After leaving the plaza where she had done her unusually daring photoshoot, Vivian continued onto her next destination. Despite the danger she had just been through, she was currently feeling a bit exhilarated. If she could survive what she had just done and felt good about it, what she had planned now would be nothing!
She made her way to a trendy department store she had picked out, and made her way to the customer service desk. It certainly wasn't peak hours, which meant the middle-aged lady sitting there had nothing better to do than answer her questions.
'Remember, Viv, you're dressed to kill today,' she said to herself as she walked up. 'And she has no idea you aren't wearing panties under that skirt. That's your naughty little secret, so own it!' She took a deep breath to gather her courage.
"How can I help you," the woman greeted her with what sounded like false enthusiasm.
"Hi, good morning! My name's Vivian Black. I'm just wondering if your store is hiring right now."
"Oh... let me see... I don't think we are, but feel free to check back later. New spots do open up."
"I will, thanks, but is there any way I could talk to the manager of the store, or whoever would be in charge of new hires? As you can probably see, I take fashion very seriously, and I have a presence that would be perfect for sales! If you put me in the clothing department, I can guarantee you I'd sell all your best items!"
"All right, let me ask," she agreed.
But after a very brief conversation, she hung up the phone and said, "Sorry we aren't hiring."
"Oh... I was hoping I could talk to him myself. There's one other thing: I'm a fashion influencer on Instagram, and if you don't have room for me full time, I'd be happy to promote some of your store to my followers for a fair commission. Please, if you could call him back, this could be a great opportunity!"
She had a confused look on her face. "I don't think that's something we do here. We don't really handle out-of-store advertising. That would be corporate."
Vivian wasn't quite ready to give up. "Okay thank you, but if you could get me in touch with... uhh..."
She paused, as she felt her nipples being tweaked inside her blouse. It felt like delicate, invisible fingers were pinching them from the sides and gently twisting and tugging on them. She dared to look down, and out of the corner of her eye, and could see the smallest bit of movement, as if her nipples were wiggling around on their own. Quickly, she crossed her arms across her chest before the woman noticed, but decided that was too defensive of a posture, so she lowered one arm, while grabbing her upper arm with the one she left up. Maybe that was a little more natural.
"I mean..." she stammered, as she tried her best to ignore such a distraction, "if you could put me through to someone who is in charge of that, because... you know... it would be such a great opportunity for your company to... (gasp!)"
"Ma'am, are you all right?"
"Yeah! Sorry, must be allergies. One of those sneezes that won't come out!"
"Oh, don't I know all about that! That time of year. But, sorry, no, I really don't know who you should talk to about that. Feel free to take an application, though. We'll be sure to look at it when we have an opening."
"Uh, thank you for your time. Have a wonderful day."
Vivian grabbed an application with her free hand, and as quickly as she could, she turned and hurried out of the store before she lost all control of her composure.
"Abigail!" she cursed in the quietest voice she could manage. "Why are you doing that? Do you have any idea how distracting that is?"
"Oh, sorry, should I not have been playing with you just then? Your nipples seemed to like that," the voice in her head answered.
"Hey, you were the one complaining about my income situation! I'm trying to find work, and I would have had that if I could have concentrated!"
"Oh, right. You had complete control of that conversation," she answered, sarcastically.
"Why don't you leave finding a job in this century to people actually from this century? I know what I'm doing!"
"I thought you wanted to be famous. So why would you want to be some worker-bee at this gigantic general store?"
"Because I need money, okay?"
"I told you, I can help you with..."
"I ALRADY SAID NO TO THAT!!!"
...
Vivian made her way through several other stores, including more clothing stores and a cosmetics store, but had no more luck besides a small stack of blank applications. Next, she tried inside a locally owned coffee shop, and Abigail actually seemed pleased, for once.
"Now there's a good opportunity if you want to make the social rounds! Coffee houses are where enterprising people meet up to find business partners... or a pretty woman like you!"
"You're being sarcastic again, aren't you?"
"Actually, not this time. Most ladies of the night will try to solicit for clients at taverns, as anyone would expect. But I'm telling you, some of the highest paying customers I ever got I met at coffee houses. And even if you're not looking for that kind of work, this will still be a great place to get your name out there, or just keep your ear to the ground!"
But Abigail's excitement died down as soon as they entered. All of the patrons inside were staring at their phones or laptops, and there were few conversations going on about subjects other than coffee orders.
"What are these people even doing here? There's nothing going on at all!"
"Probably just using the Wi-Fi. People don't go to coffee shops to commission sailing ships or whatever anymore. They have the internet for that, like I showed you this morning."
This time, Abigail actually left her alone as she did her best to present herself. But, once again, they weren't hiring, and Vivian left with nothing more than a tall americano with cream.
"There's another one! And it looks popular!" Abigail pointed out as they passed a Starbucks.
"Oh... a Starbucks?" she answered, nervously. "Sorry, but I can't, um..." Vivian cut herself off mid sentece, unsure of how much she wanted Abigail to know.
"Can't what?"
"I mean... you don't want to work at a major corporate chain like that. Ethical reasons. The local businesses are much more honest in how they operate."
"I see! That's why you were practically groveling for a job at those huge, corporate department stores."
"For the last time, I know what I'm doing!"
That's when she felt something hit the sidewalk at her feet. She looked down and saw her wallet had fallen out of her purse. There was no way it had done that on its own.
"Oops! Better bend over and pick that up before some charlatan makes off with it!"
"God dammit..." she muttered under her breath, and looked around.
The sidewalk was plenty crowded. There would be no way to do this unseen. Better to do it quickly and be done with it. Rather than bending over, she squatted down and reached for it. Right as her hand connected with her dropped wallet, the back of her skirt flew up as if moved by an unfelt gust of wind. She was almost certain her bare ass cheeks had been exposed. She stood up as quickly as her legs could lift her, and brushed her skirt back down.
