It had been a very quiet Saturday afternoon at 'Sleepeezy', a bed showroom in the heart of town. It was quarter to five in the evening on the last Saturday before Christmas. A handful of customers had been in but none of them had really been interested in buying anything. A young family had been in looking at the possibility of purchasing a bunk bed for their two young daughters. The girls had soon become bored and were running around the store and climbing over the beds, and mum and dad had done nothing to stop them. Eventually they left with the promise that they would return in the new year when the Sales were on but as the door closed behind them, Alan Murray, the sales assistant gave a shrug of his shoulders and guessed that that would be the last he would see of them as they would then do what most people did these days and buy on line. All he wanted now was for five o'clock to come so that he could lock up and go home.
Alan had just reached the sanctity of his desk in the centre of the shop when he heard the door open again and looked up to find a well-dressed lady, aged in her late-forties, had entered the store. She had collar length, fair curly hair and was dressed in a beige, calf length raincoat. A red crocheted beret with a pompom sat at a jaunty angle on her head and she wore a matching scarf, one end of which was tucked inside her coat while the other was wrapped round her neck and the free end draped over her shoulder and down her back. The ensemble was completed by a pair of black leather boots. Alan didn't really feel like serving anyone else; his head was now throbbing from the noise made by the children before, and also due the fact that the heating was on and it was very stuffy. His feet also ached and reluctantly, he made his way to the front of the shop where the lady was standing.
"Can I help you, Madam?" he asked, trying to sound interested.
"I hope so." The lady replied. "I'm looking for a divan bed, a double one for a guest room. Have you any brochures I can take away and look at?"
"Yes, we have a few," said Alan leading the way to an annex on the left hand side of the shop out of view of the main door.
"This is a King Size bed, it's on a special offer at the moment." he said, stopping by a large bed. It was decorated with cream sheets and pillows and a cream patterned duvet. "I'll just fetch you a leaflet about it. Feel free to have a lie down on it if you wish."
The lady put her bags down at the foot of the bed and sat on the left hand side. Carefully, she swung her legs up onto it and lay back on the pillow. Alan went back to his desk and fetched a leaflet from the drawer. While it would have been good to have a sale to close the day on, he also wanted to go home and secretly hoped that the lady would decide it was not for her and leave.
"Oh, yes," she said lying back with her head on the pillow. "This is very comfy. I think this will do perfectly."
"It has a memory foam mattress which can remember your position so that you are guaranteed an excellent night's sleep every time you use it," said Alan, going through the sales patter. "We do sell quite a lot of these and it's a very reasonable price too," he added pointing to a price board on a table nearby.
"I can see why," said the lady, closing her eyes briefly. "I could just nod off on here after battling the crowds out there. Why don't you join me?"
"Thank you," said Alan blushing slightly. "But it's against company rules. I can advise and I can demonstrate, but I'm not allowed to do be on the bed with a customer."
"That's a shame," said the customer, with a glint in her eye. "When I purchase a new bed, I like to, um, road test it so to speak, you know, get the hang of it with someone by my side. Come on," she said patting the mattress at the side of her. "Come and join me just for a minute, eh? What do you say? It could make the difference between me buying the bed or not."
She smiled up at Alan and mentally noted the name on the name badge on the lapel of his jacket. He shrugged his shoulders.
"It's nearly five o'clock," he said. "I'd better just turn the key in the door and then I'll be back."
Alan turned and walked away and the customer watched as he went. At twenty-two years old, he was around six foot tall with brown, collar length hair and was dressed in a dark grey suit with a white shirt and a red and white patterned tie, and black slip-on shoes. He took a bunch of keys from a desk drawer and disappeared from view for a few seconds and the sound of the keys being turned in the lock could be heard. He came back and laid the keys on his desk then returned to the bed where the customer was still lying and paused uncertainly, not quite knowing what to do.
"Come on, don't be shy!" she said, patting the mattress once more. "I don't bite!"
Alan walked round to the opposite side of the bed and sat on the edge, swinging his legs up and onto it. He lay back slowly until his head touched the pillow.
"That's better," said the customer. "This is really comfortable."
"Yes, as I said earlier, it's one of our best sellers. It's a very comfortable mattress and of course you've got the two drawers underneath to store sheets and pillowcases etc.," said Alan, lying on top of the duvet with his hands clasped together across his groin. "I really shouldn't be doing this, you know. If my boss was here, I could be disciplined for this."
"Well, what your bosses don't know about, they can't worry about," said the customer. "Tell me, Alan, how soon could you have this delivered?"
"We should be able to do it before Christmas," he said, sitting up and swinging his legs back over the side of the bed. "I'll just need to check the delivery schedule, but we'll be delivering on Christmas Eve until lunch time. If you come to the desk, we can do the paper work."
"I haven't said I'll buy it yet," the lady said smiling at him. "I told you I wanted to road test it first."
What she actually meant was that she wanted to lie for a few more minutes and get the feel of the mattress, however the words 'road test' meant something completely different to Alan. He sat up and turned towards the lady who had closed her eyes again. He leaned across towards her and planted a kiss on her lips, simultaneously placing his right hand on top of her left breast. She opened her eyes and sat up.
"What do you think you're doing?" she said, pushing his hand away.
"Sorry," said Alan blushing a deep red. It's just that when you said you wanted to test the bed, I thought you meant...oh heck!