’ A predatory gleam in her eye accompanied her next words. ‘I’m Maria, darling. I’m a very giving person, or so I’m told.’
‘Especially when it comes to pain,’ said Katie smartly, earning her more laughter and – I suspected – some trouble for her posterior next time Maria got her alone.
‘You should know, darling,’ she said, raising her eyebrow. ‘You should know. Let me buy you a drink, Ellie. New members never have to fend for themselves here.’
I asked her for lime and soda – keeping a clear head was definitely in order – and she swanned off, wiggling her bottom in a tight black pencil skirt.
‘Don’t mind Maria,’ said a very glamorous woman, the only one dressed in a stereotypically ‘kinky’ way. She wore vamp-dark lipstick and a stretch-lace top underneath a purple PVC bustier. ‘She’s the grande dame of the scene and she likes to camp it up. But she’s a pussycat really.’
‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ I said. ‘I guess I wasn’t sure what
to expect. Wall to wall leather, maybe. But most of you are…’
I looked around them, hesitating to apply the term ‘normal’ in such abnormal circumstances.
‘There isn’t a uniform,’ said Biblical Beard with a gruff laugh. ‘Some of us dress up to play, some of us don’t.’
‘And some of us dress up because we love it,’ said PVC Girl, tossing her magenta-highlighted hair. ‘I’m Tanya,’ she added. ‘I’m a switch.’
‘Switch – oh, you do both,’ I said, recalling a discussion of this very issue on Mia’s blog.
‘That’s right. I’m as flexible as they come.’
‘Must be the yoga,’ said Katie.
‘God, yes,’ said Tanya, suddenly enthused. ‘That’s been amazing. Thanks so much for recommending that group. My back and joints feel so much better.’
A strangely prosaic conversation ensued about health ailments and the best types of exercise for relieving them, which was interrupted by Maria’s return – and the appearance of Tom, in the company of the smoking biker.
I tried not to flood with heat, but I can’t say I was successful. It was lucky that everybody was looking at Tom, Maria and the biker.