Chapter 1 – First Impressions

It was late June in the Midwestern college town.  Three weeks before, Daniel Learner had received his degree in Information Technology, but instead of celebrating, he was concerned for his future.  The recent economic downturn had ruined his hopes for landing a job in his field, and for the first three weeks after graduation, Dan moped around his rented house checking the mail every afternoon for responses to job applications only to find nothing but bills.

With his grant money dwindling and no immediate job prospects, he took the advice of a classmate.  He decided that he would accept the first job he was offered, no matter how menial, just to get some money coming in.  To start his expanded job search, he answered an ad for a job in a clothing store on the edge of the city near the warehouse district.  Using a map from the Internet, he found the location, but before he even reached the door, he knew that this was not an ordinary clothing store.  It was called "Leather or Knot," and it seemed to be a kinky sex shop.  The ad for the job neglected to mention that little detail, but having come all the way to the shop, Dan decided to check it out.

As he stepped into the shop, a tiny bell above the door announced his arrival.  The shop was empty except for a petite 20-something clerk and two customers who were laughing and checking out the bondage gear hanging along the wall.  The clerk had long brown hair and teardrop shaped brown eyes.  She was about 5 and a half feet tall, athletic, well proportioned, and she wore a leather outfit that was somewhat revealing, but still left room for your imagination.  Dan took in the woman's stiletto heels, fishnet stockings, leather bustiere and leather collar as she approached him.  Dan thought she was stunning in spite of the dark make-up and heavy red lipstick – or maybe because of it.

"Hi, I'm Amanda.  Can I help you?" the young woman asked in a pleasant voice.

"I'm Dan.  I'm answering the ad in yesterday's issue of The Metro Scene," Dan replied, "but now that I'm here, I'm not sure that this is the right place for me."

"I understand.  That was my first reaction as well, but why don't you take a look around.  We can talk after I help the couple in the corner."

Dan agreed and began to wander around the shop as Amanda tended to her customers.  He could hear Amanda give the same introduction to the couple that she had just given to him.  She must have practiced her greeting to put people at ease.  The couple introduced themselves as Brian and Shelly, and they began asking Amanda about various items.  Dan could tell that this was a bit of an adventure for them.  He guessed that they were newlyweds looking for an exciting change of pace.

Unlike that couple, Dan wasn't born yesterday.  He had seen most of the items in the shop at one time or another.  Movies like Pulp Fiction, Saw and Hostel were slowly giving cuffs, collars, ballgags and blindfolds a place in mainstream pop culture.  He just couldn't envision actually wearing such things.  He thought back to an old girlfriend of his who once asked him if she could tie him to his bed frame.  He had always wondered what would have happened if he had agreed.

Shaking himself free of his reminiscence, he looked over to Amanda and the couple.  They were in front of a three-way mirror in a far corner of the store.  Brian was trying on a leather jacket and laughing.  Amanda stood behind him holding up the jacket so that he could slip his arms into the sleeves, and Shelly giggled as she fastened first four sets of buckles running down the front.

"So with this on, he'll be helpless to resist me?" Shelly asked as Amanda smiled and nodded.

With a closer look, Dan could tell that it was no ordinary jacket.  There was only a single sleeve; a tube which ran from one shoulder to the other, trapping the man's arms across his back.  Brian looked down and laughed as Shelly reached between his legs and fastened a crotch strap to the lowermost buckle in the front.  He twisted from side to side as he looked in the mirrors.  Shelly smiled at him and said to Amanda "We'll take it."

"Whoa, hold on a minute." Brian said with a concerned smile.

"What's wrong?  Doesn't it fit?" his partner asked.

"Well, sure it fits, but it costs little more than we agreed to spend."

"Oh, that again." said Shelly as she turned away from him rolling her eyes.  "Just indulge me for a bit.  If you really don't want to buy it, just say so.  In the meantime, let's look at the other things that we picked out."

He smiled back at her.  "Fair enough."

Shelly then fastened a posture collar around Brian's neck and attached a long leather leash to a ring on the front of it.  Next, she removed a ball gag from a hook on the nearby wall and placed it in front of Brian's mouth.

"You trust me, right?" said Shelly, nodding and smiling.

"With all my heart," replied Brian as he opened his mouth and wrapped his lips around the oversized ball.

Shelly tightened the leather strap, as Brian made a series of muffled grunts that sounded like "Hey, that's pretty tight."  As Brian shifted in his single-sleeved jacket, Amanda surreptitiously handed Shelly a small padlock which she applied to the gag strap without Brian's knowledge.

Shelly came around in front of Brian and held his face in her hands.  She looked him straight in the eyes and said "Kneel" in such a commanding voice that it startled Dan.  Brian wasn't startled, though.  He merely complied.

Shelly reached into her purse and removed a pair of small items.  As she inserted one into each of Brian's ears, Dan realized that they were some sort of ear plugs.  Finally, Shelly put a heavily padded blindfold over Brian's eyes; helped Brian to his feet; and lead him around by the leash.  She watched herself in the mirrors as she walked Brian from one end of the mirrors to the other.

"Like I said," Shelly announced to Amanda, "we'll take it.  All of it."

Shelly led Brian to the checkout counter.  She tugged the leash twice, and he stopped.

Dan couldn't believe what he was seeing.  He wandered over to Shelly, Brian and Amanda as they stood near the checkout.  Amanda and Shelly were talking pleasantly as Shelly paid for the items using a credit card that she slipped from Brian's back pocket.

"Excuse me." Dan said to Shelly as he approached, "It really isn't any of my business, but are you sure that he wants you to buy all of that stuff?"

As Shelly turned away from Amanda and toward Dan, he could see Amanda's face turn stark white.  Shelly glared at him for a second, and replied "You're damned right it isn't any of your business."

Dan was dumbfounded, but after a short pause, Shelly regained her congenial demeanor and said "Look, you may not realize this, but we have an understanding.  If my boyfriend didn't want me to buy this stuff, he could just say so."

As Dan still tried to find his voice, Shelly turned to Brian and said in a sugary sweet voice "Brian, honey, just let me know if you want to put any of this stuff back."

They all looked at Brian in silence for a moment.  He stood in front of them all without moving.

"There.  It's settled."  Shelly said smiling and turning back to Amanda.

Amanda handed Shelly a receipt and deferentially said "You're all set.  Sorry about the inconvenience, Mistress Shelly."

"No problem, dear.  Boys will be boys." Shelly replied as she turned, smiling and winking at Dan.  She gave the leash two quick tugs and Brian soundlessly, slowly followed Shelly out of the shop and into their car which was parked at a meter directly across from the door.

As the shop door closed and the small bell tinkled, Amanda, now red as a firecracker, turned to Dan and scowled "What was THAT about?  Do you want to get me fired; or worse yet, punished?"

Dan felt bad about interfering with Amanda's sale, but he still didn't understand how she could let that woman deceive the man who said he trusted her with all of his heart.

"Look, I didn't want to mess anything up for you, but that guy didn't want to spend that much money.  She just totally took advantage of him, and he didn't even realize it." Dan explained with an increasing crescendo in his voice.

Amanda just shook her head.

"You should stay out of things you don't understand." Amanda started.  "That man and his Mistress are regular customers in here.  They come in here twice a month and drop between five hundred and a thousand dollars in here every time."

Dan was confused.  "But that doesn't make sense.  I heard you introduce yourself as though you had never met them before," He said with a question in his voice, "and they told you their names, as well, like they were strangers meeting you for the first time."

"Yes, that's part of their game." Amanda explained.  "Every time they come in here, I am supposed to pretend that it's their first time in.  She picks out a set of bondage gear, and he tries it on.  If they like it, they buy it, and he wears it out of the shop.  If they don't like it, he takes it off, and there goes my commission."

"But Amanda," Dan said pleadingly, "it was pretty clear that the guy hadn't made up his mind.  It was also clear that he was leaning against the purchase."

"Again, you are speaking of things that you don't understand." Amanda said slowly shaking her head in pitiful disgust.  "Don't you remember when she looked him in the eyes and asked if he trusted her?"

"Sure.  That's exactly what I'm talking about." he replied.  "He trusted her, and she deceived ---"

"No!" Amanda cut in.  "He trusted her, and she accepted that trust."  She paused to let it sink in.  "Don't you see?  He wanted her to make the decision."  She paused again.  "If he really objected to the purchase, he would have let her know when they stopped at the checkout counter.  The two tugs on the leash were his cue that she was buying the gear.  Similarly, the two tugs on the leash before they left was her cue to him that the purchase was complete and that they were leaving."

Dan stood there feeling stupid.

"I didn't know." he said feebly.

"Of course you didn't."  Amanda said understandingly.  "How could you have?  That's probably why Mistress Shelly lightened up before she left."

Amanda smiled a smile that melted Dan's heart.

"If you're still interested in hearing about the position, I can tell you about it and the shop." Amanda said, changing the subject.  "Of course, after your missteps of the past few minutes, I would understand if you wanted to find a job that was more… vanilla."

Now Dan smiled.  "No, I'm still interested.  Actually, more so than when I came in."

"Alright then, let's start the tour at the front of the store." Amanda said, and Dan knew that he was about to get quite an interesting post-graduate education.

* * * * *

Links to Leather or Knot Chapters 1-20:
1.   First Impressions
2.   The Job Interview
3.   Dan's First Modeling Session
4.   Things Get Personal
5.   Amanda’s in a Bind
6.   Dan’s Private Modeling Session
7.   A Lapse in Judgment
8.   Honesty is the Best Policy
9.   Dan’s New Position
10.  The Employment Agreement
11.  Juliette’s Domain
12.  Dan’s Preparation
13.  Amanda’s Decision
14.  The J-2010 Training Harness
15.  Amanda’s Mistake
16.  Linda’s New Job
17.  On The Job Training
18.  The Final Tests
19.  Test Results
20.  Epilogue