Releasing some stories while I continue working on editing the rest of Knight of the Wood (trying to edit it for longer chapters to make it easier on myself). This one is a part of Deborah's Spot, a setting revolving around wishes being granted at a traveling, magical shop, which I plan to revisit with more standalones.
Deborah finished counting the lines on her nails for the fifth time and looked back at the clock. It had been, at best, five minutes since she'd looked last. She let out a groan, rested her face in her arms, and wondered once again how she'd let her mother convince her to take on the family business. It wasn't as if she wouldn't have been able to say "no." And if she had, she wouldn't be seated in the still-empty shop two weeks into moving to a new city. If she was fair with herself and her mother, she had been warned that the first shopper might take as long as six months to show up. Deborah's dream of starting a cascade of happy customers immediately after opening the doors had been optimistic. Now, though, she found her optimism draining in the face of having nothing to do except wait. Resigned, she decided to start counting the hairs on her arms next. She was three hairs into the count when the door to the shop jingled. Her head snapped up, straightening along with her posture.
The customer was a man -- not a surprise. As far as Deborah knew, he was average height for men here, with a decent enough haircut, and a friendly face with very little embarrassment at walking into the shop. A good sign. She schooled her face into a flirtatious grin.
"Hello there, welcome to Deborah's Spot, where we help you make the magic happen! What can I do you for?"
"Ah," the man paused mid-stride, before he resumed forward again. "Do you have to say that even though it's on the window?"
"Well," Deborah responded, smile tight "yes. There's no telling what people do or don't see coming in here. What can I do you for?"
"I'm looking for something to spice things up with my girlfriend. Maybe a toy or something. What do you think she'd like?"
"I've never met her. What do
you
think she'd like?" Deborah leaned forward on the counter and stared up at him.
"Uh," he flushed, darted his eyes, and finally settled them on her forehead. "I think I want her to like different things." He looked shocked to hear the words from his mouth.
Deborah smiled.
Good to know the shop's still got it.
She gestured at him to continue.
"I just wish," his mouth worked as he fought against the compulsion. Deborah knew more discretion would've made the process smoother, but she wasn't interested in waiting any longer now that she finally had a customer. So, she waited, patient, for the words to be drawn out of him.
"The sex is fine, great even, but she hates going down on me. She'll do it for me sometimes, but I..." He trailed off, confused. "I wish she loved giving blowjobs." Deborah cracked her knuckles. This she could work with.
"Loved them how much?"
"P-pardon?"
"You wished she loved them how much? Like, more than anything else? Just loved them the most in a sexual way? Something else? We value the spirit of wishes here, it's the key to satisfied customers."
"I," the man's voice burst from his lips as he tried to close them. "I want them to be her favorite thing to do, but I don't want her to do it instead of bathing eating or anything. What is this place?" His voice quivered slightly during his last question.
"Don't worry about that now," Deborah waved her hand dismissively. "We can make that happen if it's what you really want. If you don't like the changes after one month, come back here and we'll undo them, no charge. Otherwise, you can pay us then."
His face grew pale.
"Calm down, we're not going to ask for your soul or firstborn or anything. Just a length of time where we'll tithe off some of the energy you make from sex. Oh, and you won't be able to talk about us explicitly with anyone, so I recommend you don't try. Otherwise, good luck out there!"
The man turned smartly and walked out of the Shop, limbs stiff and erratic as he fought to remain still. He tried to shout out more questions as he went, but Deborah wasn't listening.
Finally. Let's get this party started.
Liam's limbs unlocked as he left the shop, and he fell onto the sidewalk with a gasp. He wheeled quickly, only to see an abandoned storefront where there'd once been a brightly lit sex shop.
What the fuck was that.
For a dark moment, he thought he might have hallucinated the whole thing. Then, his watch went off, the alarm he'd set for fifteen minutes alerting him that it was time to go back to work. He winced as he picked himself up, but he otherwise pretended to be fine. The people that passed him -- some stepping over his outstretched limbs -- didn't notice or care. He sighed as he went back to the deli and put his apron back on. He hadn't gotten anything other than a weird encounter with an unusually thick attendant who had neither shared her name nor asked him his.
Maybe that's normal for sex shops?
The thought and the strangeness of the experience faded as he slipped into the rhythm of the lunch rush. He redirected customers alongside his shift-mates, which required more effort than normal given the recent tourist interest in experiencing the sandwiches here. Liam couldn't tell why. They were decent, but nothing to fight or stand in line for hours about.
But at least a good third of them tip.
It was ten hours later, as he threw his apron into a basket back at his apartment, that he remembered to think about the shop again. His girlfriend, Angela, hadn't yet arrived home, so he took a moment to think about how much he wanted the wish to be real.
Does that make me a bad person? I didn't exactly seek out a wish, but is it messed up to want that?
The part of his brain that took orders from his libido asserted that it was not at all messed up, but the anxious, guilty part told him it was super messed up.
I have to tell her about it.
The front door made a noise as it was unlocked. Even before she called out to him, he knew it was Angela. It wasn't just that she was the only one other than him with a key -- her energy and the smell of sunflowers entered every room with her. It was one of the things he loved about her. He met her smile with one of his own and whirled her into a hug.
"Liam! It's good to see you." She beamed at him as she started eating the sandwich that he'd brought back from the deli for her. He finished off a soda while he listened to her talk about the project her team was still stuck on, as well as gossip from her friends and coworkers. As she finished off the sandwich, she let out a satisfied sigh. "Delicious! What did you get up to, today?"
"Worked at the deli for the most part," Liam replied. "I went to a sex shop during my break. It was a little weird."
"Oh ho," Angela raised her eyebrows suggestively. "Did you get something for us?"
"I got something for you, yeah." Liam frowned.
That's not what I meant to say.
"Show me," Angela purred.
Liam's hands moved down to unfasten his pants. Lowered, he showed Angela his penis. His face was flushed in helpless embarrassment.
"Oh, hello old friend." Angela's nose twitched. "Something's different about it..." She leaned forward and nuzzled the base of his rapidly swelling shaft. She stuck her broad tongue out and licked him. His eyes widened.
No way.
She licked him again. Then she pressed her wide mouth fully against him, slowly slurping one of his balls into her mouth.
"Is this an oil or something? It smells amazing and tastes," she licked him again, pupils dilating, "heavenly."
"Or something," Liam choked out. Angela's mouth worked him like she'd rather be doing nothing else. Her enthusiasm, and the way she panted with each pass of her full lips on his head, already had him on edge. "Careful," he moaned, "you already have me close."
Angela's only response was to swallow his shaft. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she moaned. Her hips trembled.
Is she...?
The idea of her getting off from a blowjob before him was too much, real or not. With a partially stifled squeal, he came into her mouth. She continued to lick and suck him through and after his orgasm. A quick grasp on the counter was the only thing that stopped him from falling backwards.
"Hmm," Angela sat up with one last slurp. "That was fun." She stood and cleared her plate, as if nothing unusual had happened. Liam's brain churned slowly as Angela hummed her way through her evening preparations. Two episodes of a show he barely caught later, her hair was wrapped, and she was snoring. He stared at her until his brain decided to send him into a dreamless sleep.