The shoe cellar turned out to be a basement room below the glass building. Sara led Grace down a spiral staircase into a room decked out in mostly wood while the light, addictive smell of girl's feet lingered in the air. It was just like a wine cellar with wooden shelves stacked high to the ceiling filled with wooden shoeboxes.
'We have a wide variety of shoes here. Trainers, boots, plimsolls, sandals, crocs and heels. Worn with or without socks, wet or dry by a variety of girls. All the shoes in our collection are either vacuumed or aired. After each wear we take the shoe straight from the girls foot and either immediately seal it in a vacuum bag to lock in the scent, or leave it in an airing cupboard for a bit. As a result vacuumed shoes often have a stronger immediate scent. Aired shoes can often be far more fragrant, however they require reactivation so any of those that you choose will need to be worn by a girl to fully unlock their smell.'
With the je-ne-sais-quoi of an experienced sommelier or a cheese waiter Sara selected a box from the shelf and brought the box in front of Grace who was getting wet by the idea of the whole thing. She opened the box and started rattling off stats.
'Thirty days of wear, different girls, size 5, sockless, dry, vacuum sealed, trainer'
She pulled out a blue trainer wrapped in clear plastic and held it up to Grace's face. The smell hit her like a truck. It was as if it had just been taken off of a girl's sweaty foot.
Grace was reminded of the chauffeur's scentless shoes.
'Do you have any unbelievably clean smelling shoes?' She asked
Sara produced a box with a vacuumed pair of pink trainers in them as an athletic girl in leggings and a crop-top walked into the room. She had a name tag on it that said 'Esther'
'I've gone barefoot in this shoe 150 times and vacuumed them after each wear' Esther said, almost proudly unzipping the seal.
Grace picked up the shoe and inhaled deeply. Somehow, after so many wears and so much of Esther's sweat soaking into it, it still smelled pristine. She motioned for Esther to take off the shoes she was wearing and lifted Esther's foot to her nose. It smelled fairly sterile. As if in a challenge Grace handed Esther both shoes and said 'Run 10k in these and then let me smell them'. Esther nodded and slid the shoes on to her bare feet.
Now Grace wanted the opposite. She explained that she really liked the idea of on-the-surface bad smelling shoes that became hot through the knowledge that a girl had made them. Sara nodded and selected another pair of trainers.
'Aired, twenty days of wear, all worn by Erica, wet socks, trainer'. As if summoned by her name a beautiful naked filipino woman came in through the wings as Sara let Grace smell the shoe. The smell was faintly musty but came with the hotness of knowing that these were the intimate smells of a gorgeous woman.
Grace could tell, with a bit of wear they would smell amazing. She nodded when Sara asked if she wanted Erica to wear them to reactivate the smell. Erica first dipped her socks into a small water channel in the floor and then slipped the shoes back on.
'And do you have any shoes worn by fat girls?' Grace asked.