The clerk's name was Rachel. I didn't learn that until the third or fourth time we met - that is, met with purpose. She mentioned as I was about to leave that she felt like a coffee and I suggested I could bring her one. "Don't be silly," she said. "I'll come."
"Can you just leave the store unattended like that?" I asked.
She winked and said, "You and I have left the store unattended a lot lately."
We walked a block and a half up the street to Piper's Cafe, where she ordered a latte, and I an earl grey. When the barista asked for our names for the cups, the clerk was forced to betray herself as Rachel. I had no predictions, but I thought it suited her perfectly. Walking her back to work, she suggested broadening our radius.
"Since we know each other's names now, I guess we can be friends."
I laughed. "As opposed to?"
"Clerk and greeting card buyer," she shrugged.
"I always leave a satisfied customer."
Rachel got my drift. I'd been inside her many times and in many ways. She mentioned a small get together she was having that Friday. Just a few friends at her apartment, meeting to welcome home Annie, who'd been working for the better part of the year as a hospitality rep for a cruise line.
"Annie's my oldest friend," said Rachel. "No secrets."
"Have you told her about me?" I asked. It felt a bit self-centred, but why otherwise mention secrets?
"Not yet," Rachel winked. "But you understand I'll have to."
I smiled.
"It'll be much easier to tell the story if she can put a face to the..." she let her sentence trail off and very subtly gestured with her head toward my belt.
It didn't even occur to me to properly dissect a comment like that. Rachel the clerk still remained in a default state of influence over me. When we arrived back at the Paper Company entrance, she gave me her address and told me to come for eight on Friday. "Bring your friend Jane if you want." I didn't verbally commit either way, but I knew instantly that I would not be bringing Jane. Just because Rachel told Annie everything, didn't mean I had to divulge my wondrous on-going tryst to Jane, who I cared for, but might well have disapproved.
Friday couldn't come fast enough. It's not even that I was anticipating anything specific, much less naughty. I was brimming with excitement over getting to see inside Rachel's world. What would her apartment be like? Probably bright and bohemian and full of waxy leaves. I had this vision of her answering the door with rosé in hand, and she's wearing this straight little dress, white with a timeless blue floral pattern. And her sweet, ash-coloured hair is loosely curled, in a special way like she would never do for a shift at the shop. And she's barefoot. Admittedly, I was intimidated to meet her friends, presuming they were erudite and artsy. And Annie was probably due to grill me, and oh god, what if Rachel's got an ex-boyfriend there - some guy she'd flung around with, and they're cool now, and still share all their friends, but he might size me up. None of that overshadowed my enthusiasm, but it was present in my mind. I brought a Cabernet, the selection of which was a bit overwhelming, and I showed up a cool thirty-five minutes late.
Rachel answered the door looking nothing like my vision. Better, of course. Her party dress was light pink, and had a fringe that just barely fell beyond the too-short threshold. She had different make-up than usual. Evening shades, a bit smokey round the eyes, and she wore little hoop earrings. Her face lit up radiant when she saw me, and she showed her teeth with a giddy smile before putting her arms around me and kissing my cheek. She ushered me in and announced me to the small crowd in the living room. I gave an awkward wave and quickly went to work scanning and logging the personnel, though Rachel didn't give me much of a chance. I counted just four others; two on the couch clearly forming a couple, a guy our age, and a girl too. She had to be Annie.
Rachel took my hand and pulled me to the kitchen. When we were hidden behind a wall, she tugged at the front of my shirt and brought me down for a proper kiss. I smiled, instantly at ease. "Drink?" she asked. I said sure. She pointed at the red wine still in my grip, and clarified, "I'm having white." I said that was fine, and she turned to fetch a cup. The cabinet was stacked bottom to top with glassware and anything from the lower shelves would have been fine, but Rachel made a point of reaching high up. I was reminded of the first time she and I were alone together in a back room, when removing items from shelves had instigated an exhilarating session of mutual pleasure. I stood back and watched her go onto the tips of her toes. Her stretch shifted her dress and rose its fringe a few inches upward, exposing the under-curve of her left butt cheek, and just the faintest lines of the lacy white fabric that intersected her. Normally I'd recognize this for what it was: an invitation to meet her from behind, pull the dress a little higher, and her panties either down or to the side. With her friends a room away, of course I had to resist, but there's no question Rachel wanted me thinking about it.
We took our wine into the living room and Rachel made introductions. The two on the couch were Jessie and Craig, who were married and each more attractive than the other. The other dude was called Nick. He shook my hand and seemed friendly if quiet. And then there was Annie. Rachel's oldest friend was thin and on the taller side. She had dark hair, and it was reddish but in a rich deliberate sort of way. She had these minimalist tattoos around her wrists and one behind an ear. They were hard to make out; just grey lines and characters. Annie's dress was burgundy to match her hair, but for its darkness, it was summery nonetheless. I was surprised by her appearance, honestly. I'm not sure why. But there was no denying to any rational person, Annie was hot beyond description, and when she said "So nice to meet you," she winked at me, making her all the more so.
To my relief, small talk had been exhausted during my tardiness. I took a seat at the open-most end of the coffee table and Rachel sat opposite me next to Annie. They sat quite the same, cross-legged and otherwise relaxed, but their looks were different; Rachel porcelain and angelic, Annie mysterious with pink cheeks and a coy, withholding smirk.
Jessie explained we were playing Prompt, which is where a bunch of personal questions get put into a hat and the group takes turns drawing questions and answering them. You have to answer the question, but you can use as little detail as you want unless someone shouts "Prompt!" and then you have to tell the whole story. But each person only has to do one Prompt so you don't want to waste it if you think that person might have a juicier story later on. I was not familiar with this game and would not have known the tone of the questions, but I missed the submission round anyway. It would all be a surprise.
Jessie drew first. "What is the most public place you've had an orgasm?" She read it frankly but danced her eyebrows on the last word. We all oohed over the risqué start.
Jessie thought for a moment, then shrugged and said, "The zoo!" As curious a prompt as this might have been, I don't think the group would have cashed in on Jessie so early except her husband's reaction bolstered the intrigue. Craig rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. "Oh, Prompt!" yelped Rachel. It turned out Craig knew about the incident at the zoo, but it didn't involve him. Still, he was a good sport through Jessie's telling us all about the time she got fingered by two guys on a school trip, and then had to finish herself off in the restroom.
The game went on for a while, mostly only teasing the imagination through people's monosyllabic responses. The Prompts revealed that Craig did not hate playing the submissive, and that Nick had a childhood crush on his cousin and grew up to learn they weren't actually blood relatives and then he dated her for two years. I think he thought that was dishier than it was. Rachel's turns didn't reveal much. She was clearly skilled in detail conservation. That is, until she pulled the question: Have you ever done anything sexual while at work? As if she knew it was coming, and before Rachel could even nod, Annie said "Prompt," and the two girls started laughing. Obviously this made me nervous. Was Rachel going to involve me in the story? Or worse, was she going to tell a story that didn't involve me?
We all listened intently. "There's this sexy guy who would always come into the store, and I never got to see his whole face because of the mask mandate." It was me, which was a bigger relief than I'm proud to admit. "But then one day, he came in unmasked and, I don't know, I just had to kiss his face." I could feel myself harden as she spoke and I had to sit carefully to hide it. I thought I saw Annie look over at me, and that was all the more intensifying but I guess I knew she probably knew. Rachel went on, "So I lured him into the back office under false pretences and..."
"And?!" urged Annie.
Rachel threw up her hands. "And I got naked and he fucked me in three positions and then I swallowed his cum."
Most of the group cheered as if Rachel had prematurely won the game. But Annie was still unsatisfied. "And?!" she pressed.
Rachel smiled. "Annnd we've kept it up."
The crowd liked this even more. I was sure to laugh and carouse along to show I had a neutral stake in the tale. My smile wasn't performative, of course. I was the Casanova in the hottest story of the night. But then came my final turn. I drew the question: Have you ever had a sexual encounter with someone in the room?
The wine must have kicked in. Still nervous I nodded and, in a nanosecond, Annie said "Prompt" and I froze. The thing is, I had just met everyone in the room except for Rachel and they all knew that. I thought for a moment, and just as I was about to corroborate the previous yarn, Rachel interjected to say, "It was Annie, right?"
Annie got a bit flush and giggled at this. I was so confused and took the interruption as a licence to waffle longer. "Oh come on, you two," said Rachel before brushing it off and adding, "She told me he was an amazing lay and that his dick is like a magic wand." Annie just smiled wide and shook her head, not clearly denying the lie that only she could. The group seemed to take this as enough and I was somehow off the hook.
