Okay, he had now officially pushed all the right buttons to make her like him. They chatted about her diet and her aerobics routine. She had been neglectful of her workouts the past few weeks, but she figured her hectic job-hunting at least partially made up for it. Bob assured her that she wouldn’t be gaining any weight around work. She would be way too busy. Then, he offered her a job. She was speechless. She really hadn’t expected anything, but she was suddenly employed for the first time in her life. He would have her shadow Candy, whose recommendation had caught his eye in the first place. Candy had agreed to come in on Sunday afternoon, which normally wasn’t busy for them until football season was in full swing again. They would work together all week, which would help get Trixie ready for the following weekend’s rush. He got her a couple of uniforms and helped her fill out the new-employee paperwork.
When she showed up the next day, she was terrified all over again. It was more than the fact that she was a woman in her late thirties squeezed into a white shirt with a low neckline that was about two sizes too small and a pair of orange shorts that left nothing to the imagination. This was her first paying job, EVER! But Candy was as sweet as she was cute. She had Trixie follow her around for an hour before giving her tables of her own, and even then she was never far away. Luckily it was slow as Bob had indicated, and she managed to get through most of the day without a problem. And Candy imparted the greatest piece of advice she had to offer. “If they start to look unhappy, bend and jiggle.” She had demonstrated by putting her elbows on the table and acted as if she were talking to someone while shifting her weight from foot to foot, causing her breasts to bounce a bit. Trixie had to acknowledge that it was effective. It got her heart racing a bit. She only had to try it once, but it seemed to work for her as well.
The two girls bonded well that first day. Candy was a student, but she was only going part-time that semester so she could save a bit of money. She was twenty-two years old and close to graduation, so she was trying to avoid going much deeper into debt by taking out more student loans. She was majoring in, of all things, computer science and she was getting a minor in business. She actually wanted to open her own little computer store, selling and repairing custom systems. Great. She was hot and smart. Trixie found herself slightly humbled again. Candy sensed something was bugging the older woman, and invited her out for drinks after their shift was over. Trixie agreed almost reluctantly. But their girls-night out was fun. They talked about their favorite shows (both girls had a thing for “The Sopranos”), their favorite music (Trixie liked country while Candy liked dance music and techno) and, of course, boys. Candy apparently had a boyfriend, but the two of them were on the outs. He had become increasingly controlling. He didn’t like her going out with anyone, even her female friends, without him being there or giving his “permission.” And she had caught him going through her purse recently. She didn’t make nearly enough money to throw it away so he could by cigarettes. So she had put a mousetrap in her purse and left it where he would find it. That hadn’t gone over very well with him. It had actually broken one of his fingers. She wasn’t worried about him getting physical with her. He didn’t have the balls, but he was sneaky.
Trixie talked about her recent divorce and the events that led up to it. She wasn’t quite ready to disclose the facts about her sexual escapades leading up to the split. It would take a lot more drinks to get that out of her. But Candy was almost in tears when Trixie was describing eighteen years of romantic limbo, and was furious when she heard about the complete lack of respect shown by her son. But like Trixie, she softened her view on Paul when she found out how he had reacted. To some degree, both he and Trixie had been in the same boat all that time, but only one of them had really noticed. The fact that he was willing to help her out earned him a little extra leeway. The two of them hung out well into the evening, chatting away. Eventually, Trixie did consume just enough alcohol that she gave some of the details of her erotic tryst with the soccer players and her ongoing adventures with Dennis and Brandy. Once her mouth started, it didn’t stop. After the story was over, she felt mortified. Great, she thought to herself. Now she thinks I’m a complete slut. And maybe I am.
But it turned out to be difficult to read Candy’s reaction. The girl wasn’t singing her praises, but she didn’t recoil in horror either. “So,” she asked at last, “why did you do it? Really.” Even slightly tipsy, Trixie realized her answer would be important to their blooming friendship.
“I just wanted to be noticed. I know that sounds horrible. I mean, Paul never abused me or treated me badly. But that was because somehow, in the last decade or so, he forgot I existed. And then I started to forget myself. I got up each day, fixed the same meal for the same two people, did a few chores, worked out, fixed dinner and went to bed. And that was my life for eighteen years. All of a sudden, people wanted me. They saw me as a woman rather than a part of the furniture or an arm-piece at company parties. I was desirable. I hadn’t seen myself as desirable since high school. Yes, I felt a little guilty at first. But even feeling guilty was better than feeling nothing.” She stopped her story to take a sip of her drink. “And I liked the sex. I do wish I broken things off with Paul first, but I didn’t realize how much I wanted to until afterwards.” She glanced over at Candy. “So, disgusted yet?”
“Disgusted? Nah. Maybe you could have handled it better. But then I think to myself, ‘What must it have been like to lose eighteen years of my life?'”
“You know, I’m beginning to see it a little different. I didn’t lose those years. I just didn’t do much with them. And my life isn’t over. It’s just . . . living my life was just delayed a bit, and I’d kind of like to get around to experiencing it.”
“That’s the spirit!” Candy’s good humor seemed to have returned. The two of them called a cab. Candy was dropped off first, but she gave Trixie a great big hug. Their breasts being mashed together got Trixie’s heart going again, but it was just a friendly hug and then Candy went into her apartment. Trixie was breathing a bit heavily all the way home.
————————————– ————————————————
The following week was actually a lot of fun. Trixie enjoyed the work, including the gratuitous flirting. It turned out that most of their customers didn’t have any real expectations about getting a date with the waitresses. They just liked to play the teasing game, and Trixie found she was kind of good at it. She did the bend-over-and-jiggle maneuver that Candy had shown her and was friendly with all the customers however grouchy they might be. And she and Candy became better friends each and every day. Going out after work became a regular occurrence, though the amount of drinking decreased. But the amount of time Trixie spent staring at Candy’s chest was increasing. Trixie did her best to make sure Candy didn’t find out how attracted to the young woman she had become.
A few weeks later, after the cab had dropped Candy off, Trixie returned to her sister’s place to find she had received a tear-filled message that made no sense from her friend. Margaret had taken down the note just minutes earlier. When Trixie tried calling back, the line was busy. She borrowed her sister’s car and drove back to Candy’s apartment. She was very afraid for her friend, particularly when she found the front door open. Trixie walked in and noticed that all the furniture was gone. All the decorations were missing from the walls. The only thing left was the phone and a smashed up picture frame. Candy was sitting on the floor crying.
“The son of a bitch sold all my stuff! He sold it for fifty fuckin’ bucks! Even my computer!”
Trixie was looking around, and felt a rage building up. How shallow could someone be?!? ” Did you call the cops?”
“Yeah,” she sniffed. “Since there’s no ‘immediate threat,’ they aren’t going to be able to make it out right away. But,” she was looking a Trixie with tears in her eyes, “what am I gonna do? Even if they get my stuff back, it’s gonna take time! I’ve got nothing to wear! I’ve got nowhere to sleep!” She was weeping outright after that. Trixie knelt beside her and wrapped her arms around the poor girl’s head, trying vainly to comfort her.
When the cops showed up, they took an inventory of everything that had been taken. Candy was trying to be careful to only report stuff that was actually hers, which was most of what she and her now ex-boyfriend had owned. The cops were incredibly patient, and told her they had seen this sort of thing before. They would put out an APB for the boyfriend for theft, knowing he would claim it was his stuff. But Candy was smart enough to have kept receipts, which her boyfriend had ignored because they weren’t anything he could sell. She even had her warranty information for her computer and all of the identifying numbers for it. Luckily, her back-ups of all her information were tucked into a corner of the closet, so she hadn’t lost all of her schoolwork, though she was going to need to get an extension on some projects in her current classes. The cops also said they would check at pawnshops, which is where most stuff like this was found when it was sold off in a hurry. They asked if she needed anything, knowing there wasn’t much they could do for her. Trixie assured them she’d take care of her friend, and gave them her contact information just in case. While Candy was escorting them out, Trixie picked up the broken picture frame from the ground. The glass was broken, so she had to be careful handling it. The front of the picture was a slightly younger version of Candy and another girl. The girl was a strikingly beautiful blonde girl, and the two were giving each other the type of hug reserved for best friends. The back had the words “Love, Samantha” scrawled on it.