Spring semester was finally over, and Lauren and Cassidy were both enjoying the three week break they had before their summer semester started up and it was back to the academic grind for the two of them. One lazy Saturday morning, Lauren had decided that it would be a fun to drive out into the suburbs a few miles away from campus and spend some time walking around the local neighborhood park there, soaking up the warmth from the sun before the weather got too hot to be enjoyable and stretching their legs after being cooped up for so long studying. Cassidy had thought the idea had sounded like a great time the night before, but being the night owl that she was, her opinions had shifted dramatically by the time Lauren yanked the covers off of her at half past ten the following morning. She’d whined and complained that it was way too early to be up and doing things, and that she had to stockpile sleep while she still could, but Lauren flipping her onto her stomach and unceremoniously yanking down her pajama bottoms and panties in back for a brisk thirty spanks with her bedside hairbrush proved to be just the motivation she needed for her to change her mind.
After doing two or three circuits around the meandering jogging paths that were woven throughout the sprawling park, Lauren and Cassidy had both had their fill of natural splendor, but weren’t quite ready to head home just yet. And so, they found themselves wandering off into the neighborhood at large, admiring the upper middle class homes lining the streets with no particular destination in mind, just enjoying the sights and occasionally making comments here or there about someone’s tacky lawn ornaments or stopping to say hello to people out walking their dogs.
“Hey look, a yard sale,” said Lauren, pointing a few houses down the street to where a handful of people were milling about around a series of folding tables someone had set up on their driveway. “You want to check it out?”
“Totally,” said Cassidy, nodding eagerly. She already had visions of rare finds at bargain basement prices dancing in her head. Surely there’d be some sort of hidden treasure there just waiting to be unearthed by a discerning eye like hers. “Do you think they’ll have any games?”
“Maybe,” shrugged Lauren, smiling fondly at her girlfriend’s enthusiasm and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she guided the two of them over to the house in question. She herself wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, nor did she have a strong desire to paw around through other people’s junk, but a little bit of casual looky looing wouldn’t hurt.
The selection of things for sale proved to be, not surprisingly to either of them truth be told, rather mundane. The goods on offer consisted mostly of piles and piles of old clothes that were either way too small or way too out of style for either Lauren or Cassidy to ever seriously consider wearing, several CDs with either damaged of missing cases, and a few super obsolete home electronics, along with the usual various other knick knacks and mementos that’d clearly been piling up in the family’s closets for years.
Wrinkling her nose at the cloud of dust she’d stirred up while picking her way through a pile of handmade sweaters, Cassidy decided that the yard sale was a total bust and that it was time to leave. Turning to look for Lauren, she was just about to call out to her and suggest that they move on when she spotted her at one of the tables near the front of the garage, cradling something appraisingly in her hands and smirking.
“What’d you find?” she started to ask as she moved to stand beside her, before cutting her words off in a strangled squawk as she got a good look at what had caught the other girl’s attention.
“Isn’t this just the most beautiful paddle you’ve ever seen?” asked Lauren, letting her voice carry far enough to draw the attention of the older woman manning the cash box at the other end of the driveway who was currently making change for a beleaguered looking man balancing a stack of VHS tapes in one hand and clutching the hand of a small child with the other.
“Shhh! Keep your voice down!” hissed Cassidy, snatching the paddle away from her snickering girlfriend before she could draw any more attention to the two of them. “And give me that.”
Letting out a long-suffering sigh and rolling her eyes, she looked down at the thing in her hands and found herself having to admit that the paddle actually was rather impressive. She could feel the tips of her ears burning and her heart pounding hard against her chest as she turned it over in her hands, examining it closely in spite of the fact that it suddenly felt like everybody was staring at her and could read her mind. She wasn’t amazing when it came to guessing the size of things, something that Lauren had had no small amount of fun teasing her about when she’d first introduced her to her strap on, but by her estimation she guessed that the paddle was about eighteen inches long and probably a little over half an inch thick, with well rounded edges and no sharp corners. Its handle had been shaped down and out into a sweeping curve at the bottom, almost like a teardrop, and felt surprisingly comfortable to hold onto as she wrapped her fingers around it and gave the paddle an experimental swing through the air, trying to picture what it would feel like impacting with a naughty bottom.
She felt a tingle flutter between her legs, and had to swallow hard.
She had no idea what kind of wood the paddle was made from, but guessed that it had to be something exotic and fancy since it was a very unique shade of reddish-plum and was surprisingly heavy. Cassidy had no doubt that it could make quite the lasting impression with very little effort, and she found herself smiling wistfully. Someone had taken the time to hand-engrave the words “ATTITUDE ADJUSTER” in two neat rows of big, blocky letters that took up almost all of one side of its business end, and had then filled in the grooves with white paint that made the phrase stand out in stark contrast against the dark wood, making it abundantly clear exactly what the implement was intended for. The rest of its surface had also been polished to a mirror finish and felt silky smooth to the touch as she ran her fingertips along it, imagining what it would feel like rubbing in slow circles across her naked cheeks while she lay bent over the back of their couch or on her stomach, propped up by a pile of pillows.
She shivered. Why was she even thinking about something like that? There was no way she’d ever have the guts to buy something like this at a yard sale of all places… would she?
“You like that, do you?” asked a motherly voice from directly across the table, startling Cassidy and making her drop the paddle in surprise.
“Ah! No, I was just-!”
“Careful, cutie pie,” admonished Lauren with a wink, easily snatching the paddle out of the air before it could clatter to the ground and brandishing it at her with a mock-threat. “You break it, you buy it.”
“Oh I wouldn’t worry about that beauty breaking any time soon,” laughed the older woman.
She appeared to be in her mid to late fifties and was the quintessential picture of a “mom” as she stood there smiling pleasantly at the two of them in a billowy pair of black and white horizontal-striped pants and a navy blue boat-neck top. Possibly sniffing out a potential sale, or maybe just being bored with dealing with the thinned out late-morning yard sale crowd, she’d brought her steel cash box with her over to their end of the driveway and had set it on the table before her expectantly.
“I used that paddle to bust the butts of my three kids about once every couple weeks for nearly thirty years before they finally all moved out, and believe you me, if it was going to break, it would have done so long before now.”
She gave the two of them a wink as she said that, Cassidy’s bright red face and Lauren’s self-satisfied smirk not going unnoticed by her sharp eyes as laugh lines crinkled at their corners.
“You don’t say?” crooned Lauren, dragging out the words as she turned to leer at Cassidy and whacked the paddle menacingly against her palm. It made a startling loud POP noise and she winced at the sudden sting, but it was well worth it for the little involuntary jerk of Cassidy’s hips at the sound. Especially when they bumped into the table in front of her, making it rock on its wobbly legs.
“Careful, young lady,” warned the older woman sharply, flashing a frosty glare at Cassidy that melted immediately as she turned her attention to Lauren and beamed.
“My husband made that for Annie, our oldest, when she was about… oh nine or ten I think, and as I said, it’s seen more than its fair share of action over the years.” She paused and sighed, clearly caught up in a wave of nostalgia as her gaze shifted to the paddle and she smiled softly. “I’d planned on holding onto it in case it was ever needed again, or maybe to pass it on to one of my daughters for when they’ve got kids of their own, but…”
She paused again, this time to shrug and roll her eyes.
“Kids don’t seem to be in the cards for any of them anytime soon, and that thing’s just been gathering dust on top of the refrigerator for a couple years now. I figured I’d just throw it out onto the pile today with all the other junk and see if anybody wants it. Are you two interested?”
“No!”
Cassidy hastened to assure the woman that they were in fact not interested in her paddle, but her protest was overshadowed by Lauren as she grinned from ear to ear.
“Maybe.”
This brought a bemused look to the other woman’s face, and she chuckled.
“Well?”
She turned her attention entirely to Lauren then, ignoring Cassidy as she glowered petulantly at her as she spoke.
“Doug says that he made that paddle out of rosewood, which I’m led to believe is supposed to be rather expensive, and he did work very hard to make it, but… I’d be willing to let it go for… oh I don’t know… thirty?”
Lauren smirked. “Fifteen.”
“Twenty-five,” countered the woman.
“Lauren!” whined Cassidy, actually stomping a foot beside her girlfriend in spite of herself.
“Hush, Cassie,” dismissed Lauren with a curt wave of her free hand as she shared a knowing look with the woman across the table from her.
“Yes dear, the adults are talking,” added the other woman, winking at Lauren.
Rather than protest any further and give the two of them more fodder to tease her with, Cassidy just folded her arms under her chest and pouted. It was clear to her that the yard sale lady had somehow picked up on the nature of her relationship with Lauren. She couldn’t be sure if the woman actually believed that Lauren was going to use that wicked looking paddle on her, but she could clearly see that the threat of it alone was enough to make her squirm, which seemed to amuse her greatly.
“Twenty. And that’s my final offer,” declared Lauren, staring down the older woman with the full force of her confident half-smirk.
“Please say no, please say no, please say no,” chanted Cassidy silently to herself, crossing her fingers under her arms and not actually knowing if she wanted the woman to accept the offer or not.
Either way, she let her and Lauren stew for several long moments as she appeared to mull the offer over, before finally shrugging.
“Done.”
“Pleasure doing business with you,” cooed Lauren as she fished her wallet out of her purse and passed the woman a twenty dollar bill. She then carefully tucked her new paddle into her purse alongside her wallet and keys, only to discover that the bag was too small for it. That didn’t seem to bother her much though, and its dark red handle was left sticking out of the top of her purse as she slung it back over her shoulder. “Say thank you, Cassie.”
“Thank you, Cassie,” grumbled Cassidy peevishly, not able to quite meet the older woman’s smiling eyes as Lauren threaded an arm through hers and steered her away from the table and toward the street, back to their car.
“You ladies have a wonderful day,” laughed the older woman from behind them as she unlocked her cash box and dropped the twenty into it. “And have fun.”
“Oh, I’m sure we will,” laughed Lauren, throwing one last smirk over her shoulder.
Cassidy’s face stayed flushed tomato-red all the way back to Lauren’s car.
“I can’t believe you actually bought that stupid thing,” she grumbled as she threw herself into her seat with a huff and reached over to put on her seat belt. “That was so humiliating.”
“I know, I know,” soothed Lauren gently as she put the car into gear and started to drive away. “But I saw the way your knees were wobbling when you were looking at it, and I just couldn’t resist. You were practically drooling over it you know.”
“I was not!”
“Were so,” teased Lauren. “We could both see how much you wanted it, cutie pie.”
“Ugh, whatever,” fumed Cassidy, crossing her arms and slouching in her seat with a moody pout.
“Pardon me?” asked Lauren, not turning to look at her girlfriend, but still arching an eyebrow and letting her voice dip into that dangerous nonchalance she knew all too well.
“I said,” bit out Cassidy, not looking away from her window as she put as much attitude and sass as she could into each word. “What, ever, Lauren.”
“That’s what I thought,” sighed Lauren, shaking her head and smirking.
Five minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of a small, local grocery store, and parked in a spot near the back.
“What’s up?” asked Cassidy, her pouting all but forgotten as she shimmied up from her slouch and turned to face her girlfriend. “Did you want to get something to make for dinner tonight?”
“Hmm, that’s not a bad idea,” conceded Lauren as she put the car into park and turned off the ignition. Opening her door and gathering up her purse, the paddle’s red handle still sticking out of it like a humiliating beacon, she turned in her seat to face Cassidy and flashed her a wolfish grin. “But first you and I are going to have a little talk about that attitude of yours, cutie pie, and see how well our new paddle works for adjusting it.”
