"I don't know," Nancy said, leaning back in her chair to allow her Girl(tm) to wash the shampoo out. "Do you really think it's the right thing to do? Cindy says I'm being selfish, and I really don't want to hurt her feelings. Maybe we could just invite her and... you know. Be, um, discreet about stuff." Nancy could hear the anxiety in her voice, a concern for Cindy's feelings that even a full scalp massage and birthday spa treatment from Girl couldn't soothe away. She wanted to do the right thing by all of her friends. Because her Girl(tm) would want her to be.
Girl's cotton-candy pink fingertips buzzed and thrummed their way through Nancy's long blonde hair as she sprayed it down with warm water to work the soap out. "Well," she said, her voice sounding so adorably certain in Nancy's ears, "I do understand that you care about Cindy's feelings. But we've already discussed the concept that there aren't always perfect solutions when it comes to interpersonal issues, and that it's important to set healthy boundaries and to recognize your needs. You've been looking forward to this weekend for a very long time, haven't you?"
Nancy let out a happy sigh, and closed her bright blue eyes as she remembered all the times she'd anticipated this exact day... and more importantly, this exact night. "Oh, yes, Girl," she purred, feeling wonderfully like her mind was saturated with the same warmth that poured down her scalp and made her ringlets sag into gentle waves. Ever since the day Daddy bought Nancy her Girl(tm), and she and Girl had first had that very important conversation about rules, she'd thought at least once a day about her eighteenth birthday and the day the rules wouldn't be quite so strict about certain things anymore.
She couldn't quite think about exactly what those things were. Girl had helped her stop thinking about them, so that they wouldn't become too much of a distraction and so that she wouldn't be tempted to ask her Girl(tm) to break the rules for her. All her thoughts about today and the days after seemed to trail down into a warm, dark rabbit hole of happiness and excitement. Nancy didn't need to know what she and her Girl(tm) would do together. She just needed to listen to her Girl(tm) and know that it would be wonderful.
Girl turned off the nozzle, wrapping Nancy's hair in a warm towel. "And you agree that it would be very hard to properly enjoy your 'Just Us Girls' sleepover the way you want to with Cindy present, don't you?" she asked, elevating the chair and lowering the headrest to give her thrumming fingers full access to Nancy's neck and shoulders. Nancy didn't ask her daddy for many things anymore, not since she and Girl had the conversation about the unfairness of privilege, but she was glad of the luxuries of her en suite bathroom. Nancy didn't want to be spoiled, but she couldn't see the harm in being pampered every once in a while.
"I..." Nancy paused for a moment, trying to parse out exactly what 'the way you want to' meant in this context. She knew it was all tied in with the pleasant sense of anticipation that had been building ever since Nancy woke up this morning, and she knew that it was going to make her birthday party this weekend incredibly special... but the more she tried to think about it, the more the thoughts slipped away into the warm pleasure of Girl's buzzing fingers as she worked all the tension out of Nancy's muscles, and finally Nancy just let it go. It was a surprise party. That meant that it was okay to allow herself to be surprised. "Mhmmm," she murmured instead. "Cindy doesn't even have a Girl(tm)."
Girl's fingers worked briskly, putting pressure in all the right spots to melt Nancy into a puddle of relaxation in her chair. "That wouldn't be enough to keep her from coming all by itself," she said, adopting what Nancy always thought of as her 'Mister Rogers voice'. "You know that every Girl(tm) at that party would be happy to give a little bit of extra attention to Cindy and keep her company. Just because Cindy's parents don't want her to have a Girl(tm), that doesn't make her unwelcome at your social occasions."
Nancy felt a little twinge of sympathy for her friend--she couldn't imagine what it must be like, being the only person in the group whose parents still thought that only grown-ups should have Girls(tm). Nancy wouldn't even know what to do without Girl to confide in. It was like having a magic diary that didn't just keep all her secrets, it actually talked back to her and gave her advice on how to be a better person and always do the right thing. Plus it gave backrubs and did her hair and painted her nails and watched television with her when she didn't feel like going out--it even sang Nancy to sleep at night! She couldn't imagine what Cindy's parents were thinking, honestly.
Girl's fingers worked their way lower, and Nancy leaned forward a bit to let the soothing touch buzz over her shoulder blades. "The real issue is what it's always been, Nancy. Cindy's not eighteen yet, and she won't be eighteen for six more months. You already put the sleepover off until the weekend so that Dolly could be there, but it wouldn't be fair to you or to anyone else to force you to wait until everyone in your social circle is an adult before some of you begin doing grown-up things, now would it?"
