Safe and Sane

Iain was in the common room on one of the couches. Elbows resting on his knees, he was leaning forwards, obviously in intense conversation on his cell phone.

"Yes Jeanette, yeah, completely understand. You've gotta' do what's right for the family. Just y'know.. yeah.. keep in touch, yeah? 'Kay. Bye."

He snapped his phone shut, and pinched the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger, trying to ease away tension there. "Fuck," he sighed softly.

Another Wednesday, another munch night. Evenings were beginning to draw in, with fall nipping at the air, temperatures beginning to drop as soon as the sun had sunk below the horizon. The cafe had responded with a range of spiced coffees, hot soup, and cookies and muffins still warm from the oven.

And, of course, the infamous chili spiced hot chocolate.

Another week, another Wednesday, another buy-one-get-one-free offer on all hot drinks from the cafe. Coming up to the full moon, the weather was uniformly dull, cloudy, and warm, long days with no rain, long nights too warm to really sleep, tempers were beginning to fray among the staff.

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.

It had taken a few false starts for Iain to finally leave a message on James' phone, but he was determined and finally got there:

"Hi.. umm.. yeah. This is Iain. From the munch? The guy with the bookstore? I've been thinking a lot about our conversation, and well, I just wondered if you'd like to meet up to talk some more sometime. We could meet at the club or something, the cafe, or meet me at the store after work, whatever's cool with you? I mean, if you want to that is. Anyway, yeah, call me anytime.. umm.. bye."

He closed his eyes as he clicked his cell shut, and leant back against the wall with a soft sigh.

Another Wednesday, nearly August, and thunderstorms outside. Power held - so far - but the cafe was taking no chances. Which meant that instead of lights on inside, each table was lit by a couple of tealights safely protected in the bottom of water glasses, giving the whole place an unusually intimate atmosphere.

Hot drinks would be on offer as long as the power held out, and the owner and staff appeared to be praying for that between each order.

Updated checklist back behind the front desk, Iain had gone through to sit in a lounge with a book, a drink and his iPod. Buried in the story, it took a while before he realised someone else was standing nearby. He looked up startled, pulling the earplugs from his ears. "Sorry, did you say something? I had these things in, I didn't catch you."