Confessing it felt strangely good. Even though she and Hilary weren’t particularly close. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d been wanting to share her fears with someone who wasn’t her therapist until she’d finally gotten the words out.

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t think anyone really knows what they’re doing,” Hilary offered up, with a smile, as she gave Ellie’s hand another squeeze. “I definitely didn’t when Liam and I started to get together and I’d been dating for years. But things with him were completely different, and not just because of the domination stuff. The stakes were higher, you know? He was friends with my besties’ men, I was really into him from the beginning - maybe more than I’d ever been into a guy - and I just couldn’t stay away from him. I think even back then I could see myself having a real future with him, and that was scary. I kept thinking I was going to do something to blow it. But all you can do is take things day by day and see what happens.”

“Day by day,” Ellie repeated. She smiled, giving Hilary’s hand a squeeze. “I can do day by day.”

“You’re already doing more than just day to day, since you agreed to scene with him next weekend and signed a club contract,” Hilary teased.

“I guess, but... I feel safe in the club. Even if it’s with a contract. That’s the kind of step which feels natural to me. It’s all the stuff outside of the club I don’t know how to handle.”

“Well, you’ve got us now,” Hilary said, giving Ellie a grin as she dropped her hand and turned to inspect her honey-blonde hair in the mirror. “We’re good sounding boards. And if you make the mistake of asking for advice, you’ll be buried in it.”

“Yeah, but that means if anything goes wrong, I can blame whoever gave me the bad advice,” Ellie said cheerfully.

Hilary laughed and linked arms with her as they headed back into the main room.

Sliding back into her seat, Ellie could see Michael’s disappointment, but he hid it quickly. It still made her feel a little bad. Why wasn’t she going around to sit beside him again?

Oh right, because she was trying to take things slowly.

She was wearing his collar and his plug, and the combination had made her feel so immediately submissive and soft inside that she’d immediately tried to shore up her walls by seating herself away from him. Now she was feeling more used to the plug inside of her and the light weight of the collar around her neck... next time they were at the club together, she’d sit next to him. That was a good step, right?