The Doll Emporium
Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 2:49 am
NOTE: This story contains adult language and in-depth lesbian sex scene descriptions. Reader Discretion Advised. Inspired by the books written by Amber Collins.
PART ONE
“This has to rate high in the definition of Irony”, I thought to myself as I pushed the doorbell button and waited.
This establishment had advertised in the local newspaper about a job opening as an ‘administrative assistant’, and given my ‘attributes’, plus the fact that I really did need a steady job, decided to apply. I was here for my interview.
I had come here after a string of previous jobs I had had fallen through. Not because I was a bad worker, but because my co-workers hadn’t exactly been treating me as a peer. More like an object to be leered at… or worse.
My name is Denise Starkey, but I’m usually called by my nickname of ‘Babs”. And if you saw me in the flesh, you’d understand why. I’m sure that you have all heard about the famous Barbie doll. While my waist and feet size would not be as small-proportioned as the actual doll if one was scaled up to my size, I had a pretty thin waist, a noticeably taller neck than most girls, and long blonde hair. In short, I looked a lot like that famous doll, and that of course got a lot of comments about it heading my way.
Being regarded as a ‘Living Barbie’ was kind of fun at first, but as time wore on it became more and more annoying, particularly by boorish males who wanted me to call them ‘Ken’ – along with the various ‘suggestions’ that want along with it. But despite this, I still refused to alter my appearance. I liked to keep my blonde hair long, wear form-fitting skirts and heels, and to maintain my 38-21-34 figure. It wasn’t hard for me as (a) I had a good metabolism and (b) I loved to exercise. So, my eating a piece of chocolate cake for lunch meant a few extra minutes on the treadmill. It worked out nicely.
Nicely – as in personal appearance, that is. But finding a steady job wasn’t so easy. I had a degree in business administration, but the paternalistic attitude prevalent in the workplace worked against me, particularly with the ‘Barbie’ look. The end result were secretarial jobs in which I didn’t stay long owing to the lack of challenge, the rejection of any advice I had from my employers, and of course the endless number of passes and lewd comments.
I had considered trying modelling, but some of my college friends who had tried that kind of career had advised me against it as they had been pressured to try pornographic modelling, and I was certainly not going to contemplate doing anything of that type! I knew that my Barbie-doll looks would make me a target for that type of thing, and that could not only ruin one's future, but it could also make me a target for legal action by Mattel.
For a while, I tried my hand at waitressing. While the tips were pretty good, the attitude from not only customers but employers made my staying at any one place for too long very unpalatable. That, plus on more than one occasion customers who wanted to make their acquaintances with me more ‘up close and personal’ would hang around and try to ‘persuade’ me to be go out with them. I ended up on more than one occasion having to leave by the back way and quickly get to my car before anyone would see me. It was on a personal level very embarrassing.
In any case, I had found out that my sexual preferences were not for men, but for women. Oh, I had dated men, and had sex with them as well, but the first time that I had dated a woman – a fellow waitress from one of the restaurants I had worked at – it really brought out my sexual ‘inner beast’. Being a lesbian was something that I was not ashamed of, but I still kept my ‘Barbie’ look because I just couldn’t imagine myself being comfortable in anything else.
Anyway, I had been in my apartment looking at the employment section of the local newspaper and I came across this ad:
WANTED: PERSON TO ASSIST IN OFFICE ADMINISTRATION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE AT COLLECTOR’S DOLL EMPORIUM. COLLEGE DEGREE PREFERRED. IF INTERESTED CALL JESSICA MATTHEWS AT 555-110-1018. SERIOUS APPLICATIONS ONLY.
I rolled my eyes at the name of the company but given that I had had enough of being a secretary and a waitress, I decided to call the number.
“Hello”, the voice at the other end of the phone had said, “Collector’s Doll Emporium”.
“Hello”, I replied, “I would like to speak to Ms. Matthews, please”.
“This is she”, the voice replied, “How may I help you?”
“I had read your advertisement for a position in your company”, I replied, “and I’d like to apply for it”.
“Okay”, Ms. Matthews said, “May I ask why would you like to work at the emporium? This facility only deals in collector’s dolls, store dolls, and accessories for both types”.
“Well, Ms. Matthews”, I replied, “I have a college degree in Business Administration, but the only jobs I have been able to land since graduation were either secretarial or waitressing. Your position sounds more to my liking”.
“Tending shop while I work on my collectables is primarily what you would be doing, so customer relations are going to be important. Waitressing may not be quite the experience I’m looking for in that regard”, Ms. Matthews said next.
“Well”, I replied as I looked at myself in the wall mirror, “I may have something that would complement your business nicely”.
“And what is that Ms…?”, Ms. Matthews asked.
“My name is Denise Starkey, Ms. Matthews”, I replied, “but people call me ‘Babs’. That’s because they say that I look like a real-life Barbie doll. That might be a good draw for your business”.
I felt a little bit ashamed at having to use my ‘attributes’ to have a shot at landing the job, but I wanted to give this woman a reason to give me a proper interview. I wanted to show her that I could work as well as I looked. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again:
“Were you working at the Red Coast Bar and Grill a few weeks ago, Miss Starkey?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s right”, I replied, “Were you there?”
“Yes, I saw your waitressing when I had dinner there, and I remarked to myself that you did indeed look like a Barbie doll. Not so ridiculously proportioned as the actual doll of course, but I was very impressed all the same”.
“Well thank you very much, Ms. Matthews”, I replied.
“I can see your reasoning in regards to customer service, and as you said that you have a degree in business admin, perhaps you are the person that I’m looking for”, she said, “Can you make it for an interview today? Say around three?”
“Yes, I can do that”, I replied. I was not due to go on my waitressing shift until six PM.
“The address is 1313 Peach Creek Boulevard”, she said, “Just ring the doorbell and I’ll let you in. It’s not open on Mondays, so you won’t be interfering with business. We can talk about the job requirements in more detail. All right?”
“Thank you, Ms. Matthews”, I replied.
“See you at three”, Miss Starkey said. “Until then”, she said before hanging up the phone.
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So here I am, three o’clock sharp. I had rung the doorbell, then I heard a ‘click’ as the door opened up. The woman who opened the door was a very pretty brunette about twenty-four years old. She smiled as she looked me over.
“Miss Starkey, I presume”, she said with a smile.
“Yes, Ma’am”, I replied politely. It never hurt to show polite deference to a potential boss.
“You make me sound so old with that title”, she said as she opened the door wider and gestured for me to enter the store, “I prefer informality, so please call me Jessica. I manage this emporium”.
I looked at her as she closed the door. She really was a friendly person.
“In that case, you can call me Babs”, I said as I offered her my hand.
When she touched my hand, I felt like a weird shock had gone through me. It wasn’t an electrical shock, but all the same, it gave me an unexpected jolt. My eyes widened some. I saw that hers had widened as well.
“Are you all right?” she asked me as she let go of my hand.
“Oh, no”, I replied, “I was just taken by your um, friendliness”, I finished with a blush.
“Let’s go into my office”, she gestured, “but first, take a look at the various items that are sold here. That will give you an idea for the clientele we cater for”.
I looked at a number of shelves that had doll displays. These dolls were mostly of the 1/6 scale size associated with Ken and Barbie. But these dolls had beautifully detailed clothes adorning them. Suits, casual clothes, formal dresses, gowns, even bikinis. I was extremely impressed with the intricate detail of the clothing. The shoes and high heels were also highly detailed.
The dolls themselves looked very well-made and their hair looked so fine compared with the hair on the stock Barbie and Ken dolls. A lot of work went into these dolls and their clothes, I realized.
“Those dolls as you can see are mounted on circular plastic bases and protected by the glass tubes, which are treated with a chemical to filter out certain light wavelengths. They are also hermetically sealed and helium gas is pumped in to ensure that the clothes and doll do not deteriorate with age”, Jessica explained.
I nodded at that. Helium was an inert gas and would serve as a counter to the effects of age. The treated glass would also protect the doll’s clothing from fading.
The glass tubes resembled grain silos as they were ‘capped’ with a glass hemisphere. Each of the bases had a serial number. I looked at the prices on the tags and silently whistled.
“You have a market for these?” I asked, “These prices are not for the faint-hearted”.
“There are a lot of serious collectors who buy these types of dolls”, Jessica explained, “The quality of manufacture – not just of the dolls themselves, but the clothing that they wear – makes them well sought-after pieces”.
I nodded at that. The dolls were so variably dressed: casual wear, sportswear, formal wear, wedding attire, swimwear… Nothing was the same. All were unique. And the detailing and quality of the fabric really impressed me. How could so much detailing and precision be put into the clothes, I thought. She must have a lot of state-of-the-art precision tools to do the job.
I was especially taken by a female doll dressed in tennis attire. The tennis racquet it was holding was incredibly detailed. Not just the strings on the racquet itself, but also the brand name on the handle. The tennis ball in the doll’s other hand looked so real in its texture, yet it was the size of a marble. The clothing attire was similarly finely detailed: right down to the buttons and the embroidered tennis club logo on the shirt.
“Yes, I’m particularly proud of that one”, Jessica said.
“It must have been a very small kitten for the catgut used in the racquet strings”, I joked.
She laughed with me, but I thought that I caught something else in her expression when I said, ‘small kitten’. I hoped that she didn’t think I hated cats. She then pointed to another part of the shop.
“That room is devoted to ‘stock’ pieces. You know: like what one would buy at a department store and the like”.
I looked in. There were shelves lined with Barbie dolls, Ken Dolls, Cindy Dolls, and other popular dolls. Even G.I. Joe, I noticed. There were also shelves lined with accessories like clothing, furniture, plastic horses, plastic bicycles, miniature cars. There was also a large doll’s house sitting on the floor with a railing surrounding it. The doll’s house had its roof off so that people could look inside it. I could see that it had doll’s furniture in the various rooms.
“So, you cater for the casual shopper as well”, I commented. She nodded.
“I try to make it appealing for the casual shopper as well as the discerning collector”, she explained, “I get a fair number of customers from both categories”.
After a quick look in the ‘stock’ room, she led me over to a closed door, which she opened.
“Here’s my office”, she said, “please take a seat and we’ll talk about the job”.
The office was well-appointed with an oak desk, a large office chair behind it and two smaller chairs in front of it. There was a bookcase filled with books on one side of the room and a display case with other sealed dolls on display.
Jessica gestured to one of the smaller chairs as she went behind her desk and sat down. I did likewise.
“What I am looking for is a person to tend to the customers whilst I do my work in the workshop out back”, she started to say, “and the person tending shop must be good at balancing the books and keeping inventory at the end of each day, plus helping get the on-line ordered items packed, addressed, and ready to be picked up by the courier the following morning”.
“I’ve got an Accounting minor as well as my Business Admin major, so that shouldn’t be a problem, Ma’am”, I replied as I handed her my college transcript.
“Jessica, please!”, she corrected, “’Ma’am’ makes me sound so old”.
“I was brought up to respect my superiors, and if I was employed here, you’d be my boss.
Calling my boss by her first name seems weird to me”, I confessed.
“Well, Babs”, Jessica said, “I’m using the name you like to be called, so I’d expect you to do the same for me. Okay?”
“All right… Jessica”, I replied. She smiled.
“Much better”, she said, “I allow more or less a free hand here, but the only restrictions that you would have to be aware of is that you do not go into the workshop, nor my apartment upstairs without my express approval”.
I nodded at that. The latter because it was her personal space, and the former because her ‘secrets of the trade’ was something she’d want to protect.
She asked me about my past jobs and why I didn’t stay there. I replied candidly about the work environment I had to endure and my need to get away from it in order to show what I was capable of.
“You could have changed your look, Babs”, she pointed out, “given the Barbie resemblance, one could be forgiven for thinking that you were encouraging such behavior”.
“I’ve always felt comfortable about the way I look, Jessica”, I responded, “and I would be compromising my inner self if I had to change my looks to suit other people”.
I did sound overly defensive, but Jessica nodded approvingly.
“You show integrity by that answer, Babs”, she replied, “and I value that quality highly. Do you think you can start work tomorrow?”
I was surprised, but also happy. The interview lasted for only a few minutes, but she was already offering me a job!
“Yes, I could, Jessica”, I replied with a nod, “what time do I come in tomorrow, and what do I wear?”
She told me what time to come in, what attire would be expected – she did want me to maintain the Barbie look – and she offered me a pretty good starting wage.
“This emporium opens at nine, but I would like you here at eight so that I can go over with you how to work the computer and till, plus get your paperwork done for Mister Taxman. We can’t forget him”.
“If the till works like the ones I used at the restaurants, it should be okay”, I assured her.
“Excellent!” she said, “Well, Babs: welcome to the Collector’s Doll Emporium!”
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And that’s how I started work at the emporium. I had worked the waitressing shift that night and turned in my resignation when the shift ended. When Jessica asked me why I looked so tired when I reported in, I told her that I couldn’t just quit without finishing the shift. Jessica nodded approvingly as it reinforced my work ethic and basic integrity.
I quickly got up to speed in the new job. While Jessica did her work mostly in the workshop, I tended the front counter and assisted customers in their browsing and purchases. My Barbie look got quite a few stares and compliments from people, especially the children who accompanied a number of the adult buyers and I ended up posing in quite a few selfie shots. According to Jessica, I really did great advertising for the place by my simply being there.
Around noon, Jessica and I would close shop for an hour and drive to a café for lunch, unless it was busier than normal, in which one of us would go and get food from a takeout joint and bring it back to eat together in her office. We’d sit and chat about various things and talk about what kind of doll ideas we’d have. Jessica and I were becoming fast friends. She really was a great person to work for.
She told me a little about her past. Her mother had died before she was six, her father had recently died after being in managed health care for some years, and that she was an only child. I told her a little about my family past. I could tell that she liked opening up to me some about her past, though I was careful not to ask too many questions. Things like discussing family matters were best volunteered…
At the end of each day, I closed and locked the front door, quickly tallied up the daily take, then placed the cash in the office safe with checks for depositing in the bank the following morning. Then I worked in a side room used for packaging online orders. I’d put the ordered items in padded styrene molds, boxed them up, wrapped and addressed them, then put them out in the lobby for the daily courier pickup. I was quite surprised by the amount of business that the emporium generated.
When all of that was done, then I’d say goodnight to Jessica and head back to my apartment for dinner. It was quite a pleasant little monotony working Tuesday to Saturday in the shop lobby, and Mondays helping Jessica getting things ready for the new work week. Putting out new dolls for sale, taking care of online orders that took place over the weekend, ensuring that the books were balanced, tidying up around the emporium, etc.
“You’ve really been a godsend, Babs”, Jessica said one morning while quickly getting the lobby swept and dusted before opening the emporium for customers, “I don’t how I could have done it without you”.
“Well, given all of the work that you do in the workshop making those collector dolls, I have to be sure that you don’t get distracted by other things. So far, so good”, I concluded.
I made sure that Jessica knew that I would not break my promise not to go into the workshop or up to her upstairs apartment. One time when she went out to lunch, she deliberately left the workshop door unlocked. I had plenty of opportunity while she was out to go in and take a look, but a promise is a promise and I kept myself in check. When she got back, she looked at the workshop door, then me.
“You truly have integrity, Babs”, she said simply, “I’m lucky to have you working here”.
There were a number of curious things though that did arrive at the emporium during the work week. Things like a number of laundered and dry-cleaned clothes, shoes and jewelry, and also large boxes – as tall as a person, but narrow – that were delivered out back. Jessica took receipt of those items and took them into the workshop herself. I did wonder what she needed them for, but I figured that if Jessica wanted me to know, she’d let me know. I respected her authority as my boss, and I was not going to be a snoop.
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A few weeks after I started working there, it was Jessica’s turn to go and get lunch. There were a number of customers in the store, which meant I couldn’t chase them out just so we could go to the café down the street. So, I tended to the customers while Jessica went out for food. By the time she got back, the store was empty of customers, so after I put the ‘out to lunch’ sign up on the door window and locked the front door, I followed her into her office, which doubled as the de-facto lunch room. She had gotten me an egg-salad sandwich, an apple, and a cup of coffee. The latter was in one of those indented trays that stops them from spilling in a car.
“Here you go, Babs”, Jessica said as she passed over to me the indented tray holding my Styrofoam cup of coffee, “Cream and two sugars, as requested”.
“Thanks, Jessica”, I said as I reached over her desk to get the offered cup. I took the coffee off the tray, then sat back in the chair in order to drink it, but then I was aware of something wet and very warm on my dress.
“Oh damn!”, I exclaimed as I saw that it was coffee dribbling onto my dress, “I only got this dry-cleaned too! I can’t go out serving customers looking like this!”
The coffee had been dripping out from a hole in the bottom of the cup. While it was sitting in the tray, it was not noticeable.
Jessica – who had been watching – said, “Don’t worry, Babs. I’ve got some clothes that will fit you in the workshop. Since I bought the coffee, it’s my fault and I’ll get your clothes to the cleaners for you”.
“That would be wonderful, Jessica”, I said, “I don’t want to be serving customers with a coffee stain on my skirt and it would take too long in my getting home and changing”.
Nodding, she quickly got my coffee and put it back in the tray, then – as she got a coffee mug out of her office drawer – she stood up. She then took the tray over to the office bathroom, where she poured my coffee from the leaking Styrofoam cup into the mug. She brought the mug back out to me.
“I’ll go get those clothes, Babs”, she said, “enjoy your lunch”.
At that, she left the office and headed over to the workshop. I sat back down and started to eat my egg salad sandwich. At least the sandwich didn’t get soaked, I thought…
After a couple of minutes, Jessica brought out a green dress, somewhat lower cut than the pink dress that I was wearing, but it looked the right size, it would cover my bra and bra straps, and it would be something a Barbie doll would wear. My looking the role of a giant Barbie was helping business…
“Here you go, Babs”, she said, “you go into the bathroom and change. I’ll make sure your pink dress gets out to the cleaners this evening. Okay?”
“Thank you, Jessica”, I replied as I took her offered clothing and headed to the bathroom.
In about five minutes, I changed into the green dress. I did wonder why Jessica would have something like this in the workshop. I thought that perhaps she was using this dress as a reference for her making doll clothes. It would certainly explain why a lot of various clothing types had been delivered from the cleaners to the emporium, but I thought that it would surely be easier to use doll clothing patterns and bolts of cloth, none of which I ever saw delivered with the other items…
After exiting the bathroom, Jessica looked me up and down and smiled approvingly. I pirouetted around like a fashion model, stopping to face her with one of my legs bent and my hands on my hips.
“Thanks for the clothes, Jessica”, I said once again, “My stained ones are folded up in the bathroom”.
“I’ll take care of those for you, Babs”, she replied as she gestured back to the chair that I was sitting in.
I sat down and we both resumed eating our lunch. That gave me a thought.
“Jessica”, I said, “I wonder if you’d like to come over to my apartment for dinner tonight? You’ve been a great boss and friend and with you helping me out with my clothes and all, well… it would be a way of saying thanks”.
“Actually, Babs”, she said, “I would like that very much!”
“Then it’s a date!”, I said with a broad smile. She smiled back at me. She reached over the dress and held my hand. I squeezed back…
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That evening at my apartment was when everything changed for both of us, though I wasn’t immediately cognizant of that. Jessica had arrived at Seven PM – nicely dressed, and I let her in and asked her to relax in the living room. My apartment was a two-bedroom dwelling, pleasantly furnished. The second bedroom served as my office/study.
"Very nice digs, Babs", she said as she passed me a large plastic bowl. As I took the bowl into the kitchen, I called back to her:
“What would you like to drink, Jessica?” I asked, “I have some white wine, or hard cider”.
“Wine would be nice, Dear”, she replied as she looked at the various pictures hanging on the wall.
I poured her a glass of wine and I carried it out to her. I had a glass of wine in my hand as well.
As she took the offered glass, she raised it in a toast.
“To you, Babs”, she said, “the best employee I could have ever hoped for”.
“To you Jessica”, I replied, “the best boss I could have ever hoped for”.
Clicking our glasses together, we sipped our wine and then we sat down in the sofa.
“Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes”, I said, “I hope you like pot roast, boiled cabbage, and red potatoes. The slow cooker really does wonders for me while I'm at work. I usually make enough for several helpings, so this invite is not a problem”, I added by way of explanation.
“Sounds grand, Babs”, she replied, “it certainly makes a change from eating out or eating fast food”.
“You don’t get time to cook for yourself?” I asked. She took another sip of her wine and looked at me.
“I don’t get much spare time to do that, Babs”, she replied, “Sundays and Mondays are spent catching up on things in the emporium. Owning a business can really ruin one’s social life”.
“Well, the way it’s making money will surely mean that you will be able to hire more people to help you out”, I said as I took another sip of my wine.
“I don’t want to have any others working for me”, Jessica said, “I like things the way that they are”.
With that, she winked at me and raised her glass to me in a silent toast. I blushed at what she had said.
She then turned to me and reached out her right hand to my right hand – we were holding our wine glasses in our left hands – and said, “You’ve been so good as both a dependable employee, and as a friend, Babs. You have no idea how much this dinner invitation meant to me”.
“You have no idea as to what my working for you there meant to me, Jessica”, I replied, “you treat me like I am a person, not an object of lust or condescension. I’m proud to be working for you”.
At that, she took her hand away from mine and put it on my knee. Her smile was warm. I smiled back at her.
We quickly finished our wine, then I stood up and went into the kitchen to prepare the food. The plastic bowl that Jessica had brought along was a salad she had picked up from a local deli, so we enjoyed first her salad with thousand island dressing, then the main course. Washed down of course with more wine.
As we ate, we chatted about various items of interest. I told her something about my college days and she told me a little more about her interests outside of the emporium. The way she was talking about them gave me the impression that she did not have much spare time outside her business concerns. I hoped that my working there at the emporium with her was allowing some extra time for her to enjoy herself. I got the feeling that she had been lonely for quite a while...
“You know, it’s been so long since I’ve been in another person’s place”, Jessica said after finishing the main course, “and you are one heck of a good cook, I must add”.
“Well, I appreciate that very much”, I replied, “would you like some dessert?” I asked. Jessica shook her head.
“How about some coffee?” I asked next. She shook her head again.
“Well, is there anything else that you would like, Jessica?” I asked. She sipped her wine and looked at me intently.
“Just one thing, Babs”, she said softly as she stood up and put down her wine glass. I stood up as well.
She walked over to me, then without further ado, she put her arms around me and softly kissed me on the lips.
I found myself hugging her as I passionately returned her kiss. I don’t know if the wine had anything to do with it, but before I knew it, I was guiding her over to my bedroom, where we were quickly shedding our clothes. We were both nude in a very short amount of time. I was admiring her body while at the same time she was admiring mine.
“Shall we?” I huskily asked her.
“Please do”, she replied.
Pushing her down onto my bed, I then straddled her, passionately kissing first her lips, then her breasts. She was breathing hard as I continued to fondle her boobs whilst kissing her neck and licking her ear lobes.
“Oh, Babs!” she exclaimed as I moved off her, then started running my tongue first around her breasts, then working my way down to her vulva.
She maneuvered her hands so that she could part her pussy lips for me. I put my tongue right on her clitoris and started to lick it. She was stiffening and moaning in reaction. Still using my tongue, I moved my hands down and started adding my fingers to stimulating – then penetrating – her vagina.
“Oh… My… Word…”, she said as I continued my pussy-licking. The smell and taste of her was making me very wet, and very horny! She was enraptured by what I was doing to her.
Suddenly, with an “Ohhhh!”, I felt my face get wet as she orgasmed. She shuddered, then took deep breaths.
I took my face away from her pussy and said, “I’m wet in more places than one, I think”, I said playfully as I reached to a side table and grabbed a wet-wipe.
“You know exactly how to make a girl feel good, Babs!”, she sighed as I finished wiping my face, then her vulva.
“You realize that now I have to do the same to you, my Dear”, she said next.
“Don’t move”, I said with a smile, “I’ll let the mountain come to you instead”.
With that I straddled her again, but this time I straddled her with her face directly below my vulva. Jessica took the hint and started licking my pussy. I noticed that my nipples went rock-hard from what she was doing. My already wet vulva was getting wetter by the second.
“Oh, Jessica”, I cried, “your magic tongue is turning me into your slave. I am losing my free will!”
She took her tongue away from her licking long enough to say, “then be a good slave and take what what your mistress is giving to you!”
With that, she resumed her licking, and in the process adding her fingers to her lovemaking. I found myself lifting my boobs to my mouth and licking my nipples as the pleasuring became more intense.
“Look out, here it comes!” I gasped as I shuddered, then climaxed.
Her face got soaked with my orgasmic juices as it gushed out. I felt faint in the after-climax euphoria and I quickly moved off her and laid on the bed beside her.
Jessica reached over to the wet wipes and grabbed a few to wipe her soaked face. She said, “I must have been good to get a flow out of you like that!”
“I have never reacted that way to anyone making love to me before tonight”, I replied sincerely, “You are a wonderful lover, Jessica!”
“You were no slouch in the lovemaking department either, Babs”, she replied.
After a few minutes of quietly lying beside each other, Jessica said, “when our hands touched for the first time at the interview, I knew that there was something special between us, Babs. The feeling I got from the touch was that of love”.
“I got that same feeling from you too, Jessica”, I replied, “I knew that you were someone special, and now I know why. I’m in love with you”.
“I’m in love with you too”, she sighed back, “I think I’ve been in love with you since that first touch”.
Realizing that we were both in love was something really lovely, but then I realized that there was probably going to be something that could stand in the way of our love…
I sat up in the bed and looked over at her with a worried expression. Jessica saw the expression on my face.
“I now know that you love me just as much as I love you, Babs”, Jessica said as she sat up, “but I see that you’re troubled by this. What is wrong? Please tell me”, she implored.
“I love you so much, Jessica”, I said, “but you are my employer. How could we be able to work professionally at the emporium with such an intense personal bond of affection between us? I hate to say it, but I think that if we want to stay friends and lovers, I’m going to have to resign as your employee. I don’t want to do any harm to your business”.
Jessica looked heartbroken. I was not happy at having to tell her about the conflict of interest, but I also saw that she understood where I was coming from. She got out of bed and started to get dressed.
“When I interviewed you, I could tell you had integrity”, Jessica said quietly as she finished dressing and turned towards the front door of my apartment, “but I think you’re taking it too far in this case, Babs”, she finished with tears running down her face.
“Loving you is so right, Jessica”, I said as I got out of bed and hugged her, “you don’t have to leave. Please stay here with me tonight”.
Jessica returned the hug, then she kissed me for several seconds.
“I’d love to”, Jessica said after breaking the kiss, “but I really think that you need alone time in order for you to think carefully about what you said. I honestly don’t see a conflict of interest between our love and our work. Please don’t sell yourself short”.
I could not trust myself to reply as I knew that I would choke on my words. She walked to the door, then paused as if thinking about something. She then turned to face me.
“Please do me a favor and come in to work tomorrow morning at Eight”, she said next, “I’d like to show you something that I hope will make you reconsider resigning. Remember to close and lock the door behind you when you enter as we must not be disturbed”.
Nodding, I let her hug me once more and kiss me on the cheek.
“Good night, My Love”, she said. She then left the apartment.
After she left, I cleaned up the dinner dishes, then went to my study and started to type out the letter of resignation. I felt empty as I did so, but I just could not hurt her business by our love for each other. I loved working with her, but in the emporium, she was first and foremost my boss. That demanded a degree of separation from her employees. I felt that she could have me as a lover or as an employee, but not both. I preferred her as my lover, but I was thinking about how my resignation would affect that as I typed it out…
PART ONE
“This has to rate high in the definition of Irony”, I thought to myself as I pushed the doorbell button and waited.
This establishment had advertised in the local newspaper about a job opening as an ‘administrative assistant’, and given my ‘attributes’, plus the fact that I really did need a steady job, decided to apply. I was here for my interview.
I had come here after a string of previous jobs I had had fallen through. Not because I was a bad worker, but because my co-workers hadn’t exactly been treating me as a peer. More like an object to be leered at… or worse.
My name is Denise Starkey, but I’m usually called by my nickname of ‘Babs”. And if you saw me in the flesh, you’d understand why. I’m sure that you have all heard about the famous Barbie doll. While my waist and feet size would not be as small-proportioned as the actual doll if one was scaled up to my size, I had a pretty thin waist, a noticeably taller neck than most girls, and long blonde hair. In short, I looked a lot like that famous doll, and that of course got a lot of comments about it heading my way.
Being regarded as a ‘Living Barbie’ was kind of fun at first, but as time wore on it became more and more annoying, particularly by boorish males who wanted me to call them ‘Ken’ – along with the various ‘suggestions’ that want along with it. But despite this, I still refused to alter my appearance. I liked to keep my blonde hair long, wear form-fitting skirts and heels, and to maintain my 38-21-34 figure. It wasn’t hard for me as (a) I had a good metabolism and (b) I loved to exercise. So, my eating a piece of chocolate cake for lunch meant a few extra minutes on the treadmill. It worked out nicely.
Nicely – as in personal appearance, that is. But finding a steady job wasn’t so easy. I had a degree in business administration, but the paternalistic attitude prevalent in the workplace worked against me, particularly with the ‘Barbie’ look. The end result were secretarial jobs in which I didn’t stay long owing to the lack of challenge, the rejection of any advice I had from my employers, and of course the endless number of passes and lewd comments.
I had considered trying modelling, but some of my college friends who had tried that kind of career had advised me against it as they had been pressured to try pornographic modelling, and I was certainly not going to contemplate doing anything of that type! I knew that my Barbie-doll looks would make me a target for that type of thing, and that could not only ruin one's future, but it could also make me a target for legal action by Mattel.
For a while, I tried my hand at waitressing. While the tips were pretty good, the attitude from not only customers but employers made my staying at any one place for too long very unpalatable. That, plus on more than one occasion customers who wanted to make their acquaintances with me more ‘up close and personal’ would hang around and try to ‘persuade’ me to be go out with them. I ended up on more than one occasion having to leave by the back way and quickly get to my car before anyone would see me. It was on a personal level very embarrassing.
In any case, I had found out that my sexual preferences were not for men, but for women. Oh, I had dated men, and had sex with them as well, but the first time that I had dated a woman – a fellow waitress from one of the restaurants I had worked at – it really brought out my sexual ‘inner beast’. Being a lesbian was something that I was not ashamed of, but I still kept my ‘Barbie’ look because I just couldn’t imagine myself being comfortable in anything else.
Anyway, I had been in my apartment looking at the employment section of the local newspaper and I came across this ad:
WANTED: PERSON TO ASSIST IN OFFICE ADMINISTRATION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE AT COLLECTOR’S DOLL EMPORIUM. COLLEGE DEGREE PREFERRED. IF INTERESTED CALL JESSICA MATTHEWS AT 555-110-1018. SERIOUS APPLICATIONS ONLY.
I rolled my eyes at the name of the company but given that I had had enough of being a secretary and a waitress, I decided to call the number.
“Hello”, the voice at the other end of the phone had said, “Collector’s Doll Emporium”.
“Hello”, I replied, “I would like to speak to Ms. Matthews, please”.
“This is she”, the voice replied, “How may I help you?”
“I had read your advertisement for a position in your company”, I replied, “and I’d like to apply for it”.
“Okay”, Ms. Matthews said, “May I ask why would you like to work at the emporium? This facility only deals in collector’s dolls, store dolls, and accessories for both types”.
“Well, Ms. Matthews”, I replied, “I have a college degree in Business Administration, but the only jobs I have been able to land since graduation were either secretarial or waitressing. Your position sounds more to my liking”.
“Tending shop while I work on my collectables is primarily what you would be doing, so customer relations are going to be important. Waitressing may not be quite the experience I’m looking for in that regard”, Ms. Matthews said next.
“Well”, I replied as I looked at myself in the wall mirror, “I may have something that would complement your business nicely”.
“And what is that Ms…?”, Ms. Matthews asked.
“My name is Denise Starkey, Ms. Matthews”, I replied, “but people call me ‘Babs’. That’s because they say that I look like a real-life Barbie doll. That might be a good draw for your business”.
I felt a little bit ashamed at having to use my ‘attributes’ to have a shot at landing the job, but I wanted to give this woman a reason to give me a proper interview. I wanted to show her that I could work as well as I looked. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again:
“Were you working at the Red Coast Bar and Grill a few weeks ago, Miss Starkey?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s right”, I replied, “Were you there?”
“Yes, I saw your waitressing when I had dinner there, and I remarked to myself that you did indeed look like a Barbie doll. Not so ridiculously proportioned as the actual doll of course, but I was very impressed all the same”.
“Well thank you very much, Ms. Matthews”, I replied.
“I can see your reasoning in regards to customer service, and as you said that you have a degree in business admin, perhaps you are the person that I’m looking for”, she said, “Can you make it for an interview today? Say around three?”
“Yes, I can do that”, I replied. I was not due to go on my waitressing shift until six PM.
“The address is 1313 Peach Creek Boulevard”, she said, “Just ring the doorbell and I’ll let you in. It’s not open on Mondays, so you won’t be interfering with business. We can talk about the job requirements in more detail. All right?”
“Thank you, Ms. Matthews”, I replied.
“See you at three”, Miss Starkey said. “Until then”, she said before hanging up the phone.
----------
So here I am, three o’clock sharp. I had rung the doorbell, then I heard a ‘click’ as the door opened up. The woman who opened the door was a very pretty brunette about twenty-four years old. She smiled as she looked me over.
“Miss Starkey, I presume”, she said with a smile.
“Yes, Ma’am”, I replied politely. It never hurt to show polite deference to a potential boss.
“You make me sound so old with that title”, she said as she opened the door wider and gestured for me to enter the store, “I prefer informality, so please call me Jessica. I manage this emporium”.
I looked at her as she closed the door. She really was a friendly person.
“In that case, you can call me Babs”, I said as I offered her my hand.
When she touched my hand, I felt like a weird shock had gone through me. It wasn’t an electrical shock, but all the same, it gave me an unexpected jolt. My eyes widened some. I saw that hers had widened as well.
“Are you all right?” she asked me as she let go of my hand.
“Oh, no”, I replied, “I was just taken by your um, friendliness”, I finished with a blush.
“Let’s go into my office”, she gestured, “but first, take a look at the various items that are sold here. That will give you an idea for the clientele we cater for”.
I looked at a number of shelves that had doll displays. These dolls were mostly of the 1/6 scale size associated with Ken and Barbie. But these dolls had beautifully detailed clothes adorning them. Suits, casual clothes, formal dresses, gowns, even bikinis. I was extremely impressed with the intricate detail of the clothing. The shoes and high heels were also highly detailed.
The dolls themselves looked very well-made and their hair looked so fine compared with the hair on the stock Barbie and Ken dolls. A lot of work went into these dolls and their clothes, I realized.
“Those dolls as you can see are mounted on circular plastic bases and protected by the glass tubes, which are treated with a chemical to filter out certain light wavelengths. They are also hermetically sealed and helium gas is pumped in to ensure that the clothes and doll do not deteriorate with age”, Jessica explained.
I nodded at that. Helium was an inert gas and would serve as a counter to the effects of age. The treated glass would also protect the doll’s clothing from fading.
The glass tubes resembled grain silos as they were ‘capped’ with a glass hemisphere. Each of the bases had a serial number. I looked at the prices on the tags and silently whistled.
“You have a market for these?” I asked, “These prices are not for the faint-hearted”.
“There are a lot of serious collectors who buy these types of dolls”, Jessica explained, “The quality of manufacture – not just of the dolls themselves, but the clothing that they wear – makes them well sought-after pieces”.
I nodded at that. The dolls were so variably dressed: casual wear, sportswear, formal wear, wedding attire, swimwear… Nothing was the same. All were unique. And the detailing and quality of the fabric really impressed me. How could so much detailing and precision be put into the clothes, I thought. She must have a lot of state-of-the-art precision tools to do the job.
I was especially taken by a female doll dressed in tennis attire. The tennis racquet it was holding was incredibly detailed. Not just the strings on the racquet itself, but also the brand name on the handle. The tennis ball in the doll’s other hand looked so real in its texture, yet it was the size of a marble. The clothing attire was similarly finely detailed: right down to the buttons and the embroidered tennis club logo on the shirt.
“Yes, I’m particularly proud of that one”, Jessica said.
“It must have been a very small kitten for the catgut used in the racquet strings”, I joked.
She laughed with me, but I thought that I caught something else in her expression when I said, ‘small kitten’. I hoped that she didn’t think I hated cats. She then pointed to another part of the shop.
“That room is devoted to ‘stock’ pieces. You know: like what one would buy at a department store and the like”.
I looked in. There were shelves lined with Barbie dolls, Ken Dolls, Cindy Dolls, and other popular dolls. Even G.I. Joe, I noticed. There were also shelves lined with accessories like clothing, furniture, plastic horses, plastic bicycles, miniature cars. There was also a large doll’s house sitting on the floor with a railing surrounding it. The doll’s house had its roof off so that people could look inside it. I could see that it had doll’s furniture in the various rooms.
“So, you cater for the casual shopper as well”, I commented. She nodded.
“I try to make it appealing for the casual shopper as well as the discerning collector”, she explained, “I get a fair number of customers from both categories”.
After a quick look in the ‘stock’ room, she led me over to a closed door, which she opened.
“Here’s my office”, she said, “please take a seat and we’ll talk about the job”.
The office was well-appointed with an oak desk, a large office chair behind it and two smaller chairs in front of it. There was a bookcase filled with books on one side of the room and a display case with other sealed dolls on display.
Jessica gestured to one of the smaller chairs as she went behind her desk and sat down. I did likewise.
“What I am looking for is a person to tend to the customers whilst I do my work in the workshop out back”, she started to say, “and the person tending shop must be good at balancing the books and keeping inventory at the end of each day, plus helping get the on-line ordered items packed, addressed, and ready to be picked up by the courier the following morning”.
“I’ve got an Accounting minor as well as my Business Admin major, so that shouldn’t be a problem, Ma’am”, I replied as I handed her my college transcript.
“Jessica, please!”, she corrected, “’Ma’am’ makes me sound so old”.
“I was brought up to respect my superiors, and if I was employed here, you’d be my boss.
Calling my boss by her first name seems weird to me”, I confessed.
“Well, Babs”, Jessica said, “I’m using the name you like to be called, so I’d expect you to do the same for me. Okay?”
“All right… Jessica”, I replied. She smiled.
“Much better”, she said, “I allow more or less a free hand here, but the only restrictions that you would have to be aware of is that you do not go into the workshop, nor my apartment upstairs without my express approval”.
I nodded at that. The latter because it was her personal space, and the former because her ‘secrets of the trade’ was something she’d want to protect.
She asked me about my past jobs and why I didn’t stay there. I replied candidly about the work environment I had to endure and my need to get away from it in order to show what I was capable of.
“You could have changed your look, Babs”, she pointed out, “given the Barbie resemblance, one could be forgiven for thinking that you were encouraging such behavior”.
“I’ve always felt comfortable about the way I look, Jessica”, I responded, “and I would be compromising my inner self if I had to change my looks to suit other people”.
I did sound overly defensive, but Jessica nodded approvingly.
“You show integrity by that answer, Babs”, she replied, “and I value that quality highly. Do you think you can start work tomorrow?”
I was surprised, but also happy. The interview lasted for only a few minutes, but she was already offering me a job!
“Yes, I could, Jessica”, I replied with a nod, “what time do I come in tomorrow, and what do I wear?”
She told me what time to come in, what attire would be expected – she did want me to maintain the Barbie look – and she offered me a pretty good starting wage.
“This emporium opens at nine, but I would like you here at eight so that I can go over with you how to work the computer and till, plus get your paperwork done for Mister Taxman. We can’t forget him”.
“If the till works like the ones I used at the restaurants, it should be okay”, I assured her.
“Excellent!” she said, “Well, Babs: welcome to the Collector’s Doll Emporium!”
----------
And that’s how I started work at the emporium. I had worked the waitressing shift that night and turned in my resignation when the shift ended. When Jessica asked me why I looked so tired when I reported in, I told her that I couldn’t just quit without finishing the shift. Jessica nodded approvingly as it reinforced my work ethic and basic integrity.
I quickly got up to speed in the new job. While Jessica did her work mostly in the workshop, I tended the front counter and assisted customers in their browsing and purchases. My Barbie look got quite a few stares and compliments from people, especially the children who accompanied a number of the adult buyers and I ended up posing in quite a few selfie shots. According to Jessica, I really did great advertising for the place by my simply being there.
Around noon, Jessica and I would close shop for an hour and drive to a café for lunch, unless it was busier than normal, in which one of us would go and get food from a takeout joint and bring it back to eat together in her office. We’d sit and chat about various things and talk about what kind of doll ideas we’d have. Jessica and I were becoming fast friends. She really was a great person to work for.
She told me a little about her past. Her mother had died before she was six, her father had recently died after being in managed health care for some years, and that she was an only child. I told her a little about my family past. I could tell that she liked opening up to me some about her past, though I was careful not to ask too many questions. Things like discussing family matters were best volunteered…
At the end of each day, I closed and locked the front door, quickly tallied up the daily take, then placed the cash in the office safe with checks for depositing in the bank the following morning. Then I worked in a side room used for packaging online orders. I’d put the ordered items in padded styrene molds, boxed them up, wrapped and addressed them, then put them out in the lobby for the daily courier pickup. I was quite surprised by the amount of business that the emporium generated.
When all of that was done, then I’d say goodnight to Jessica and head back to my apartment for dinner. It was quite a pleasant little monotony working Tuesday to Saturday in the shop lobby, and Mondays helping Jessica getting things ready for the new work week. Putting out new dolls for sale, taking care of online orders that took place over the weekend, ensuring that the books were balanced, tidying up around the emporium, etc.
“You’ve really been a godsend, Babs”, Jessica said one morning while quickly getting the lobby swept and dusted before opening the emporium for customers, “I don’t how I could have done it without you”.
“Well, given all of the work that you do in the workshop making those collector dolls, I have to be sure that you don’t get distracted by other things. So far, so good”, I concluded.
I made sure that Jessica knew that I would not break my promise not to go into the workshop or up to her upstairs apartment. One time when she went out to lunch, she deliberately left the workshop door unlocked. I had plenty of opportunity while she was out to go in and take a look, but a promise is a promise and I kept myself in check. When she got back, she looked at the workshop door, then me.
“You truly have integrity, Babs”, she said simply, “I’m lucky to have you working here”.
There were a number of curious things though that did arrive at the emporium during the work week. Things like a number of laundered and dry-cleaned clothes, shoes and jewelry, and also large boxes – as tall as a person, but narrow – that were delivered out back. Jessica took receipt of those items and took them into the workshop herself. I did wonder what she needed them for, but I figured that if Jessica wanted me to know, she’d let me know. I respected her authority as my boss, and I was not going to be a snoop.
----------
A few weeks after I started working there, it was Jessica’s turn to go and get lunch. There were a number of customers in the store, which meant I couldn’t chase them out just so we could go to the café down the street. So, I tended to the customers while Jessica went out for food. By the time she got back, the store was empty of customers, so after I put the ‘out to lunch’ sign up on the door window and locked the front door, I followed her into her office, which doubled as the de-facto lunch room. She had gotten me an egg-salad sandwich, an apple, and a cup of coffee. The latter was in one of those indented trays that stops them from spilling in a car.
“Here you go, Babs”, Jessica said as she passed over to me the indented tray holding my Styrofoam cup of coffee, “Cream and two sugars, as requested”.
“Thanks, Jessica”, I said as I reached over her desk to get the offered cup. I took the coffee off the tray, then sat back in the chair in order to drink it, but then I was aware of something wet and very warm on my dress.
“Oh damn!”, I exclaimed as I saw that it was coffee dribbling onto my dress, “I only got this dry-cleaned too! I can’t go out serving customers looking like this!”
The coffee had been dripping out from a hole in the bottom of the cup. While it was sitting in the tray, it was not noticeable.
Jessica – who had been watching – said, “Don’t worry, Babs. I’ve got some clothes that will fit you in the workshop. Since I bought the coffee, it’s my fault and I’ll get your clothes to the cleaners for you”.
“That would be wonderful, Jessica”, I said, “I don’t want to be serving customers with a coffee stain on my skirt and it would take too long in my getting home and changing”.
Nodding, she quickly got my coffee and put it back in the tray, then – as she got a coffee mug out of her office drawer – she stood up. She then took the tray over to the office bathroom, where she poured my coffee from the leaking Styrofoam cup into the mug. She brought the mug back out to me.
“I’ll go get those clothes, Babs”, she said, “enjoy your lunch”.
At that, she left the office and headed over to the workshop. I sat back down and started to eat my egg salad sandwich. At least the sandwich didn’t get soaked, I thought…
After a couple of minutes, Jessica brought out a green dress, somewhat lower cut than the pink dress that I was wearing, but it looked the right size, it would cover my bra and bra straps, and it would be something a Barbie doll would wear. My looking the role of a giant Barbie was helping business…
“Here you go, Babs”, she said, “you go into the bathroom and change. I’ll make sure your pink dress gets out to the cleaners this evening. Okay?”
“Thank you, Jessica”, I replied as I took her offered clothing and headed to the bathroom.
In about five minutes, I changed into the green dress. I did wonder why Jessica would have something like this in the workshop. I thought that perhaps she was using this dress as a reference for her making doll clothes. It would certainly explain why a lot of various clothing types had been delivered from the cleaners to the emporium, but I thought that it would surely be easier to use doll clothing patterns and bolts of cloth, none of which I ever saw delivered with the other items…
After exiting the bathroom, Jessica looked me up and down and smiled approvingly. I pirouetted around like a fashion model, stopping to face her with one of my legs bent and my hands on my hips.
“Thanks for the clothes, Jessica”, I said once again, “My stained ones are folded up in the bathroom”.
“I’ll take care of those for you, Babs”, she replied as she gestured back to the chair that I was sitting in.
I sat down and we both resumed eating our lunch. That gave me a thought.
“Jessica”, I said, “I wonder if you’d like to come over to my apartment for dinner tonight? You’ve been a great boss and friend and with you helping me out with my clothes and all, well… it would be a way of saying thanks”.
“Actually, Babs”, she said, “I would like that very much!”
“Then it’s a date!”, I said with a broad smile. She smiled back at me. She reached over the dress and held my hand. I squeezed back…
----------
That evening at my apartment was when everything changed for both of us, though I wasn’t immediately cognizant of that. Jessica had arrived at Seven PM – nicely dressed, and I let her in and asked her to relax in the living room. My apartment was a two-bedroom dwelling, pleasantly furnished. The second bedroom served as my office/study.
"Very nice digs, Babs", she said as she passed me a large plastic bowl. As I took the bowl into the kitchen, I called back to her:
“What would you like to drink, Jessica?” I asked, “I have some white wine, or hard cider”.
“Wine would be nice, Dear”, she replied as she looked at the various pictures hanging on the wall.
I poured her a glass of wine and I carried it out to her. I had a glass of wine in my hand as well.
As she took the offered glass, she raised it in a toast.
“To you, Babs”, she said, “the best employee I could have ever hoped for”.
“To you Jessica”, I replied, “the best boss I could have ever hoped for”.
Clicking our glasses together, we sipped our wine and then we sat down in the sofa.
“Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes”, I said, “I hope you like pot roast, boiled cabbage, and red potatoes. The slow cooker really does wonders for me while I'm at work. I usually make enough for several helpings, so this invite is not a problem”, I added by way of explanation.
“Sounds grand, Babs”, she replied, “it certainly makes a change from eating out or eating fast food”.
“You don’t get time to cook for yourself?” I asked. She took another sip of her wine and looked at me.
“I don’t get much spare time to do that, Babs”, she replied, “Sundays and Mondays are spent catching up on things in the emporium. Owning a business can really ruin one’s social life”.
“Well, the way it’s making money will surely mean that you will be able to hire more people to help you out”, I said as I took another sip of my wine.
“I don’t want to have any others working for me”, Jessica said, “I like things the way that they are”.
With that, she winked at me and raised her glass to me in a silent toast. I blushed at what she had said.
She then turned to me and reached out her right hand to my right hand – we were holding our wine glasses in our left hands – and said, “You’ve been so good as both a dependable employee, and as a friend, Babs. You have no idea how much this dinner invitation meant to me”.
“You have no idea as to what my working for you there meant to me, Jessica”, I replied, “you treat me like I am a person, not an object of lust or condescension. I’m proud to be working for you”.
At that, she took her hand away from mine and put it on my knee. Her smile was warm. I smiled back at her.
We quickly finished our wine, then I stood up and went into the kitchen to prepare the food. The plastic bowl that Jessica had brought along was a salad she had picked up from a local deli, so we enjoyed first her salad with thousand island dressing, then the main course. Washed down of course with more wine.
As we ate, we chatted about various items of interest. I told her something about my college days and she told me a little more about her interests outside of the emporium. The way she was talking about them gave me the impression that she did not have much spare time outside her business concerns. I hoped that my working there at the emporium with her was allowing some extra time for her to enjoy herself. I got the feeling that she had been lonely for quite a while...
“You know, it’s been so long since I’ve been in another person’s place”, Jessica said after finishing the main course, “and you are one heck of a good cook, I must add”.
“Well, I appreciate that very much”, I replied, “would you like some dessert?” I asked. Jessica shook her head.
“How about some coffee?” I asked next. She shook her head again.
“Well, is there anything else that you would like, Jessica?” I asked. She sipped her wine and looked at me intently.
“Just one thing, Babs”, she said softly as she stood up and put down her wine glass. I stood up as well.
She walked over to me, then without further ado, she put her arms around me and softly kissed me on the lips.
I found myself hugging her as I passionately returned her kiss. I don’t know if the wine had anything to do with it, but before I knew it, I was guiding her over to my bedroom, where we were quickly shedding our clothes. We were both nude in a very short amount of time. I was admiring her body while at the same time she was admiring mine.
“Shall we?” I huskily asked her.
“Please do”, she replied.
Pushing her down onto my bed, I then straddled her, passionately kissing first her lips, then her breasts. She was breathing hard as I continued to fondle her boobs whilst kissing her neck and licking her ear lobes.
“Oh, Babs!” she exclaimed as I moved off her, then started running my tongue first around her breasts, then working my way down to her vulva.
She maneuvered her hands so that she could part her pussy lips for me. I put my tongue right on her clitoris and started to lick it. She was stiffening and moaning in reaction. Still using my tongue, I moved my hands down and started adding my fingers to stimulating – then penetrating – her vagina.
“Oh… My… Word…”, she said as I continued my pussy-licking. The smell and taste of her was making me very wet, and very horny! She was enraptured by what I was doing to her.
Suddenly, with an “Ohhhh!”, I felt my face get wet as she orgasmed. She shuddered, then took deep breaths.
I took my face away from her pussy and said, “I’m wet in more places than one, I think”, I said playfully as I reached to a side table and grabbed a wet-wipe.
“You know exactly how to make a girl feel good, Babs!”, she sighed as I finished wiping my face, then her vulva.
“You realize that now I have to do the same to you, my Dear”, she said next.
“Don’t move”, I said with a smile, “I’ll let the mountain come to you instead”.
With that I straddled her again, but this time I straddled her with her face directly below my vulva. Jessica took the hint and started licking my pussy. I noticed that my nipples went rock-hard from what she was doing. My already wet vulva was getting wetter by the second.
“Oh, Jessica”, I cried, “your magic tongue is turning me into your slave. I am losing my free will!”
She took her tongue away from her licking long enough to say, “then be a good slave and take what what your mistress is giving to you!”
With that, she resumed her licking, and in the process adding her fingers to her lovemaking. I found myself lifting my boobs to my mouth and licking my nipples as the pleasuring became more intense.
“Look out, here it comes!” I gasped as I shuddered, then climaxed.
Her face got soaked with my orgasmic juices as it gushed out. I felt faint in the after-climax euphoria and I quickly moved off her and laid on the bed beside her.
Jessica reached over to the wet wipes and grabbed a few to wipe her soaked face. She said, “I must have been good to get a flow out of you like that!”
“I have never reacted that way to anyone making love to me before tonight”, I replied sincerely, “You are a wonderful lover, Jessica!”
“You were no slouch in the lovemaking department either, Babs”, she replied.
After a few minutes of quietly lying beside each other, Jessica said, “when our hands touched for the first time at the interview, I knew that there was something special between us, Babs. The feeling I got from the touch was that of love”.
“I got that same feeling from you too, Jessica”, I replied, “I knew that you were someone special, and now I know why. I’m in love with you”.
“I’m in love with you too”, she sighed back, “I think I’ve been in love with you since that first touch”.
Realizing that we were both in love was something really lovely, but then I realized that there was probably going to be something that could stand in the way of our love…
I sat up in the bed and looked over at her with a worried expression. Jessica saw the expression on my face.
“I now know that you love me just as much as I love you, Babs”, Jessica said as she sat up, “but I see that you’re troubled by this. What is wrong? Please tell me”, she implored.
“I love you so much, Jessica”, I said, “but you are my employer. How could we be able to work professionally at the emporium with such an intense personal bond of affection between us? I hate to say it, but I think that if we want to stay friends and lovers, I’m going to have to resign as your employee. I don’t want to do any harm to your business”.
Jessica looked heartbroken. I was not happy at having to tell her about the conflict of interest, but I also saw that she understood where I was coming from. She got out of bed and started to get dressed.
“When I interviewed you, I could tell you had integrity”, Jessica said quietly as she finished dressing and turned towards the front door of my apartment, “but I think you’re taking it too far in this case, Babs”, she finished with tears running down her face.
“Loving you is so right, Jessica”, I said as I got out of bed and hugged her, “you don’t have to leave. Please stay here with me tonight”.
Jessica returned the hug, then she kissed me for several seconds.
“I’d love to”, Jessica said after breaking the kiss, “but I really think that you need alone time in order for you to think carefully about what you said. I honestly don’t see a conflict of interest between our love and our work. Please don’t sell yourself short”.
I could not trust myself to reply as I knew that I would choke on my words. She walked to the door, then paused as if thinking about something. She then turned to face me.
“Please do me a favor and come in to work tomorrow morning at Eight”, she said next, “I’d like to show you something that I hope will make you reconsider resigning. Remember to close and lock the door behind you when you enter as we must not be disturbed”.
Nodding, I let her hug me once more and kiss me on the cheek.
“Good night, My Love”, she said. She then left the apartment.
After she left, I cleaned up the dinner dishes, then went to my study and started to type out the letter of resignation. I felt empty as I did so, but I just could not hurt her business by our love for each other. I loved working with her, but in the emporium, she was first and foremost my boss. That demanded a degree of separation from her employees. I felt that she could have me as a lover or as an employee, but not both. I preferred her as my lover, but I was thinking about how my resignation would affect that as I typed it out…