Page 12 of Lumi

“You’re nervous about this, aren’t you?” Jolene leaned over the table and placed her hand on Lumi’s wrist. “That’s okay. I trust that you can dig deep and solve any conflict that arises. In return, you’ll see that conflicts can serve to deepen and improve a relationship when you respectfully solve them.”

“I don’t think we’ll have conflicts,” I said to ease the tension I felt from Lumi. “We’re good together.”

Jolene smiled and pointed to a paper on the table. “I’ve made a contract that you’ll both have to sign.”

Lumi picked it up and began reading.

“Do ye mind putting it down so I can read, too?” I asked. “Or ye can read it aloud.”

Lumi’s eyebrows knitted together as she read out the first rule.

“By signing this contract, you agree to the following rules.

1: Each day, you’ll send an email with the following:

-A video diary in which you sum up your activities over the last twenty-four-hours. You’ll also report what challenges and positive things you’ve experienced.

-A video of you going over the daily discussion questions provided by the research team.”

Lumi paused and looked to Atlas and Jolene.

“Go on.” Jolene nodded at the contract in Lumi’s hands.

“2: Each day, you’ll do a minimum of one social activity that requires you to get out of the house together.”

Lumi frowned. “What kind of social activity?”

“That’s up to you. Each day you’ll decide on an activity together. You could go shopping, to the movies, visit friends, a museum, or exercise together,” Atlas suggested.

“Or you could have fun at the local community pool,” Jolene pitched in.

I laughed. “How would we do that? Jolene, ye’ve never been to a community pool in Ireland, have ye?”

“No.”

“Then take my word for it. We would have to shower before goin’ into the pool area, and they don’t have changin’ rooms for couples in handcuffs. Now, the lads might be fine with me bringin’ Lumi into the men’s dressin’ room, but I don’t want to. And I expect the staff would get complaints if I walked into the women’s shower room.”

“Good point.” Jolene looked at Atlas, who crossed his arms and leaned back.

“There’s always the beach.”

Jolene nodded her agreement and focused in on Lumi. “The real challenge here is the closeness to a man, but since you’ve been honest about how social situations are stressful to you in general, we want to add that pressure to the experiment. It will overwhelm you, but we hope that you’ll look at it as a golden opportunity to work through your issues.”

Lumi sighed and continued reading from the paper,

“3: You’ll respect each other and refrain from sexual activities with yourself, the other party, or a third party unless there’s a verbal agreement between both parties.”

“Hang on.” I dipped my eyebrows and gave Jolene a troubled look. “I get the part about not havin’ sex with other women while I’m chained to Lumi, but what’s this about not engaging in sex with ourselves?”

“It refers to masturbation,” Jolene said.

I crossed my arms. “That’s a hard line for me. I haven’t gone a full week without wanking since I was a lad. I can’t do that. I would turn into a walking bomb of sexual frustration.”

Jolene shrugged. “Then I guess you’ll both have issues to work through.”

“But we won’t be tied together twenty-four-seven, will we? I mean, we’ll have time for… ehm… private hygiene.”

Instead of answering my question, Jolene motioned for Lumi to continue reading.