"There they are." The middle-aged manager said, gesturing to the cutting tools on the desk across the room.
"Thanks." Kurt responded with a smile.
"If there's anything else you need, just ask one of the girls and they'll help you out." The manager said as he left the large workshop to go about his own business, closing the door behind him. When he was gone, Kurt turned to where the man had been standing and chuckled to himself. The manager's friendliness had been both unexpected and refreshing. He didn't know why he'd been so nervous about coming to the Wellesville Jewellers' to do some work. No, that wasn't true. He DID know why he was nervous, but it was a silly, silly reason.
Nearly two years of working as an apprentice jeweller under old man Adler had taken their toll on Kurt Foley. Adler came from that generation that believed young people were lumps of metal that needed to be beaten into the right shape. In Adler's case, that meant constant berating of Kurt and everything he did. Kurt often wondered if the way his employer treated him was even legal these days. It only took a month of working for the cantankerous old bastard to make Kurt seriously re-evaluate his choice of career. As it was, Kurt felt like he was on the brink of quitting, but he certainly would have quit long ago if the pay hadn't been so reasonable.
Kurt sat down and placed the fist-sized jewellery box he'd bought with him on the desk. He opened it to reveal the exquisite gem Mrs.Deveraux had bought in to Adler's Jewellery four days ago. It was a diamond about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. On first glance the gem appeared to be perfectly spherical, but it's shape was actually made by thousands of tiny cuts. Kurt had never seen such workmanship. It almost seemed a shame to honour Mrs.Deveraux's request to cut the gem down, so it could be placed in a brooch. Kurt sighed as he remembered that 'the customer is always right.'
As flawless as it seemed Kurt had serious doubts about the gem being a true diamond. When seen under a magnifier, all the light the gem refracted had a peculiar turquoise tinge the likes of which Kurt had never seen before. Even more peculiar was that the cutting tools in Adler's Jewellery couldn't make a dent in the gem. In fact, the tools had been ruined by Kurt's attempts. Of course, old man Adler launched a barrage of abusive criticism at Kurt upon discovering the state of his tools. Adler was adamant that the damage had been caused by ineptness on Kurt's part, no matter how much Kurt insisted that the gem was unusually strong. The old man examined the gem himself, but spoke nothing of his findings.
That night, Kurt posted magnified photos of the gem on the jewelers.net website (That's right! Even jewellers have their own forum community!), seeking answers. The responses he received generally agreed that there was something odd about the turquoise tinge and the gem's strength, but nobody could explain these features.
Determined to prove the asshole Adler wrong, and clear his name, Kurt made a few phone calls and discovered that the large Jewellery Store in Wellesville possessed extra-strong gem cutting tools. The manager of the store was more than happy to allow Kurt to come over and use their tools. The 140-mile round trip would be worth it if he got to prove Adler wrong.
Kurt placed the gem under the desk's magnifier and, with a deep breath, cast all bitter thoughts about the old man from his mind. He needed to concentrate. He scored the surface of the gem with painstaking care, preparing it for his first cut. Then he placed the sharp blade of the nearby jeweller's chisel on the score mark and gave it a strong tap with the mallet.
A bright blue flash surged from the diamond, momentarily blinding Kurt. It was accompanied by a sound not unlike that of a gas burner igniting, only much louder.
"What the fuck was that?" an edgy Kurt asked himself as he tried to restore his eyesight by blinking repeatedly.
When his eyesight did return to normal a few seconds later, the first thing Kurt did was check the diamond. Not only had it been cut, but it had been cut precisely the way Kurt had intended.
"Shows what you know, you old bastard!" Kurt chuckled to himself. It was only now that Kurt spied something out of the corner of his eye. He turned slowly to find a young woman standing a few feet to his right. And what a woman! The first thought that came to Kurt's mind was that this was the most gorgeous creature that he had ever seen! She was around five-eleven or six feet tall and looked as if she was in her early twenties. Her slightly-longer-than-shoulder-length hair was jet black, and perfectly framed her beautiful Mediterranean-looking face. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean, each lined by long dark lashes.
Her most noticeable feature was her clothing. It could best be described as a skimpy bikini done in the style of a harem-dress. Only her most private regions were hidden from view. Two small triangles of turquoise silk completely covered her nipples, but concealed nothing of the shape of her luscious D-cup breasts. Her captivating mammaries sat firmly on her chest,
sat
, not hung. There was only the slightest fold at the base of the lovely orbs, and they were clearly given no artificial support by the skimpy bra. Another, larger, triangular piece of turquoise silk covered the lower half of the woman's mons, and tapered into a thin strip that dove between her legs and hid her valley of pleasures from wanton eyes. Behind her, a semi-transparent veil trailed behind her from just above her butt. The entire outfit was held together by nothing more than thin cords of gold.
Her legs were long, slender, and looked as if not a single hair had ever grown from their smooth surface. There was not a blemish to be seen on her tanned skin.
The extraordinary beauty stood with hands on her hips, staring at Kurt with a friendly smile on her face. She had an air of childlike innocence, but also of confidence and maturity usually only seen in older women.
Something in the back of Kurt's mind told him to be polite and greet the woman, but the sight of her perfect, exposed flesh was so distracting, all Kurt could manage to get out was the word "Um…". Although he did manage to get it out about a dozen times, so what his speech lacked in eloquence, it gained in duration.
"Greetings, Master." The young woman replied in a velvety voice, as if she'd understood the intended meaning of Kurt's mutterings. She bowed her head, respectfully and then smiled slightly wider, almost as if she'd been waiting her whole life to say those words.
"I…I'm sorry… What did you say?" Kurt asked, mystified.
"Greetings, Master." The beauty repeated eagerly, as if there was nothing at all odd about the question.
Kurt sat with his head in his hand, his mouth hanging wide open as if it were patiently waiting for his brain to ship out it's next sentence. What little of his mind wasn't mentally removing those small pieces of silk from her body was racing for an explanation. The only thing he could think of was that this was some sort of prank. But Kurt didn't have any 'wild' friends, so who would've organised something like this? There must've been some mistake!
"Look… I don't work here…" Kurt explained, sheepishly, "…So if this is some kind of gag between the staff here…" The mysterious woman stared at him quizzically, as if she had no idea what he was talking about. Kurt watched the woman, waiting for her to make then next move, but after a while, it became apparent that she was content to just stand there and smile at him.
"Excuse me, Mr.Foley…" One of the young receptionist girls announced herself as she opened the door. "I was just wondering if you would like a cup of… Oh!" The timid blonde receptionist became quite flustered upon noticing the strange woman, and her even stranger lack of modesty. "Forgive me… I didn't know that you had company!" The receptionist said, as she stepped back out of the room and closed the door behind her so quickly that poor Kurt didn't have time to say a single word in his own defence.
"Oh, Jeez…" a very embarrassed Kurt winced as he buried his face in his hands.
"Is something the matter, master?", The mysterious woman asked with concern, "Is there anything I can do for you?"