Some would cancel altogether and wait for me to return. There was a possibility some of my regulars would try someone else for a month and decide not to come back to me, but I'd calculated that into my decision. It was something that frequently happened anyway. No matter how good you were, novelty was a tempting mistress.

When I’d first started working at the dungeon, I’d been completely broke and it was stressful and upsetting when I began to think I could count on regulars booking sessions, then out of the blue they would stop seeing me and switch to someone else. It made me feel pressure to take sessions I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been desperate for the money. Being in a lineup of girls competing over a walk-in client and knowing you won’t be able to pay your rent if he doesn’t pick you is a miserable feeling, but at least I never did anything I felt any shame about.

I did however go deep into debt beyond my student loans in the months where I didn’t book as many clients as I thought I would. Perhaps I should’ve given up, but I’d already fallen in love with this world and I could see there were successful dommes making great money. I busted my ass for years, learning everything I could, shadowing sessions for free, asking questions, constantly practicing until I finally started to build a steadier client list and establish a reputation for myself.

I’d eventually made it to a place where I’d stopped going deeper into debt and was starting to chip away at it, but it still felt like it was going to take me 30 years and twice as much money as I’d borrowed to ever be out from under the weight of it. And that was before even thinking about something like buying a house or starting a business. This contract with Alex Chase would wipe all that debt away with one magical stroke, which was why I was sitting there giving away the clients I’d fought so hard to acquire.

Ophelia was to serve as the central source of information to make sure whoever was filling in with each client knew everything they needed to and could direct questions to her. I didn’t need a dozen different dommes calling me at all hours. She would also take over some of my mentoring and classes, which was mildly terrifying.

“Have you already talked to the new sub, Styx, I was supposed to start mentoring?”

“Yep. Under control. She starts next week.”

Ophelia was an excellent dominatrix, but tended to do whatever the hell she wanted. I would need to check in with my mentees occasionally. She was busy with her day job most of the time, so I suspected she would end up adding them to her menagerie of subs who flitted in and out of her house. It wouldn’t do them any harm for a month. I hoped.

“We aren’t going to get through all of this today.” Victoria sighed dramatically, as though she hadn’t instigated part of this plan and I was inconveniencing her for no reason. She was sending emails as much as possible, but many clients only communicated via phone or through assistants.