Bossy Bottom Read online

  Adam

  As soon as I got home, I threw the magazines I’d bought onto the table where they’d be forgotten immediately.

  It would come as a surprise to some, but I wasn’t actually interested in Better Homes & Gardens or Sports Illustrated. The reason I went to that bookstore wasn’t to get books.

  I’d been to that store four times in the past month, hoping to catch a glimpse of that beautiful man I’d seen at the beginning of August.

  The first time I saw him, it felt like I was struck by lightning. A powerful urge unfurled in my gut: An urge to get to know this man that looked like an angel.

  I wanted to take care of him, too. That feeling was apparent right off the bat.

  As I poured myself a glass of water and strode out onto my back porch, the sprawling lake sparkled before me. It was nice to have this sanctuary — this huge house for me to relax and be peaceful in.

  But when there’s peace and quiet, it’s cousin is never far behind: Loneliness.

  I’d gone to that bookstore repeatedly; hoping to run into him again. Hoping that he was a creature of habit and that he would come back. When my wish was finally granted, I glimpsed him there in the aisle looking at a book.

  His big red lips were like two soft red rose petals painted on his face.

  For the first time in a long time, I was… nervous. I was nervous watching him: Nervous to approach.

  And then my heart was in my throat when my eyes traveled upward and saw what section he was in: The BDSM section.

  At that moment, the whole world around me fell away as I tried to digest the possibility that he was into the same thing I was into. And before I knew it, my mind was already putting all of the pieces together to assume he was the perfect sub.

  Everything about him was perfect.

  But I couldn’t bring myself to approach him, aside from a few awkward comments.

  That hadn’t happened in years. This boy had me tongue-tied, stumbling over my words.

  And what was worse, I wasn’t even able to work up the courage to hit on him properly or ask for his number. Just like the first time I’d seen him, he appeared in my life as some kind of angel, and then just as quickly vanished into thin air. I’d let him get away.

  I wouldn’t let that happen again.

  At least now I knew that he lived around here. This little suburban area was small. If he visited that book store twice in a month, that meant he was probably a resident. There were only so many places he could be.

  Another thing I’d gathered from my bookstore mission was a hint; a small scrap of information that I could use to find him.

  I’d seen him talking to Mrs. Carr, that stuck-up woman with the I-need-to-talk-to-the-manager haircut.

  I was familiar with Mrs. Carr… but more so with her son. Since I was a cop in this town, I’d had more than my fair share of encounters wither her complete screw up of a son: Underage drinking, driving under the influence, shoplifting, setting people’s property on fire…

  She owed me a favor.

  I sipped on the cool water, feeling the icy liquid pass my lips. When it got to my stomach, it unfurled and sent chills throughout my body.

  I could call her real quick— it was still only the afternoon. She had some time to herself before her delinquent kid came home from school — if he was even there today in the first place.

  So I grabbed my phone, found her contact info, and dialed her.

  It rang three times before she picked up.

  I’m sure she saw my name on her phone screen and felt dread; dread that her son had done something illegal again. But I’d learned by all my previous interactions with her that she didn’t care much for her son’s well-being; she only cared how he made her look.

  “Hello?” She answered in her high-pitched, shrill voice with a tinge of fear to it.

  “Hey Mrs. Carr.” I greeted, unconsciously letting my deep authoritarian cop voice flow out of me. I cleared my throat and tried to talk in my more gentle, civilian voice. “How is your Saturday going?”

  “What did he do?” She asked, her voice full of panic.

  We both knew that she was talking about her son.

  I frowned. “Nothing. I’m calling you to see if you can help me with another investigation.”

  My gut twisted at my half-lie.

  “A-another investigation?” She asked, her voice betraying her interest.

  “Correct,” I affirmed. “Today you were at the town bookstore, is that correct?”

  “That’s right…” she said, her voice faltering. I could practically hear the suspicion simmering under the surface. “Am I a suspect in something? Am I being followed by the police?!” She asked, panicked.

  “No no, nothing like that,” I softened my voice again. “I was there too, and I saw you in the cafe but I couldn’t say hi because I had to run some errands.”

  My voice was tumbling out of my mouth now; I was such a bad liar.

  Thankfully, Mrs. Carr was oblivious to it. “O-oh.” She said. “Yes, I was in the cafe today. I didn’t see you though… you must have been in normal clothes — I didn’t recognize you.”

  That was true. The frequent times Mrs. Carr had seen me, I was always dressed in my uniform.

  I needed to wrap this conversation up; this wasn’t right. My gut twisted uncomfortably at the fact that I had to do this at all.

  “Yeah, I’m off-duty today,” I said, swirling the ice cubes in my glass. Then the question came bubbling out of me. “When I saw you today, I noticed that you talked to someone briefly. Who was that?”

  To my horror, Mrs. Carr was silent.

  My fingers tightened around my phone as my patient mind began to lose its focus. Did she suspect that I liked that angelic boy she’d seen? Was she trying to remember?

  I could imagine her narrowing her eyes.

  “Well… let’s see…” she mused.

  Relief unfurled in my gut as I realized she was just trying to remember.

  “I saw Nancy first, and learned that her daughter didn’t get into Julliard like she wanted… poor thing… now she’ll have to go to her second choice.”

  But Mrs. Carr didn’t sound like she was sympathetic. She sounded like she was relishing in it; delighted that one of her friends’ kids didn’t get what she wanted.

  I frowned.

  Mrs. Carr continued, “It’s so dreadful; I know their family has been struggling with money, so this is probably all for the best anyway.” She finished, and the way her voice went up at the end, I could tell she was smiling.

  “Was Nancy the only person you talked to at the cafe?” I asked, my patience beginning to fray.

  “Hm, no, then I saw Beth, and she was telling me about how Martha Patel and her husband are trying to renovate their kitchen, a dead-end project if you ask me…”

  I rubbed one of my temples as I listened to Mrs. Carr drone on about neighborhood gossip I didn’t care about.

  Then finally, she punctuated her boring story with “Oh!”

  I sat straight up in my seat, the ice in my glass jingling at the sudden movement.

  “After Beth, I saw Sarah’s son! He looked like he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to do.”

  Bingo. “What do you mean?” I asked, hungry for any information she had about this angelic man.

  “Well,” she started, gathering wind to prepare for an extra-juicy piece of gossip. “His name is Luke, I don’t know if you’ve ever met him. He just moved home after finishing college. Couldn’t find a job, poor thing,” she said sweetly. “Lots of millennials are having trouble finding jobs… the market is rough out there. Especially for people like Luke.”

  I was sitting on the edge of my chair, alert. I wished I’d remembered to bring a notepad out here.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked, my heart racing.

  “Well… he’s always been… different.” She said, mock sympathy present in her voice again.

  “Different how?” I asked, trying
to keep the desperation out of my voice. I needed to know everything about this stranger.

  “It’s… a little hard to describe. He came to some of Tim’s birthday parties when they were just kids, and he never really talked to or interacted with the other kids. He just stayed around his mom.”

  I shifted in my seat. I knew which Sarah Mrs. Carr was referring to now. It was the Sarah — the principal of the school district, head of the PTA, and one of the biggest donors of the nearby city. There were several buildings with her last name on them.

  A pang of sympathy pulsed in my gut for Luke. It couldn’t be easy to be her kid.

  “Can you tell me anything else about him? Anything weird about the interaction that you remember?” I probed.

  “Um… let me think…” she said, searching her mind for scraps of gossip. “Nothing about earlier today in particular. Why, is he in trouble?” She asked, the hope in her voice following a steady crescendo.

  I scowled. “No, he’s not in trouble.”

  Her disappointment was palpable. “Oh… well, that’s good to hear.”

  Then there was a beat, and I said: “Thank you for your time Mrs. Carr.” And I was about to hang up, but then she spoke, the words rushing out of her.

  “You know, Tim told me that he’s seen Luke down at the boathouse bar, serving drinks. He isn’t supposed to do that; he’s not even twenty-one!”

  I raised my eyebrow, keen on this new information. Not because I planned to bust him, but because now I knew where to find him.

  “Thank you for telling me that, Mrs. Carr. You’re a good, law-abiding citizen.”

  Even hearing the words leave my mouth made me feel sick. But I knew that it was enough to make her feel important; to give her a pat on the head for the information she’d given me.

  “Of course officer. I don’t know what we’d do without you,” she chirped.

  A frown pulled across my face again. Probably better things than constantly having to arrest your son, I thought menacingly, then shook the thought away.

  I thanked Mrs. Carr again and then got her off the phone before I had to listen to more petty gossip.

  * * *

  If what she said was true, then I could go to the boathouse bar and have a good chance of running into him.

  Luke. His name was Luke.

  And his mother was Sarah DuPont, one of the most powerful women in the state. Why she ever decided to move to the suburbs and become a principal of a school district I’d never know.

  But, I was one to talk.

  Looking out onto the lake from my huge back porch, I thought about how much I loved being a police officer. Even though the pay was shit, I didn’t mind. I had money from when my great uncle died; he left me a surprise inheritance shortly after I entered the police academy.

  Now I could afford anything I wanted. The only trouble was filling my life with meaningful things.

  Glancing at the empty deck chair next to me, I frowned.

  It had been a few months since that chair was occupied by someone. Someone that had left me for “someone less intense.”

  The pain in my gut still curdled uncomfortably, even though it was less painful than it used to be.

  My solitary self-torture was interrupted by the ding of the doorbell.

  I scowled and got up, setting my glass down in the kitchen on my way there.

  My brother wasn’t supposed to be here for another hour. But, true to his habits, here he was, infringing on my quiet moping an hour earlier than planned.

  I opened the door to find the spitting image of me standing there expectantly, his fishing gear in hand.

  “Hey bro!” he greeted, clapping me on the shoulder. “Ready for a day of fishing?” he asked a little too excitedly.

  I knew he wanted to come to the lake house to hang out with me, but secretly we both knew that he wanted an excuse to escape his wife.

  “Yeah buddy, come on in,” I said, letting him by me.

  He set his tackle box on the counter with a clatter, then turned to me.

  “So! Tell me all about your week. Let’s catch up. Are you seeing anyone new yet?” he asked.

  I frowned. Jake’s nosiness was ever-present in my life. He always wanted to know who I was dating, and if they were interesting enough to introduce to the family.

  “Not yet…” I said, leading him down to the boat dock.

  We descended the stairs as he pestered me questions about what “not yet” meant.

  “That means you’ve met someone!” he declared.

  I was silent, hiding my face from him.

  “Come on Adam, just tell me! It’s been months since…”

  I cut him off with a stern look.

  “Sorry…” he said, cowing down. “It’s just that, you’re in the prime of your life, you know? You should be going out, dating around.”

  Scowling for what felt like the tenth time today, I ignored him as I began to turn the wheel and lower the boat into the water. We both secretly knew that he was trying to live vicariously through me.

  “How are things going with your wife?” I asked, hoping to get the subject back to something else.

  He prattled on for a minute, looking out onto the lake, giving me some domestic details of his life.

  Then my eyes grew wide as I spotted some of my… toys in the boat still.

  I forgot that the last time I was out here, I had him with me… and we had some fun on the water.

  “Look at that jet ski!” I said with panic as I hopped into the boat, rushing to conceal the pile of ropes and restraints.

  My naive brother zeroed in on the jet ski with a “Woah!” and walked to the edge of the dock. “I’ve always wanted to ride one of those things…”

  “Oh really?!” I said a little too enthusiastically as I piled the ropes and restraints into one of the storage cubbies on the boat.

  Just as I shut the lid, Jake turned to face me again.

  There was a second of panic as I wondered if he’d seen. If my family ever found out…

  Well, I just couldn’t let that happen.

  “Ready to catch some fish?” he asked enthusiastically as he jumped into the boat.

  Internally I sighed with relief. There was no way he’d seen.

  Jake was not someone who was skilled at keeping his mouth shut. If he saw something that interested him, I could guarantee that he would ask all sorts of questions about it, and then tell his wife about it. And if his wife knew about it, my entire family would learn about it.

  As I drove the boat out into the middle of the lake, I was happy to be away from his chattering for a second so I could let my mind wander to what I really wanted to focus on: Luke.

  There had to be some way I could get to know him; to manufacture another meeting. I could go to that boathouse bar that Mrs. Carr was talking about, but that might be a little too premeditated…

  No, Luke was special. And he needed a special introduction.

  You already had an introduction and you screwed it up! A nasty voice hissed in my head.

  I frowned as I killed the boat motor, and then Jake began to chatter again.

  “So, there’s no one you’re seeing in your life right now?” He asked with a grin.

  “Drop it,” I commanded, getting annoyed with my little brother’s persistence.

  “You know they’re expecting you to bring someone to Thanksgiving this year,” he said as he pierced a cricket with a fishing hook.

  An uncomfortable sharp pain pierced my gut. Last Thanksgiving, my old sub didn’t want to come with me. He didn’t want to be part of my “real life,” he said.

  I had to lie to my family and tell them I wasn’t seeing anyone seriously. Which, of course, only caused them to ask more questions about it.

  The whole day, which was supposed to be a day surrounded by love and family, turned out to be the loneliest day I’d ever had. Again and again, I had to answer the same questions about my singleness; why wasn’t I bringing anyone home, who wa
s I seeing, etcetera etcetera.

  Every single one of my brothers and sisters was paired up; either dating someone seriously or married. So all of the family’s attention was on me as I was literally the odd one out.

  “Come on, you’re a handsome dude. There must be someone you’ve got around you…” Jake teased, his eyes twinkling.

  There was no way he’d stop unless I gave him something. “Well… as you know, I had a breakup a few months ago.”

  Jake’s eyes — which were a shade darker than mine — shifted to a look of empathy.

  “But I’ve… sort of met someone.” I offered.

  “I KNEW IT!!” Jake boomed, his cry echoing across the lake.

  “Calm the fuck down!” I hissed. “It’s nothing — nothing special.”

  Liar. The voice in my head hissed.

  “It was just a meeting. I don’t even know if I’ll ever see him again.”

  Double liar, my inner voice taunted me.

  “What?! Adam you’re— you’re blushing!” Jake teased me as he whisked his pole through the air, casting his line out into the water.

  “Shut up. I’m not.” I said, trying to conceal the heat that was rising into my cheeks.

  I didn’t like this; I wasn’t in control.

  There was something about this beautiful stranger, the one that I was telling my brother about right now — that made me feel so different. …I also felt like a huge creep for telling my brother about someone that I had met just once, in passing.

  “So what else do you know about him?! Come on big guy, tell me!” Jake demanded.

  “I don’t know much,” I admitted.

  “Ugh! You’re such a liar….” Jake said. “I’ve known you for what, thirty years? I know how you look when someone has you wrapped around their finger.”

  I scowled again, and despite his consistent pleas, I refused to tell him anything else.

  “You know what? I’ll get it out of you — I always do.”

  Then a mischievous smile curled on his face.

  “Tonight I’m getting you drunk.”

  3

  Luke

  I’d just tucked my new book, Obey, in between my mattress and my box spring. My mom wouldn’t find it there.