to get around to meeting you in person,” said Newton, “but I’ve been following your progress with interest this past year.”
“How much do you know?” Amanda asked, in slight alarm.
“Oh, he knows everything,” said Susan, with unconcern, “but don’t worry, he’s cool.”
“I meant I’d seen your clips,” Newton said to reassure her, though he did in fact know about all of the scandalous things she had done with Ambrose Bartlett the previous winter.
“Not only that, but financed them too,” said Amanda with a grin. “Thank you for that.”
“Susan said you’ve already paid her back for the model fees. I’m impressed by that.”
Amanda said, “I was lucky that Hugo told his customers to go watch my clips. That started me off. Now he says they’ll buy whatever I put up. If I ever have time to shoot again.”
“Well, you can shoot here next time if you like,” Newton offered.
“Thank you, you’re so kind!” Amanda cried, certain that nothing would be required of her in payment this time.
“I’ve always patronized the art of spanking,” he replied. “It’s my hobby.”
“I would like Susan to be the star of my next round of clips,” said Amanda.
“Do you think I should?” Susan asked her lover. Her one previous experience making a fetish video had produced a result so awkward that Anthony had felt compelled to buy the master video and lock it away to save his darling any future embarrassment. So far she hadn’t ventured in front of a camera again, but had faith that if anyone could create a charming vehicle for her, it was Amanda.
“I do,” said Newton. “I would love a perfect video of you.”
“But who would you want to sub to?” Amanda asked, selecting a piece of honeydew to sink her white teeth into.
“I don’t know. Pick someone out for me. I trust your judgment,” said Susan.
“Maybe we can do it when I come back in August,” said Amanda.
“Okay, I’ll try to get under the skin of one of the locals between now and then so they’ll be some spark when we shoot,” promised Susan. Meanwhile Anthony and Amanda were smiling at each other.
“May I ask how you met my father and how you came to be such good friends?” Amanda asked.
“We met at an estate sale about sixteen years ago. I was just hitting on Broadway and had money to buy things with. I liked the taste he showed at the auction and invited him to lunch. After which he showed me his shop. Naturally, what caught my attention above all was the rare erotica, and how much of it was corporal punishment oriented. Because I’ve been into it all my life.”
“Right, the notorious collection that’s always the tip off that Random Point is a spanking friendly zone,” said Amanda, remembering how electrified Colby had been to discover the vintage spanking books in Hugo’s print collection under glass and the readily available trove of spanking erotica placidly reposing on the third floor of Marguerite’s bookshop. It was just too large a concentration of B&D material in a one-block radius of a quaint New England village to be coincidental. A true enthusiast would know at a glance that more than one of his or her own dwelt in Random Point or its immediate environs.
“Yes,” agreed Anthony. “It’s a dead giveaway. So of course we began to talk about it and I made no secret of my interest. Then he showed me his own magazine, which I’d never heard of before but absolutely loved. So in one day I became a customer, a friend and a fan.”
“And patron,” Amanda said, with gratitude, for she knew how many generous acts Newton had performed for his scene friends.
“Get to the part about me,” said Susan, helping herself to Dennis’ array of pretty, wholesome dishes.
“Oh yes, how could I forget,” said Newton, “Hugo gave me Susan. It took a while for me to get disentangled from all of my various wives and become free to actually date a girl in the scene. As soon as that happened, Hugo said he’d like to introduce me to a cute, little submissive so I could really start living my fantasies.”
“How many wives were there?”
“Five,” Newton sighed.
“Didn’t you play with any of them?”
“Not in that same satisfying way you can with a girl who’s really into it,” Anthony replied. “So he sent Susan over to me and I don’t know about her, but for me, it was love at first sight.”
Susan started, looking at Anthony in surprise, as he had never uttered any phrase as blatantly, sentimentally romantic in her hearing since they had met.
“So, we started seeing each other right away,” he continued, “even though I was busy as hell and she was in college. Somehow it worked out okay. Then she stuck with me through design school in New York and then she started working at Chipper Knight about two years ago and we’re still together.”
“He says that like I’m doing him some favor,” said Susan, her heart swelling with affection for her lover, who obviously still valued her so highly. “The truth is he’s been spoiling me, my sister and half my friends rotten for years.”
“You’re a very good girl,” Newton assured her. “You make me smile.”
“Anthony made it so comfortable for my sister Laura after her settlementless divorce, that she was able to keep Hugo at bay for years,” Susan reported. “Hugo will confirm that.”
Anthony smiled and told Amanda, “I love how Laura draws. Of course I’ve been happy to patronize her. I’d probably do it even if she wasn’t Susan’s sister.”
“I need to get to know Laura,” said Amanda, thoughtfully. “But I don’t think she likes being around me.”
“Give her time,” said Susan. “It was a shock suddenly having to share Hugo’s attention with another girl. And then your appearance triggered his trip out west to see your mother for the first time in nineteen years, during which visit they played and made love. And on top of that, you introduced that crazy slut Thalia into our group and she wasn’t happy until she scored with Hugo. Laura intercepted one of Thalia’s emails to me and found out.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Amanda, shocked and blushing with embarrassment. “I don’t think Thalia does either.”
“No,” Susan said, “Hugo probably didn’t think it was worth making Thalia feel guilty about once the damage was done. He knows girls kiss and tell. The end result was him finally insisting that Laura marry him, if only to prove that he had no intention of chasing after nineteen-year-olds for the rest of his life.”
“Laura probably blames me for both the incident with my mother and with Thalia,” Amanda mused with a troubled expression.
“Well, if you hadn’t popped up all of a sudden, this far distant part of Hugo’s past would never have become an issue. But here you are, an extraordinary creature of the scene, with this still hot hippy chick of a mom hanging out casually
