Jake made it to the furniture store just about fifteen minutes before closing. He was still wearing his coat and tie from work, and he approached the bedding section just as the staff were starting to close down their stations. A strapping young lad in his mid 20's, he wore a ring on his wedding finger, and his left ear sported a small diamond.
He looked for Barbara, the salesperson he'd visited the weekend before when I was looking at mattress/box springs combinations. She was a blond of average height and weight, in her mid- 30s, professional in a lacy pink blouse and dark brown skirt, her stockinged feet were in brown loafers. When he approached, she smiled a greeting that was a little less than complete: "Hi Jake, good to see you again. We're about to close down tonight, so unless you know what you want and would like to place an order, I think we'll have to wait for another time."
"Barbara, I've got a favor to ask you." He looked around anxiously after he spoke.
Her eyebrows furred while her smile lost a click. "Yes?"
"Well, Brenda and I have tried a lot of different bedding options, and I think one of yours is going to meet our needs perfectly. But there's one thing I wasn't able to try out and I wondered if you could help me."
"Yes?"
Jake ran his hand through his hair and looked away nervously, watching the other staff go thought shut down mode. "I think there's three mattresses here we could sleep on, but only one we could Sleep on, if you know what I mean, and I'm not sure which one without trying it out."
"I don't understand you, Jake."
His hand trembled a little and he put it in his pocket. "Well, it's about what we married people do on a bed. . .besides sleep."
It took a moment before her brown eyes widened in realization. "Oh. . .that!" Her hand went to her chest as she felt a rush; her face turned a little red and her breathing got faster. She looked around to see if anybody was close by, and satisfied at their distance, leaned over and whispered: "If your wife could come down, tonight, tomorrow night, I could let you in here to. . .to. . .to try out a couple of options. We'd need a towel to protect the samples, but. . ."
He gasped in relief, and put a hand on her shoulder. "That's a great idea, Barbara, but, Brenda's in Europe for some meetings and I wanted to surprise her when she got back."
The salesperson stood there for a moment, smiling. "Yes? I don't see. . ."
"I was wondering if you would help me. You were so nice last weekend when I stopped by, so spent so much time with me, much more than anybody else, I'm sure, and you know so much about these different mattresses, that I thought. . ."
"I don't know. Nobody's ever asked me to do this before." She took out her calendar, and scanned it for a moment. "My husband's at a dinner meeting, and the kids are with their grandmother. I was going out with the girls for a while tonight."
"I'll make it worth your while, I promise. I'll place and order and give you a huge tip."
"I'm not allowed to take tips, Jake. Let me think about this."
A co-worker came up and pointed at her watch. "We're about to close up. Are you about done, Barb?"
"Just a minute, Trudy. This customer has a special issue to cope with that can't wait and I think I can take care of it."
"We have to lock the doors in five minutes. He can come back tomorrow."
Jake shook his head. "I've got to be out of town the next three days and I need to get this mattress bought tonight. If Barbara could just stay late with me a little bit. . ."
"It's OK, Trudy," Barbara suddenly cut in. "I'll take care of business, I'll lock up. I can do the write up and put it into the system first thing in the morning."
Trudy looked doubtful, but gave in. "OK, Barb. Guess I don't care, and you're trying to make a sale. I'll tell everybody else you're last one here, and you'll have to make sure everything's locked up." Turning on her heel, she walked away, giving a suspicious look over her shoulder.
After a moment, Barbara turned to Jake: "All right, I'll help you try out the mattresses, but I've got to get a towel from homewares. It goes on your ticket, right?"
"Ah, right. After all, what's another ten dollars?"
She smiled at him and turned to perform her task. He took out his iPhone and tapped out a text, humming and tapping his foot excitedly. The show room for the beds was in a back area,out of sight of the store windows. The lights started going out, and he moved toward it, his hips swaying in a joyful little dance as he went.
Barbara was shaking a little as she fetched the towel from the shelf. It had been a long time for her, and he was cute. Deep inside her, a voice was screaming about how strange this was, and she was selling her body to make a sale, but she didn't listen to it.
Returning to her customer, she pulled the tag off the towel, and said: "Which beds were you thinking about?"
He looked surprised for a moment, then started pointing: "This one, this one next to it, and that one over there."
"All right, let's look at this one first. Would you like to be on top, or would you like me on top?"
"Ah, I'll be on top, that's how we usually do it."
"Very good. Right this way."
They settled onto the bed together, and he started stroking her body. She looked at him and said: "This model is very efficient at holding its shape over the years. The inner spring construction is guaranteed to keep its form, giving comfort and support for at least ten years without developing that tell tale dip from laying on it. It's made in the good old USA."
He felt her breast through the material, and said to her: "Don't you think your clothes might get a bit too wrinkled from. . .what we're going to do? Maybe you'd like to take some of them off."
"Oh, I thought we were going to dry hump. But that wouldn't be quite the same, either. Let me make sure the doors are locked." She got up and left quickly, leaving him to lie there and wonder. After a minute, he got up and took off all his clothes except his boxers, and spread the towel out for her to lie on. She came back and was a bit startled at his undress, then she started removing her clothing. She took off her blouse and skirt, then unrolled her panties, leaving everything draped neatly over a nearby chair. "It's safe, everyone's gone. Is this good for now?"