The New Deal

All characters engaged in sexual activities are eighteen years of age or older.

*

Beth pulled on the big gold door handle and stepped in to see Diana over by the registers with Kim standing near her.

Diana looked up, smiled and waved, "Good morning, Beth!"

Kim's face broke into a huge grin, "Beth!"

Beth just burst into giggles.

Diana smirked and laughed, "You are the cutest thing. Let me guess, you're picturing us without any clothes on, right?"

Beth blushed and nodded while still giggling.

Kim walked over and hugged the giggling girl very obviously scanning her eyes from Beth's head slowly down her body to her toes then back up, "Two can play at that game, little missy. I know intimately what's under that blouse and pants."

The red in Beth's face grew darker as she giggled more.

Kim and Beth shifted as they watched a young blonde woman came through the door.

Diana looked up and smiled, "Hi, welcome to Paradise Books!"

The woman waved and smiled, "Hi, I'm Heather. I work over there for Cindy." She pointed over to the cafe.

Diana continued to smile, "Hi Heather, wonderful to meet you. I'm Diana and those are Beth and Kim, they work with me in the bookstore."

Heather shook Kim and Beth's hands as they identified themselves apart for her.

Diana waved toward the café, "Cindy is in the backroom getting a delivery from Tony's."

Heather smiled, "Thanks. I'll go store my purse then give her a hand."

Soon enough Diana was propping the door open for their first official day of business.

It didn't long at all before shoppers were in the store.

Before it got too crazy Beth ran over to the café and found Cindy serving a customer without anyone else in line for the moment.

Cindy saw Beth and smiled, "Hiya Beth. Need a drink?"

Beth smiled, "No thanks. I just wanted to see if you'd like to have lunch with me. I'd love to talk with you about something."

Cindy laughed, "Consider it a lunch date. How does oneish sound?"

Beth nodded and ran back over to the book part of the store to clear her break time with Diana.

Diana was running the register to give Beth a chance at playing on the sales floor since she was on the register all yesterday. The store was noticeably busier than the soft opening the day before partly due to Diana following Gwen's advice by having a discount coupon in the paper.

The previous day was largely a female audience and even though the women still outnumbered the men, there were male customers today including in Dreamlands. Some customers did enter through Dreamlands own door for more privacy.

Gwen was glad some of her regulars did find Dreamlands and were willing to shop in the more visible new store and location.

Kim's voice came through the headsets. "Well. Well, look who just stopped in."

The women all looked at the entrance to see Mrs. Evaline Wilson standing in the entrance like she owned the place. It was reputed and probable that she was the richest woman in the little Pennsylvania county, and she lorded that over everyone.

Once she caused Diana to lose her long standing job at the bank many realized how she really was and how they had been long bullied and taken advantage of including all the restaurants where she had long demanded discounts for eating in the establishments.

Diana's voice came through the headsets next, "Don't worry. I've got this."

Diana walked over to the imposing older woman still near the entrance, leaving her headset microphone on for all the women to hear.

"Good morning, Mrs Wilson. Can I help you?"

Mrs. Wilson looked over toward the barrier wall that housed the Dreamlands portion of the store.

"What is that over there," Mrs. Wilson pointed the base of her cane in the direction of Dreamlands failing to otherwise acknowledge Diana.

Diana smiled, "That is Dreamlands, an adult store operated by my wife."

Mrs. Wilson, "Wife? Oh, that is just not acceptable."

Diana continued to smile, "Last time I checked the Constitution and the Bill of Rights it was acceptable."

Wilson huffed audibly.

"I'm not sure I will shop here and that would be a very bad thing for you and this establishment."

"That's a real shame because I'm planning on taking every cent you spend here, doubling it with my own money and donating it to the Trevor Project in your name."

"Trevor Project? Never heard of such a thing."

Diana's smile grew brighter, "I'm not the least surprised. It's a national organization helping members of the LGBT, that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender in case you didn't know, community when they are bullied and not welcomed and think about suicide as a very sad answer to the unacceptance they receive."

"My goodness! I would never support that!"

"What? Support the suicide or the organization?" Diana was doing her best not to laugh as the older woman grew more and more flustered.

"Such an organization. You can't donate in my name."

Diana nodded her head, "Again, that's the beauty of democracy. I can do that and believe me, I will."

"I never." Wilson stomped her foot.

Diana laughed, "As Tony over at his restaurant told you so perfectly the last time you were there, it's about time you did. Mrs. Wilson, you are more than welcome to shop in Paradise Books, because, unlike you, I do accept everyone, even those I don't agree with personally. But know this, I will make that donation each and every time you shop here because nonacceptance should never, ever cause harm, and I'll gladly do whatever I can to counter balance your nonacceptance and hatred."

Without another word Mrs. Wilson turned and stormed out to Diana's cheerful, "Have a great day!"

Patrons throughout the store looked in surprise when all the workers suddenly burst out in cheers simultaneously.

Gwen's voice came through the headsets next, "Oh my Love, that was brilliant! God, I love you."

Kim's voice came through, "Can we make a donation anyways?"

Diana laughed, "Gladly, but we'll do it in our name."

Sue spoke through the headsets, "I have mentioned I FREAKING LOVE WORKING HERE!!!!"

Gwen answered back "Even with clothes on?"

Heather came through next, "Wait. You can work here without your clothes on?"

The women all laughed and got back to work.

Before Beth knew it, it was one and Cindy was waving to her from over in the café.

Soon the two women were sitting at a corner table in the café.

As the two spread their sandwich lunches out Cindy smiled at Beth, "Thanks for asking, this is really nice. You wanted to ask me something?"

A shade of red blossomed on Beth's face and neck. She looked around the mildly busy café before looking back at Cindy. "You remember that demonstration you did for me last night?"

Cindy smirked and nodded.

"On the way home, Chip talked about that and told me that we don't have to do it. But he's just being his sweet lovable self. I know he really wants to do it. Cindy, I passionately love him and would do anything for him, even that. I want to try but well.... Does it hurt a lot? You made it look so easy."

Cindy laughed as she took a bite of her turkey sandwich. "I've been doing it a while now. Honestly the first time, Matt and I were super charged up and realized we didn't have a condom and were definitely not ready for kids yet. I knew from his mom that he was crazy about that and well just went for it in the heat of the moment. It didn't really hurt much at all. But one big thing is Matt is definitely not the same size as Chip or his dad."

Beth nodded, "I know."

Cindy smiled, "Well, how about this. Let's eat quickly so we have some time left and then we'll go over to Dreamlands and get you some items that can help you work up to Chip. How's that?"

Beth gave a deep breath, "That would be great. Thanks."

Cindy, "I love Chip and am coming to really like you a lot as well. Would you and Chip like to come over to our house for dinner and fun after work on Saturday? We have Sunday off so a late night shouldn't be a problem. You'd even be welcome to spend the night if you both want."

Beth smiled, "Fun, huh? Just the four of us. You know, I'd love that. I'm sure that would be great with Chip, but I'll check with him tonight and get back to you. He has a big test on Friday, and I bet he would love that as a stress release."

Cindy smiled and the two women ate their lunches quicker.

They both collected all their garbage and threw it out in a nearby trash receptacle and headed over together to Dreamlands.

Cindy looked around Paradise Books floor space, "Wow, we have a lot of customers. This is great."

Cindy suddenly stopped and stared at the entrance to the store. Beth noticed that Cindy got ashen faced very quickly.

Cindy's mouth dropped open, "You have to be shitting me."

Beth turned her head to look at the middle aged, haggard woman standing in the doorway looking around for someone.

"Cindy, are you okay? Do you know that woman?"

Cindy shook her head and looked at Beth, "I really wish I didn't."

The woman caught sight of Cindy and frantically waved her hand, "Cindy! Cindy!"

Cindy looked around as if trying to escape. She grabbed Beth's hand as she called in the microphone panicking, "Diana. Diana. I need you."

Diana over at the register looked up to see Cindy looking like she had seen a ghost as the woman grabbed Cindy and hugged her tight.

"Kim? Kim, can you take the register."

Kim's voice came through the headset, "Already on my way. You go ahead."

Sue and Gwen watched from over at Dreamlands as Diana approached Cindy, Beth and the woman making a loud fuss.

Diana looked at the woman, "Can I help you? I really don't think Cindy wants to be hugged by you. Can you let her go?"

The woman looked at Diana, "Let her go? Why should I? I'm her mother."

"What?" Diana gasped.

The woman looked at Cindy who still stood frozen, "Well, Cindy, aren't you going to introduce your own mother to this nice woman?"

Finally Cindy spoke quietly, "You are not my mother."

The woman made a hurt look, "How can you say that? Of course I'm your mother. I went broke to come here to see you from Philadelphia. You should be grateful."

Diana looked around at the people staring at them and Cindy still looking scared.

"Come on, let's go into the backroom where we can have some privacy."

Cindy shook her head, "I don't want to go anywhere with that woman."

The woman looked at Diana, "You're that Diana Hughes right? Look, if you give me the money I'll go to a hotel and we can talk later. Cindy is just shocked to see me. It's been a long time after an unfortunate misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding?" Cindy yelled, "You threw me out onto the street when I was only fifteen."

At the same time Diana shook her head, "What? Give you money?"

The woman nodded her head, "I spent everything to get here. You have all that money. You understand. You want to help Cindy reconnect with her mother don't you?"

Diana heard Gwen's voice through the headset. "Diana, look out the door."

Diana looked toward the door to see a man quickly duck back.

Gwen came through the headsets again, "Quick, Cindy what's your mother's boyfriend's name."

"Richard," Cindy said.

Cindy's mother turned back to her daughter, "Yes, Richard is here, sweetie. He would love to see you. But back at the hotel if we can only have that money. I'm sure this nice woman would help us stay here to get better acquainted with you. She has the money. She's a mother too and understands."

"Diana. Stall her, I think I got this," came Gwen's voice through the headsets.

Gwen told Sue to man the register as she ran to the side entrance to Dreamlands dialing her phone while leaving her headset on.

"Matt? Matt listen, Cindy and I need your help. Just play along with me. Can you do a cheesy Mafioso accent? It's really important. Good."

Gwen rushed to the corner of the building and just stepped out enough for the man hiding by the door to notice her. She ducked back and hit speaker on her phone still with the headset on for the others to hear.

"Vinnie? Vinnie? Are you there?"

It was all Gwen could do not to laugh at Matt's horrible attempt at an accent as she held the phone out so the man around the corner could hear his responses.

"You remember that assessor you helped us with? No, No, I'm not trying to pull a con on you. You did great. It was worth all that money. I'm sure he'll never be found. Look we have a problem again we need you to take care of. Two problems. What? That much money? That's practically, all we have left. Opening this store cost us a fortune. Okay. Okay. But we need it done quick. They're here at our store now. What? Details. Okay their names are Andrea Morgan and Richard. They have a pale blue two door sedan with rust on the side. It's in our parking lot right now. There's not a lot of people around to see you and them" Gwen paused as she heard the sound of running feet.

Gwen spoke into the headset. "Wait for it."

Diana, Beth and Cindy all looked at the front door as it slammed open and a man stood there. He stared at Cindy's mother and roared, "Andrea! Get the fuck out now."

Andrea squeaked and ran toward the man who had already turned, and the two bolted toward the car and left.

Diana's mouth dropped open, "Are you kidding me? Vinnie? That worked?"

All the other women except Heather who had no idea what was going on and Cindy who was still shaking, all burst out laughing.

Gwen came back into Dreamlands smirking, "I figured they weren't rocket scientists. I'm just glad my guess at their car was right though it was a pretty safe bet based on its condition."

Diana turned back and looked at the visibly shaken Cindy. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her. Cindy suddenly burst into sobbing tears.

Diana hugged her tight, "Sshhh. Sshhh. It's okay sweetie. We're here. It's alright."

Gwen put her phone back up to her head, "Thanks Matt. Look, can you break free. Cindy needs you."

Diana looked at Beth and Gwen as she was approaching them. "Look, I'm going to close the store for family emergency."

Cindy jumped back at that, "Close the store? It's not even two o'clock! No. I'll be fine. Just give me some time."

She ran her hand across her tear streaked face.

Heather came through the headset, "Cindy. I got this. Take all the time you need."

Cindy looked up at Diana, "See? I'll be fine. Please don't close. It's opening day."

Diana looked carefully at Cindy, "I don't give a crap what day it is. You are way more important."

The rest of the women came through the headsets agreeing.

Cindy shook her head, "No. No. I'm fine. Really. If you close I'll just keep thinking about things. At least with the store open I'll be distracted. Just let me get my head straight first. Please. Don't close."

Diana stared hard at Cindy. "Well, okay. But I want you to relax. You just had a huge shock."

Cindy looked at Gwen, "Matt's on his way, right?"

Gwen smiled and nodded.

Cindy looked back at Diana and smiled, "See? Vinnie's coming. He'll take care of things."

They all laughed as Cindy hugged Gwen tightly.

"Thank you."

Cindy looked around at all the people staring at them.

"I'm so, so sorry everyone. Follow me for a free drink in the café as an apology for the family drama."

Gwen laughed, "Well, that will certainly keep her busy and her mind off of things."

Diana still looked at Cindy with concern.

Gwen put her hand on Diana's arm, "It's okay my love. Cindy's resilient. She'll bounce back quickly. She just had such a shock."

Diana looked at Gwen. "Vinnie. What on Earth ever gave you the idea for that stunt?"

Gwen just shrugged her shoulders and smiled, "I improvised."

Diana just shook her head and kissed her wife chuckling.

Happily for them all the rest of the day passed with no more unwanted guests but plenty of very welcome happy customers who shopped and shopped.

Everyone repeatedly checked on Cindy but with all the extra business from the free drinks Cindy soon lost herself in the routine and became her normal sense again. Though being able to sneak kisses with Matt who sat at a nearby table reading a thick legal manual for the rest of the shift didn't hurt.

A little after five the café had slowed while the rest of the store was still brisk. Beth walked over to find Cindy wiping a rag across the counter.

Cindy smiled, "Hiya. Checking up on me, you sweet thing?"

Beth smiled, "Well yeah, but also checking to see if you still wanted to go over with me to Dreamlands?"

Cindy beamed a huge smile, "I totally forgot about that!"

Beth giggled, "Gee, I wonder why?"

Cindy looked up at Heather who smiled and made a shooing motion. Cindy walked over and hugged her worker, who was already getting used to getting hugged a lot. Cindy came around from behind the counter and linked arm in arm with Beth. She turned toward her husband, "Going to take a little girl time break with Beth. Oh! I almost forgot, I invited her and Chip over for dinner and fun Saturday night."

Matt laughed, "Fun huh? Sounds great."

Beth blushed and smiled.

The two walked over through the store waving at Diana behind the register and both giving Kim a brief hug.

Gwen and Sue beamed at the sight of the two workers entering the store and more hugs were exchanged.

While holding Beth Sue looked into the blushing girl's face, "So what brings you two over to the wild side?"

Beth blushed deeper and looked around at the couple of customers milling around the merchandise. Cindy answered for her, "Just something to spice things up with Chip."

Sue smiled, "You need any help you know where to ask."

Cindy holding Beth's hand took her over to the gondola displaying all the various anal products.

Beth looked at Cindy, "I have no idea where to start."

Cindy laughed, "Ultimately, you want to take Chip. So you need to work up to that."

Cindy reached over and took a blister packed item off the rack and handed it to Beth.

Beth looked at the item, "Anal training kit."

She looked at the three various sized bulbous plugs from a smallest one to something almost Chip's size.

She took the smaller item from Cindy, "Finger rimmer."

Beth giggled as she looked at the small stubby thing encased in clear plastic. She looked at Cindy, "This is smaller than my finger."

She giggled. Then she remembered how just last night Kim stuck her own finger in her back there. She looked again. It was definitely smaller than Kim's finger. She looked up again as Cindy handed her a couple of purple bottles.

"Trust me, lube will be your very best friend. You can't have enough."

Cindy looked at Beth clutching the items nodding her head. "I think you are all set." She looked back at the display.

Beth watched as she took a package that contained a long thick string with largish balls through the middle spaced along it as well as another bottle of lube.

Cindy grinned at Beth, "Anal beads, time for a new toy for me."

Beth giggled and the two walked over toward the register.

Gwen smiled at the two giggling women.

Sue came back over and wrapped her arms around both women's shoulders and poked her head between them looking at Beth's purchases on the cash wrap.

"Well, something tells, me you won't have a certain limit to play time soon enough."

Beth just giggled and then blushed as Sue leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Sue looked down at the anal beads in Cindy's hands.

"Ooooooo. I like that idea. I need some of those!"

Gwen chuckled as Sue dashed over to the anal section.

She shook her head at the two girls. "I honestly don't know why we give her a paycheck; she only just gives it right back to us."

The women all laughed and completed their transactions before Beth and Cindy returned to work.