Suzi sat in her chair, staring at the swirling colors as they moved across the screen. She wasn't thinking about anything in particular; she didn't need to think about anything right now. She just needed to relax, and let all her cares and worries drift away on a warm tide of drowsy happiness as she waited for the phone to ring. She didn't know how long she'd been waiting, and she didn't care. It wasn't important. Suzi could wait as long as she needed to. A slow, lazy smile spread across her face as she watched the colors ripple and dance in their endless patterns--
Abruptly, the screensaver vanished, and Suzi snapped out of her daydream as the phone beeped quietly but insistently to let her know there was a call coming in. She sat up straight and put her hands on the keyboard, ready to type. "Welcome to the Personal Pleasures Customer Support Hotline," the recorded message played in her headset.
As always, Suzi welcomed the brief moment that the recording gave her to get her mind back on her job before she went live with the customer. At this job, it was way too easy to let the mind wander between calls, and Suzi was glad of the extra time to bring it back. "For quality control purposes," the recording continued, "this call may be monitored and recorded."
Then she heard it. Just before the customer came on the line, Suzi noticed the tiniest little click that told her that 'may be' had turned into 'is being'. She sat up even straighter than before, a little butterfly fluttering in her stomach as she spoke. "Hello, you're speaking with the Personal Pleasures Customer Support Hotline," she said, trying to enunciate every syllable with perfect clarity. If her boss was listening, Suzi wanted to do this exactly the way she'd been taught. "My name is Suzi, how may I assist you today?"
"Um, yes, hi," the woman on the other end said, sounding a bit like she'd just woken up from a nap. Suzi checked the hold time on the call--five minutes, twenty-six seconds. Long enough for the subliminals in the hold music to soften up her mind, but not so long that she'd lose patience and hang up. "My name is Roberta, Roberta Gardner, and I appear to have been sent a package from your company by mistake. There's a bill here with my name on it, but I know I didn't order...um, these. I can't seem to find an address to return it to, though, just your 1-800 number."
"I see, ma'am," Suzi said. "Do you have the items there, Ms Gardner?" She spoke smoothly and calmly, trying to keep that delicate balance between 'unemotional' and 'cold', and between 'helpful' and 'commanding'. They'd had to train her for ages to get it right, but Suzi knew it was the most important part of her job. Once she got the voice right, it did most of her work for her.
"Um..." Suzi could almost hear Roberta blush over the phone. "Yes, yes I do. They're still in the box," she added hurriedly.
Suzi smiled just a little. "I understand, ma'am," she said, letting just a little of that sympathy creep into her voice. She definitely didn't want Roberta getting offended. "Could you read me the serial number from the shipping label?"
There was a tiny pause, then Roberta spoke again. "Zero seven three, four seven two nine, six five eight one four," she said. As she spoke, Suzi typed the numbers into her computer.
"Thank you very much," Suzi said as the she finished typing. "Please hold on for just a moment while I look this package up in our shipping database." She pressed a button, and gentle music began to play through her headset as she scanned the computer records. She knew it would be playing in Roberta's ears as well.
'Roberta Gardner', the screen read. 'Recommended by Debbi K. Single, age 32, no children. Parents deceased. No current or former relationships. Teaches primary school in Ypsilanti, MI. Hair: Blonde. Eyes: Blue. Measurements 42D-36-45.' That was a little bit heavy for a Personal Pleasures girl, Suzi knew, but it was only to be expected on initial contact. With a little bit of slimming, she'd be perfect...especially if they could keep her from losing too much around the chest. Management definitely liked busty girls, Suzi thought, idly running her hands over her own ample tits.
She finished reading through the file that Debbi had compiled, and then checked the call display. 'Hold time: Two minutes', it read. Suzi smiled, and read through all the information again. Then she filed her nails for a full minute before finally taking the phone off of hold. "Sorry about the wait," she said. "I have the shipping information right here, and it does appear as though you received that package in error. I apologize for the inconvenience, and I want to assure you that you were not billed for those items. I'm sorry you needed to take valuable time out of your day to correct the mistake."
"I, um...no, that's alright," Roberta replied. Her voice sounded more than a little muzzy, as though she had fallen asleep while on hold. "I don't care how long it takes, I just want to get this, um...taken care of."
Suzi's smile widened a little. "I understand, ma'am," she said. "We'll try to get this processed as soon as possible so that you can get on with your day. First, I need to confirm the contents of the package with you so that we can be sure it matches with our shipping records."
"...is that really necessary?" Roberta asked. Suzi could hear the trepidation in her voice, and for a moment she worried that Roberta was going to hang up the phone; but the same prudishness that made her reluctant to talk about sex toys with a stranger also made her reluctant to hang up without making arrangements to get rid of them. She probably didn't even want to throw the box away, lest someone spot it in her trash and think she'd broken them through overuse.
"I'm afraid so, ma'am," Suzi replied, letting her voice close off Roberta's options. All her training came back to her easily and effortlessly; she sounded firm, yet not rude, and Suzi knew her bosses would be so proud of her. Her tone simply made it clear that this was just the way things were, and there was no point in trying to argue against it. She knew it would work perfectly on Roberta, even if she hadn't spent ten minutes on hold already.
There was a pause. Suzi was used to that, though; Roberta wasn't the first girl that Suzi had needed to coax into the return procedures. "Don't worry, ma'am," she said soothingly. "All our call records are strictly confidential."
"...okay," Roberta said in a tiny voice. "There's, um...a bright pink, um...back massager," she said, her voice giving away the fact that she knew exactly what the device was supposed to massage.
