chapter 1

RUBY

How was it that a twenty-one-year-old woman lived such a

boring life? Especially considering the fact that she had

enough money to go do whatever she wanted. Well, sort of.

It was her parents’ money. But they gave her an endless

allowance so really, she could afford to do anything.

Why not fly to Tahiti? Or Greece? Or Thailand?

Oh, that’s right. Flying was the scariest thing in the

world. That and spiders. Oh, and snakes. And mice. Okay,

there were a lot of scary things in the world. Which was

one of the reasons she always seemed to stay in the

comfort of her penthouse apartment in one of the tallest

apartment buildings in Seattle.

Her apartment had everything, really. She even had her

own Little room she could play in any time she wanted, only

it really wasn’t fun to be Little by herself. It sucked, and it

was lonely, and when she had a tantrum because one of her

doll’s heads popped off, there was never anyone there to

help fix the stupid doll.

Of course, the doll’s head hadn’t just popped off by

itself… yeah, she had kind of gotten angry because the doll

didn’t want to be her friend, so she ripped her head right

off and threw it across the room. But then she felt really bad, so she reattached the head right away. The doll hadn’t

spoken to her since.

Her toys didn’t really talk to her, but she was alone so

much that it felt like they were talking to her sometimes. At

least, she imagined they were.

The only friend she ever actually talked to was her

online best friend, Hadley, but she lived in Maine. They

would probably never get to meet in person since there was

no way Ruby was getting on one of those terrifying planes

and Hadley didn’t like planes, either. So, she was pretty

sure talking to toys was her destiny.

Walking around her apartment, Ruby sighed. She had

applied for membership at a club that had a huge Littles’

area with tons of toys and play space. She’d even gotten

her approval email over a month before, but she still hadn’t

gone. Socializing with others wasn’t exactly something she

was good at. At least, that’s what her parents told her. It

was one of the reasons they didn’t allow her to work, and

only let her go to school online. God forbid she embarrass

them or their family name with her awkwardness.

But maybe if she went to the club in Little Space, she’d

be better at socializing. Maybe she could even make some

actual Little friends and then she could invite them over for

a play date.

Ha!

Wishful thinking. Every time she thought she’d made a

new friend, they always stopped talking to her after a few

weeks. One of them told her she was too needy, which had

really stung since her parents had been telling her that all

her life. After being hurt so many times by people she

thought were her friends, Ruby had stopped trying to make

new ones. What was the point?

Opening the email app on her phone, she stared at the

acceptance email for The Playground. If she went, she

would at least be around other Littles and Bigs. She could

watch and observe while playing with toys and then when she came home afterward, she could fantasize about

everything she saw while using her vibrator.

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