"Guess what?" asked Elsie, the middle-aged clerk with a nose for news as she sidled next to one of her co-workers in the break room, and without waiting for a response continued. "Butch Cassidy is at it again. The new kid that just started last week. Mousy looking with glasses?"
"Karen or something like that?"
"Kari," the catty woman corrected. "Butch had her in my department before. Picked her out pajamas or something like it for her. Shorts and a top because - get this - she's having the kid sleepover at her house tonight. I guess she was going to have this Kari over for dinner and because it's started to snow she conned the girl into staying overnight. No shame. She's old enough to be the kid's mother. Somebody should warn the girl."
"Hey, I mind my own business," replied the woman who was one of the few in the place that would listen to the caustic woman. "The kid isn't a kid. She's at least 18."
"Doesn't look it," Elsie snapped.
"Nobody does when you get as old as us," her associate responded. "Breaks over."
The two women went back to work while the object of Elsie's scorn, 44 year old Trish Cassidy, was checking herself in the mirror of the staff ladies room. Her ruddy pink cheeks were already looking like they had been out in the cold, and after the woman made sure her short strawberry blonde haircut was just right she exited the restroom and went out towards the entrance of the store.
Her new friend Kari Reed was in the process of punching out for the day, and when she saw Trish waiting for her she hurried over to join her.
"Sorry," Kari gasped. "Didn't mean to keep you waiting."
"You didn't babe," Trish replied, and after telling Kari to make sure she was bundled up good, they headed for the employee parking lot way across the way.
"Let me help," Kari said as Trish opened the doors and reached in for the brush.
"Hop in and get out of the snow. I'll be done in seconds," Trish responded, but smiled when Kari stayed out there and even wiped the passenger window with her mitten.
"Must be nice to have a car," Kari sniffed as they got inside the aging Toyota.
"You might think differently after a few minutes in this," Trish laughed. "The heat just starts to kick in when I get home."
"Beats riding the bus," Kari observed. "Especially the way it's coming down. Maybe it will snow so much they will close the store tomorrow."
"Ha! This place isn't school. Since they don't close they don't have to worry about anybody showing up to open the door. One time people worked around the clock because they couldn't drive home it was so bad. Didn't matter if shoppers couldn't drive to get there either. Staff were snoozing in reclining chairs, or so the story goes."
"That must have been funny," Kari said. "That was a good idea of yours for me to stay over. It's getting bad."
"You don't go in until 10 tomorrow right? Me neither. When we get to my place I'll throw our work stuff in the wash so we'll be ready to roll come morning."
"Sounds like a plan," Kari chirped while looking over at the lady who had taken her under her wing at work and had been so sweet to her.
"Just like I promised," Trish announced as she waved her fingers in front of the vent that had just started moving warm air into the car. "We're almost there."
A couple of minutes later Trish pulled into the lot of the apartment complex and took Kari up the path toward her modest one bedroom home, and while the place was no great shakes in her eyes her young friend seemed impressed.
"Really neat," Kari said as she took care not to get snow all over despite Trish telling her not to worry about it. "Warm too. My place is a drafty dump."
"It is warm," Trish agreed as she walked acrodss the room.
"Oh wow!" You have a fireplace!" Kari gushed.
"That's just for special occassions," Trish smiled as she went over and lit a match, tossing it in into the papers and kindling that she had already prepared before leaving for work. "Like tonight."
"Awesome!" Kari declared as she came over and stood in front of what was going to be a roaring fire soon but now was just beginning.
It didn't stop Kari from rubbing her hands together and bouncing from foot to foot, and as Trish looked at the little waif with her eyes wild open in wonder at such a simple thing she reached over and put her arm around the girl. To her great joy, Kari didn't recoil and even leaned into her.
"Time to get this stuff of and get comfortable for the night," Trish said. "Got your new outfit?"
"Right here," Kari announced as she waved her bag, and with that Trish led her into the bedroom.
"Hope they fit," Trish said as she tried not to watch Kari unbutton her store provided blouse after walking over to the bed, her back to Trish while the older woman looked into her drawer for her sleepwear, which was identical to the things she had bought Kari.
"You didn't have to buy this for me," Kari said as the blouse came off the skinny little waif while Trish exhaled quietly.
"It was nothing," Trish said as she watched Kari with her back still to her, holding the blouse up in front of her as Trish sent what she hoped was a telepathic message to her new friend. Take off the bra before you put it on. Please.
And then Kari was reaching back and unhooking the harness, shrugging it off her skinny shoulders as Trish started to unbutton her own top.
"Damn!" Trish said said when there was a knock on the door, causing Kari to turn around a little, her hands cupping her breasts. "Who is out in this weather?"
A minute later Trish was back in the bedroom but Kari had already put the red tank-top and shorts on and was looking at herself in the mirror.
"Ta-da!" Kari chirped as she looked to Trish for approval.
"Looks great! Very seasonal. You would make a great elf," Trish declared as she waved a sheet of paper. "Directions on when to move the cars tomorrow so they can plow."
Trish went back to unbuttoning the blouse, but as she peeled it off Kari skipped out of the bedroom announcing she wanted to see the fire.
"I was hoping you were going to look at me first," Trish said softly as she took her blouse off, wondering whether or not this night would be a disaster.
Trish unhooked her bra, the sensation of having her breasts released from that uncomfortable harness exhilarating, and then after dropping her slacks she looked at her reflection in the mirror.
"You're getting old kiddo," Trish mouthed as she brought her hands up and cupped her full breasts which still looked alright even if they were losing a little firmness, and as she felt her nipples pop out she wondered whether this would be the only attention they would get tonight.
Trish's eyes went down to her waist which was getting a bit thick but still passable, and then her hips, which the same could be said of. Her hands went over to her pubic hair, raking her nails upwards through the luxuriant bush which was only a little darker than the strawberry blonde of her scalp.
Trish smiled when she noticed that she could see the pouting lips of her sex now, which was something she couldn't have seen when she was younger and the hair felt more dense down there.
Trish raised her right arm and brought her left hand up to her armpit, rubbing the wild spray of untrimmed hairs and giving a little sniff, grateful that they kept work so cold that it was tough to work up a sweat. Just in case she dabbed her unscented deodorant under each arm before putting on her night wear and joining her friend out by the fire.
***
"Oh wow! It's like we're sisters!" Kari giggled when she saw Trish in the same outfit she was wearing.
"It looks way better on you than it does me, but I liked mine so I thought you might too."
"I do," Kari agreed, her eyes sparkling as the fire started to roar. "This is going to be the funnest night!"
Funnest. Trish smiled as she looked at Kari. If you only knew what I was thinking, she mused. Certainly not what you are, I'm sure. So sweet and petite, and I feel like a cow next to you.
"I hope so. Hope you don't get bored hanging out with an old bag like me."
"You aren't old, Trish," Kari decided. "Ages are just numbers anyway. Besides, you got an awesome bod and I love your freckles."
"Oh gee!" Trish said when Kari reached over and put her hand on her older friend's firm round shoulder.
"Ouch!" they both said as they got a little jolt of static electricity from the contact.
"Better get the clothes washing before I forget," Trish declared as she went to the bedroom to get their work things.
Trish grabbed her stuff off the floor and then took Kari's off the bed. Taking the name tag of the blouse, Trish wondered whether she should wash her undies as well, and looked at the washing instructions of her bra.
"32A," Trish sighed as she looked at the diminutive cups with the light padding and tried to remember back when she could have fit into a bra this small, and then decided to wash it.
"These definitely must go in," Trish said of the panties after holding them up to her nose, shaking her head at the thought of being seen sniffing the sweet scent of Kari's sex that had escaped into the cotton, and then she chuckled when she saw a tiny black curly hair on the elastic of the leg opening.
Thank heavens she doesn't shave down there, Trish mused as she looked at the tiny curly evidence that at least down there Kari didn't remove her pubic hair like so many girls did these days, although Trish had noticed that Kari's armpits were shaved.
Trish had gotten a glance at the young girl's underarm when Kari reached up and touched her shoulder, and while it was no surprise to see the dense five o'clock shadow filling the little hollow instead of the unshorn hair she had hoped for, Trish knew that these were different times.
Before heading for the washer Trish gave her armpits a glance and debated for a second whether or not to run the razor under her own arms, so as not to scare the kid off but decided against it.
