Boring and Unadventurous

Part Two
Post-Production
 

 

 

The activity around ‘The Abyss’ had quietened somewhat as Laura made her usual morning walk past. All but two of the Swiss engineers and construction crew had gone and it was mainly local contractors doing landscaping and building scenery now. And though there were no whistles, heads certainly turned as she walked past with her new hair, cop-coppy boots and a short leather jacket that Tiffany had insisted she borrow to replace her cosy, but drab woolly coat. Laura didn’t notice though, which was a shame because it was exactly what she had been hoping for. She was lost in her thoughts of her morning’s activities and the anxiety she had expected at presenting herself in public looking smart and sexy hadn’t even registered. Just what exactly was her relationship with her friend? Why did she allow herself to be led on by her? Why did she spend her life dating men like The Little Shit when she had a friend like Tiffany who was ready to love her? Laura wished she could work out who she was, and whether she could properly love Tiffany back.

 

Once in her office, the work soon took Laura’s mind off her personal issues. Everyone she saw commented her on her new style, saying how wonderful she looked, often after not even recognising her. Laura began to wonder if each compliment she received was actually a veiled, if unintended, insult on her previous look, but she decided that was ok as she wasn’t planning to go back to it. As the day wore on and the brochure she was designing came together she became increasingly frustrated with the blank spaces she had to keep leaving where images of ‘The Abyss’ were going to go. She really needed some pictures, and even if they still had elements of building activity in them it didn’t matter as she could just paint them out. She wondered if the engineers would let her fix her camera to one of the cars and she could set it to take snaps as it went round the track. And so armed with her trusty Lumix Bridge, a role of duct tape, a hard hat, a hi-vis jacket, her new hair, sexy boots and mascara equipped lashes to flutter at the engineers if the need arose, she headed out to ‘The Abyss’.

 

When she arrived at the coaster it was all very quiet. Most of the contractors were sitting in their vans having lunch, but Laura spotted one of the engineers working in the station.

 

“Hello,” she called from behind the hazard tape that surrounded the station. “Can I come on?”

 

The engineer looked up at her. “Ja, Ja. Come please,” he beckoned. “Stefan. Eine hübshe dame zu sehen,” he then called out.

 

The other engineer came out of the station office. “Can I help you Miss? We are a little busy at the moment.”

 

Laura hurried into the station and noticed a couple of men in suits in the office from which Stefan had come. “Err, my name’s Laura. I work in the park marketing office, and I would really like to get some photos of the ride for the brochures I’m doing. I was wondering if it might be possible to fix my camera to one of the cars and let it take some pictures as it goes round. If it’s not too much trouble.”

 

Stefan’s hard look suddenly softened into a smile. “Ah yes. You are the lady I see walking from the car park every morning. I am sorry I did not recognise you, but you look rather different today. Please excuse Kurt. He does not speak very much English. So you would like to take some pictures?”

 

“Yes please. I thought perhaps I could tape my camera to one of the dummies. I don’t think it will fall off if I use plenty of tape,” said Laura holding up her camera bag and the reel of duct tape.

 

“Ah well, I think that maybe we can do rather better than that,” replied Stefan, his smile widening. “Those gentlemen in the office are from the Health and Safety Executive and we are just signing the papers to say that ‘The Abyss’ is now certified for carrying human people and not just plastic dummies. So how would like to be the first human person to ride, and you could take your pictures as you go?”

 

“Oh. Err, yes, that would be great. If it’s not too much trouble for you. I know you’re very busy.”

 

“It is no trouble. And as chief engineer, I think that perhaps I should accompany you to show some faith in my work, don’t you think? Ah, Kurt, offen nummern fünf und sechs bitte.”

 

Kurt went into the operator’s room and Laura watched him fiddle with the computer console. Suddenly the shoulder restraints opened on two of the seats in the front of the car in the station. Stefan walked over and lifted the dummies from the seats. They were heavy, being full of water, but Stefan lifted them with ease. With the dummies removed, he walked back over to Laura.

 

“I think that perhaps we should tape your camera into your hand so you cannot drop it on the way round. We do not want any little accidents do we?”

 

“Oh no. I’d hate to cause an accident.” Laura set her Lumix on auto-everything and then Stefan began to tape it into her hand, still with a smile on his face. He was a tall, handsome man and Laura felt herself blush in his presence. He was definitely very fancy-able and there was something rather sensual about the feel of him wrapping the tape around her hand and wrist.

 

“There we are,” he said, completing his tape work. “There will not be any dropping it now. You can still operate all right?”

 

Laura checked the camera. Her right hand and fingers was fused to it, but the screen, controls and lens were all uncovered, and she could use her other hand to operate the shutter. “Yes, no problem,” she replied, putting on her best smile.

 

“Very good. So if the lady is ready, her carriage awaits.” Stefan made an exaggerated gesture of a gentlemanly invitation, bowing down and raising his arm in the direction of the car. The two of them climbed into the car and sat amongst the remaining dummies.

 

“Kurt, halten sie das system bei punkt fünf bitte. Die dame will bilder von der spitze zu nehmen,” shouted Stefan as he and Laura lowered their restraints and locked the safety straps. “Okay,” came the reply from the operator’s room.

 

“The car stops for two seconds at the top of the drop,” explained Stefan. “It allows the riders time to look down the track and makes it more exciting when it drops, but I have asked Kurt to pause the system at that point so you will have as much time as you need to take your pictures.”

 

“Oh, thank you,” replied Laura. “I’m sorry to be so much trouble.”

 

“No trouble at all. And just between we two, it is rather nice to get away from the bureaucrats in the office, he he,” said Stefan as the car slipped out of the station and began to clack-clack its way up the lift ramp. “Coaster design is as much physiology as engineering,” he continued. “The towing bogies are all fitted with Torrington bearings so the car cannot slide back if the tow chain breaks, but we keep the noisy ratchet just because the sound builds excitement in the riders.”

 

“I didn’t know that,” replied Laura. “It’s not as noisy as some I’ve been on.”

 

“You have been on a lot of coasters?” asked Stefan as the car reached the top of the lift ramp.

 

“All the ones here. I like the big wooden one the best.”

 

“Ah yes, I like the old-fashioned wooden coasters. They have a rougher motion and a sound that these smooth, new steel ones cannot match. Well here we are at the edge.”

 

Laura watched the amount of track she could see ahead of them steadily vanish as they reached the drop. The car tipped forward and she felt her weight come onto the restraint. The car kept tipping until it was facing straight down where it stopped with a clonk, and there they sat.

 

“Okay, here we are. You can take pictures now,” said Stefan, but Laura was just laughing. Now facing downwards, her hair had followed gravity and was now hanging down in front of her. The inward curl that Tiffany had set into it to frame her face now curled in to almost totally obliterate her view. She could hardly see anything, let alone take any pictures. With the fingers of her right hand wrapped in tape and fused to the camera, she tried to use her left hand to hold her hair out of the way, but then had no hand free to operate the camera. She was ridiculously defeated and found it very embarrassing and funny.

 

“Ah, I see you have chosen the wrong day to let your hair out,” said Stefan, joining in with the laughter. “Here, let me see if I can help you.” He reached across and lifted the mass of hair away from Laura’s face.

 

“Thank you,” said Laura, recovering her senses. “Oh, wow. What a view!”

 

Below her, the track tapered away until it was almost just a thin line that disappeared into a tiny looking round, black hole. It was an incredible picture and just what she had come for. She clicked off a number of shots, and then took the camera out of auto and played around with the settings, kicking her feet into view to get some foreground, but it wasn’t really necessary. The spectacular track vanishing into the hole did its own work. Happy she had everything, Laura turned the camera round and took a selfie with Stefan still holding hair out of the way. She realised that she was enjoying him touching her and at that moment it dawned on her that they had been flirting shamelessly with each other since she arrived at the station.

 

“I’m done,” she said. “You going to show me what this beast of yours can do now?”

 

Stefan let go of Laura’s hair and it tumbled back in front of her face completely obscuring her view again. “Going down then,” he said with a chuckle. “Okay Kurt. Lass es gehen!”

 

Suddenly there was a clonk from the car and Laura felt herself become weightless. Her hair billowed back into her face and then streamed out behind her as the air pushed against it, She realised she was screaming as the little black hole rushed up and engulfed her. Everything went black and she felt her weight return with a vengeance as the car levelled out. And then a disc of white appeared, it too rushing towards her and then they were out, zooming up from the ground and rolling over above a large stack of sapling trees that were waiting to be planted. Its party piece done, the coaster didn’t bother with much else and it rolled back to the station where the magnetic breaks kicked in and the car came to a momentary stop, before sliding forward slowly into the loading platforms.

 

Stefan was laughing hysterically. “I’ve been on a few of these,” he said as he finally got his laughter under control, “but not one that goes into a hole. That is inspired. Wunderbar. Truly wonderful.”

 

“Der schrei der dame war fantastisch,” said Kurt, also laughing.

 

“Ja, sie ist ein brüller. Meine ohren sind total kaput! Ha Ha.”

 

Laura tried to put on a stern face. “Wenn ihr ohren vollständig gebrochen sind, werden Sie mich nicht hören rufen eine freche schwein,” she said.

 

The two engineers stopped laughing, realising they had been rumbled and their private joke was not as private as they had thought. But then all three of them erupted in fits of giggles once again. The laughter prompted the two suits to emerge from the office to see what all the hilarity was about, and Laura noticed that Patrick, the park manager was with them. “Oh shit,” she thought. “I hope I’m not in trouble for this.”

 

“Good Lord,” said Patrick. “Laura? Is that you?”

 

“Err, yes. Hello Patrick. I was just getting some pictures for the brochures,” Laura replied, holding up her camera hand.

 

“Well if one ride on this can make you look like that, I think maybe I should have a go too. What do you think Stefan? Room for three more?”

 

“Sure. Sure. Kurt, offen nummern zwei, drei und vier bitte.”

 

And so they rode, round and round. Four grown men and a beautiful woman shouting and screaming like a bunch of toddlers at Christmas. It was only when sensor 1A4-0003F, hold_brake_release_check failed to correctly register the passing of the car, sending the whole system into a safe-mode shutdown, that the fun ended. Stefan seemed rather annoyed at this as he had apparently already fixed this problem once before, and so Laura said her thanks and goodbyes and then gave him a parting kiss on the cheek, which seemed to restore his good mood.

 

As she walked away from ‘The Abyss’, Laura thought about how different everything and everyone seemed today. Was everyone in the world so shallow that they treated her differently just because she had a fancy hairdo? Or was it that she was behaving differently because she felt she was attractive? Would Stefan have flirted with her yesterday, and would she have flirted back? The old Laura certainly wouldn’t have had the confidence to kiss him. Maybe it was just the boots; they put her at just the right height to kiss a tall, handsome man. She wondered if there a Mrs Stefan back in Switzerland. When she got back to her office and connected her camera to her laptop, she smiled as she looked at the pictures she had taken, especially the selfie with Stefan holding her hair.

 

 

 

 

 

Stefan’s hotel room was soullessly furnished and antiseptically clean. “Dull,” Laura thought, “but highly suitable for a night of debauchery.” No words were spoken as the handsome Swiss engineer stripped Laura to her underwear. She could see the lust in his face as he ran his eyes up her stockinged legs, past the suspender straps that led to a lacy, peach coloured belt, and on to her matching bra that cradled her breasts. Laura was glad that she had already rid herself of her thong panties before driving to the hotel. Her heart fluttered as Stefan emptied a carrier bag full of duct tape rolls onto the floor and then proceeded to bind her. First her hands and arms, then her legs disappeared under layers of silver tape. Laura bit into her lip as she watched Stefan undress himself and present his strong, muscly body for inspection. If there was any question of his seeking her approval and permission to proceed then it was purely academic as in her taped up state, Laura could do little to prevent what was about to unfold, not that she wanted to prevent anything. Slowly he laid her on the floor and knelt over her, straddling her head with his knees. And then he lowered his vagina down to her mouth. Immediately she responded, pushing her tongue between his labia and, remembering how Tiffany had worked her into a frenzy that very morning, she sought to do likewise to this handsome specimen of the male sex. Bliss. Pure bliss. Except for the voice at the door calling her name.

 

“Laura. Laura. Are you all right?” asked Patrick from the door of her office.

 

“Err… yes. I must have nodded off. It’s been a long day,” she replied, shaking her head back to life.

 

“Well it’s gone eight. It’s only a theme park you know. No-one will die if your brochure is a day or two late. The proof of which you sent this afternoon was fantastic by the way. Why don’t you call it a day and go home? You’ve been piling in the hours and I don’t want you all burnt out.”

 

“Mmm. I’ll just finish this bit and then go.”

 

“Well I’m off. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Err. Probably not actually. I’m going to Bristol tomorrow. Online of the TV ad needs my attention.”

 

“Well definitely go home then. Long drive in the morning and all that. Good night.”

 

“Yes, good night Patrick.”

 

Patrick left, and Laura listened to his footsteps fading away. And then his voice drifted back, “your hair looks fabulous by the way.”

 

 

 

 

 

The following morning Laura made the long drive to the post-production house in Bristol where she was shown to the ‘Flame’ suite. She was glad to see that Ellen the production manager was there too. Ellen always seemed to have everything under control and was pleasant and fun to be with.

 

“Wooo. Somebody’s been to the hairdresser,” exclaimed Ellen, looking up from her laptop when Laura was shown into the room.

 

“Hello Ellen. You mean this mop? I got my friend to tart me up a bit. She’s a hair and beauty stylist.”

 

“Can you let her loose on me?” asked Ellen. “I could do with looking like that. And nice boots too. I had you figured for a bit of a scruff after the shoot. Guess I was wrong.”

 

“Well new job, so I thought a new look might be appropriate.”

 

“And Laura, this is Mike. He’s doing all the fancy stuff on the ad. Mike, this is Laura. She’s the chief of marketing at the park.”

 

“Hello Laura.”

 

“Nice to meet you Mike.”

 

A runner came in, offered drinks, and asked what Laura would like for lunch. Laura couldn’t get used to being pampered like this. It was only a few weeks ago that she had been the one making tea. Mike then showed her the ad which now had some of the computer generated images roughly inserted. It looked a whole lot better than the offline cut she had approved some days ago, but there was obviously still a long way to go. Mike then spent most of the morning working on changing the red painted coaster that they had filmed into a black one so that it would look like ‘The Abyss’. Laura watched with great interest. She was very proficient with Photoshop and could do this sort of thing herself on still images, but the tools and techniques required on moving pictures were very different. The ‘Flame’ machine had all sorts of complicated motion tracking and keyframing tools that she found fascinating.

 

While the work progressed, the three of them chatted casually, although Laura often zoned out of the conversations as she busied herself on her laptop on the sofa at the back of the suite. It soon became clear to her that Mike and Ellen were actually good friends who had known each other for a long time, and no topic of conversation seemed off limits to them, including their respective, and rather unusual sex lives. This, Laura found a little disconcerting, and her recently boosted ego started to wane somewhat. Compared to these two, she was indeed “boring and unadventurous” just as The Little Shit had said. Ellen and her husband apparently had a thing for having sex in unusual places, and in particular in public places. Between the bookshelves in libraries, on buses and trains, behind the exhibits in museums, in the swimming pool, behind a tree in a park, it seemed that nowhere was off limits for them. Mike asked her if she had managed to do it in a cinema yet, but despite a couple of attempts it had always been too busy, and so that one was still on the to-do list. They had managed a blow job in the recent Bond film ‘Spectre’ but that apparently didn’t count because it was too easy to do discretely.

 

But Mike didn’t seem to be any more conventional. He and his wife, who was apparently called Natasha, were into bondage. According to Mike she was never happier than when she was bound in as many tight leather straps as possible, and even though there would be no way she could untie or unbuckle the straps, she would insist they had locks on them as well, just to be extra sure. She would want to remain in them for as long as she could endure, preferably gagged so she could not beg for release. None of this made any sense to Laura, but it did make her think that the entirely conventional approach to sex that she had always taken, might be the reason she had never really found it that interesting. As her life was having a makeover, maybe that should apply to her sex life as well. But not if it meant being bound in leather straps or bonking in the cinema.

 

After the runner brought a very decadent feeling lunch of Sushi, Laura received an email from Anna containing a proof for the print ad that was being done using the picture of Laura on the coaster. If her ego had taken a bruising from the morning’s conversations, it soared to new heights when she opened the attachment and saw the ad. She looked fantastic in it. They had done a lot of Photoshop work, extending the image and placing a rather nice looking young man in a seat next to her, adding bluer sky and different scenery, and she had had some work done too. They had coloured her up a bit, painted on a little lipstick, changed the motif on her tee shirt and added a pair of enormous round earrings that flew out at strange angles, mingling with her hair as the coaster crested its loop. Despite this fakery, it was still unmistakably her. “Boring and unadventurous am I?” she thought. “Yeah, right.”

 

Later in the afternoon some more computer generated images turned up and though they weren’t finished, Laura was able to take them onto her laptop and start getting her print work under way. Then Mike got the runner to bring a large screen Mac into the suite for her, and Laura moved from the sofa to the desk at the front of the suite. She felt much more like one of the team now. They worked on into the evening and Laura was glad she had booked a hotel and didn’t have to face the long drive home, snazzy sports car or not.

 

The following day resumed where they had left off until the runner brought in a package for Mike that had been delivered by the post. He excitedly tore it open to reveal a cardboard box which to Laura’s complete amazement had a picture of a pair of handcuffs on it.

 

“Not more toys for Natasha,” said Ellen, seeming rather unsurprised.

 

“Special toys,” replied Mike as he prised the box open. “Handcuffs with a soft, leather lining on the inside.”

 

“Oh, that sounds right up her street. I suppose you’ll be late in tomorrow then.” said Ellen mockingly.

 

“No no. Not for use tonight. This weekend will be our tenth wedding anniversary and I’ve got a special treat lined up for Natasha. I’m going to put her in handcuffs as soon as she gets home from work on Friday and she’s going to stay in them right through to Monday morning.”

 

“Ooh, now that’s going to be a long session, even by Nat’s standards. Those shoulders are going to be hurting by Monday.”

 

“Well we’ve tried lengthy spells in cuffs before and she seems to get enough movement to keep the arms and shoulders ok. It’s always been the chafing of the metal on her wrists that’s defeated us because she hates it if they’re not really tight. So I’m really hoping these new cuffs are going to sort that with this fancy leather lining. See?” He held up the handcuffs and they did indeed appear to have some sort of padding fitted to them.

 

Laura was listening and watching in awe at this, another bizarre conversation going on before her, and was even more taken aback when she heard herself joining in.

 

“But how’s she going to do anything? A whole weekend in those? What about a nice meal out and some romantic stuff like that? Won’t she just get incredibly bored if she can’t do anything?”

 

“The thing is Laura, with a little added kinky restraint, the most mundane of tasks becomes a sexual adventure. On Friday evening I will cook Nat a nice meal, but she won’t be able to eat it on her own. She’ll have to rely on me to hold her knife and fork and feed her. That’ll get us both worked up and we’ll spend the rest of the night having sex. Then on Saturday morning, I’ll insist she does all the housework. Wash dishes, laundry, dusting, vacuuming, all with hands cuffed behind her. Mundane tasks plus kinky restraint equals sexual adventure. She’ll be royally horny by the time she’s done. Then I’m going to take her shoe shopping. I know there’s this pair of Jimmy Choo boots she really wants, but she’s going to have to earn them. She’s got a big poncho from when they were briefly fashionable a while back, which will hide her arms nicely if she keeps her hands up her back a bit, and she can wear that while we shop. And afterwards I’ve booked seats for Star Wars. I’ve got this idea I might blindfold her when the film starts which would really annoy her, but make her incredibly horny too and that would take care of the rest of Saturday.

But my pièce de résistance comes on Sunday. I’m going to dress her in her new Jimmy Choos and a nice, tight corset. I’m going to strap her arms tightly against her body and thoroughly gag her. And then I’ve got this Muslim style Burqa thing that will cover her up completely leaving only her eyes visible. And we’ll spend the day out, wandering around Ikea, or maybe the go shopping at Cribbs Causeway. Nobody will know what’s going on beneath that Burqa. Perhaps I’ll fancy a Bacon Double Cheeseburger at Burger King, and she can sit quietly and watch me eat it. See, mundane plus a little kinky restraint equals sexual adventure.”

 

“Bloody hell. Rather her than me. It all sounds very pervvy.”

 

“Mike and I have got a theory,” said Ellen. “We think everyone is a pervert. Those that think they’re not just haven’t found their particular kink yet.”

 

“Or you could argue that nobody is a pervert because there’s no real ‘normal’,” added Mike.