Safe and Sane

Rented home, sweet rented home, Danielle thought as they walked into the house they'd rented for the weekend. One of the club members, a customer of hers and realtor, had found it for them, and she put her bag down in the hall, held a hand out for Armand to pull him into a kiss.

"Let's have a look and settle down."

The club had been transformed. The main room was no longer recognizable as a lounge; it had been made over with mood lighting and subtle decorations. On one end there was a huge buffet, the bar was open and tended. There was even room for dancing on a small wooden floor that had been laid down on the opposite end of the room. Scattered about were bowls of candy of all kinds.

One of the smaller lounges hosted traditional party games -- bobbing for apples, donuts on a string, even a table set up for carving small gourds and pumpkins. A few of the private play rooms on the main level had also been opened, set up for groups or exhibitionism, but as in previous year that wasn't the focus of the night. And, in case anyone had forgotten a costume or hadn't been able to find one, the smallest public lounge was being used as sort of a large wardrobe.

A large poster in the hallway announced the categories for the costume contest: scariest, funniest, the most creative, best couple or group, and -- of course -- the sexiest.

At last. The final element of Beth's venture was ready to open, the gallery ready to her satisfaction and Jason's, and displaying (after a certain amount of discussion) a selection of pieces created by each of the artists who would later be holding their own show in the gallery.

The cafe was brightly lit against the dull weather outside, and the store was still open downstairs, but the focus for today was on the gallery, the seating area at one end, and the works on display (and sale) there.

A patch of sunlight was beaming through the window onto the kitchen island. A practical, elegant home, all in straight lines and expensive design. A very masculine place, and the sole note of feminity Danielle, wearing one of Armand's shirts, biting unconsciously on the end of her pen as she studied one of the many papers spread out in front of her. She put the pen down to take a bite from a croissant, thoughtful, then looked up at Armand, sitting across from her in front of his laptop.

"Do you have any idea why the Boulder population would be less interested in suspension racks than that of Denver?" It was beyond her, and she had far too many of these sitting in the warehouse and never being sold. She hated miscalculating things.

The original opening of Strokes had been a relatively public affair, open to all. The expansion, opening the store downstairs, was more private. Considering the space available, it had to be - the store was considerably smaller than the cafe upstairs, and there were stricter age restrictions on access. An invitation had gone out to all members of the club, and Beth had also left the details with Danielle in case she was generous enough to invite any of her customers.

The cafe upstairs was still open, of course, and Beth had left Dotty in charge up there after a frenzy of baking to ensure that they'd have enough to feed everyone. Downstairs, Beth held sway.

Counters along the center of the room had glass tops to display various sex toys, and the shelves below held neatly stacked boxes of the same toys displayed above. Should anyone want a closer look - or feel - Beth had prudently kept two of each behind her counter for testing purposes, and a small curtained off area next to the counter for privacy while testing. On top of the counter was a display case holding jewellery and some of the more expensive collars and restraints.

Shelves against one wall held a small selection of books, cards, and novelties along with the more practical supplies - lubes, hygiene, condoms, dams, etc - and a small case on the opposite wall held the library selection, available for people to peruse at their leisure. Tacked on the door was a small poster politely detailing expected behaviour - D/s behavious was, of course, more than acceptable, but no public nudity and no actual sex was to be permitted, or she'd lose her license.

Candles lit the tables upstairs, low electrical lighting set the mood downstairs. Now all she needed was guests, and potential customers.

Another Wednesday, and for once, the cafe was relatively quiet. The manager was taking advantage of this to train up some rather wide-eyed looking new staff, who weren't entirely certain how the coffee machine worked, or the till, or where anything quite was.

Art had worked up a full head of steam by the time he flounced into the main lounge at the club. He cursed lowly in Spanish and English and trailed something that appeared to be yards of glittery purple tulle behind him.

"Madre de Dios! If I get my hands on him..." He waved a handful of tulle at the unlucky person at the bar. "Look at this! Look at it!"

Active advertising of the store's opening was the ordre du jour, now that it was almost ready. Danielle walked into the club with a healthy stock of flyers inside her bag. She'd cleared it with the club's board first, of course.

No one in sight in the lounge, and she went over to the pin board on the wall to put a small poster up. The flyers she would leave on a table for all to pick up if they so wished. ...except all the pins were already holding posters up, and she was at a loss.

She looked around, hoping somebody would walk in that she could ask about where to find more pins. When nobody did, she ventured further into the club to try and find someone.

The works were progressing very well. The smaller shop downtown should be ready by the end of next week, and the warehouse was on its way. Maybe one more month?

She deserved an evening off. She'd taken one for that munch a few weeks back, but she still hadn't taken Armand up on his offer to give her the tour of the club. Tonight, she was remedying this unfortunate situation.

She walked into the club and looked around curiously, until she spotted Armand in one of the armchairs and headed for him, smiling. "Am I late? I'm sorry."

Someone at the cafe had gotten creative with Google and discovered that March 11th was Johnny Appleseed Day. They hadn't gone all out and insisted on planting, but the counter was offering a selection of apple-based delicacies, cakes, juices and hot cider along with their usual selection.

There was also a rather suggestive print of Eve (looking very like one of the serving staff) proffering an apple, tacked to the wall behind the till.

Danielle didn't usually stare at people, other than when she was reading their lips. She certainly didn't stare at random men in the supermarket, not when she really ought to be picking the best zucchini for her dinner.

But this particular man looked awfully like a kid she knew in high school, and her head was tilted, vegetable forgotten in her hand as she, well, stared, and tried to puzzle out whether it was him or not. The fact that she was having trouble putting a name on the kid didn't help.

Dear all,

My name is Danielle Leroy. I am the co-owner of Denver's Free Market. You might have heard of us; we are a large-scaled sex shop particularly catering to BDSM needs. We seem to be sharing common values: discretion, liberty, respect. We provide more than just sex toys and assorted furniture: a judgement-free space in which to do your shopping. Our members' identities do not leave our records and any newcomer will need to be vouched for before he or she can enter our specialised warehouse.

I am writing to you because we plan on opening a branch of Free Market here in Boulder, and we feel that establishing a partnership with the Power Company would benefit all parties. We have already set up such a partnership with two clubs in Denver, very successfully at that. Membership in the Power Company would vouch for them instantly and they would benefit from a 10% discount on most of our merchandise. In exchange, we only ask that you spread the word of our existence among your members.

Attached to this e-mail, you will find the articles of association of Free Market, as well as a PDF presentation of our Denver branch. This also contains the phone numbers of my associate and myself. I will be in Boulder from Wednesday onward to oversee the site where we hope to establish our shop. I would very much like to meet any one of you, or better yet, all of you, to discuss this face to face.

Best regards,

Danielle Leroy
Free Market CEO