CHAPTER 11
Much to her surprise, Carole was soon sound asleep and only woke to the sound of Mark’s arrival. He entered using the spare key she’d given him and was standing in the door holding two paper cups from a nearby café.
“Time to get up, sleepyhead.”
Sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she mumbled, “About time. I really have to pee.” She didn’t but had made a decision to be as sassy and naughty from that morning until the damned fucking belt was removed so that the first thing he did was put her over his knee. She knew she was playing with fire but that’s exactly what was burning in her loins.
Sitting on the tub while she peed he noted its relatively short duration and immediately realized what she was up to.
‘This is going to be fun, ’ he thought, deciding to play along.
While she showered he went to the kitchen and cut up an apple and some cheese and transferred the two cappuccinos to real cups and waited at her table.
She arrived wearing well-chosen clothes and was surprised when he stood up as she entered. It was a very old-fashioned gesture that made her heart race.
She set down her guilt diary, opened it to the most recent entry and pushed it towards him. There was only one entry: Felt jealous of Raven and Mark. ‘Wish I could be punished by them both.’
“Don’t worry. I’ve added it to your list of demerits, ” he said with a smile. “Want me to ask her?”
“Yes, please, Sir.”
She nibbled at the small portions of food, apparently not having much of an appetite before her final whipping. But Mark insisted she eat it all and he got up and put a bagel in the toaster for her to eat on the way.
“You’re going to be cuffed to that pole for more than eight hours. You must eat something.”
She’d already blanked out the effects of the two previous session and how her hunger had made them even tougher than they needed to be.
On the way to the City Hall he explained that her had hired two fellow officers, a man and woman, to record her whipping from different angles. Both were officers he’d worked with and trusted completely.
The idea that her viewers, including Jenny, Andi, Kate, and Raven, could switch views to watch her as they masturbated gave her a thrill she felt in the depth of her being. She couldn’t wait to hear from them afterwards.
The arrival at the courthouse proceeded like all the rest and as she waited in cuffs she noted the two new faces. A south Asian man and woman who had probably been caught having sex in public. She wore a beautiful silk sari, a good idea for putting on afterwards. And he wore a silk Dhoti-Kurta, the tunic and loincloth combination that was very old-fashioned but practical for this.
Apparently, the idea of wearing smooth, loose-fitting clothing to your whipping had caught on.
When Phon arrived it was still a little early, but the matron could see no reason to keep them standing around and took them inside to the locker room.
“Miss Collins, you’re first.”
Carole turned and presented her wrists and when they were uncuffed, slipped out of her clothes and stuck them in a cubbyhole, presented her wrists at her back and was cuffed and then hobbled with the ankle chain.
Addressing the two newcomers, she told them, “See how easy that was? I expect the same from you.”
Marta Williams was next and seemed almost eager. In the past week she’d met two men online who had expressed their interest after seeing her whipping. She’d had dinner with both and found them both attractive. Both openly expressed their taste for Dominance and desire for her submission. The only difference as far as Marta could tell was the level of bondage and Domination they were interested in. One, a firefighter admitted to being a Sadist, and described a few of the things he’d like to do to her. The other owned a construction company and seemed more into making her submit and serve him.
She had not yet made up her mind, nor did she intend to right away.
Thomas Brennan nodded at them both but said nothing. His experience and the way his so-called friends responded, or, more accurately didn’t, had changed him at his core. Instead of going to the gym he’d started yoga, where he quickly found the strangers there to be much more caring and sympathetic.
Phon greeted Carole and said, in her lovely accented English “Only nine mo- day?” while pointing at the belt. And then at her own and said, “Twenny mo-“ with an exaggerated pout that made Carole smile sympathically.
The Indian couple, having seen the rest, shed their clothes and were shackled.
“Mister Brennan, you’re on the first post.
“Anjali Singh, you’re on the second.
“Phon Somavatey, number three.
“Marta Williams, on four.
“Carole Collins, five.
“And Ranveer Ranadive, on number six.”
The couple glanced at each other, clearly disappointed to be so far apart.
The six naked people were greeted with a huge roar from the crowd. By far the biggest group so far and this time with cameras atop the vans of three different news agencies.
Brennan seemed a little more upbeat and confident than last week, though still subdued compared to his first. He was quickly shackled and raised on tiptoe.
The beautiful olive-skinned Anjali was next and seemed to be in a trance-like state as she was likewise chained to her pole.
Phon quickly followed, as did Marta and Carole.
Only Ranveer seemed to hesitate. His girlfriend looked over and nodded, smiled, and mouthed, “You can do it.” And with that he moved as well as he could with the short chain connecting his ankles.
The whole process, for better or worse, had become a well-oiled machine and the six people about to be punished were soon awaiting their fate.
Clipboard in hand the matron approached Thomas Brennan and read aloud, this time with her voice amplified to a loudspeaker through a throat mike: “Thomas Brennan, you have been found guilty of aggravated assault on a police officer while in performance of their duty. Today you are to receive the last 25 of your one hundred lashes. After that you will be on probation for one year.”
Moving to the next pole she read, “Anjali Singh. You have been found guilty of having sex in a public place and indecent exposure with an enhancement for being arrested within 100 meters of a school. You will receive 40 lashes, twenty today and ten on each of the next two weeks.”
That the school where she worked had been empty at the time was not of concern to the law and rather than getting her name on a sex offender registry, she hadn’t fought the charge.
Next came the pretty Thai woman in the green and gold chastity belt. “Phon Somavatey, you have been found guilty of solicitation and prostitution. Today you will receive the remaining ten lashes of your sentence and are instructed to return in twenty days to have that belt removed.”
The oldest by several years was next, “Marta Williams, you have been found guilty of providing alcoholic beverages to a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and disturbing the peace. Today you will receive the last 10 of your thirty lashes and you will be on probation for one year.”
Marta was hardly paying attention. Her eyes were scanning the crowd and she quickly spotted both of her suitors who had arrived early to be at the barricade. She smiled broadly and both men assumed it was meant for them. She’d let them know about each other as soon as she chose one or the other.
“Carole Collins, you have been found guilty of driving while distracted, failure to observe a Stop sign, and indecent exposure. You have been sentenced to 40 lashes and will receive the last ten today. You will then return in nine days to have your chastity belt removed.”
Carole had already seen Mark in the same spot but had no way to tell where his friends were. She saw him smile widely and point to his left where less than three meters away he saw a much change Jodi and Cade. The young woman wore a tight, white leather corset with a matching skirt that set off her tan skin exquisitely.
Next to her stood her shirtless boyfriend wearing a jeweled pink dog collar that was joined by a ring at its front to a leash his Mistress held tightly in her hand. His fair skin was pink with his humiliation and beneath his slacks the clear outline of his erection was visible.
Seeing Carole looking in their direction, Jodi waved and used the leash to turn her young slave around to show off the pink fuzzy handcuffs he wore behind his back.
She had come to show off her slave to the Punisher but liked getting to show Carole as well to further humiliate her boytoy.
Even before he was visible to the prisoners they were aware of the arrival of the man with the whip by the loud chant from the crowd of “PUN-ISH-ER!... PUN-ISH-ER!... PUN-ISH-ER!”
Instead of heading straight to the raised platform as he had before he headed over to the steel barricades that had recently been installed and walked along it holding out his coiled weapon for the adoring crowd to touch. He was stunned when a silver-haired woman about his mother’s age grabbed it and pulled it close and ran her tongue along its braided edge.
After that it seemed every other woman, and several men, wanted to do the same. It was seriously slowing him down so he gradually moved out of reach and he was just about to turn and walk to the dais when he saw Jodi waving and walked over, laughing at the sight of her changed boyfriend, the humiliation making Cade blush even deeper and his cock ache.
She spun him around and spanked his butt hard, making him groan. “I gave him 20 with the hairbrush right before we left the house. I’d pull his pants down so you could see but he might get arrested and be back on your pole next week.”
“That sounds like fun and I’ll bet he’d love it. Wouldn’t you, Cade.”
The poor boy knew he would and really wanted to say no, but the idea of lying to his Dominant girlfriend or the guy she kept talking about inviting over to take his non-pegging anal virginity was impossible for him and he nodded his affirmation.
Pulling a small card from his tight leather pants he handed it to her saying, “If you want to learn how to use one of these, ” he held up the whip, “get in touch.”
She smiled, “I definitely will...”
Spinning her toy around she showed him the card and whispered, “See how big he is? A lot bigger than my strap-on.”
The Punisher approached the first pole, activated his throat mic and said, “Well, Tom. It looks like you’ve really learned your lesson. I’ll make this quick.”
That he had switched to using his first name showed that the Punisher had already gotten over the personal rage he’d felt at the beginning. He didn’t go any lighter, he was too professional for that. But he didn’t go any harder than was necessary. By the time he reached 25 he was sweating profusely and to the delight of the crowd, shed his vest.
Anjali Singh was a beautiful young woman of Punjabi descent. She was first generation American born and had been put into an arranged marriage when she was 13 with an older man in India that she still hadn’t met. But, as happens so often in immigrant families, she grew up with will, drive, and determination of an American girl and
had no intention of becoming the chattel of some guy just to help her father’s business.
She’d met Ranveer at college and they’d gone out a few times and had sex in her dorm room a few times before he realized that he was more interested in men.
She wasn’t hurt by it, she wasn’t in love with him. And when she saw the way coming ouy had changed him into a much happier and more confident person she was all for it.
But when the plan she had to get out of the marriage began to develop in her mind, she knew there was only one guy she could ask. Ranveer knew what that meant and the penalty he’d have to pay, but he was 100% on her side and twenty lashes seemed doable.
The disgrace of being caught having sex in public and this subsequent public nude punishment, would be much more than enough to have the old lech in the subcontinent refuse her. He was expecting a chaste, obedient girl.
Her virginity wasn’t his concern, he assumed no American over 18 (well, in his mind 15) was one. But her having been publicly punished in the nude and having had videos of that event streamed across the globe, was too much and as soon as he heard it was going to happen he had pulled out of the contract.
Her father, of course, was furious. He did something that he hadn’t done since she was a child, he gave her 6 of the best with a rattan cane.
That had been a week earlier and though mostly faded, the stripes were still visible on her smooth olive skin.
“Someone’s been a naughty girl...” the Punisher said, his voice echoing through the PA system. “Those stripes look fresh.”
Anjali was thinking more about her brave and dear friend Ranveer than what was about to happen. How does one repay someone who willingly surrenders their flesh to save you from a horrible fate?
That, and all other thoughts, vanished with the Punisher’s first lash. This was very different than the angry caning she’d gotten from her father. This was... sensual, she realized. She of course knew about the balance between pleasure and pain. As children, she and her older brother had found their parents copy of the Kama Sutra and gone through it with the fervor that only a mix of youth, puberty, curiosity, secrecy, and excitement can generate.
Her brother liked to read the vivid descriptions to her, letting her imagination fill in the gaps. And a couple of times he’d convinced her to experiment with what they’d read, including her getting tied up. She’d liked that.
But then he got a girlfriend. A young American girl his age who was more than happy to do any and every thing he showed her in that book.
‘Is he out there in that crowd?’ she wondered.
She’d had a few boyfriends, both Indian and white, but none of them were much interested in experimentation. They wanted a fuck or blowjob and rarely took the time to make her cum. It had gotten so boring that she’d kind of given up and in fact, the sex she’d been arrested for was the first she’d had in almost two years.
The Punisher’s third lash curled around her right side and its tip caught the edge of her nipple. He heard her sigh and smiled to himself.
The world, it seemed, was full of closet masochists!
He switched tactics in a way that would only be noticeable to his target and himself. He became the Arouser, a title he invented in that very moment.
He placed his strokes carefully. Striking her other nipple, then the inside of both thighs so that the tip kissed the skin right next to her neatly trimmed pubic hair. Only the Punisher and the people on the poles beside her could hear her throaty moans.
His next two wrapped around her waist and kissed her belly right below her navel. The delicate and yet intensely focused pain sent a jolt straight to her clit. He could see and hear the signs and knew that if he wanted, he could use the braided leather to make her cum.
‘Maybe next week...’ he decided, and finished her with a hard lash right at the top of each of her thighs where they met the curve of her firm ass.
Anjali was so lost in the fugue of pain and pleasure that she was completely unaware that she’d finished receiving that day’s punishment.
“Sawadikap, Phon”
“Sawadikap, Sah.”
“Are you ready to scream like last week?” he asked in Thai.
“Thank you, Sah. Yes, Sah.” she replied in her lovely accented English.
“Sah?” she asked.
“Yes?”
“You come and visit me when this belt is off so I can thank you right?” she asked in her native tongue.
(It was a very tempting offer and he would later visit her, but not for any sexual favors. Just to become friends and eventually date.)
Again, the sexy little Asian put on a spectacular performance as he applied her ten lashes, screaming protestations and promises to be good if he would stop. He was impressed with her acting and had to suppress a smile when he finished.
“Marta, how nice to see you again!” he enthused. He meant it. He appreciated the stoic acceptance of this still quite attractive MILF.
“Have your son’s friends been following your ‘adventures’ here?”
He knew they had to have had, though not achieving anywhere near the number of views that Carole’s videos had, hers were still pretty impressive.
The blush that covered her entire body gave him the answer. She nodded and whispered, “Yes, Sir. I think they have.”
Marta had watched her own whippings numerous times as she masturbated and pictured her son’s pals, all about to go to college, doing the same and taking those videos with them to school.
Switching off his throat mic he asked, “Shall we give them something to really enjoy? Something they’ll wank with for years to come?”
Marta had no idea what he had in mind but she liked the idea. “Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”
“I’m going to give you 10 lashes straight to your pussy. I’ll aim for your clit but even if I miss, they’ll still hit that juicy cunt.”
His words were like a powerful aphrodisiac. ‘Could she cum in just 10 lashes?’ she wondered.
Just the thought of it pushed her towards it. She could feel her vulva swell with sudden lust as she looked over her shoulder at the man with the whip who had a sizable swelling in his tight trousers.
“I’ll bet that’s delici�” she started to think but was cut off by the tip of the whip landing on her right labia.
“Oh...” she gasped. It spread a warmth through her belly that surprised her. Her expression was not unnoticed by the Punisher and he deftly matched it by curling the leather lash around her left hip and stinging that side.
“Mmm..., ” she responded.
Marta had long ago mastered the art of making herself cum without having to touch her cunt but since she’d been alone she had kind of gotten out of practice. She tried flexing the inner muscles and though she succeeded, she couldn’t maintain the tension the act required.
And the next lash, right at the top of her mons, made her forget even that.
She shuddered beautifully, the blow clearly tapping into the core of her arousal.
The next lash demonstrated the Punisher’s exceptional skill and landed just below her already swollen clit. She squealed with surprise but then whispered, just loud enough to for him to hear, “o-o-oh yes... thank you... Sir.”
The next two curled around her hips and landed on the fatty, swollen tissue next to her clit. “p-please...” she whimpered.
The seventh landed on the hood of her clit, eliciting a groan. “So close now, ” she thought.
She clenched her pelvic floor just in time for the eighth to strike the very tip of her clitoris. “Yes!” she shouted, loud enough for the crowd to hear and break out in raucous laughter and applause. It was loud enough to have been picked up by the various phones recording it and would later become a. gif meme.
The ninth curled around the opposite hip and hit right above the spot where the eight had landed, “Yes! Yes!” she repeated.
“Cum on this one, now. Be my good girl.” he whispered as he raised the whip.
It struck almost exactly between to previous two and from the animal-like sounds and body shaking in its shackles, pushed her over the edge.
The crowd went wild, cheering and hooting and shouting both compliments and insults. Both of which only excited her more.
She wanted more. She wanted five or ten more, and she looked over her shoulder at her handsome Punisher with her best pleading expression. He smiled and shrugged. He’d have liked to assuage her lusts but was too professional to do so.
An attendant approached her with some water that she drank heartily and after a smile and a nod, he moved on.
“Ah, Miss Collins, our media star, ” he said with genuine enthusiasm.
“Such a shame...”
She looked at him with a quizzical look.
“Such a shame that this will be our last meeting...”
She smiled. Her punishment had altered her life for the better in ways she couldn’t have imagined a month before.
And she recognized his part in it all. His skill and theatrical flair had turned it from a methodical punishment into a show.
She very much wanted to explain how much his punishments had assuaged the Sisyphian guilt she had spent most of her life pushing uphill again and again.
She glanced over at the crowd hoping to spot Jenny and was disappointed.
Jenny was there all right. And like so many others, was recording what was about to happen. But unlike the rest she had rented a real camera with a directional microphone that would pick up every whisper. And she didn’t need to be close. Her device allowed her to be on the top row of the bleachers that had been set up and where she has an uninterrupted view.
He raised the whip and snapped it loudly, startling Carole and eliciting a roar from the crowd.
Just as he raised his arm for her first lash she shouted, “This is for Jenny! I’m so sorry!”
The noisy crowd missed it but two people, the only two she cared about, heard it. One was Mark who was as close as he could get and recording her with the phone in his pocket.
The other was the woman wearing headphones and holding a camera with its directional microphone.
The dedication was as clear in her headset as if she’d been standing right next to the woman she still carried a torch for.
It was recorded and along with the videos of her naked friend being whipped it would be used for many future masturbations. She knew Carole meant it and really wanted these lashes to be her repayment. And maybe...
The Punisher’s first lash made a perfect horizontal stripe across the middle of her fair-skinned globes. Faint bruises still showed the previous two weeks’ sessions but they did not interfere with the nice contrast between her complexion and the rapidly reddening stripe. She shuddered as the pain washed through her but made no sound.
From the side Mark Wilcox took mental notes, wondering whether he’d need to sound-proof his apartment for when he punished her. Most of his experience with D and s had been more about Domination than punishing.
He had several “Subs-with-benefits” that he hooked up with from time to time but over the last few weeks his relationship with Miss Collins had grown to be something more serious. He didn’t believe in monogamy but he knew that for the foreseeable future, she’d be the focus of his attentions.
A second and third lash bracketed the first one in perfect parallel and elicited a deep moan that sounded like “j-j-enn-y...”
Only the Punisher and Mark heard it and later, because of her directional microphone, Jenny would hear it too.
“Well, folks. I don’t know who Jenny is but I hope she’s watching this because this girl feels really bad about something she did to her, ” he addressed the crowd.
The crowd responded with a mix of chatter and laughs and cheers of encouragement. Carole was happy to hear him address the crowd so clearly. Even if she wasn’t present there was no way Jenny would not eventually hear about it.
The Punisher was, as always, completely professional in his application of the whip. He’d have loved to have this tempting beauty alone in his chambers to use and abuse, but he also appreciated how much of his present fame was attached to hers. He spread the next five lashes widely across her body which made her skin feel like it was on fire but in a way that aroused her too.
The last two he saved for the front of her loins. Though frustrated by the way the chastity belt protected her vulva from direct contact, he nonetheless managed to sting the skin right at the crease of each thigh with blows that made her moan in a most sensual way.
By the end her cunt ached with desire. She knew she’d be counting every minute of the next seven days and be adding to her punishment diary every person she’d ever even possibly offended to present to Mark for his first punishment session with her.
The Punisher nodded for one of the attendants to bring her a sip of water before he moved on to the day’s final subject.
Ranveer Ranadive was a very handsome young man, his body was lean with well defined muscles owing to his regular visits to the gymnasium. He had known he was gay since his adolescence and his time at a boarding school in England had established his preferences as a submissive.
He was quite open about it and had had his mouth and ass filled with cum almost every day by his “straight” classmates, more than a few of which had offered their own rectums to his rather substantial cock. He held many secrets that gave him a power that belied his submissive nature.
And, after one of his teachers saw the effect of one of the disciplinary canings on that organ, his services were expanded to include several of the silver-haired instructors.
His preference for older men, for ‘bear’ types, could be traced directly to those days.
This would not be his first whipping and he knew his cock would betray his nature shortly. In fact just the sight of the Punisher approaching had started its swelling.
He was already thinking of the gentleman he was going to visit that evening. He was British and a Tory and had a penchant for fucking young men from what were once part of the Empire. And having them fuck him. Hard.
He was sure that he was somewhere out there in the crowd watching and the thought of fucking him as if he had been the one applying the stripes was very appealing.
Once the whippings had ended the crowd rapidly thinned out and though a few moved close to the barriers for some still photos, they didn’t stay.
Carole had more than once stared straight into the camera in Mark’s pocket with her most dramatic sorrowful expression. Intending it for her long lost friend.
But she needn’t have done so.
When the bleachers were cleared only two people remained, the only two people she cared about.
Her expression at seeing her long lost friend Jenny belied the pain of the days stripes. She longed to cry out to her but the prisoners had been expressly warned about talking to the people in the audience and definitely didn’t want to risk adding to her sentence.
Though they’d never met and Carole had never shown him her image, Mark knew that the woman with the camera staring so intently as his charge had to be Jenny.
Jenny had no idea he even existed and as he approached she tensed. As a gay woman it would not have been the first time she had received unwanted attention.
Astute an observer as he was, Mark noted the physical change in her posture and from a good three meters away, said, “You must be Carole’s friend Jenny.”
His words caused an immediate relaxation and she even smiled a half-smile. “Yes... and you are?”
“I’m Mark Wilcox, the officer assigned to monitoring and assisting to your friend’s sanitary needs.”
That sparked her curiosity. She hadn’t really thought about that aspect of her friend’s wearing a chastity belt for a month.
“I go to her house every morning and every evening to unlock what she now calls that ‘damned fucking belt’ and let her defecate and clean herself.”
“Have you two...?”
“No, ma’am.” he answered emphatically, “Not a chance.”
“She told you about me?”
“Yes. She discovered that after each of her punishments here she felt relieved of a lot of the guilt she’s been carrying around so she’s started a guilt diary. A list of people that she feels owes an apology to and you were at the top of it.”
Jenny’s eyes sparkled at the thought of her friend, the first woman she’d ever fallen in love with, still caring enough to put her at the top.
Carole watched wide-eyed as the two most important people in her life at the moment conversed and of course wondered what was being said.
Her imagination ran wild. Still aroused from her punishment she fantasized about the two of them discussing taking turns meting out more of what she knew she deserved. And that, of course, made her even more horny. She could feel her juices running down the insides of her legs.
But in reality, the two were chatting about what the last three weeks had been like. Jenny was fascinated about the chastity belt. She’d seen it in the videos and was now seeing it in person. She knew it must be driving its wearer crazy with desire.
Mark talked about taking her to Lucinda Dark’s shop and the morning and evening ritual of they’d developed.
“So you’ve never been tempted?”
Laughing, he answered, “That is a very different story. She’s not only very attractive, she’s hotter than a pistol right now.”
“Yes. She is. And I can’t imagine what she’s going through.”
The two people took an instant liking to each other and that was obvious to the shackled woman watching.
Her lustful imagination immediately went to them taking turns spanking her and she closed her eyes and pictured these two turning her butt a bright red.
“I’ll be coming back at sunset to pick her up and take her home, but right now I’m starving. Care to join me for lunch?”
Jenny looked at him with a critical eye, deciding whether his offer was on the up and up or had strings.
She chose the former and agreed to go.
They both waved at Carole but she was lost in her erotic reverie and didn’t see them leave.
By the time she opened her eyes there was no sign of them and she was very disappointed. She literally winced at their disappearance. It made her eyes wet just a little.
But then she thought about it and the fact that they had left together and had been getting along so swimmingly, was a very good sign.
She tried to go back to her fantasy but that bubble had burst and she was left alone with the pain of her punishment.
By the time dusk arrived she was just tired and sore, and she felt the bloating and tenderness in her breasts that told her her period was imminent.
But when she saw Mark that discomfort all faded away.
And on top of it he saw that he was not alone. He was accompanied by Jenny!
As soon as the attendants had released her, Officer Wilcox wrapped her in a robe and walked her toward her long-lost friend. She could see that Jenny was smiling but when she got close she couldn’t meet her eyes and bowed her head.
“Hello, Carole. Good to see you. I’ve missed you.”
“I-I’ve missed you too, ” she said softly.
The hug that she received caught her off guard but very welcome and she started to cry silently.
Releasing her, Jenny looked in her eyes and for a moment was concerned that she’d hugged her still-striped back too hard. But the look of joy in her close friend’s eyes immediately dissuaded her of that feeling and she too started to share tears of joy.
Mark found it very moving and endearing but the sun was setting and the cool evening air was already raising goosebumps on the punished girl’s skin.
“Ahem...” Mark commented as if clearing his throat, “I think we need to get this woman home and cleaned up.”
When they reached his patrol car he opened the back door and without thinking, Carole turned her back and presented her wrists for the handcuffs.
“Protocol, ” he explained to the wide-eyed Jenny.
“We’re going to her house for her clean-up and I don’t think she’d mind if you came too.”
“Yes. Please come, Jenny, ” she asked. softly.
Jenny followed in her car but needed no directions, she’d driven by more than a few times since Carole had moved in, hoping to get a glance of her. She had been following her on social media too but finally stopped it all because it was too painful.
She could feel the smile on her face in her gut as she walked up to the door where the two waited. Mark smiled back but Carole had an attack of shyness and looked down while her whole body turned crimson.