Page 31 of In Her Own Way
She checked her belt. The taser and pepper spray were intact. She jammed her phone in her pocket and grabbed her insulated windbreaker, the word security emblazoned on the back. Once buttoned up against the mid-October cold, she leftthe office to patrol, taking a different route than she’d ever gone. If anyone was up to something, she wanted to take them by surprise.
As she walked, she thought about the urgent feeling she’d had in the office. She hadn’t heard anything; it was more a slow realization. But her investigations didn’t root out anything. She refused to let herself get freaked out. She’d handled some shit in the Reserves, and no one was going to get the drop on her in her cousin’s place of business. She paused and listened at units that weren’t locked from the outside, tempted to open them and see if anything was amiss.
Camera twelve’s wire was still attached, and Kimo’s unit was still locked. She gave the lock a tug to make sure. In fact, she needed to go around again and tug on all the locks. It was easy to fake a closed lock, even though it wasn’t. But wait. How could someone do that if they wereinsidethe unit? She couldn’t work out the logic of that but decided to check the locks anyway. She usually didn’t patrol twice, so if anyone was trying to get a bead on her routes, this would throw them off.
She scoffed. “I’m so fucking bored that I’m making up conspiracies. Jee-zus.” She finished her second check and resumed her very important chair-warming job at the security desk.
She closed her eyes and waited. Nope. There was no sense of urgency, no spidey senses tingling. Good.
She pulled out her phone and instantly relaxed. Madison had left her a couple of messages onKinks.
little_peanut:Hi, Daddy Vic. 1. Cranes are birds that work at construction sites. (I had to think about that one. Mistress got it before I did, but she let me figure it out on my own). 2. Oh, yes. We go to Rocco’s every time. Miss Rikki and Miss Bernadetteare always there, too, except when Miss Bernadette is making her math videos for that college series. She’s a YouTube star now! 3. That’s so cool there’s a dungeon there. We went to Dominique’s recently and saw a wax demonstration, and now Mistress wants to try that on me! OMG! I called yellow when she mentioned it, but she just smiled at me. I know what that means. Another soft limit will be explored. Yeesh! 4. The bird count thing is this Sunday. Wish me luck. I’ve never done one of those. Miss Jaleesa is bringing Kari. Kari’s cool. She’s tall and plays first base for our summer team. She’s not alittle, but she’s not really a grown-up yet. It’s kind of weird, but Mistress says she’s searching. For what, I don’t know. Do you have any idea? Anyway… 5. I miss you. 6. Write me back, pls. 7. Bye for now.
little_peanut: I forgot. 8. Please come home for the winter Masquerade Ball. It would be good to see you. 9. Why do birds fly south for the winter?
Victoria was just about to reply when an incoming text dinged on her phone.
Aunt Jenny: Hello, stranger. You’re coming to dinner here Sunday after next. That gives you a week to rearrange any plans you have. I’m making pot roast and potatoes. There will be cheesecake for dessert. You can’t say no. Erin told me you have Sundays off, so she’ll take off, too. You’ve been here, what, almost a month already, and we haven’t seen you. Always make time for family, Victoria. 2:00. You don’t need to bring anything. You know the way.
Well, how about that? Victoria refused to reduce down to the child Aunt Jenny probably still thought she was. Do all parents do that? Think their children, or niece in this case, are still naïve and dutiful little things? Victoria scoffed. She would go to the dinner. She had to. Loyalty to family, and all that. But she would not be the same rambunctious teenager they’d seen over twenty years ago, blindly following her two older boy cousins. She hadn’t seen Eddie and Donny since she’d been back, either. Purposely. Erin hadn’t pushed her to see them, probably on account of the shit that went down that got her sent to the Army.
She quickly closed the text. There was no way she was going to answer Aunt Jenny back right away. That might start a conversation, and if Victoria remembered correctly, Aunt Jenny was one of those adults who gave unasked-for advice, which frequently turned into an extended criticism session.
Now in a foul mood, she switched back over to theKinksapp and answered Madison’s messages.
Daddy Vic:Birds fly south for the winter because, yikes, it’s too far to walk! LOL. Wax can be exhilarating. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Soft limits are there to be explored, right? Remember when you were scared about “fun-ishments”? And now you’re a fun-ishment junkie! (I’m teasing you).
Daddy Vic:I don’t remember who Kari is. Oh, wait. Yes, I do. She’s Jaleesa’s newest sub. Tall, pretty, plays the piano. Right? And…we’re all searching in one way or another, aren’t we? Searching for love, a place to belong, acceptance. All that.
Victoria sent the messages, wondering why she’d gotten so philosophical. “We’re all searching,” she mocked herself. “What the fuck was that?” She sighed and added a third message.
Daddy Vic:Good luck on your bird count thing. Let me know what the heck that’s all about. Do the birds line up, and you count them? LOL. Hey, Madison, why do hummingbirds hum?
Victoria sent the message and found herself in an infinitely better mood. She switched over to theSapphic D/sgroup she’d joined. The topics were interesting, and she realized she had many opinions about the ones the admin posted. She was ever mindful, however, of not turning into an Aunt Jenny offering advice no one wanted. She’d been posting more often than she usually did in theKinksgroups she belonged to, and sometimes it seemed that she and the admin, Juicy_Babe, were talking back and forth to each other. But that was cool, too. The woman was intelligent, had an intriguing homepage, and made everyone feel seen and welcome. Such a mom. At first, Victoria thought she might be a Mommy Domme, but nothing in her posts and nothing on her homepage suggested that. Some people were just naturally nurturing.
Victoria scoffed again. Aunt Jenny probably thought she was the epitome of a nurturing matriarch of the family, but her brand of interactions felt nothing like it. She shook off her aunt, grateful she had only a week or so to sweat the dreaded family dinner and looked for a good topic to weigh in on.
Oh, shit, it had been a week since Juicy_Babe posted about her boss. Victoria had wanted to muse on a suitable response but had forgotten. She found the post, read some of the other people’s responses, all very supportive, but none had actionpoints. Hoping she wasn’t going to be an Aunt Jenny, Victoria responded.
Daddy_Vic: Sounds like you have a decision to make, Juicy_Babe. If you’ve already handled your situation, then please disregard my following thoughts. Is there some way you can balance this new task with your current obligations? Maybe shave off a little of your current tasks to make room for the new one? Can you talk this over with your supervisor or the big boss? Have you researched what it would take to do this new task (have you “figured it out,” like your supervisor said)? Maybe it won’t be as daunting as you first thought. Can a co-worker be assigned to help with it? Maybe that’s another thing to ask the supervisor? Wow, I’m sorry. I’m trying to be helpful, but it seems I’m asking more questions than answering. Without specific details, it’s hard to find the right way to help. Anyway, it’s probably none of my business.
She was going to leave her comment at that, but then a niggling thought wouldn’t leave her alone, so she decided to voice it.
Daddy_Vic: You seem bothered by this new task being laid on you. I caution you about always saying yes to things, especially if you’re overwhelmed, which you seem to be. Also, are you in any kind of union? A union rep might be able to help you with this, since it sounds like it’s not explicitly in your contract (as you said earlier).
Feeling frisky, not that kind of frisky, she decided to post a few more topics in the group. Hopefully, she wasn’toverstepping. The admin would most certainly curtail her posting fervor if she were. The use of the word ‘contract’ had made her curious about something. Her former bestie, Rikki, used to have written contracts with her submissives, outlining soft and hard limits, expectations, and so on. Rikki had the subs sign them, and then she signed afterward. Rikki’s Aunt Tilda had contracts with many of her subs, but she was a professional Domme and was paid for her services. She was such a popular Domme that the waiting list of submissive men was long. The only time Rikki got paid for her Domme services was when she moonlighted down at Dominiques, so Victoria never understood Rikki’s use of contracts with a submissive that she was only going to play with. So, Victoria put this question to the group.
Topic:Contracts
Question:Do you require (or have you ever filled out) a contract with a Domme or submissive? Why or why not?
Victoria laughed when she reread the post. “Oh, shit. That sounds so teacher-like.” She added a post underneath.
Daddy Vic:Sorry about that. My post reads like a high school English essay prompt. “Was the theme of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein one of horror? Why or why not? Justify your choice.” LOL. (And, no, please don’t answer this one.)
She was just about to formulate an answer to her own question when someone responded.
Juicy_Babe:“If the theme of Frankenstein is horror, explain why and give examples. If not, what themes are prominent? The novel was published in1818; are those themes still relevant today?” LOL. Couldn’t help it.
