"...are you shitting me right now?"
Sarah's voice over Alan's speakerphone was exasperated. He'd managed to activate it with his nose.
"No," Alan said. "No, I'm not."
She heaved a loud sigh. "Look, I'd love to help," she said, voice low, "but I'm on duty right now. I don't have a convenient excuse to just bail. You're just going to have to figure this out on your own."
Alan glared at his phone. "How am I supposed to 'figure out' getting out of these zip ties?"
"Google it," she said primely. "Gotta go. I'll be in touch."
The line went dead.
"That—" he started, and immediately lost the energy to even cuss her out. His forehead thumped against the floor. After a moment, his voice came up wearily.
"Hey Google... how do you escape from zip ties?"
His smartphone beeped, and then showed three moving dots. He stared at them, shifting uncomfortably. Now that he thought about it, Alan couldn't remember the last time he'd power cycled his router. If only he had known his psychotic half brother had been going to show up and he'd end up trussed up like a pig with a dildo up his ass. Then he would have for sure performed basic home network maintenance.
"Here to help," his phone said finally. It gave several results, including a video, which he managed to start with his chin. He watched it, frowning, and then watched it again. Then he reached down with his teeth, yanking on the loose end of the tie to get it as tight as he could stand. He took a couple deep breaths, reviewing the movement he needed to perform in his mind.
It broke on the third try. "Oh," he said. It hadn't exactly been painless, but it hadn't exactly been hard, either. He reached down, and yanked the dildo the rest of the way out. Alan let out a sigh. He glanced at it a moment. He had drawn back like he would hurl it to the ground, but instead he paused, and just dropped it.
He looked down at his feet, rubbing his wrist. Then he managed to push himself to his feet. A few hops, and ten minutes of rifling through his kitchen random stuff drawer for a large pair of scissors, and he was free.
Then he headed for the shower.
He felt the water wash over him, hot and clean. The sound of it reminded him of the stream. He closed his eyes, and with surprising ease, thought about nothing.
***
The next morning, Alan dressed for comfort with a t-shirt and black sweat pants, and absently opened his fridge. He blinked, and then leaned a little further inside.
"Wow," he said, and his voice echoed.
He leaned back and tapped his chin, considering his options. Well, he could just go out a grab a burger or something, but that wasn't exactly a long term solution. He was going to go car shopping either today or tomorrow. Friday and Saturday evening would be busy with Sarah, and his plan was to go back to work on the regular starting the Monday after. Now was the best time to get groceries, really, and if he was going to go grocery shopping, he wanted to do one big trip.
For that, Costco was ideal, but it was a bit of a drive.
He checked his watch. It was still early, so he had time if he left now. A craving for a chicken bake decided him, and he went looking for his jeans.
***
The aisles of Costco rattled steadily with carts, even on a weekday afternoon. Most were elderly people or mothers with a child or two in tow, but to Alan's left and a little ahead was a woman who definitely didn't fit that profile.
He glanced at her from his cart, almost absently grabbing a large number of batteries, because he was at Costco, and they were there. She was short and compact, with a long brown ponytail. She wore a tight, silky black shirt under a pink jacket, and a pair of black shorts that showed off her ass in way that told Alan she must have put some serious work into it.
She also had protein shakes and a small mountain of tennis balls piled in her cart. Maybe there was a sale.
As she paused to decline the offer of a cheese sausage sample, Alan frowned slightly at her, tilted his head, and Influenced her: [Well, just a sample should be fine.}
The woman had started to turn, but paused, and glancing back at the food, shrugged. "Well," she told the vendor, "on second thought, just a sample should be fine."
The old lady behind the sample table smiled at her, and with a wink, handed one over. The woman frowned a little at that, but shrugged, and emptied the little cup into her mouth before pushing her cart on.
Alan wasn't exactly following her. She was basically going down the same aisles as he, though, so he decided to test out how he was doing.
As they passed by the fruit section, he Influenced her lightly that she was feeling like a watermelon. Smoothly, she bent, knocking on one of the big melons while she tilted her head to listen to the sound, and put it in her cart. Near the meat, he Influenced her that red meat was a better and tastier source of protein than shakes, and besides, it was the safest kind of meat, you could even eat it raw. She stared down at a monster cut of roast for almost 30 seconds before she finally bent, hoisted it up and placed it in her cart with a small grunt.
Alan frowned. That had been pretty easy. He definitely hadn't pushed very hard.
Next they went down an aisle toward the back where paper plates, napkins, and other paper products were piled. Focusing on her, he Influenced: [Oh, I've had it with this bra. They're so uncomfortable, and they're basically societies way of controlling women, anyway.]
The woman stopped, and scowling down a moment, took a quick look around. Alan had carefully bent over, pretending to look closely at just how soft those Charmin Ultras were. But he snuck a glance through the gap in the shelves to see her reach up into her shirt, unlatch her bra, do some minor gymnastics with her shoulders, and whip it out into her jacket pocket. She smiled, and heaved and audible sigh of relief before she pushed on.
Alan paused to let her pass him. Her bust, big enough to draw attention already, jiggled visibly from the rumbling of her cart. Her nipples were visible, too.
Alan tapped his finger on his chin. Well, it could be he just guessed exactly what kind of girl she was. But it seemed more like his Influence was more... potent. He wouldn't say he pushed hard on any of those suggestions, and he had just met her, so it wasn't a cumulative effect. And she was a considerable distance away for some of them.
Grabbing a last couple of things, he spotted her right before the checkout stands. She was frowning at a container of chocolate covered caramel macadamia nuts. He Influenced: [those will make you fat. Better to put them back.]
The woman stared at the chocolate. Her brow furrowed.
Alan raised an eyebrow, and then sent the thought: [Seriously, eat more than one at time and you'll break out like crazy.]
She bit her lip, and the container hovered. It drifted down a few inches, almost touching down on the stack. But then, her mouth firming, she shrugged and stuffed it into a corner of her cart. She rolled briskly away.
