[Author's note: you can read Click and Collect: Hugh's Wrapped for the back-story, but in short: Beth has a secret packaging fetish at her husband's expense]
We didn't take the Harbinger's company van, that would have been too much, but we were wearing the uniforms, stuffed in the front of Hayley's car in the summer heat, without aircon.
"How do you cool down in this thing?" I asked.
"Wind the window down."
"Are you thinking of getting the aircon fixed?"
"Winding the window down's way cheaper. My boss doesn't pay me enough to get the aircon fixed."
Hayley glanced at me from the driver's seat, a mocking smile on her lovely face. She rolled her window down and the wind blew strands of her long auburn hair across her face.
"Even with the money you make on the side?"
"Even with the money I make on the side," she confirmed. "Talking of which."
We'd been discussing this recently, the idea of going fifty-fifty on the extra-curricular services we offered our special customers. I'd already decided that it was fair, but I couldn't just cave in. I was her boss after all.
"Let's reappraise your performance after this service call."
"That's not a yes."
"It's not a no."
In truth, we were working well together. There were certain things that we could offer as a team that I couldn't offer on my own, and this call was going to prove that point. I heard Hayley sigh.
"Just make sure you read the directions out. They live in that suburban maze that's all circuits and roundabouts and avenues. I always get lost going in there. It's like the freaking Twilight Zone, but with coffee shops."
---
We pulled up outside a neat, white two-storey house about twenty minutes later. The front lawn was well-kept, surrounded by manicured hedges. Hayley stepped out of the car and slid her high heels on. I grabbed my bag from the back seat and followed her up the sandstone path to the front door, watching the way her beautifully-shaped bottom moved in the regulation-length store skirt. I knocked on the door.
"Gardeners," she said, looking around the front. "No way the owner would take the time to do this much work outside."
"That's judgemental."
"Tom, she even outsourced her own husband to us."
"Fair point."
Just then the door opened to reveal a pretty woman in her mid-thirties, blonde hair tucked behind her ears. She wore a soft, white summer dress with buttons running down the front. The way it draped around her breasts and thighs gave the suggestion of a superb body underneath. She was barefoot.
"Bethany," I said, "Hi. Tom and Hayley from the store. I believe you requested a service call. Trouble with an appliance?"
Hayley glanced over her shoulder, and I could hear sounds from within: male and female voices.
"Have we come at a bad time? You did specify four o'clock."
Bethany smiled warmly. "It's the perfect time. Please, do come in."
She stood to one side and we entered the house, following her down a long, white-painted hallway.
"Very nice," I commented.
"We designed the place ourselves. My husband got a good bonus a few years running, so we decided to put it into the house," she said, conversationally, "He's very good at his job. And he does appreciate how I run the house."
Bethany led us to the back of the house into an open-plan living space with wide bi-fold doors out into an extensive garden. I could see a dozen people on the back lawn.
"We're having a barbeque. Such nice weather, we need to make the most of it."
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hayley give me a nervous glance. I shared her concern.
"Are you sure this is a good time for a service call?"
"Absolutely. Here."
Bethany stood in the open kitchen area at the large island benchtop. I could see bowls of salad and trays of condiments set out, next to glasses for drinks. There was a large silver plate piled with raw steak. Bethany beckoned me around to her side of the island.
At that moment, a voice called out from the patio, and I looked up to see a woman walking in from the grass with a toddler in tow.
"He's been in the dirt," the woman said, "Where...?"
Bethany laughed and pointed back the way we had come in. "Second door on the left. You'll find clean towels under the sink."
I noticed that as she talked to the other woman, she leaned close to the island, pressing her thighs up against the cupboard doors. Once the woman was gone, Bethany stepped back and pulled on the cupboard handles. The doors opened to reveal a large, five-pointed shape. It took me a moment to realise that the shape was actually human.
Secreted inside the kitchen cupboard was a man's torso, wrapped in shiny layers of plastic. The arms were missing and the legs only came down to the knees. Where the head should have been was a black, featureless cone with a pipe emerging from the front. The pipe snaked upwards to a clip on the inside of the door. The only other distinguishing feature of the torso was a black rubber dildo hanging in the space between the figure's legs.
Casually, Bethany unhooked the end of the pipe from its clip and placed her thumb over the end. She watched idly as the torso began to wriggle and heave. I watched the shrink-wrapped shape buck and could now make out arms and legs behind the torso, folded back tightly and bound together. There appeared to be a steel pole mounted vertically behind the shape, to which it was attached at neck and waist level, keeping it upright. After a few moments, Bethany removed her thumb and the torso contracted and expanded, sucking air. I noticed that the dildo was now pointing upwards.
I exchanged glances with Hayley. She stepped past me to appraise the bound figure in the cupboard.
"Could you start by telling us the problems you've been having with the appliance?" she asked.
"It's the cleaning cycle. It's sometimes hard to get the expected level of finish."
Hayley nodded thoughtfully. I had no idea what she was making of this situation.
