"This is not a big deal," she said. "Do not make this a big deal."
He raised his eyebrows. "Do we need to talk? Should I call you?"
"What? I'm standing right in front of you."
"I'm just thinking of more alarming ways to start a conversation."
"Shut up. I'm going to wear a pair of very low heels on our walk."
"Whoa. You never wear heels. What's the occasion?"
"I want to learn how to walk in them."
"Why?" Then he figured it out. "Is this about the sex shoes?"
She had worn a pair of wildly impractical heels for him. They had fucked with a sort of unbridled lust that had become sadly rare ever since they had started trying to conceive in earnest. It was an unfortunate side effect of having sex every day for a week straight, month after month.
"It's about acquiring a skill most girls learn sometime in their teens."
"Look, I'm really fine with leaving that in the bedroom. You're not a heels kind of girl. I understand that. I accept it. Besides, they're bad for your feet."
"I'm not planning to become a 'heels kind of girl,' whatever that means," she said, making quote marks with her fingers. "I just want to be not completely bedridden once you put them on me. I'm not into bondage, okay?"
"You really don't have to do this."
"I didn't say I had to. I said I wanted to. Are you going to try to tell me what shoes I'm allowed to wear today?"
When she put it like that. He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay. You're going to wear a very low pair of heels." He paused. "Can I put them on?"
The abrupt pivot must have caught her off guard. She laughed, the tension broken. "If you want. I'll let you see them before you decide."
She went into the closet and came back with a pair of knee-high nylons in one hand and a pair of sensible pumps in the other. They were basically flats. The heels were blocky and maybe 30mm high, hardly the sort of thing that got him excited.
He reached for them, but she pulled them back.
"Where's the romance? When I wear heels for you, I expect the full treatment." She arched one eyebrow, then giggled. Even she couldn't get that out with a straight face.
So he ushered her to the bench by the door. He knelt in front of her. He said, "Please, miss, may I help you with your shoes?"
"You may." She crossed her legs and presented him with one foot.
Lavishing her foot with kisses at every step, he pulled off her slipper and sock, put the knee-high on, then put the shoe on. It took two or three minutes for each foot. By the time he straightened up their initial sillyness had become something more taut.
She lifted her gaze from the very plain shoe on her foot to the definite bulge in his pants, then up to his eyes. "You had a name for these shoes. What did you call them?"
He licked dry lips. "Minnie Mouse shoes."
She extended her leg and nudged his cock with the toe of one shoe. "So how long have you been into Minnie Mouse?"
"It's different when you're wearing them."
"Yeah?"
"They change you." He moved his hands as if physically reaching for the words. "You become...slower. More deliberate." Like a cat stalking her prey. "It's sexy," he concluded lamely.
"I can see that." She smiled creamily, giving him another gentle nudge. "The question is, will anyone else?"
"Uh..." It was one thing to share this moment with her in their own home. The thought of parading down the street at half-mast was like a splash of cold water on his fevered imagination. He twitched backward and his pants deflated.
He glanced back up and caught her smirk. She could play him like an instrument. "Thanks," he said.
"Uh-huh. Come on."
They went for a long walk through the park a few blocks away, wending their way between the trees and talking about this and that. Their workdays, the grocery list, dinner. With both of them now fully remote, this had become their commute, a liminal period to disconnect from work and reconnect to each other.
When they came back, he put away his shoes, hat, and pants. He turned away from the closet to find her sitting at the bench, still wearing her shoes, a shy smile on her face.
"You're plotting something," he said.
"Remember when you said you were happy to leave that stuff in the bedroom?"
"Yeah?"
"What if I wanted you to come over here and help me with my shoes?"
"Oh, yeah, of course." He started toward her, but stopped short at her raised hand.
She licked her lips, took a deep breath, said, "What if I wanted you to crawl over here and ask to help me with my shoes?"
He looked at her, dumbfounded. It wasn't the first time she had joked about making him crawl for her. She had gotten bossier and bossier in the bedroom and to be honest he had loved every moment of it. But he had never done it, much less in their front hallway.
As if entranced, he sank to his knees, crawled the few steps, and kissed her foot. "Please, may I help you with your shoes?"
"You may."
This time after he got the second shoe off, he returned to her bare foot and started kissing it again. She chuckled as he dropped a trail of kisses up to her knee. He cast an glance upward before nudging her legs apart. She shivered as he kissed his way up her inner thighs. He tried to pull her panties aside but they were sensible, full-coverage affairs.
She pushed him away, then slid them off herself, scooting forward on the bench to expose herself to his tongue. "We can't do this every day," she warned, panting a little.
He came up long enough to say, "No, but how about today?"
"Okay, okay, just today." She pulled him back in and held him there.
A mixture of lust and pragmatism (it was a week night) made him go straight for the kill, no fooling around. He felt her clench her legs around his neck, panting more loudly until finally she shuddered and released him.
She pushed him onto his back and reached through the fly of his underwear for his cock. She sank down onto him in one swift stroke. He pulled her down onto his lips and they found their rhythm with the deftness of long practice. He came as swiftly as if they hadn't done it the entire previous week.
They cuddled for a few minutes before he asked, "What were our chances today?"
She checked her phone. "3%. Hang on, let me try the other app. Eh, 6%."
"Well, it was fun."
"Yeah, it was." She kissed him. "Seriously, though, we can't do this every day."
"You say this as if I initiated any of it."
"You definitely initiated."
"I was entrapped."
"Whatever. Make me dinner."
He gestured at his crotch and waggled his eyebrows at her.
"Yeah? That's so sweet. Can we grill it?"
He could only laugh helplessly, bested yet again.
Indeed, the sex did not become part of their commute, although her Minnie Mouse shoes did. He started to look forward to kneeling in front of her at the end of each day and asking to help her with her shoes.
It lasted only a couple of weeks before she shook her head and said, "Not those today."
"Oh, okay," he said, trying not to seem too disappointed.
She saw through it, of course. "Is my little boy sad he doesn't get his special time today?"
He shrugged, unable to meet her eyes. "It was fun while it lasted." He started to climb to his feet.
"You give up too easily." She pointed into the closet. "Get me the box."
There was a box he'd never seen before. He brought it back.
"Graduation day," she announced, opening the box. Inside were a pair of slightly higher heels, maybe 60mm or 70mm. "Remember how you fantasized about licking and sucking my shoes all over, even the heels and soles?"
He nodded, uncertain where this was going.
"These are brand new," she said, looking at him meaningfully. "Never been worn. So what we could do instead of a walk today is have you wipe them down with some alcohol or whatever you need to feel comfortable---"
"Wow," he said, stunned by the thought she had put into this. Of course, she knew he was a germophobe.
"Good wow, or bad wow?"
"Good wow. Very good wow." He pulled her into an enthusiastic kiss before hurrying away to wipe the shoes down.
She was in the bathroom when he finished, adjusting her makeup from professional Zoom call to something more appropriate for a night out. He fidgeted awkwardly at the doorway, not wanting to hurry her but also feeling each second stretch into apparent days.
At last, he asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Not unless you want to lay out some clothes for me."
"Okay!" He went into the bedroom.
After a moment, she shouted after him, "Nothing too slutty!" sounding as if she were already regretting it.
"Slutty is as slutty does!" he shot back. He had no idea what that meant and with any luck she wouldn't either.
She didn't have anything terribly out there anyway and most of it was brightly colored. He didn't trust himself to match colors. Instead, he pulled out a crisp white blouse, a high-waisted black A-line skirt, and a pair of smoky pantyhose.
He thought about how bossy she'd been getting recently and added her gloves. They were just regular winter gloves, but they were black leather and he thought they lent a certain edge to the outfit.
After a moment's hesitation, he stripped off his shirt and knelt by the closet to wait for her.
She came in wearing only her bra and panties, a matching lacy black set. Clearly premeditated. "All right, let's see what abomination---" Her voice trailed off as she rounded the corner and caught sight of him.