This is a work of pure fiction and contains elements that some might find offensive. Obviously, none of these elements are cool in real life.
***
"I just have an eye for these things," he replied, as the girl once again thanked him for choosing her as the new shop assistant.
I most certainly have an eye for these things, mused John, as he viewed the girl -- a young woman -- in front of him. The girl had a pretty face, large light-brown eyes and a sensual, small mouth, but most importantly, she had a figure to his liking. Even when the girl had arrived a fortnight ago, asking for a job, he had been able to spot a perfect body beneath that ugly, almost sack-like brown dress. Now that she stood in front of him, wearing a simple shop assistant's blue-gray dress, John knew he had been right. The girl had large, firm breasts, which he imagined wouldn't sag even without a brassiere. She was about average size but had a large bottom and thick thighs. She was average height as well. John assessed that the top of her head would just about reach his shoulder. He smiled. He was looking forward to their cooperation.
The first day at work for the girl -- Lily -- was busy and John didn't have the time to observe her as much as he had liked to. The life in a small, poor Brutopidian village was uneventful, to say the least, so that's why the arrival of a new shop assistant from a nearby village was an event in itself. Besides the usual group of gossiping old bats, there was a steady stream of young men who made it their business to buy some chewing gum or such in order to see the new girl. Some of them even visited the shop several times that day, which proved to John he wasn't the only one who had noticed her charms.
That night, as he lay in bed, John thought about those other plans he had for the girl. John had been a widow for over twenty years and lived alone in his house close to his small shop that sold everything from food to small farm tools. He was in his fifties but felt like his sexual drive was as high as it had been in his early thirties. The only difference was that his mentality had changed. As a fairly young widow, he had sought his pleasure in the city, paying for women on the street and being happy to be just able to have sex with someone with a hot body. He still occasionally did it as a way to fulfill his minimum needs. However, what really turned him on nowadays was more complicated and more psychological. It was no longer about love like it had been with his wife, but about a game of control. A game John liked to play slowly and patiently.
John had to admit that since the beginning of his widowhood, he had taken a liking to younger women, the kind that were old enough to get married but still mostly ignorant of the vices of the world. Maybe he was a dirty old man, but when he went fishing, as he often did, he loved to ogle young women who came to swim nearby. They were usually wearing old T-shirts and shorts as swimwear, and they were completely oblivious to the fact how the wet clothes hung on their bodies, revealing their shapes almost as good as if they had been naked. John also liked to tease girls (as he called all young women in his mind). For example, if he visited some girl's father, he often specifically asked the girl to pour some coffee for him or pick up a handkerchief he "accidentally" dropped so he could get a good look at them.
Still, in the village all people knew each other and, as the shop owner, John couldn't risk losing his reputation. That's why he always kept his games subtle and light. He didn't want to anger any dad or husband, and wanted to keep women mostly unsuspecting of his motives. John thought that so far he had been successful in doing so, and most people viewed him as an upstanding, trustworthy member of the community. Actually, John had had an affair with one young woman about ten years ago, but no one, except for the ones involved, knew about it. The girl had been gifted with a nice body and a fairly simple mind, and it had been easy to lure her to try fishing, and "teaching fishing" had been a great excuse to wrap his hands around her hands in order to help her "to position the pole correctly" and to wrap his arms around her waist "in order to steady her". It hadn't taken long before she was holding his pole. The affair had lasted a few months until that girl got married. The only thing John regretted was that the girl had been too easy. As he lay in his bed, he felt certain that the new girl would be of different caliber. He smiled.
I Little shop
Only a bit over a month had passed, but Lily already felt like she had worked in the little shop forever. Besides the front, the shop consisted of a small storage room, a little office and a tiny bathroom attached to the office. By now, Lily knew the location and contents of every single drawer and box and knew the order of the products on the shelves and their prices by heart. She and the store owner, John, had quickly developed a well-functioning division of work, where he took care of the heavy lifting and the long-distance deliveries, and she took care of most of the shelving, cleaning and short-distance deliveries. Both of them served the customers.
Lily liked John as a person. He was calm, mild-mannered and treated her almost as an equal as opposed to a subordinate, even though he did demand she call him "sir". He didn't speak too much but was friendly and helped her whenever she asked, or sometimes even without her asking if he noticed her struggling. Lily wasn't especially into older men, but she had to admit that John was charismatic. He had deep blue eyes and neatly cut dark gray hair and well-trimmed beard. He had kept his lean body in good shape by being active and doing physical work. John always wore a white shirt and gray pants to work. He usually had rolled up his sleeves, and his tanned, muscular arms looked good against the white shirt. In some other country, somebody like him could even have been a popular film star.
Nevertheless, Lily was here to work. As a 21-year-old woman from the poorest village of the entire Brutopidia, she didn't have many prospects for the future. She was happy to have a job, and even though she still would be dirt poor because she sent most of what she had earned back to her family, she still had a roof over her head and more than enough food to fill her stomach. Lily rented a room in a nearby house, but because it had a separate exit, it felt like she had an apartment of her own.
Lily also had a secondary goal: she wanted to get married. In the traditional Brutopidian society, marriage was an important institution and the best way for poor young women to raise their status and standard of living. Lily didn't have a fiancée, but she kept her eyes open whenever she met village boys. However, and at this thought her heart sank, the boys seemed to be polite but distant with her. She expected it was because they knew that she wasn't going to bring any dowry to the table. Lily had to be careful in any case. There was a thin line between meeting prospective husbands and getting a reputation as a common woman no one would marry. Lily felt a bit lonely. In addition to her troubles with meeting young men, for some reason the young women of the village didn't want to befriend her. She guessed they saw her either as a competition or as someone to mock as even poorer than them. Or maybe a bit of both.
One chilly evening in the early spring, when they were closing the shop, John suddenly asked Lily, "Lily, I just remembered your one-month trial period has finished. I suppose you're happy with your
work and want to continue?"
Lily looked both happy and surprised when she replied, "Of course, sir!"
John chuckled and replied, "I actually have an idea about a gift for you."
"Sir?"
John explained, "The shop assistant's dress you are wearing is old and doesn't even properly fit you. I'd like to sew you a new one."
"Sir, you shouldn't waste your work and material for me. This dress is just fine," Lily replied modestly.
