← All confessions · First Timevia Medium 2026-10-21
Holding Hands in the Toy Aisle
Two nervous friends, one 'adult bookstore', and a shopping trip neither of them was ready for.
How it started
Writer Tracey Folly remembers buying her first vibrator almost by accident. A friend had started seeing a man who wasn't exactly delivering, and she decided a battery-powered back-up might be more reliable. She asked Tracey to come along for moral support, and somewhere on the drive over Tracey realised she wanted one too. The store was an 'adult bookstore' with no books in sight: tall shelves, cardboard boxes stacked on low tables and plastic clamshells hanging from metal pegs. Neither woman knew what she was looking for. Both were too shy to touch the boxes in case someone saw them browsing. So they did the only sensible thing two grown women could do in that situation. They held hands, like schoolgirls on a field trip, and walked the aisle together.
Then it happened
The trip was awkward and funny, and it worked. The friends talked each other through the choice, laughed at the sheer range on display, and left with their first toys. Tracey later turned the experience into an essay with a surprisingly practical message about how to pick a first vibrator when you have no idea where to start, and why you shouldn't overthink it.
The morning after
The two friends left with matching paper bags and could not stop giggling in the car park. Neither ever went back to that shop, but the story became legend in their friend group. Years later, Tracey was still getting texts asking which one she'd recommend, and she turned the whole adventure into an essay.