The Pleasure Boy 31

I said nothing, but only stared at him, thinking how to respond. "I'm not going to say a word," I told him, after I'd made my decision. "Let's go talk to Ms. Arruda, and you can repeat your theory to her." This was more than he was expecting, but saw that he had no way to back down. If he refused to come with me, he knew I'd just report our conversation to his boss, and she would summon him herself. He pulled himself together and said, "OK. Let's go."

He followed me to Judith's office and I knocked on her door. She called, "Come!" and we walked in. "Ms. Arruda," I opened, "Alan has an interesting theory of what I'm doing here. I thought you ought to hear it before I responded." I stepped aside and left him standing in front of her.

"Ms. Arruda," Alan began, "One of the women who works here was sitting in the Canard Bleu with her boy friend a few days ago. She saw you dining there with Jim here - obviously on intimate terms and having a good time. She was curious, and they followed you when you went home together. The next day, she came to me and told me about it. By now, that news must be all over the shop."

"When I heard that you were a couple and living together, I was curious too, so I went online to the Guild's registry of pleasure workers and found Jim Woodruffe's file. It's public knowledge that he's a professional submissive, that his mother is a lifemate coach and that he himself was a graduate student at McGill's History Department, in a lifemate relationship with one of his prof's who was killed by some drunken driver."

"It's an easy guess that his job here is to help you design a lifemate program to help with our staffing problem and that relationship with you is some kind of pilot project.

"I know you wanted the project kept private until the program was approved and ready for launching, but that isn't going to happen. If I could work out what Jim is doing here, so can others - and the rumours are already flying. How do you want to handle this?"

Judith didn't even blink. "We'll just have to announce the pilot project, before the program is approved," she answered. "We'd just look stupid and devious, trying to keep it secret now. Please don't encourage the rumours, but if anyone asks tell them that they are basically correct and that the project will be announced shortly."

"I appreciate your honesty here," she went on. "Learning that Jim and I are living together in a pilot lifemate arrangement must have been embarrassing for you. Coming to Jim and then to me with your knowledge was the right thing to do."

"I'm not going to ask who saw us together and followed us. And I don't want you to tell me. She's a sneak and snoop, but it doesn't matter. For your information, in private now, before we can make a public announcement, your guess was exactly right. At Mr. Woodruffe's suggestion, (not Jim, here; I mean his father) we're investigating the feasibility of a lifemate program for just the purpose you spotted. I issued a Request for Proposal, several good candidates applied and Jim won the contract fair and square without his father's interference. With his geisho training, and based on our experience together, his job now is to design a lifemate program for Woodruffe Corp. and make a recommendation on its feasibility. With your help he is studying Human Resource Management partly to prepare his design but partly to play some role in delivering his program when and if it is approved."

She blushed a little, but I don't think Alan noticed, "I can't stop you or anyone from speculating about our sex life, but it's none of anyone's business. We will ask everyone to respect our privacy, as they would want us to respect theirs."

The first thing that Judith did after dismissing Alan was to phone my father to warn him that the privacy of our project had been lost. He took the news calmly. "I half expected this," he said. "It's hard to keep secrets about anything connected with sex. Everyone wants to know about it."

"We'll just tell the truth - do a press release announcing that we're considering a program to encourage and support lifemate relationships, explaining your relationship and use of Jim as an experimental project by our HR department to investigate the feasibility and ramifications of such a program. Nothing is definite yet. We're announcing it now just to quell the rumours that are circulating. Let Jim decide how he wants to spin the fact that he's the CEO's son and a geisho submissive. Details to follow when we have something definite."

"I'll send the head of our PR unit to talk with you before he makes the announcement. Go along with him if he wants to hold a press conference. The publicity won't hurt us. I'll send a memo to the other executives, just to let them know what's happening. My position is that it's just something we're thinking about, and it's no big deal."

Judith agreed that this was the line to take, and said she would expect a call from the PR chief. They hung up, and she turned to me. "I'm not going to ask if you're OK with this. You had better be. It's part of the professionalism I hired you for."

"I'm fine Mistress," I told her formally, "but there's something more that you need to know. I can't talk about it yet. I need to discuss it with my Dad first. Let me use your phone for a moment, just so you know I'm not intriguing behind your back."

"No, you aren't," Judith said, "You're intriguing right in front of me. What are you up to?"

"Mistress, there's some more information that you need to have, but you should get it from my father, not from me. Just trust me for few minutes. I need to call my father, and I want you to hear the conversation. Put us on speaker and listen. You'll understand in just a moment. She handed me the phone's mouthpiece and punched two buttons on its base. In a moment, we heard my father's voice: "Todd Woodruffe speaking."

"Dad," I said. "It's Jim here. I'm calling from Judith Arruda's office - on speakerphone so she can hear what we say. Do you remember telling me that if I found myself in a conflict of loyalties between the two of you, that I should be loyal to my Mistress and you would understand?

"Of course," he answered. "You had to know that when you applied to serve her."

"Well, I'm in a conflict situation now. For this press release..., there's information that she needs to have, but I'm not the one to give it. I'm calling now, in front of her to let you know. You need to decide how to handle it."

"Ahhh," he said. "I see. Let me think for a moment." He was silent for almost a minute. Then we heard his voice again. "Judith, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Boss."

"Jim is right, and he's keeping faith with both of us. If we're going public with this now, there's more knowledge that you need to have. I should have thought of it. Are you free for dinner this evening?" Without waiting for an answer, he went on. This afternoon, you'll get a phone call from my wife, 'Hannah' is her name. I believe you've met her at some of our Company do's. She'll invite you and Jim to dinner - tonight if you can make it, or some other time, ASAP. I'll make a full disclosure, and it's best if my wife and son are present, just so everyone knows I'm not hiding anything. It will be company policy that we have no secrets. Privacy, yes, but no secrets." He hung up.

"What is he going to tell me?" Judith asked.

I grinned at her. "I've said and done enough now, Mistress. With the information you already have, you might be able to guess. Whether you can or not, it's best if you hear it from him - and you will as soon as he can arrange that dinner party. For one broad hint: Just ask yourself why he wants to invite you to his home when he could tell you over the phone, or summon you to his office."

"Now apart from what our PR people put out for the general public, we'll need to make a statement for Woodruffe employees. If you'll allow me Mistress, I'd like to go start writing it. You and my father should both approve such a piece before the PR guy applies his spin for the newspapers."

"Very well," Judith answered. "Go and do that. I'll sit here and wait for that phone call. But I already know what your dad is going to tell me. If Alan, consulting the Guild records, could figure out that you're a submissive lifemate to me, then the reporters will figure out that your father, the CEO of Woodruffe Electronics, has something similar going on with your geisha Mom. Remember, I've read your resume and Guild profile, and I've met your Mom a couple of times. With the hint you just gave me it wasn't much of a leap."

I left Judith's office and went to my own, much smaller one. I found Alan, sitting beside my desk, waiting for me. "Well," he said, "what's happening? I hope I haven't made trouble for you?"

"You did make a little trouble for your boss and for the Company, but in the long run you may have done us a favour. Don't worry, she's not blaming you. You're not going to be fired. She's not even blaming that busy-body who followed us home from the restaurant. But she's called me off that compensation job I was doing for you, and given me a different assignment. You'll hear about it within a few days, maybe by tomorrow evening. Now, please go away. That's all I can tell you now, and I don't have time to talk."

I settled down to write a brief description of Woodruffe's lifemate project to let its employees know what was going on, and put an end to the rumours. It would take the form of a brief, personal email message sent by the Company's CEO (my father) to every one of its people. Alternatively, a slightly different message could be sent by Judith Arruda, the VP of Human Resources, but I decided, and was prepared to argue, that the message would be more effective coming from the CEO. By quitting time I had produced the following draft:

From: Todd Woodruffe, CEO Woodruffe Electronics Corp.

To: all Woodruffe personnel

Subject: LifeMate Pilot Project

Hi everyone,

It has come to my attention that there are rumours circulating at Woodruffe Corp. regarding the dual and seemingly 'kinky' relationship between Judith Arruda, our VP of human resources and my son, Jim Woodruffe, a trained and qualified geisho (pleasure-worker) in the field of Dominant/submissive (D/s) relationships. I'm sending this memo to replace the rumours with factual information.

Let me begin by expressing my respect and appreciation for the excellent work that all of you are doing - work that has made our company a leader in its field, and that has recently enabled us to win a contract with NASA which puts us at the centre of the effort to colonize Mars with intelligent, versatile and semi-autonomous robots. You're all aware that NASA's Mars Program is huge and challenging, and that this company's participation in it is requiring us to attract, hire, train and manage a great number of new employees in many different fields, and at different levels. To meet this challenge, our VP of Human Resources, Judith Arruda and I have been discussing ways to attract the many creative people that we'll need, given that such people are in big demand everywhere. It's a crucial problem for us now.

As it happens, both Judith and I have had pleasurable experience with consensual Dominant-submissive (D/s) sexuality. Judith has been reading reports about so-called 'lifemate' relationships which eliminate power struggles and conflict in marriage and business partnerships by agreeing up front that one person (the Dominant) will always have the last word and make the actual decision, while the other (the submissive) will go along. In several socially progressive countries, such relationships are already encouraged, even apart from marriage, or as a form of temporary marriage, with positive results, for purposes of apprenticeship, social mobility and morale. For my part, I have spent much of my adult life in such a relationship with a remarkable woman named Hannah Abrams who was a Mistress geisha at the time. I married her, and today her name is Hannah Woodruffe. Many of you have met her at some of our recreational and social events. Jim Woodruffe, a trained geisho now working with us as a consultant on D/s relationships, is our son.

Currently, he is partnered with Judith Arruda, living and working with her as a lifemate-on-trial, in a pilot project to design a lifemate program for Woodruffe Electronics and to assess the feasibility and business value of such a program. His work should be completed and submitted to me and to our executive committee about eight months from now. When this happens, the proposed program design and the committee's decision will be announced. The feasibility report will be kept confidential for business reasons. At a minimum, the proposed program will offer free counselling and mentor services to all Woodruffe employees who choose to enter an eligible relationship of this kind.

In closing, I thank you all again for your ingenuity, hard work and understanding. Best wishes to all of you,

Todd Woodruffe

When this was complete, I printed four copies and put them in my briefcase. My intention was to pass them around after my father came out to Judith. What Dad had realized when we spoke on the phone was that his wife's history as a geisha was public knowledge. As soon as the reporters started digging, as they surely would after our press release, rumours about his marriage would start up, just as they had about my relationship with Judith. He saw that having launched that pilot project with Judith, the core of his private life would soon be public knowledge.

The draft memo from my father completed, I went back to Alan's compensation exercise and was nearly finished with it when the bell rang for quitting time. Per standing instructions I went and knocked on Judith's door to touch base with her at the end of the working day. "Come," she called, and I walked in. "Your mother called," she told me. "We're not due there until 7 o'clock, and I'd like to go home and change. Did you finish your statement for Woodruffe employees?"

"Yes Ms." I answered. "It's in the form of a draft memo to go out over my father's signature. I've printed four copies, to be passed around for discussion after my parents come out to you. I'll revise it as necessary if my father prefers that the statement come from you, perhaps in some other format."

"Excellent!" Judith said, pleased with me. "You seem to have this well in hand. I'm glad one of us does. I'm just feeling exposed and embarrassed. My private life is now the world's business."

"Come on, let's get out of here."

I walked with her to the elevator and took it down to the garage. "My Dad's life too! And he won't be anymore pleased than you are. But this was bound to happen when the LifeMate Program was announced. It was inevitable when you and Dad cooked up the idea. It's just happening a little sooner than you expected."

"And in a different stage of the project, don't forget. I was hoping not to make myself conspicuous until other couples were joining Woodruffe's program. As it is, your father and I are being forced to out ourselves in this pilot phase, with no protective company."

"True. But I think that will work to the company's benefit, and to yours as well, from the perspective of publicity. If you're unashamed, forthright and open about it it - as you have been so far - the press and public will take your side and the prudes will make themselves look foolish.

I parked Judith's car in my parent's driveway, helped my Mistress out of it, then gave her my arm and walked with her to their front door. I rang their bell and waited for someone to greet us - not using my key to make the point that I was there as Judith's escort, not as my parent's son. When my mother opened the door, I hung back and let the women greet each other. Mom hugged Judith and bade her welcome. Judith handed over the the bottle of wine that she'd brought with her. Then my father appeared, dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt. He thanked Judith for coming and greeted me with a handshake. He led us into the living-room and offered drinks. Judith asked for a Bloody Mary, and my mother said she'd have the same. I asked for a gin and tonic and offered to mix the drinks. Dad said that he would serve, and did so. He took no drink for himself.

The social niceties complete, he started in: "Judith, my son forced my hand when he made that call from your office, but he was right to do so. I should have seen months ago, when we first started talking about a lifemate program, or when I suggested that you take such an assistant for yourself, that my own background in BDSM and my family life as his mother's compliant husband would shortly become public knowledge. Until recently we never gave it that name, but the truth is that I have lived in a kind of lifemate relationship with Hannah here from the day I proposed to her and she accepted. The difference is that to her, I am not a full-time submissive, as Jim now is to you. Our rule has been that in the business world I make the decisions with her advice, taking her needs and feelings into account. At home she makes the decisions with input from me."

"In our sex life, I'm the submissive, as Jim is well aware. She was a geisha, working as a professional Domme, before we were married; and I was one of her clients. Today, she and another Mistress (who was Jim's chief trainer) are in business teaching and mentoring full time D/s couples. I'm making most of our money, but she does very well on her own, and is no way dependent on me. If anything, it's I who am emotionally dependent on her."

At this point my mother jumped in, "As the Domme of this situation, my pleasure is that it's time to eat now, before the roast gets tough. Jim, would you help me serve, please? Ask your Mistress if she wants you to get naked to wait on us."

Judith laughed. "Oh, I think he can keep his clothes on for now. He'd strip at once if I told him to, but I don't think I should embarrass him in front of his parents."

"Thank you, Mistress," I said to her, as I followed my mother into the kitchen while Dad led his guest to the dining room and opened a bottle of wine. Mom had me carve and serve the roast beef, while she used the microwave briefly to re-heat the asparagus, creamed potatoes and gravy. We brought these to the table, and then sat down to eat. The food was delicious, but my mind was on the speech my father had just given. How would Judith respond?

"Thank you for sharing that, Todd," she said. "I didn't hear anything that will do us big harm - that we need to be afraid of - but it will make some waves, and its better that we not be taken by surprise."

"I think the best way will be to come out about this from the very beginning - include it in our first press release on a prospective lifemate program at Woodruffe electronics, and answer questions frankly without showing fear or embarrassment. Our line is 'Honi soit qui mal y pense,' 'Shame to him who thinks ill of it,' - the motto on the British Coat of Arms. We'll take a certain amount of teasing, and some hostility from prudes and traditionalists, but nothing we can't live with. The press will eat it up; we'll get credit for courage and honesty; and it will attract the talent that we're looking for."

"What do you think, Jim? As a geisho and professional submissive, 'kink' is a huge part of your identity - perhaps the whole of it, for most people. Do you suffer in any way from being out of the closet?"

"In general, no Mistress," I answered formally, noting the faint smile on my mother's lips. "In some circles, I prefer to be invisible, but what I encounter mostly is curiosity and interest - some of it prurient, some frank and open. At university, I was a minor celebrity for awhile, as people learned about my relationship with my thesis advisor, Natasha Sorkin. As you said, Mistress, I caught some hostility, but nothing I couldn't handle."