RIPP. I’ve heard people say once you’re an adult, you don’t change. I don’t believe that. I think we all have the capacity to change; we just have to want to do it. It’s developing the want which is difficult. We become so stuck in our routines; so comfortable, so unwilling to take risk, we don’t see the value in change. It’s possible we’re just plain uncomfortable with what the change might offer. Me? I get bored easy, so change for me brings new things. Some things, however, I will never change.

I’m simply not willing.

Saturday chicken was one of those things.

“God damn it, Dekk, Shorty, somebody hand me the fuckin’ water bottle. If this shit burns, it’s ruined,” I screamed as I watched my precious chicken go up in flames.

“Where is it?” Dekk hollered from the edge of the lounge he was sitting on.

“Well, if you’d get the fuck up and look, you’d probably find it. Hurry, this shit’s on fire,” I bellowed as I closed the lid and raised it again, hoping the flames had extinguished themselves.

“I don’t understand why this motherfucker’s burning like this,” I closed the lid and looked under the grille for the spray bottle.

A light tapping on my back startled me and I spun around quickly. Kace stood behind me, holding the spray bottle in her hand, smiling.

“Good lookin’ out, Shorty,” I said as I snatched the bottle from her grasp.

Quickly, I opened the lid to the grille and sprayed the burner area, eliminating the fire which was slowly ruining my chicken. Greasy foods will start a fire as the grease drips into the burner area, but chicken never causes a fire. After I made sure the flame was out, I closed the lid and nervously opened it again a few times to confirm the status of my chicken. Somewhat confused, I placed the bottle under the grille and reluctantly sat on the edge of my lounge.

“Where the fuck did you get this chicken from, Dekk?” I asked as I grabbed my bottle of beer from the table beside the lounge.

“Up at the corner. At HEB. The one by the exit,” he responded.

“Well, HEB’s chicken don’t normally go up in fuckin’ flames. Something’s wrong with this chicken,” I stared at the grille and took a drink of my beer.

“The chicken’s fine, Ripp,” Dekk shook his head as Shorty sat down beside him on the lounge.

“It ain’t fine. It was on fuckin’ fire, dude. It’s just fuckin’ weird. It takes grease to start a fire. Chicken ain’t greasy. I ain’t lookin’ to eat no weird ass chicken that’s been tampered with and infused with grease to make it taste good,” I complained as I finished drinking what was left of my beer.

I finished my beer and tossed the bottle in the trash. As I stood, I opened the lid of the grille and checked the chicken. The burner below the chicken was burning steadily and at a low flame suitable for barbequing chicken. I closed the lid of the grille, grabbed a fresh beer from the cooler, and dropped back into my lounge as I rubbed my head.

“Fuck I’m hungry. What a fuckin’ week. This is the first I’ve been able to relax all God damned week,” I closed my eyes as the late afternoon sun warmed my bare skin.

“Maybe it was the burgers?” Kace said softly.

I sat up in my chair and opened my eyes.

“Excuse me?” I snapped.

“The burgers, Ripp. Maybe the burgers made the grease,” she smiled.

“I ain’t cookin’ burgers, Kace. There ain’t a burger in there, and there never has been; just chicken,” I said as I looked across the deck at Kace, somewhat confused.

“Well, Shane and I cooked over here the other night, and we cooked burgers,” she smiled.

“Dekk?” I raised one eyebrow and stared at Shane as he turned his palms up in a half-assed apology.

“Dekk, you cooked burgers on my fuckin’ grille?” I asked as I stood and opened the lid to the barbeque grille.

“Kace wanted a burger, so I bought some hamburger. It was lean, like ninety percent or something. Yeah, we cooked it over here the other night, you were gone,” he admitted.

I turned toward him and shook my head. I opened the lid to the grille and silently began turning all of the chicken over with the tongs. After successfully flipping all of the pieces and verifying there was no threat of another secondary fire, I closed the lid and hung the tongs from the hook.

“Burgers. Seriously? I guess I have a couple questions,” I sat on the edge of the lounge and grabbed my beer, “since when do you eat burgers for one, and two, why in the fuck are you cooking burgers on my grille and not at your fuckin’ house?”

“I like burgers, Ripp,” Kace laughed.

“I ain’t talkin’ to you, Shorty. Dekk, you gonna answer?” I asked as I took a slow sip from my bottle of beer.

“Kace wanted a burger, so I cooked her some. I don’t have a grille and I didn’t want to cook them in my house, so we came here. You gave me a key to this place, Ripp, remember?” he stood from his seat and shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

“Yeah, I remember. But damn, dude. Seriously? Burgers on my chicken grille? And then you act like this fire is some kind of fuckin’ mystery. Lookin’ around like you ain’t got any form of fuckin’ clue what might have happened. You and Shorty sittin’ over there with your hands on your cheeks like you’re all surprised and shit while I’m fightin’ this fuckin’ blaze,” I stood, opened the lid to the grille, and checked the chicken.

“Jesus, Ripp, we cooked a burger,” Dekk laughed.

“It ain’t funny Dekk. You caught my chicken on fire,” I scowled at both of them as I flopped into the lounge.

“And you ain’t got no grille. Yeah. You have serious issues, dude. You got stacks of money. You bought Kace a new car, a fifty thousand dollar diamond bracelet, and you’re gonna fight for the Championship. Millions. You’re gonna have millions if you ain’t got ‘em already. Motherfuckin’ millions. But I can’t force your dumb ass to put a tire on that bike of yours or buy a pair of boots. Three hundred bucks. A grille cost three hundred bucks,” I pulled my toothpick from my mouth and tossed it in the trash.

“Are you really mad at us Ripp?” Kace asked softly as she alternated glances between Shane and I.

“No Shorty. I ain’t mad. I like makin’ a big deal out of shit. Dekk knows it. Now if my chicken would have burned, you’d have seen the second installment of Dekkar-Ripton. We’d have thrown down right here,” I laughed as I pointed to the bare space on the deck between Shane and me.

“Shit,” Dekk laughed, “I could beat you one handed now. You haven’t really trained in two weeks.”

“I been lifting. And workin’ out. I always lift, you know that. I just been fuckin’ busy,” I complained as I recalled the events of the week.

“You turned that around. You haven’t been fucking busy, you’ve been busy fucking, Ripp. You need to slow down, you’re going to die soon from some kind of disease if you don’t watch it,” Shane said as he sat down on the edge of the lounge.

“I don’t fuck people with twat diseases, thank you very much. And, if it’s any of your business, I’m looking to try and settle down. Well, kind of,” I said proudly as I finished my beer.

“Shane said you had sex with two girls from Rundberg. That’s gross” Kace scrunched her face and covered her mouth as if she were going to vomit.

“They weren’t from Rundberg; they were in Rundberg, kinda traveling through. And yes there was two of ‘em, sisters. But one got fucked and the other just listened,” I laughed.

“Sisters?” Kace turned to Shane, who immediately shrugged his shoulders.

I nodded my head, “Yep. Sisters.”

Kace shook her head and rolled her eyes as she elbowed Shane, probably for telling her half of the story.

“And thanks Dekk. I appreciate you bringin’ Shorty up-to-date on my sexual adventures,” I shook my head, stood from the lounge and opened the lid to the grille.

“Chicken’s done,” I announced as I grabbed the tongs and platter, “go in the house and get the other shit, it’s in the fridge.”

As they went into the house, I pulled the chicken from the grille and placed it on the platter. Seeing the growth in Kace over the last year allowed me to realize how strong of a woman she really was. She was small and quiet, but she didn’t have a weak bone in her body. The day we met, all she could do was sit and point at me. Hell, she was so nervous she couldn’t even speak. Now, she’d challenge me on even the small things, and fight me the entire way if she thought she was right.

Witnessing Shane and Kace together and seeing how well they got along was one single thing which caused me consider the fact Vee and I may be able to do the same. I’ve never been in a relationship in my life, and changing would not come easy, so I had my reservations. I had no idea if Vee and I would even have similar interests, but I was willing to try to find out. She was the prettiest woman I had ever seen, she was intelligent, and she believed she was submissive. I didn’t know the first fucking thing about male dominance or submissive women, but the afternoon with my little submissive unicorn girl sure made me wonder if it wasn’t a place where I belonged. As they walked out with the plates and side dishes, I laughed out loud at the thought of shaking Vee’s hand in the bar.

“What’s so funny, Ripp?” Kace asked as she walked across the deck and placed the plates on the table.

“Well,” I started to talk and began laughing again.

I covered my mouth with my hand and thought of me trying to act as a Dom. Visions of me donning my Chuck’s with a whip in my hand and Vee wearing leather boots which went half way up her thighs caused the laughter to continue.

“Are you going to enlighten us on what’s going on?” Shane asked as he looked back and forth between Kace and me.

Eventually I stopped laughing, rubbed my hands on my shorts and took a breath. As I wiped the tears from my eyes with the back of my hand, I tried to decide a way to tell them what I had decided to try and do. Not a bit unlike Shane, everything I did, I did well. I had my doubt about being in a relationship at all, but I knew if I did my research I could be as good of a Dom as anyone. In hope of a little reassurance, I set the platter down and opened my mouth.

“The girl from the Jackalope? The really pretty one from the other day?” I sighed as I tossed a few pieces of chicken on my plate and sat on the edge of the lounge.

Shane nodded as he walked toward the table, “Vee, right?”

“Yep, Vee. Vivian, as in Vivian Simon. The big law office under the Bat Bridge with the Simon, Simon, and Simone on the side? Yeah, that’s her. She’s an attorney,” I pulled the skin from my chicken and poked it into my mouth.

“Wow, an attorney,” Kace said as she spooned vegetables and coleslaw onto her plate.

“Well, we met for drinks the other night,” I paused and took a bite of my chicken.

“Did you tell her you’re a thirty-one year old nympho boxer that fights bare knuckles on the side for spending money?” Shane laughed as he sat down beside Kace.

I nodded my head and finished chewing my chicken, “Well, as a matter of fact, I did. I told her all of that. And she told me a few things as well.”

“Funny things?” Kace looked up and smiled as she carefully pulled the meat from her chicken leg.

“Not at the time, no,” I took another bite of chicken as I shook my head.

“But it’s funny now?” she asked.

I took a drink of beer, washed down my chicken, placed my plate on the table beside my lounge and tossed my legs over the side. After resting my forearms on my thighs and leaning forward, I felt comfortable telling them the rest of the story. Kace and Shane were both looking at me as if my head were on fire.

“Let me finish before either of you two make some stupid assed remarks, okay?” I gestured toward them with my hands as I spoke.

As if rehearsed, they looked at each other and nodded.

“Okay. So I met Vee at the bar, and we started bullshittin’ about stuff, and all of a sudden she says, I ain’t lookin’ to do anything with anybody and I ain’t lookin’ to fuck nobody. I don’t just fuck. So, if you wanna fuck, toss that beer back and kick rocks, son. So I said, hell I’m good with that and I’m still listenin’,” I paused, grabbed my beer and took a drink.

“So, let’s see. I said, what are you lookin’ for? She takes a long drink to finish her beer, waves over the waiter like she’s dying of thirst. Gets herself another beer, drinks half of it, sets that fucker down on the table, leans forward, and lets me fuckin’ have it. I about shit myself,” I lifted my beer and took another short sip.

“What did she say, Ripp?” Kace scooted all the way to the edge of the lounge and sat with her mouth hanging open.

“Alright. Here’s where it gets interesting. Now let me finish, alright?” I asked as I leaned forward and rested my arms on my thighs.

Again, they both nodded. Kace wiped her mouth with a napkin and set her plate aside and waited for me to speak. I loved telling stories, and telling stories to these two was like telling a story to a kid. They just sat and stared, hanging on every word. I waited a long minute before I started talking, and as soon as they began to start squirming in their seats, I began.

“She set her beer aside, leaned forward, and said, I am submissive. I want a man to hold me down and treat me like a whore. I don’t want a dominant man, I want a God damned Dom. I want someone to take charge and make me his little submissive bitch. If you’re this man, be this man. If you’re not, Mr. Ripton, let’s part friends. Yeah, she called me Mr. fuckin’ Ripton. This gal, she’s got class,” I nodded my head and leaned back in the chair as I waited for them to speak.

“Sounds like it,” Shane chuckled and slumped into the lounge.

“Uhhm. What’d you say?” Kace asked, still sitting on the edge of the lounge.

Shane turned to Kace and shook his head, “Ripp might be wild, but he isn’t crazy, babe.”

“I said yes,” I said as I sat up in my seat, “and we shook on it.”

“Holy…” Shane said as he leaned forward and pulled his hood off his head.

“Shit,” Kace stammered.

Her eyes widened as she stared my direction.

“You shook on it?” Shane asked as he stood.

Shane and Kace both knew how I viewed a handshake. A man has nothing in this world but his word. Nothing else matters. A handshake, to me, was as good as a written contract to anyone else. My shaking Vee’s hand made no form of assurance anything was for certain. It did, however, give her a guarantee I would do my best to make it work out.

“Yep,” I said as I rose from my chair and smiled, “and Kace’s gonna give me pointers from her books.”

“Oh hell no, she isn’t,” Shane blurted.

At the same time Shane spoke, Kace jumped from her seat and slapped her hands together, “I can’t wait.”

“What in the fuck do you know about being a Dom? We’ve talked about this. This isn’t something you dabble in like putting together model airplanes,” Shane snapped.

“I know a little after fuckin’ my little submissive unicorn,” I chuckled.

“Unicorn?” Kace asked with her face covered in confusion.

I sat in my seat, grabbed my plate of chicken and set it down on my lap. As I pulled a piece of chicken from the plate, I turned toward Kace and smiled.

“Sit down Kace, and let me tell you a story…”