Club Dishabille

Epilogue

Epilogue

Nick was ushered into Miranda’s office by a short elderly woman. She seemed incongruent with a sex club, but what did he know? Maybe grannies were into kinky, too.

“Ms. Marchand will be with you shortly. Would you like something from the bar?” Granny had an Eartha Kitt voice. Nick didn’t know how to process that.

Nick stumbled over his words. “Um, no. I...I’m fine, thanks.”

“Very good, Mr. Jones. Have a seat.” She smiled, showing perfect, straight white teeth and closed the French doors behind her.

Nick walked to the chairs in front of Miranda’s desk, but was momentarily frozen when he saw an array of sex toys on her desk. Well, he knew what some of them were, but a few he couldn’t quite comprehend. He picked up a large pink misshapen dildo, or what he thought was one and studied it with a clinical fascination. It was clearly phallic on one side, but curved strangely on the other.

Miranda walked in and covered her mouth to prevent a laugh from escaping. Nick was looking at one of her newest acquisitions with the same face as much of the staff. “It’s sort of like a strap-on, except no straps. It’s inserted, so that it gives the wearer stimulation as she’s using it.”

Nick couldn’t hide his horrified embarrassment, but he tried to play it off just the same. “I probably would have eventually figured that out. Is it popular among the lesbians?”

Miranda laughed softly and walked behind her desk. “Don’t know, yet. I assume so. It will probably be just as popular with the straight couples as well.” She sat and watched Nick’s blush deepen. She could tell he wanted to ask a question, but couldn’t bring himself to. She continued to smile. “This past year we’ve opened a sort of gift shop here. It’s been profitable. I get a box in every couple of weeks to peruse.” She pushed the objects to the side to make space. Nick was still holding the dildo. Miranda thought he might be gripping it kind of tight.

“So, what do you want to see?” Miranda asked in an amused voice.

Nick didn’t seem to understand what she was asking. He felt ridiculous and all but dropped the toy on her desk. “Oh. Um...I’d like to see last years tax information first– ” He turned his head when he heard a knock at the door.

It was a delivery man carrying what smelled like Chinese. He watched Miranda get up and relieve the man of his delivery. She paid him and thanked him quickly with a genuine smile. “I ordered a late lunch for us. I didn’t know how long this would take and Dahlia told me what you liked.”

Nick wasn’t about to tell her that he’d planned on taking everything back home. “Thanks.” He was suddenly nervous. He didn’t really know how to behave around a woman, especially alone. He had a feeling that Dahlia was always more tolerant than she had reason to be. Maybe if he was silent.

“No problem. The least I could do is feed you.” Miranda quickly divvied up the containers born of years of practice. She hoped that didn’t seem pathetic. She used to cook. It was just easier not to. On occasion, Alex would ask for a family dish and she’d make a week’s worth of it. “What were you saying before? You needed last year’s...?”

“Yeah, and I’d like to get started plugging in your info for this year, so that it will all be done by the first week of January.” Nick opened his beef and broccoli and let out a tiny moan. He knew he had a ridiculous reaction to food, but there was no point hiding it.

Miranda stared at him openly as he made love to his food. She remembered his admiration for the pie the day before. She’d never seen anything like it. Nick intrigued her. He was tall and handsome and the baser part of herself considered him a challenge. He lived with a beautiful woman for years and wouldn’t crack. She wanted to crack him. But she knew that finding a man whom she could be herself with was next to impossible. She also knew that he probably wouldn’t be Nick Jones. She sighed and started on her lunch.