Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
Originally the lock was not supposed to be that solid, but the lady who sold it to her said it would be better. Pull against the strain she said. I must have had a look in my eye because she flashed a cheeky smile. Her teeth were perfect apart from one, which was covered in a small decal. I strained to check it out but failed to do so incongruously.
‘It’s rude to stare’ she muttered, almost meanly but then smiled again, leaving the tooth exposed for a bit longer. Now I could see it was quite a detailed line drawing of a bound woman. Like those drawings in magazines from the 50s that they hid at the back of the news agents.
‘I’m sorry’ I said, lingering a little longer at the counter.
Again the smile. The image made me consider my next move very carefully. Why would someone looking otherwise perfectly normal have such a …
‘What does it say on the label?’
What?
She asked me again ‘What does it say on the label?’. I looked at the lock packaging. MASTER. Front and back. ‘Master’ I replied and then tried to look sultry.
She smirked. ‘Master indeed’ she smiled, but this time with lips closed so the picture was hidden.
I had a flash of her in that position, legs and feet bound behind her, lingerie pointedly fifties style.
I’ve been trying to contact you I thought to myself. Trying to find you out there in the world. Someone with the same desires as me. Someone to tie up and torment and love and turn on and…
And there you are in the hardware shop selling me a lock. With your attitude and your tooth picture.
How obscure to feel this way in the middle of all this hardware. Her mouth twitched and I came back to the room.
$5.95. It was just a bunch of numbers but her honey tones dripped all over it.
‘What if I don’t pay?’ I asked.
Glasses. The man suddenly behind her had glasses that made him look like some kind of creep. She tensed, realising he was there. She didn’t like him either.
‘Is everything OK Allison?’ He said with rather more breath than was required.
Her look was sour. ‘It’s fine Donald, not sure why you’re here.’ The sharpness of her tongue stung him and me at the same time. Ouch I thought, this one is not some wilting rose or soft marshmallow. My gaze turned to him and his lips were pursed. I gave him a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
It was brilliant. He shrunk away and his sweaty back retreated into the distance. ‘Allison’ I said, letting her name drip off my lips a little. ‘Allison, what if I don’t pay?’
She looked at me with quizzical eyes.
‘The Japanese have a saying’ she replied. I gave her a raised eyebrow and she continued. ‘You can take what you want, but you must always pay’.
‘Do the Japanese specific how that payment is made, because I’d really like to take this lock and use it on you sometime.’
There is was, my boldest statement to date. I’d never met this woman before but here we were in the hardware store flirting hard and I’d just told her in no uncertain terms that I’d like to tie her up. Just like her tooth picture.
‘Well I guess we will just have to see exactly what your payment might be and the currency it might be made in, but rest assured, we will all enjoy the exchange’. Again the broad smile revealing the tiny picture that tingled inside my brain.
I tapped my card. She printed the receipt and wrote a number and two words on the back of it.
I put it straight in my pocket without looking and smiled. The person behind me had already put their things on the counter and she wasn’t even looking at me anymore.
I got to the car and threw the lock on the seat while I hurriedly retrieved the paper. On the back was her phone number and her name. ‘Lady Lime’. I smiled to myself as I drew out of the carpark.