Liz, 51 from Toowoomba, Qld shares her true confession:
I rummaged around inside my bag, flinging bits of lint and keys out.
“Bugger,” I muttered. Not a single coin left.
I’d blown all my earnings on the poker machines.
Again. I sighed, took a final sip of my vodka and coke, and drove home.
My husband, Dave, walked in shortly afterwards.
“How was your day, love?” he asked, kissing my cheek.
“Oh, er, fine,” I said.
There was no way I could tell him I’d been at the pokies.
He worked as a plumber and I was a cleaner.
When our kids flew the nest, I’d found myself getting bored in the afternoons when I’d finished work, so I’d started to go for a quick flutter at the RSL.
Soon I was there most days.
Dave rarely checked our bank balance so he hadn’t noticed.
The next day, I went along to clean the house of one of my newer clients, a man named James who was in his early seventies.
I preferred it when the clients were out so I could get on with my work, but James followed me around the house.
When I was scrubbing the floors, he stood behind me.
I didn’t appreciate the comment, so I ignored him, but I’m sure he could tell I wasn’t best pleased.
The following week, he asked if I had a moment for a quick chat and sat me down at the kitchen table.
“About the comment I made…” he started.
I blushed.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, worried he was going to fire me.
“Actually, I have a proposition for you,” he said.
My face must’ve dropped because he quickly continued, “No, no, it’s nothing to do with sex but I, um, I have a strange, uh, fetish…“
I didn’t know where to look!
He went on to tell me he liked discipline and being led around the house on a dog lead.
“Oh, well, that’s nice,” I said, feeling my cheeks go red.
“You see, my wife used to do it for me but since she died last year I’ve had no one to do it.”
I got up to leave with my dignity intact, but then he said, “I’ll pay you $200 a week to do it.”
That gave me pause. It would get me out of a serious hole.
So I agreed.
“I won’t do any kinky stuff, but I can walk you around, l guess,” I said.
His face lit up and he ran off to get his collar.
For the next hour, I walked him around his house and occasionally shouted at him, or yanked the leash if he was “misbehaving”.
It was truly bizarre, but true to his word he gave me $200 in cash afterwards.
So I did it again for him the following week.
It’s now been a couple of months that I’ve been dragging my boss around his house with a dog collar on.
Dave would be mortified if he found out.
With $5,000 in the bank, I’ve nearly paid off my pokies debt and once that’s done I’ll quit cleaning James’s house.
But for now, it’s my very strange little secret.
