[Author's note: Carine, desperate to keep her modelling career afloat, has taken a very unusual job. She's agreed to become a suspended-animation living mannequin in a high-end fashion boutique. Carine wanted the exposure and the fame... but something has gone wrong. Instead of six months passing in the blink of an eye and finding herself famous, she's frozen in whatever position and clothing she's been posed, able to see and hear everything, trapped on display]
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Walker clicked on her high heels out of the boutique, on her way to her girls' lunch, passing the display window. She gave Carine a little look.
"Thank God for that," Magda murmured under her breath. "Hello, Sir."
It took Carine a few seconds to register that Magda was having a conversation behind her on the phone.
"Yes, she just left. Uh huh. I'm going to do it at closing time. I've worked out the camera angles."
There was a reply, too soft for Carine to catch the words. But, she recognised the man's voice: Mr. Terrin, Walker's ex-husband.
"I'll tell you what I think, Sir. I think she's hanging on by her fingernails. She's going to come back from her long girls' lunch half cut, and I'll give her the weekly sales figures."
Magda paused while Mr. Terrin spoke.
"Yeah. Then, I put on the show. She'll only need a little nudge. I just push her over the ledge."
Carine heard tinny laughter, then replied, "I'm gonna do it for you, Daddy. I'm your babygirl."
Magda walked away, leaving Carine's thoughts churning. The dark-haired store manager was laying a trap, and Carine couldn't do anything about it. Frozen in position in her little bikini, she had no way of warning Walker of her ex-husband's treachery.
---
Walker returned at closing time, looking a little worse for wear, wobbling in her high heels as she entered the boutique. Magda was in the display window, lowering the blind to cut Carine off from the dribs and drabs of shoppers making their way to the exits. She turned as her boss approached.
"Nice lunch?" she asked, brightly.
"Wonderful. Nice to just... to unwind."
Walker was slurring her words slightly. Magda's smile intensified. "I sent you through the sales report, did you take a look?"
"Not yet. I was going to leave that to tomorrow."
"You probably want to read it."
Walker stepped into view. Carine watched her beautiful face settle into a careworn expression as she read the figures on her phone, the bubble of her long lunch popping as she was forced back to the reality of her predicament.
"I don't understand," she muttered. "We've been so busy. There should have been an uplift."
Magda's smile hardened fractionally. "It's the margin. We're making sales, but it's the discount racks. Returns are still high, they're eating away at everything."
"I don't see the returns."
"I do. I'm the one who deals with them, so that you don't have to. It's what you pay me for."
Walker seemed to shrink, staring at the little screen in her hand. "I thought the summer range... I thought...."
She indicated Carine in her little red bikini.
"Everyone came to look at her, Magda. I thought it was working."
"Guys came to look. She's quite a sight." Magda shifted uneasily. "Which gave me an idea."
Walker looked up at her, frowning. Beneath the careful make-up, her cheeks were hollower now than when Carine had first met her, lips thinner, eyes lacking the same sparkle. It broke Carine's heart to see what Magda was doing to the beautiful woman in front of her, colluding with Walker's ex-husband to run the boutique into the ground.
"Maybe Mr. Terrin's right," Magda offered carefully. "Maybe it's time to cash up. The brand is still worth a lot. You've still got your reputation."
Walker shook her head slowly. "And do what? Be consultant designer as he outsources to some fast fashion agency? And then?"
"You'd be free. You could do whatever you wanted."
"I am, Magda. I'm doing what I always wanted. It's always worked, up to now. I'm... I'm out of ideas."
Magda closed the gap to her boss, eyes glinting. Carine wanted to move, to catch Walker's attention, anything to warn her.
"The swimwear was a good idea," Magda said. "There's one last thing we could try. I've been thinking."
Magda stared directly at Walker, and then began to unbutton her blouse. Walker's eyes went wide, but she didn't say a word as the diminutive woman undressed herself.
Beneath her work clothes, Magda was wearing stockings, a tiny g-string, and a lacy camisole top, all in black against her olive skin. She stripped slowly, not taking her eyes from Walker's face, fixing her boss with a sultry expression. Finally, she stepped out of her skirt to stand before Walker in her lingerie and high heels.
Magda had played her hand beautifully. Carine felt a tingle deep inside her body as she took in the sight of the dark-haired woman's tantalizing curves. Magda posed for her boss, then came over to Carine, leaning on the frozen woman's shoulder.
"What do you think?" Magda asked, breaking the silence. "From swimwear to lingerie. Go from Summer to Bedtime, pose her like this? Can you imagine her looking like this in your front window?"
The inescapability of Carine's predicament hit like a physical blow. Magda was going to put her on display in lingerie for all the world to see and there was nothing Carine would be able to do about it. Carine could see the way Walker's attention shifted down Magda's tempting body, the subtle colouring of her cheeks. Magda arched herself subtly, putting her breasts on display for her boss, tracing a hand over her hip and down to her stocking top.
"Am I painting the picture, boss?"
Magda crossed over to Walker, stopping inches from her. She smiled sweetly, like she understood.
"I want to help," she said. "I know I can be hard work, but...."
"But what?"
"I care about you, Walker. I love seeing you smile. Can I help you smile?"
"I... I don't know."
"Do you want to touch me? I'm so soft." Magda pouted delectably. "I'm so wet."
Walker's hand moved almost of its own volition, touching the other woman's neck. Magda wrapped her fingers around Walker's wrist, prising her hand away. Walker frowned.