Christa giggled a little as we walked through the store. "Everyone is staring at you," she whispered conspiratorially.
"Are you sure?" I replied, arching my eyebrows and squeezed her shoulder, "Seems to me you're the one with the most to check out."
She giggled again, "Well maybe it's both of us then."
What was left unsaid was that the reason other shoppers might be paying attention was very different for both of us. For her, the stolen glances could have to do with the halo of loose golden curls that danced around her face as she moved or the extra shimmy-bounce she threw into every step, the best to emphasize her already undeniable curves.
For me, well, I was wearing men's sweats. I was not the "typical" patron of this establishment. Think Pretty Woman if Julia Roberts was dressed like a homeless person instead of costume designer's odd notion of a prostitute.
However, the closer I got to each dirty look shooting shopper, the quicker their stink eyes changed. The Freedom was flooding the air with its scent and I could see, one by one, each customer go glassy eyed and slack jawed.
"God, you smell so good," Christa mumbled despite herself, bringing her hand to her mouth immediately in embarrassment and adding, "Oh...wow...I am SO sorry. That's, like, not okay for me to be saying. I don't know why I just did that."
"Maybe 'cause I do smell good," I suggested, smirking at her mortification, "Now let's get me some clothes."
For the next 20 minutes, I led her around the store, piling wares into her waiting arms. Dresses, skirts, sleeveless shirts, and lingerie soon crested so high she had to peer around them to navigate.
"Hmm, perhaps that's enough for now," I offered and she indicated agreement with a broad smile, "Take me to your changing rooms, Christa!"
With dramatic aplomb, she whisked me past the strings and strings of chunky wooden jewelry, that seemed wildly out of place given the décor, the clientele, and the clothes, and into a large mirror enclosed back octagonal room.
"This is the personal shopper room," she announced.
"We use it for our most...'esteemed'," she paused there and mouthed "Rich," before continuing, "visitors. With all the stuff you chose out there, I think we can pretend you fit the bill. The red button over there calls me back to take what you don't want, bring you new stuff, whatever."
She smiled wide again and turned on her heels to leave. As her hand grasped the gold leaf doorknob, I stopped her with a pout, "Wouldn't you stay with an esteemed visitor?"
"Umm, well," she hemmed and hawed, blushing, "If they ask, I guess. Honestly, I'm sort of the junior salesgirl here. I've never really had a chance to—"
I waved off her humility, requesting, "That's enough of that. Your chance is today. Now close that door and help me get sexy."
"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem," she blurted, again bringing her hand to her mouth in surprise at her forwardness, "I mean..."
This time she trailed off, both as I clearly did not care and knowing there was almost no means to explain the exclamation away.
I pulled off the sweatshirt and watched from the corner of my eye as she attempted to look, but not look, at my breasts. I pinched the nipples slightly and watched her eyes go wide. Shrugging, I explained, "Most of these I won't be bothering with a bra for so might as well get an accurate idea how much the nipples will show, right?"
"I...umm...that makes sense, I guess," she responded, confusion slipping into a sleepy grin.
"Because every dress looks better with a little raised nipple action, right?" I teased. She looked away, smiled, and blushed.
"Okay, Christa, grab me the purple dress and bring it on over here and while I try it on, I want to know all about you."
After handing me the dress, she sat back down on the wooden bench that lined the mirrored walls and got off three words before interrupting herself, "Well I am—Oh my gosh, is that a butterfly?!"
I glanced about for a moment before realizing her eyes were fixed between my legs. I looked down and sure enough there was a perfectly styled butterfly shaved into the hair leading to the valley between my legs. If I was capable of being the real me at the moment, I would've giggled myself silly.
See, a few years back, I got the bright idea that I should make a new design in my hair every few weeks that summer. I would start with large designs and go progressively smaller as they summer went. I can't remember if I butterfly was first, but it was definitely early on and it was definitely a disaster. It didn't resemble a butterfly so much as it looked like I had localized mange. Bowing to my lack of razor ability, I shaved the remainder into the thin rectangle that became my hair design of choice until, well, that moment. The Freedom apparently found that distant disappointment and "fixed it." But it would not let me laugh about it.
"Yup," I affirmed, a distinct—if wholly fake—memory of just doing it a few days earlier flooded my consciousness, "I like to make things interesting for any and all visitors."
Christa got off the bench and walked toward me. Without asking, she reached out and ran her fingers over it, feeling each the varying levels of hair that had made the design possible. Distantly she commented, "I just keep it hairless...this is much cooler though."
Her fingers trailed off, just glancing over my bare mons before pulled back her hand quickly. "Sorry," she demurred, "That's a bit of a boundary violation there."
"Hey, I wouldn't have done it if I didn't want it to get attention, right?" I kidded and saw her visibly relax once more. Instead of sitting back down, she hung close to me as I slipped into the dress.
"So about me," she said, returning to the earlier question, "Umm...let's see...well, I'm Christa. I'm working here to save up some many so I can go to that makeup and hair design school, you know the one?"
I did not but nodded anyway. In contrast to the more aggressive seduction of Mark, The Freedom was guiding me through a slow, comforting play here.
"Parents can't help you?" I asked, turning my back to her so she could zip me up.
"No, we're...not in a great place right now."
"Oh?" I prompted.
She nodded and explained how she was born and raised in a small town that I'd certainly never heard of in the southern tip of our state, how her parents did not see the need for her to go to college because they thought she should just take over the bookkeeping at the family's shoe store, relieving her mother, just like her brother had relieved their father as head salesman a few years earlier. She told them no multiple times, they kept saying they'd consider her hopes, kept right on not doing so, and so on. Finally, three days before college applications were starting to be due, the parents put their foot down, everyone blew up at one another, and Christa went to live with a friend. She got accepted a few places but when she found out what she need to take out in loans, she decided to just move up here and work instead. Finally, two years later, she decided she had wasted enough time and started to save more earnestly, eyeing that beauty school.
"It's not the best," she admitted, with a resigned shrug that looked almost comically on her youthful, firm, bouncy body, "But it beats doing math all day in my stupid hometown."
I spun around, the hem rising up and out, buoyed by centrifugal force.
I requested her opinion.
"It looks great. You'll probably want some underwear though if you plan to spin like that a lot so people can't see your..." she trailed off, blushing fiercely once more.
"My pussy?" I offered, playful smile curling at the corners of my mouth.
She broke into a big grin and nodded.
"Huh," I joked, "I rather thought that that was part of its charm."