Your Dad's Perfect (Ruby)

Ordering a drink, we sit and talk.

"Right, so the plan?" She looks at me.

"Tonight is a meet-and-greet, so we'll walk around and talk to people. You might find a friend."

She laughs. "Unlikely, I scare my friends away." She's not wrong; she does scare men away, but I'm hopeful she will find someone who doesn't run so quickly.

We walk around and talk to people, and as I thought, Bex is now alone with a guy talking and laughing. So, I stay by the bar. It's a safety thing, I feel safe here. "Ruby, right?" I turn and smile.

"It is. Well done for remembering. You're Kian, right?" He nods and laughs.

"I am. How are you finding this place so far?" He sits and holds his drink while looking at me.

"It's amazing." I have no words to explain it.

"I'm surprised to see you here alone, without Mr Hendrix?"

Nodding, I smile. "He was helping me."

"Oh, I thought that you two were together." His head tilts.

"No. I spoke to him here and realised I knew very little about the world. He helped me understand the lifestyle more, and it was a good thing. He was right that day. I had no idea and shouldn't have committed to anything."

To be fair, I shouldn't have talked to anyone. I knew so little that even talking to someone was wrong-until I had learnt the basics, anyway.

"And now?" He smiles, waiting.

"I've done a lot of research. Not just on the lifestyle, but on this place as well."

"Well, would you like to sit and talk? Just talk, I swear." I nod and follow him to a table, my eyes constantly on Bex, she seems perfectly fine though.

"So what made you come here? The first time, that is." He smiles, and I laugh.

"A friend suggested I make a sex list, and visiting this place was on it. I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and experience something new. I'm guessing you come here a lot?"

He nods and smiles. "Bars and such

are great, but here, the conversationBelonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

is better. So even if I'm not in the mood to use a room, I come here to socialise. It's why I thought you and Mr Hendrix were...well together. He doesn't typically meet guests out here."

All I can do is nod.

"I found out about this lifestyle about eight years ago. I found this place about two years ago."

"So I'm guessing you're more dominant than submissive?" I smile at him, and he nods.

"Yes, I tried, but submitting isn't for me." He shrugs and takes a drink. "Have you figured out what you want from this?" His hand waves around.

"I'm not sure. Well, I am, but also not." He laughs and looks at me, confused. "Sorry. Short term, I want to explore this world-nothing serious, though. Long term, I want something that isn't just in the bedroom."

He nods. "You want to try this out, get used to it, but like the aspect of it being 24/7 not just behind closed doors."

"Exactly. There's a lot I like about the 24/7 dynamics; I'm just not sure I can go from nothing to that right away." Sitting we talk, Kian is eight years older than me.

He's had submissives in the past. He typically goes for serious, long relationships that last years, then one-offs. I say goodbye to him for a while. I need to get Bex and sign up.

I walk towards her, and she joins me. "So I'm signing up," I turn, shocked. "I know a lot; I used that contract, remember? Plus, these guys are respectful and not scared of me." I laugh and nod.

Walking to the desk, I speak to the

woman and she gives me the forms. Sitting I fill them in, and talk to Bex while I do It's almost like the contract, only far more in-depth, Half an hour later, my hand hurts, but it's filled in. I hand it to the woman.

She smiles and starts entering things into the system. "Ah, Ruby, welcome." She smiles, and I nod. She said that was weird... really weird "Sorry." She smiles slightly. "You're registered to use the

ov

services, though." I nod and walk back to Bex.

"She was weird." She laughs at my words. "I mean it. When you're done, I want to come with you and see what she says."

Her eyes roll, and she hands me the form and pen. "My hand kills; help."

Laughing I take it, and she tells me what to tick and cross, and everything else. Twenty minutes later, I handed her it back. I watched her go through the forms again. Nearly half an hour later, she is finished. She works slowly.