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tried. Clubs are intimidating, and the meat market online is pretty disheartening too. I guess I've got the same fantasy everybody else does, of just meeting someone out in the wild whose interests just happen to perfectly align with yours.  
    Maybe I was Dom material all along. I've always been a good leader, and now I manage fifteen people under me in my department. I know how to act like a boss, and that seems like about ninety percent of the arrangement. I mean, didn't Adrian Risinger's submissive secretary fall in love with him in real life? That's probably not a coincidence.  
    And that's the other interesting thing. I always assumed submissives were, well, submissive . All the time. But Meg walks into a room like she owns it. Maybe that was why I never suspected a thing about Lissy. When we met, she was self-sufficient, and had managed to pick herself up and keep pushing forward after a nasty breakup. It wasn't until we were in the bedroom that her bashfulness came out. I should've known.
    The sound of my phone jars me out of my thoughts. It's a text message, from Lissy's mom. We'd exchanged numbers years ago at some holiday get-together or other, but she never actually contacted me until now.

    I know Lissy is busy, but Ted and I were hoping you could join us for lunch. Our little secret. :)

    So, basically there's a few options here. Either I'm going to get there and find out that Ted was "busy" and this is some kind of twisted Mrs. Robinson thing, or...I'm not sure what the second option is, actually. I'm pretty sure it's not the first one, though.
    Lissy would kill me if she found out I'm meeting with her parents alone - too easy to get the story mixed up - but I have to know what they've got in mind. I'll just make sure to establish an out for myself if things get too weird.
    What's the worst that could happen?
    ***
    "Sorry I can't stay long," I tell Bea and Ted as I slide into my seat at the mildly upscale midtown bistro. "You know I told my boss about this a month ago, but there was some client meeting they just couldn't reschedule."
    "We understand," says Ted. "You know, Bea, we could always talk about this another time."
    "Oh, no no no!" Bea cuts in. I silently agree with her. "Don't be silly. This won't take long. We'll have it figured out before the entrées come."
    The curiosity is killing me.  
    " So ," says Bea, leaning closer to me. There's a look in her eyes that I really, really don't like. "How long have you two been together, then?"
    My mind races for the fake timeline we invented. It couldn't be too long, because then it would apparently "annoy them" that I hadn't proposed yet. Thankfully I spent our first few holidays as a couple with my own family, so they're not going to notice any discrepancies there. "Um...three years," I blurt out. "Or thereabouts. Lissy's better at remembering the specifics."
    Thank God for that ancient stereotype about men not remembering anniversaries. I can coast on this one. Bea's mind is already racing ahead to something else, and I have a feeling I'm not going to like it.
    "Any idea when you're going to take the next step?" She's trying very hard to be lighthearted and friendly about it, but there's always something accusatory about this question. I take a deep breath.
    "I mean, you know, it's a lot. Big decision. We'd have to talk about it first, I'm not the kind of guy to just...you know, spring it out of nowhere."
    "Well, she wants you to," says Bea confidentially. "I was just talking to her about it yesterday."
    She has to be lying, but I try to reel in my incredulous tone. "Really? She said that?"
    Bea makes a non-committal gesture. "You have to read between the lines. A girl like Felicity doesn't always say what's on her mind. Sometimes it takes a mother's intuition."
    She taps the side of her nose, and I just nod, slowly. Lissy doesn't really bite her tongue around me. She never did.  
    "So." Bea touches my hand. "I know it's a lot, I know it's scary, and you