To re-cap what's happened, it's a Friday evening and Simon's currently outside Emma's house, totally distraught. Emma had been his girlfriend and a month earlier she had discovered that he had been abusing her underwear and had persuaded him that he needed to be punished in a way that might cure him of his perversion. This had involved him wearing items of female apparel around the clock for four weeks, including discreetly at work. Sarah, a co-worker of Simon, who was a previous girlfriend of his and one who was aware of his obsession with lingerie, had jumped at Emma's request that she act as an enforcer while Simon was in the office and she had taken her duties very seriously, to Simon's cost.
Simon had obediently accepted his punishment, and the humiliation it entailed, in the belief that once the four weeks were over he and Emma would make up and he would be forgiven. Unfortunately, this had been a misunderstanding on his part--or, far more likely, a cruel and calculated deception on her part, and when he arrived home from work on that Friday evening he discovered that Emma had dumped all his belongings in a rubbish skip outside her house and changed the door locks. As far as she was concerned, they were finished, and she wanted nothing more to do with him.
Being a Friday evening, his prospects looked bleak. The skip was due to be collected on Monday and Emma had taken unnecessary delight in warning him that Saturday might bring rain. What's more, he had no money as Emma had insisted a month earlier that he cut up his bank cards and cheques, and the banks were closed until Monday. And he was still cursing himself that he had always rejected online banking in the belief that it posed a security risk, but this now meant that he didn't even have a backup way of making payments.
And if all this wasn't enough, he was wearing a business suit, buttoned up to obscure the white feminine blouse he was wearing which, in turn, hid his lingerie. Just as he wondered if things could get any worse he noticed his phone was nearly out of charge.
He was sitting on the low garden wall of Emma's house to protect his possessions from potential raids by dumpster divers. For a brief moment, he had considered banging again on her door to appeal to her one last time, but common sense prevailed and he simply sat there seething with anger at how she had ejected him from her life. As far as he was concerned, she had betrayed him, leading him to believe that if he endured his humiliating punishment for four weeks, then they would rebuild their relationship. It was now blatantly clear to him that she had never planned to do this and her sole intent had been to punish him in the worst way possible.
Sure, he had violated her trust by messing with her underwear, but did that justify the draconian measures she had taken? Could she not have understood that his penchant for lingerie possibly required help, not punishment? One day, perhaps, he would exact his revenge on her but now he had to focus all his efforts on climbing out of the deep crevasse into which he had slipped--or rather been pushed.
Brooding, he sat staring at Sarah's number on his phone, aware of the battery draining away. Sarah now seemed to be his only hope, but would she lend a helping hand? After all, she had been just as cruel to him as Emma had, more so perhaps. As well as tormenting him in the office, she was always quick to land him in trouble by reporting minor problems to Emma, resulting in him spending many hours in the kitchen corner. And it was Sarah who had once struck him across the face and suggested to Emma that he should be caned.
However, whilst Emma had been focussed on dishing out punishment for the sake of punishment, he'd deduced that Sarah was gaining sadistic pleasure from humiliating him, and he was certain she was becoming aroused by seeing him being shamed and humiliated. So while Emma took an almost clinically detached approach to her mission, Sarah relished her role, no more so than during the sessions in the filing room, where her nipples had become erect and her pupils dilated. Maybe if he could appeal to these base instincts, then Sarah might be willing to give him shelter for a couple of days, at the cost of having more fun at his expense.
Of course, he realised that he might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire but he couldn't see what he had to lose apart from having to put up with some further humiliation and possibly punishment. If he could only survive until Monday then he could escape Sarah's clutches, come up with a Plan B and get his life back together.
In despair, he kept staring at his phone, daring himself to ring Sarah's number. He felt he had one chance to convince her to help and if he failed, then all was lost. Eventually, he closed his eyes, said a little prayer and pressed the button, aware that sweat was running down his back. It took several anxiety-inducing rings before she answered. She recognised his number, as he could tell from her abrupt opening remark. "What?" she spat out.
"Oh, hello Sarah. It's Simon," he said softly, struggling to keep emotion out of his voice.
"Simon?" she queried, "Simon? I don't know anyone called Simon. I know a Simone though. Is that Simone, by chance?"
He felt a surge of anger, but knew he had to keep calm. "Er .. yes, Sarah, this is Simone. Emma has dumped me. I've lost every..."
"Oh, that's sad, but thanks for letting me know, Simone. See you in the office on Monday!" With that, she ended the call. He was panicking now and his fingers trembled as he re-dialled. Deep down, he reckoned he'd blown his one and only chance. He didn't think she would answer but, to his amazement, she did.
"What now?" she asked impatiently.
"Erm ... it's ... it's ... er ... Simone again, Sarah." He could imagine her glee as he introduced himself with the feminine name she'd bestowed on him.
"Now what do you want, Simone? You've told me you've been dumped, but so what? What did you expect to happen after the way you behaved?"
He resisted the urge to argue that he had been unjustly treated as it would carry no weight with Sarah. Instead, he said, "I need your help--please, Sarah."
"Uh?"
"Emma has put all my belongings in black bags and they're in a skip ... no, Sarah, please don't laugh--it's not funny. Please help me. I need somewhere to store the bags and, and I've got no money."
She sniggered. "Yeah, I remember Emma saying you'd cut up your cards. That was a damn stupid thing to do, wasn't it?"
He had to butter her up if he was to get her help. "Yes, Sarah, it was very silly of me. It's left me with no way of paying for anything. The banks are closed."
"Hmmm. You've dug yourself in a proper hole, Simone. You must have some friends who will take pity on you?"
He knew that she would have worked out that involving a fourth person in this ring of sordid secrecy was out of the question. "I don't want anyone else to know, Sarah," he commented.
"Know what? That you've been dumped by Emma? No shame in that as long as the truth doesn't come out." She was being deliberately obtuse, but he had to stay patient with her.
"No! I mean I don't want anyone else to know what I'm wearing, underwear-wise."
"Oh! Why not get changed?"
"Emma threw out a lot of my male clothes at the start of my punishment and I don't know what I've got left. And besides I'm in the street guarding the skip against thieves. I've no money and nowhere to store my stuff. Please, Sarah, please help me. I did everything you asked me during the past four weeks. It's just for this weekend. Please take pity on me for old times' sake."
She snorted, "Old times' sake! You must be joking."
"You know I'm sorry for what I did, Sarah," he pleaded.
"Sorry I caught you, you mean--like Emma caught you."
She was comparing apples with oranges as the two circumstances were not the same, but this was not the time to point this out. "My phone battery's almost dead, Sarah. Please help me. I'll, er, I'll do anything you want if you just help me. Please!"