On the weekend attending hours at the library were much shorter, however, Ms. Stuart offered overtime if Christie and David used the extra time to do some clearing up. Today, the plan was to clear all of the old furniture out of the old spare room. Christie mentioned that she didn't have any appropriate shoes for the job- all of them were open toed or high heeled, if not both.
"Really?" David asked. "Don't you even have some sneakers for exercising?"
"Can't you guess?" Christie laughed. "I exercise barefoot!"
"I should have," David remarked. "Do you have anything you like to have on your feet?"
"Yeah- your lips!" Christie grinned.
"That's not quite what I meant," said David. "What about second favourite?"
"Your tongue?"
"Okay, never mind," David chuckled. They decided to go shoe shopping on morning break so Christie could break the new shoes in over the day. Ms. Stuart agreed to give them some extra break time since it was such a slow day, so within a few hours they had headed to the nearest shoe store.
"Do you need any help?" A retailer asked.
"Nah, my boyfriend'll help me," Christie replied. David swelled inside as he realised this was the first time Christie had referred to him as her boyfriend. Not only that, but the way she'd said it so casually left a big impact on him. Christie simply started walking along the shelves, with no idea of any significance as to what she'd said. David laughed inwardly at himself and went to help find a pair of shoes for Christie's big feet.
It turned out to be easier said than done. Deciding early that boots would be overkill, they gathered the few sneakers and leather shoes in size 13 and up they could find. Once Christie had stripped off her sandals and started trying pairs on, though, they found that most of the women's shoes were too small and the men's too wide. Eventually with even their extended time running out she decided one pair was good enough. They hurried back to the library and Christie changed into the shoes inside. Then she busied herself over the next few hours sorting books and trying to get used to the shoes.
"How are the shoes going?" David asked.
"I feel like my feet are gonna fall off," Christie groaned. She quickly sat down, unlaced her shoes and yanked them off. "These are worse than my heels when we first met!"
David watched her toes alternately clench and spread. "You could try wearing socks..."
"You wouldn't be suggesting that if you knew how much worse this smell could get," Christie replied. "Still though, could you help me out real quick?" Looking around and seeing no one in their secluded corner, David sat down and took Christie's feet. The soles were bright pink and had little beads of sweat running down them. He didn't think the smell was too bad; there was just a slight scent mixed with a hint of leather, to be expected from wearing shoes without socks. As he began to lick, he noted that her salty sweat did taste rather nice. Christie, for her part, just sat with her hands clamped over her mouth, trying to keep quiet as her ultra-ticklish feet were licked. Soon she had to pull her feet away.
"Better not push our luck too far," she explained. She stood up and picked up her shoes. "I don't want to put them back on..." she sighed.
"You can't do the moving job barefoot, it's too dangerous," said David. "And your sandals would barely be any better."
"Alright," Christie conceded, "I'll put my sandals back on until it's time for the job, then I'll put up with the shoes." Unfortunately, by the time she and David headed to the park for lunch, her feet were killing her again.
"Those shoes must have worn my feet out already," Christie groaned as they entered the park gate. "That's it, I can't take it anymore!" Resting one hand on David's shoulder, she raised one foot, unstrapped her sandal and tossed it aside before doing the same with her other foot.
"There, much better," she sighed as she wiggled her toes in the grass. As they set out across the park, David noticed Christie was giggling under her breath.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"The grass is tickling my feet," Christie gasped. "My soles getting rubbed raw must have hyper-sensitised them!"
"Are you going to be alright?" David asked.
"Actually," Christie continued, forcing down a titter, "compared to what else my feet have been through today, this is a pleasure." They walked through the flower gardens where the paths were made from bare soil, Christie enjoying the feeling of her soles sinking into the soft dirt. They headed to the area populated by food trucks and carts, Christie quietly giggling again as she stepped back onto the grass. A little girl dropped a huge dollop of ice cream out of her cone and began bawling as her mother dragged her away. Christie was too distracted by the commotion to notice the spill of strawberry ice cream in front of her until she stepped right in it. She gasped as she felt the cool puddle engulf her feet and began to wiggle her toes as the pink goo oozed between them.
"Mmmm..." she moaned. She began to slowly stamp her feet up and down, grinding the soothing ice cream into her soles. Then she remembered she was in public.
"Did anybody notice what I was just doing?" she asked David.
