Listening Post 2

Somehow, in some way, things were off to a good start. Lunch happened and catch up time with a sister really cooled me down and I felt ready to go back in there!! I know I'm being a little over dramatic, but it happens some times. I arrived around 3 pm, yes! there were more people in there! more people to talk to, yes! but sad story.. jessica and Vermont girl weren't there, ah! there were two guys working the store... I figured I'd try to talk to them last... it'd be harder to start a conversation with them about a fetish community of anything related without getting into sticky situations... I thought... So I decided to look around. That's when I found someone who I thought was a new customer at the store, but oh was I wrong.

Her name is Monica, and the rest needs to be left out as she requested. She's 23 years old working on her bachelor's in History, little by little as she says. She works in a restaurant in Miami and lives with her 2-year-old daughter in her coworker's house along with the coworker's family. She's a regular at Fetish Factory and she actually used to work for it. She goes there mostly to find costumes for parties she performs in (I asked her if she knew my friend but she didn't, maybe it's not such a small world). She's performing soon and she's losing some weight so she needed new corsets (the ones there are gorgeous!! but expensive). I of course told her my purpose there and she didn't mind talking about her life or anything for that matter. She didn't have a whole lot of time so she asked me to move around the store with her. She gave the names of the people she talked to me about but she asked to keep their names from being published for their own protection.

She told me about her daughter and how her life changed when she came into the world. Monica was married to her daughter's father at the time her daughter was born. After a few months of her being born Monica found out her husband was being unfaithful and decided to separate and asked him for the divorce. The court asked them to go through couple's therapy but she refused, after finding out he was cheating she was set on staying away from him. No matter how long they had therapy for, she couldn't trust him again. The divorce is days from being official and she seemed to be extremely excited about it. She told me she knew how important it is to have your father around and she had not intention of separating her daughter from her father. Monica shared custody and the responsibilities of her daughter with her husband, but she told me she took complete care of her baby's financial needs and didn't receive a penny from her ex.

We kept on going around the store. She only needed a corset but she was definitely in the mood to talk and shop, yes! She told me about her job, jobs really, she definitely had more than one. She works in a restaurant during the week and she does fetish parties once or twice a month. I wondered how she made time for everything else! but she says it's all about planning well, and the show doesn't take much time either. She was the rough-sex kind of girl and had a new boyfriend she couldn't get enough of (what do you do with information like that?). She showed me pictures of her new boyfriend and told me she met him at one fetish show and according to her the connection was immediate. They have been dating for quite some time (about 5 months) but no one can really know because of the divorce that's still not finalized, but she couldn't wait to scream it to the world. He gets along with her daughter quite well and according to her he can't wait for her divorce to be finalized so they can start thinking about their future together.

I was so into the conversation I had forgotten about everything else there, although I accidentally bumped into them from time to time. The sales guys kept on looking at me like I'm a mega weirdo and Jessica and the Vermont girl never came. I talked to Monica some more and got her phone number, she didn't invite me to her house but she said because she lives with so many people she prefers to go out and meet people. We planned to get together some time in Miami in the near future. I tried to make some contact with the sales guys but they had a few costumers and I HAD to leave. My to-do list just got bigger, but I think this was a MUCH better visit. Monica was truly a great to talk to and I learned A LOT! from her, and truly, I learned the least about her fetish lifestyle, it was all about her personal life. Until next time...