Emi and the Supermarket

Arthyws created some wonderful new images of Emi. Mainly, to help keep us distracted while I’m between chapters and busy with a new job. I was so impressed that I decided to add a mini-chapter to support the amazing art. It took me forever to write, and I had a lot of help with editing, but I managed to keep it well within the story. So here it is, enjoy!

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Letting go of the rickshaw handles was no easy feat as the intimidating size of the Supermarket loomed before me. A challenge no doubt, but I was still on a high from recent bonding with Sarah and Sam. I had averted a war between these two headstrong women and I wanted to make sure this new peace would last.

“This is the last task. Then we are done for today,” Sarah said, trying to act casual even though she obviously knew that she was asking something big of me. She continued, “Brandy insists that it is important for you to be comfortable with basic shopping. She already had a few meetings with the store manager, and even once with Wang.”

“Wang?” Sam sputtered.

“Yeah, my guess is that they wanted to make sure that Nine gets the royal treatment. So don’t be surprised if they roll out the red carpet. Take your time; maybe even enjoy it,” Sarah said as she leaned back, putting her hands behind her head.

I balked. “So what… I just go in and buy a couple things?”

“You could stock up on razors?” Sam said, unable to resist poking fun.

Sarah put her hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Let’s not make this any harder on Nine, okay?”

Annoyed with Sarah’s comment, Sam pulled away, but then she couldn’t help but to smile. “Calling her Nine all the time is surreal,” she said, shaking her head.

Sarah just nodded. “It’s necessary to protect he identity, and to help her ease into her testing of the app. Moving forward, that plus this shopping trip should make everything easier. It will help Nine’s realistic mailgirl app testing go much smoother.”

I looked up at the two of them, still sitting in the rickshaw, not sure what to make of all this, about my mail girl name, and what was so important about shopping? They both seemed amused in their own way. Defiant, I put my hands on my hips.

“Oh, and Brandy has a list of things for you to buy.” Sarah said, holding out a small piece of paper.

I hesitated, before finally taking it. Shaking my head in denial at how ridiculous this whole thing was.

“Atta girl,” Sarah said, obviously feeling that she had me.

Unimpressed with her choice of words, I glanced at the items. A Yoga mat, a can opener, a can of white tuna, freshly ground bag of coffee and a sandwich from the deli. Obviously this list was designed to make me traverse the entire store.

Annoyed and apprehensive, I took a deep breath and turned to face the entrance. However, my legs refused to move. I was, after all, naked except for the see-through shirt that exposed every inch of me to anyone nearby. And within the close confines of a supermarket aisle, close encounters would be guaranteed to be frequent.

Curious how busy the store was, I decided to look through the window, moving away from the entrance while glancing back at the girls. Sarah was showing Sam something on her phone.

Having difficulty seeing, I took off my sunglasses, hanging them from my shirt while I bent over slightly, cupping my hands to the supermarket window, peering inside.

A couple of hipster guys were strutting past with a 6-pack of beer. One also had a large bag of ice on his muscled shoulder. A fit, middle-aged couple in cycling gear were in the vegetable area, with the woman choosing tomatoes while her partner obediently held a plastic bag open for her. Near the window, a tall blonde woman was reaching up to get something off a shelf where I was looking in. She looked up and our eyes met. I stepped back startled.

“Just go in already!” Sarah laughed.

“She needs time,” Sam piped. “This is not a trivial operation… some reconnaissance is required,” she added, barely hiding the amusement in her voice.

Ignoring them, I moved to a location away from the blonde and cupped my hands to the window to reduce the glare. I had to bend over more to see under some writing on the glass. I felt my short transparent shirt riding up and had to keep adjusting my hem as I found a better place to look inside. I wanted to view the aisles, to see which ones were busy.

“How’s it looking Nine?” Sarah casually asked.

Gazing back, I saw Sarah sitting calmly in the parked rickshaw. Her hands still behind her head, smiling at my apprehension.

Sam, however, looked flushed. She glanced at Sarah’s phone again, then looked around uncomfortably, anywhere but at me.

Sarah was secretly pointing at Sam beside her. “Better to avoid bending over that much,” Sarah suggested with a wink.

Sam turned her head sharply, looking Sarah over suspiciously, but Sarah ignored her, acting innocent.

After some more meandering around the windows, I decided to get it over with, willing myself to start walking towards the entrance.

The girls must have gotten bored waiting for me and were both hunched over Sarah’s phone again.

Sam guffed. “I don’t think ahh… Nine would approve of this. Does she even know about it?”

“The contents of the Mailgirl Manual is between Brandy and I, not the dev team.”

I tried to ignore them and stepped on the rubber mat, opening the sliding doors.

“Yeah, but with a naked image of Nine — this explicit — she should have some say.”

That got my attention. I turned and marched back to the rickshaw. “Show me,” I demanded, letting Sarah see that I was serious.

“Woah, okay okay,” Sarah relented, and held out her phone. I could see part of an image – of me.

Sam plucked the phone from Sarah’s hand and gave me a close up view. But it was mostly text and a picture of the watch.

Unphased, Sarah had seemed content to just watch this play out as we examined her phone, but she sat up and leaned forward. “You’re just delaying going into the store. It’s only going to get harder the longer you put it off.”

I ignored her and gasped as I scrolled down and saw a page of text with my image next to it. I had not seen this picture before. It must have been taken secretly during the orientation phase this morning. Full frontal, looking at my watch, but that wasn’t the worst part. “Where are my sunglasses?”

Frontal image of Emi looking at watch, wearing no sunglasses.

Sam laughed. “Told you!” she said, nudging Sarah. “You are in trouble nowwww…”

Ignoring her, Sarah had a serious look on her face. “Look, it’s a first draft. I wanted Sam to quickly proof-it before I give Brandy the go ahead. We were supposed to publish it an hour ago. Brandy has been breathing down my neck, to get it proofed.”

I looked at her seriously. “You are NOT going to publish this, Sarah.” I said firmly. “You do understand that, right?”

“Pow…” Sam said, pointing her gun finger at Sarah, unable to contain her glee. “The next bullet will be between your eyes. I know that look. That’s pretty much Becca that you are looking at now. And she ain’t pleased!”

I almost smiled at Sam’s exaggeration. I wasn’t sure if Sarah was playing a joke, or if she was just having a momentary lapse of judgment. “You can’t publish my identity, Sarah. You know that, it’s a core breach of contract and would also mess up my career, my future relationships, basically my entire life!”

Sarah glanced at her watch, nervously. “I’m ahh… Shit, I might have screwed up. I ahh… it’s already at the publishers and it’s set to be published on Brandy’s orders. I have maybe fifteen minutes from now to send a replacement with typo corrections or it’s going to be published.”

I stood there blinking at the sheer stupidity. “Call Brandy and tell her to have it stopped.” This wasn’t rocket science.

“She’s at Yoga… she…”

Sam sat up suddenly. “What the fuck!?” she said, scowling at Sarah. “I’m gonna have to take off my boot again!”

Slowly I looked down at the image, and then back up to her. I could feel the dragon stirring inside me, but now wasn’t the time for drama. There was no time. I needed to think.

“I’m so sorry Emi! Ahh… I mean, Nine!” Sarah hung her head in shame, running her fingers through the back of her head like she always does when she’s stressed. She looked up at me on the verge of tears.

I wasn’t sure if she was more worried about me or her job. “Just calm down,” I said, not knowing why I had to calm ‘them’ down. It was ‘my’ life on the line.

They both turned and looked at me expectantly.

“Sam, do you have the latest iPhone?” I asked, knowing she likely did.

Perking up, Sam pulled out her phone. “Right. We can replace the image!” Sam said, snapping a picture of me.

Agitated, Sarah ran her fingers through her hair again. “I don’t have time to go back to the office, fire up photoshop, and crop the image!” She said, holding her head with both hands.

Sam laughed, shaking her head. “Look powderpuff, you can auto-crop photos with this model.” She dragged the image of me around with her finger. The background disappeared as she did that. “Just plop the image into your document,” she said, as if talking to a child.

Sarah looked relieved. “That’s wonderful! I’ll call the publisher. Buy us some time.”

“What’s going on?” Liz said, surprising us all as we turned around. She had a shoulder bag with some celery sticking out.

Sarah looked delighted. “Oh Liz, this is perfect. Sam, give Liz your phone.”

Liz stepped back, surprised. “Wait, what?”

“Not gonna happen, I’ll take the photo,” Sam said resolutely.

“She’s our photographer. Just give it to her!” Sarah yelled.

I looked at my watch. Fuck. “Sam… look, let’s just get this over with. Should just take ten seconds or so. Go over there and run lookout, try to reduce my exposure. I’m counting on you, okay?”

Sam nodded gravely, and with a look of determination, she handed Liz her phone. “Don’t drop it!” she snarled.

Liz took the phone, still stunned and confused.

Sam stomped back towards supermarket doors, getting a good vantage point. “Nine, stand between those parked cars,” she ordered.

I appreciated Sam’s reasoning. Between the cars I had a lot more cover. I moved between the parked cars and tried to calm my breathing as I felt the hem of my shirt with my fingertips.

Sarah was on the phone, looking distracted, but still managed a gesture with her fingers to hand her the shirt as if it were no big deal.

A bewildered Liz slowly walked up to us. “What’s with all the… urgency? I mean… oh my God!”

I handed the shirt to Sarah who had her phone glued to her ear, then I pressed my sunglasses against my face. Making sure my only cover was secure.

“I need to take this call,” she said, handing the shirt over to Liz. “Give this back to her after you get the picture.”

Liz took the shirt, stunned again. Looking around and then back at me. “Emi?”

“Just take my picture. No time to explain,” I said, feeling suddenly vulnerable while bending over to take off my shoes. I left them by the curb. “And call me Nine, please.” Asking her to call me Nine, felt awkward, but it was a necessary concession that I agreed to, and somewhat safer, especially with someone like Liz.

“Outside? Here? Ahh… Nine?” She asked again, in disbelief. “Oh my God, you like being called Nine, don’t you?” she asked. She perked up, as if she just discovered a huge secret. “You are totally into all this, out here, being exposed. Being an Ambassador, a mailgirl.”

I looked at her with annoyance, not sure where to start and no time to correct her. Thankfully Sarah tossed her a key, causing that stupid grin to fade away. I’ll have to have a talk with her later, to fix this embarrassing misunderstanding.

Liz caught it, almost dropping the phone. She studied the key briefly before cluing in. She approached me, eagerly looking into my shielded eyes. We were face to face as she reached behind me awkwardly, trying to take off my collar. Her face was too close, her dancing eyes, trying to penetrate my glasses. I tried to ignore her, thankful for the protection. I blinked awkwardly while she fumbled with the lock, as one of her hands still had the phone in it, prolonging the moment. My nipples grazed her shirt briefly as she popped it open and pulled it gently off my neck.

She leaned forward, putting her mouth near my ear. “Yeaaa… Nine, you are free!” she breathed, before stepping back and lifting up the phone.

And ‘illegal’ now, I thought as I tried to awkwardly pose, hoping to get this over with sooner rather than later.

Liz looked around. “You really want to do this on Main Street?”

“Yes, hurry up. Better out here than in the store,” I added, wishing she would stop delaying. Ten seconds had already passed!

“You look good, and excited,” she added, unnecessarily, as she stuffed the shirt and collar into her bag alongside the celery and stepped back towards the road. Raising her phone, she captured me in the frame.

“Come on, hurry up,” I said as she snapped the picture.

Liz inspected the photo on her phone, shaking her head. She stepped further out onto the road and gestured for me to move closer to the curb.

Just then, Sam’s voice boomed from down the sidewalk, “Bimbo at 4 o’clock!” Her announcement drew an angry glare from an elderly woman with a cane. Sam simply smiled, unperturbed.

I took advantage of the distraction and darted onto the road, using a parked car as cover while I squatted down. Liz chuckled and snapped a few more pictures.

Meanwhile, Sarah was growing frustrated. “No, not like that, we need a running shot,” she said urgently, trying to keep her voice down as she spoke into her phone. “A running shot.”

“A running shot?” Liz repeated.

“Yes, dammit. We need to update this to a running shot… ‘hold on’ Sarah said to the person on the phone and flipped open the manual, showing Liz a full frontal shot of me standing there, flat footed without sunglasses, looking at the watch and my other hand casually on my hip. I was definitely not running.

Liz looked even more confused.

Groaning, Sarah then flipped open some random picture of a running mailgirl, looking at her watch. “Brandy wants the manual to show a proper mailgirl. So a running shot!”

“Ahh… okay…” Liz said, comprehension filling her face dramatically.

A car drove by and I darted past them, almost back to the curb. I could feel my nipples poking into the palm of my hand and forearm as my breathing increased. With one hand, Sarah started slowly pulling my hand from between my legs while I frowned at her.

Her other hand kept the phone over her ear. Liz seemed to take her lead and took my other hand, pulling my arm. Why did I just let them completely expose me?

Liz stepped back, looking animated, like she had an idea. “Running, right?”

Sarah nodded.

I kind of nodded as well, peeking over the car, checking to see if anyone could see me. “Hurry up Liz… I’m…”

“But… there is no space for that here,” she mumbled, almost to herself. She looked around and across the street. She perked up, “I have an idea,” she said, grinning.

“What? No, just take the damn… hey, get back here!” The little brat was running across the street! I stood there flabbergasted, covering myself with my hands. Where was she going with my shirt?!

Sarah seemed to notice Liz was gone, and glanced around looking for her. When she saw her across the street she gave her a thumbs up. Then she looked at me, glanced both ways to make sure the traffic was clear, and then gestured for me to hit the road.

“What?” I said, trying to make sense of all this. I’m not running across the street. I gestured wildly for Liz to come back. She just smiled and counter gestured for me to cross the street.

My heart was going a mile a minute as it slowly dawned upon me that I was about to one-up my famous night time visit to Main Street, with a dramatic daytime streak. I had no choice, Sarah was pushing, Liz had my shirt, and time was running out.

Looking both ways again, I dashed out from behind my cover and started to cross the down-town street in broad daylight! This was a smaller place than Seattle, tiny in fact, but this was still the central road through the town.

The run was surreal. Thankfully there was very little traffic. I could feel the pavement under my feet. Every pebble, the texture, the wind over my body. My lips felt dry, but I didn’t want to lick them and look like a porno girl. My breasts were dancing out of control. Is this what my career had become? I was just a naked running girl, with sunglasses and a smartwatch. I hoped my sacrifice was worth it as I spotted a couple of guys coming out of a shop. Thankfully they turned the other way. Liz had a dumb grin on her face as I slowed to a stop.

“You look amazing!”

Ignoring her, I asked. “Did you get the shot?”

She just kept grinning and nodding.

I scowled at her.

“You are probably enjoying this,” I growled as I moved closer to the wall, almost putting my back to it. An ineffective attempt to keep a low profile.

Liz ignored my question, revealing a guilty smile instead.

I held out my hand. “Shirt. I’m done.”

She reached into her bag, as if to grab my shirt. But she paused, showing me the photo instead. “It’s a bit racy for a manual. Want to try a rear shot instead?”

I hesitated, thinking, while her super annoying lips grew wider. A rear shot would definitely be preferable for the manual. I paused again, lowering my hand, looking both ways on the street, feeling that tingling fear again. I took a deep breath, pushing my ass to the wall. The tingling was growing in intensity, almost beyond what I could control.

“Is this turning you on?” Liz whispered.

Snapping to face her, I glared at her through my sunglasses as she pulled me from the wall by the arm and led me to the curb.

“Don’t worry, you got this,” Liz encouraged, supportively. “And your ass is mine,” she blurted, giving me a little slap that startled me and sent me running.

Little brat! I thought as I ran back towards a surprised Sarah, doing my best running mailgirl impersonation. Making sure my arm was showing the watch. I tried to make sure I looked good and sexy, so the picture could be swapped with the frontal one. But I couldn’t help but feel stiff legged and self conscious. At least only my ass was in the picture, that wasn’t bad. Lots of g-strings cover the same amount. A car was coming, so halfway across the street I suddenly sprinted and cowered behind Sarah, and looked over to Liz.

Sarah covered her phone, laughing. “Why are you still naked?” she whispered.

We both turned to look at Sam who was making a big commotion in front of the store. She had jammed a shopping cart into both doors, but they were both lying on the ground, sideways. Effectively trapping everyone in the store.

“Sam! That’s a safety risk! Remove those immediately!” Sarah yelled, causing a man walking down the street towards us to look our way. I crunched down.

“Dick-head, incoming!” Sam said, trying to warn me, as she struggled to remove the shopping carts. It was beginning to cause a commotion inside. The man continued past, looking back and forth between Sam and I. Both of us were quite the spectacle, but at least I was partially hidden behind Sarah.

I looked at Liz, raising my thumb up as if in question, asking her if the image was good with a gesture.

She froze, then slowly shook her head as she scanned her pictures.

Worried, my gut fluttered. Time was running out! I looked both ways, preparing to run again.

“I need a rear picture. I want to use a rear picture,” I finally answered Sarah’s question.

The tall blonde glared at me. “Just get a freaking picture, anything is fine!” she snapped.

I nodded and tried to wait patiently while car after car drove by. All three girls looked worried while a larger and larger commotion was growing inside the store.

Liz yelled from across the street. “This isn’t going to work! Let’s just do it on the sidewalk, safer too!”

Before I could respond about how stupid that idea was, Sarah gave a thumbs up.

A young couple joined the guy by the door. And someone was helping Sam remove a cart. There were too many people on this side of the street anyway. So after the last car passed, I bolted across the street.

Liz was smiling and tilted her head, taking another frontal shot as I ran up and stopped in front of her. “Still want a rear shot?” she asked innocently.

I gritted my teeth at this stupid situation. But amazingly, nobody was on the sidewalk on this side of mainstreet. It was practically a miracle.

Looking both ways, Liz pointed up the sidewalk. “The light is better this way, run just past those chairs over there.”

The chairs in question were likely in front of a little cafe. Of course she wanted me to run past them.

Now with her phone up and ready, she gestured to me to start.

There was no way, but I jumped as a car horn blared.

Liz slapped my ass, sending me running again while she squealed in glee.

And off I ran, like a mailgirl, in all her glory. As I ran at a brisk speed, the hairs on the back of my neck tingled, among other things, as I sensed the presence of people in shops, as I passed by. Wondering if anyone noticed me almost made me skip a step, causing my legs to nearly buckle. I stopped just before the place with the chairs, but it made no difference. The shop I stopped in front of was a noodle shop and a couple was smiling at me through the glass as they enjoyed their meal. I turned around and bolted back.

Click, click. Liz was taking more frontal pictures as I slowed down approaching her. She was standing in front of a small tourist shop. I dared not turn my head and look through the windows.

“You look cute, all flustered like that,” Liz said, obviously growing comfortable with the situation.

“Just give me my shirt,” I said, tired of the games. My nerves had been tested enough. I held out my hand expectantly.

Liz nodded, hesitatingly pulling out my shirt from her bag, perhaps realizing that the fun was ending.

I snatched it from her as a stunned young man walked out of a shop with a loaf of freshly baked bread. He stopped, staring at me with a look of awe as I covered myself with my arms.

“Whoah…! What do we have here?” I heard behind me. Glancing back I saw a couple of girls with matching suspenders and company branded caps exiting a store together, looking at me in wonderment.

Not wanting to dress in front of them, I moved between two parked cars and looked both ways to see if there were cars coming.

Liz ran up to me. “Wait! Nine! Don’t forget your leash!”

“Her leash?” I heard someone say, embarrassing me more than it should have. Not wanting to hear anymore, and to escape those gazes, I bolted across the momentarily empty street towards Sarah, the shirt flapping in my hand. Liz and the onlookers were left with a clear view of my butt cheeks as my legs pumped furiously, trying to get me to some decent cover.

I dashed past a surprised Sarah and up onto the sidewalk, using a car as cover. Squatting down, I started untangling the shirt, trying to find the bottom so I could slip it on. The silky shirt was so thin that this didn’t happen immediately. It was hard to find the opening with my hands trying to move faster than my mind.

“Dude at 6 o’clock!” Sam bellowed, running towards me from the store. Indeed a man was running behind her. Unsure if he’d seen me yet, I decided to not take any chances and dived back between the cars next to Sarah. Pressing my ass against a small car, I managed to slip the shirt on just in the nick of time.

Sam stopped in front of me. “Thank God you finally got yourself covered up with that transparent shirt,” she said, sarcastically.

Sarah talked into her phone. “Alright, we have an updated image. I’ll just add it to the document and then send it over. Just give us a few minutes… pardon? Oh okay, great. Yes, that works.” She hung up and laughed. “He said we can take our time because he’s going to an early lunch.”

I was both irritated about that, but also relieved as the four of us gathered around Sam’s phone to study the pictures.

“Ahh, excuse me girls,” said the fellow who just arrived, causing the four of us to pull our faces away from Sam’s phone and gawk at him.

Unphased by our reaction, he smiled, looking confident. He had a sharp trendy haircut and a work shirt that fit his lean form very well. “The manager sent me to see if I could assist with anything,” he said carefully, a curious look on his face.

“Assist us how?” Sam asked bluntly.

“Well, we have been expecting a visit from…ah, Nine?” His eyes danced over me. He could probably see everything, causing me to side step a little behind Liz. “And well, there seemed to be some issue with shopping carts and the door…”

Sam pointed her finger at his chest. “Yeah, that stupid cart nearly killed me,” she said, without missing a beat. “You guys really need smarter doors and better carts. The freaking cart nearly got me squished in those crazy man-eating doors of yours. Thank God, I was able to dive out of the way as the doors tried to eat that poor cart alive!”

He looked briefly horrified, but after blinking a few times I could tell that he wasn’t buying it. “My apologies about the door and cart. That’s why the manager wants me to escort Nine into the store and make sure there are no more issues,” he said in a friendly manner.

Sarah held up a finger. “Just give us a minute,” she said, and the girls all went back to looking at the images. “Let’s just take a quick vote on it. All those for a proper front image?” Sarah raised her hand.

Liz reluctantly raised her hand as well, sheepishly. “Sorry, but ahh… you are a Resort Ambassador. You shouldn’t be embarrassed about this kind of stuff. The front image truly looks better, especially for a mailgirl.”

Sam didn’t raise her hand. I could always count on her.

Sarah ran her fingers through her hair, looking irritated. “Looks like we have a tie. Sorry Nine, since I’m responsible for this, it looks like I’ll have to make a tie breaking judgment call.”

My shoulders slumped and I glared at Liz darkly. This wasn’t a battle I was going to win, but at least now I knew Liz’s true colors.

Liz looked uncomfortable with my reaction. “Wait, I’ll change my vote!” she said, probably realizing that she might be losing a friend.

“Not allowed,” Sarah said. “I only care about first impressions. No coerced votes.”

I was disappointed with Liz and let her know it with my body language. Her actions were too little too late. I’d have to tell Ben to stop inviting her over.

Somehow Liz seemed to sense the gravity of the situation. “Noo… I’m serious. If you want an unbiased first impression ask… ahh… ask him!” She said, pointing at the dude who had no idea what was being discussed.

“Don’t be ridiculous Liz,” Sarah said, shaking her head. “Nine would never allow him to look at the images, just to gain another vote. Am I right?” she said, looking at me directly.

“Ahh…” I needed to think quickly. Accept the frontal image, published for everyone to see. Or take a chance and let this guy see naked pictures of me and perhaps voting in my favor. It was my only hope to get out of this mess.

“She’s thinking about it!” Liz said gleefully.

Growling, I turned to Liz. “This isn’t going to save you.”

Liz pouted, then lunged at me.

I stiffened as she pulled me into a hug, peppering me with little kisses, apologizing repeatedly. She was going the whole nine yards which made Sam laugh.

“Enough Liz. I need a decision,” Sarah said, looking at me.

Reluctantly I nodded, causing Liz’s eyes to light up. I could feel my cheeks grow warm as Liz bounced over gleefully to the handsome guy while holding Sam’s phone.

“So here’s the deal. We are making a manual for software for a watch,” Liz explained. “That watch,” she said pointing back to me.

I displayed the watch by moving my arm in front of my chest, to block the view and hopefully keep his mind on the subject matter. I wasn’t sure if it was working.

He blinked a few times, trying to follow along. “Yeah, sure… okay?” he said, politely.

Liz then flipped through the phone’s images, causing me to press my lips together wishing this wasn’t happening.

The images must have surprised him as he leaned back for a moment, confused. “Umm…”

“Wait, you know what a mailgirl is, right?”

He nodded reluctantly, as if he didn’t want to admit it.

“Great, so we are trying to decide on the best image to use for the manual. A picture of a running mailgirl. But we can’t decide if it should be a front-facing image or an image taken from the rear. So we were kind of hoping you could give us your preference.”

He was taken aback. But looking up he likely saw from all our faces that this wasn’t a joking matter. Well, Sam’s smirk wasn’t helping but for the most part we were all quite serious.

Liz continued to show image after image and he moved his face a bit closer as if to examine the details.

I couldn’t take the suspense any more and not trusting Liz, I stepped forward to see exactly what she was showing him.

Liz continued, “Here, I can zoom in on that one if you need to…”

“I’m sure he gets it,” I said, putting my hand over the screen quickly. “Look Renz,” I said, glancing at his name tag.

He looked at me suddenly, drawing me into his nervous but smiling eyes. “Ahh… yes?”

“I’ve had a long day and it’s still just the morning.” I said, looking down, humbly. “I really don’t think all that graphic nudity is required for the manual as this is about a watch mainly, and a naked girl with her ass on full display seems to me the classy approach for this. Plus the front image draws a lot of attention to my sunglasses, which isn’t a normal mailgirl thing. So I think we should just go with the rear image and then you can escort me into the store to meet your boss and I can share how you were a great help today, okay?”

Sam laughed.

“That’s kind of cheating,” Liz complained, grinning.

I glanced at Liz, coldly.

Liz suddenly looked agreeable. “However, she makes a good point!” she added quickly.

He nodded. “Yes… sounds reasonable to me,” he said, glancing again down at the phone with my hand over it, then quickly back up to my face.

Sarah seemed amused. “Whatever,” she said, shaking her head in defeat. “I’ll send the rear version. But if Brandy complains then all bets are off.”

Feeling relieved, I nodded. I could deal with Brandy. Taking the phone, I gave it back to Sam whispering a quick thank you.

Sam took it, looking at it, pondering. A strange frown on her face.

Liz looked down, meekly, as I meant to just walk past her. But the annoying brat got the best of me and I couldn’t resist ruffling her hair, causing Sarah to smile. “Next time don’t play around with stuff that can hurt me, okay?”

She nodded, seriously.

I hugged her and felt her shudder, almost crying.

“Renz, you’re up,” I said, gesturing for him to lead the way.

He nodded and headed back towards the store.

Then I turned and sauntered after him. Knowing I was being watched, I flipped up the back of my shirt briefly, causing a chorus of giggles.

Emi running, front view.  Emi running, rear view.