Afraid to find them still locked, she inspected her ankles. And when she felt how stiff and straight they still were, she could barely keep her curses quiet to not wake up Stephen. Feeling incredibly humiliated, she had to crawl to the bathroom on hands and knees.
Without her shoes to stand on, Melissa simply knelt down in the bathtub and turned on the showerhead to wash herself.
After she'd dried off, she sat down in front of the mirror and started to apply her makeup. She sighed deeply as she saw how much she'd need today.
The bags under her eyes were really bad, so they needed lots of foundation and concealer, which meant that the rest of her skin also needed more to balance it out. With the extra foundation, her face always looked a bit like a mask, so she put on some extra contouring to bring back the shape to her features. The deep contouring might look a bit unprofessional in broad daylight, but if she combined it with a deeper shade of red and a ticker line of black on her lips and eyelids, it looked perfect for a good night clubbing.
Of course today was just a normal day at work, so she held back and didn't put any fake eyelashes on, she just curled her own and applied some mascara to them. As a reward for her self-restraint, she applied a generous amount of highlighter on her nose bridge and cheek bones. As she wouldn't have much time for retouching at work, she covered herself in setting spray and admired herself in the mirror. Maybe she'd gone a bit overboard today, but since it had taken an hour to apply everything, there was no time to change it now. And although it wasn't her most professional look, nobody could deny that she looked absolutely stunning, sexy even.
Melissa crawled back to her heels and fastened them around her feet. Now she was able to stand up and pick her outfit of today. A white blouse and a black skirt and blazer like always, but feeling kinky after her sexy make-over, she picked out a shorter skirt than yesterday. She felt like her hips were still too skinny, but at least this skirt hugged the little curves she had a little tighter.
During breakfast, Stephen was way too hurried to notice her makeup or change of skirt, but as soon as she arrived at work, she immediately started receiving weird looks of both the men and women on her department. There were some comments about her hair and heels again, but nobody, not even Nathalie, said anything about the thick layers of makeup on her face. They just stared.
At lunchtime, Nathalie had asked her if she was feeling okay. She'd offered to join her for the hairdresser again, but although Melissa had wanted to tell her meddlesome colleague to just leave her alone, she held back her annoyance, thanked Nathalie for the offer, and politely declined.
And now she was standing in front of the hair salon again. She'd been standing here for over half an hour and people were probably starting to think she was crazy. The longer she stared at herself in the reflective windows, the harder it was to say goodbye to her hair. Maybe it looked fake, maybe it wasn't professional, but somehow she couldn't imagine herself with any other coupe.
Finally, she decided not to go today. She could tell everybody that they had been too busy for her. Yes, that was it. She'd forgotten to make an appointment, and then there hadn't been any place for her.
Melissa smiled and continued walking back to her car. During her walk, she thought she felt some men and women stare at her, or maybe that could be her imagination? Maybe she could sway a bit less with her hips? No, that only made walking harder. And the high heels already took so much of her concentration. Thinking about other stuff than just getting to her car made her head hurt.
That evening, her sex with Stephen felt again surface-level and unsatisfying. When Stephen finally fell asleep she slipped out of bed and crawled back to the bathroom. She sat down on the toilet and tried to reach that throbbing need inside her, but as she realised the spot was just out of reach, she held back a curse and sighed deeply.
She didn't forget to rub the layers of makeup from her face. And tired and horny, she crawled back to bed and fell down next to her already snoring husband. Annoyed that she'd have to reapply everything all over again tomorrow, she set her alarm an hour early so that she'd have enough time to do her make-up, and let herself fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Or so she thought.
