Apartment Above Luke's, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was sitting crosslegged in her living room, surrounded by a truly staggering number of anatomically-shaped lollipops, hard candies, and other confections. It turned out that the company that had supplied Dite's with chocolates and candy had gone out of business and multiple other companies had sent samples to the store in hopes of scoring the contract. Kathy...wasn't sure what it said about the store or the island that it was considered a lucrative enough market for a number of stores to go to this much trouble.

But, she was determined to be a good manager and if that meant spending the afternoon trying a ridiculous amount of sexy candy to decide which she liked best, well, she was up to the task. As long as she took breaks for real food every few hours, she should be okay, right? And she had a pen and paper to record her observations (and had come up with several criteria to judge them on), making this all legit and aboveboard and not just an excuse to gorge out on penis-shaped candy all day.

So far, she'd noticed that the sour gummy boobs made the cut on her lip burn and the mold for one of the companies tended to make their chocolates look more like melted candles than anything sexy. Oh, and another company used cheap chocolate that tended to flake off which was just NOT attractive in something meant to simulate body parts. It was this kind of attention to detail that separated the good managers from the mediocre, see?

[Open! But probably slow as I'm still in training, so who knows what my schedule will be when this finally posts. Link to Anders' thread.]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't need to figure out how much lube they use while doing it," Kathy retorted, shoulders relaxing again after they'd tensed with the whole 'dad' thing.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You're gonna find out," Dante pointed out easily. "You're like, the only place to buy lube in town."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yes, but as soon as they leave, I'm going to immediately stop thinking about it." Which...actually sparked an idea.

"You know what?" she asked, looking excited and reaching for her notebook. "I should start a monthly subscription service. Like, for X amount of dollars a month, I'll just send people a supply of safer sex items--condoms, lube, dental dams, all that stuff. They get a discreet delivery of supplies guaranteed every month all without having to come in! Dante, you're a genius!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"... I don't know about that, but sign me up," Dante said.

After a beat to process that weird shift, there.

[spin_kick_snap]

It made sense in her head! Sometimes her brain linked things and skipped over the interim steps to get there. Thought-tesseracting!

"Right? You could get all the basic sex supplies you need, but privately and without even needing to come in! All the supplies you need, delivered right to your door!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Probably gonna have to ask some basic 'what do you need' up front," Dante said, after another pause. "No point giving dental dams to gay dudes or fleshlights to lesbians, right?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Are fleshlights are basic sex supplies?" Kathy asked. Then slanted a grin at him. "And if some dudes have tits, some lesbians may need fleshlights."

Which didn't actually take away from his main point. "I think what I might do is have a checklist when people sign up for the service," she said, making more notes. "It can be adjusted at need, but a basic sheet of what you want, in what quantity, and how often. This way everybody gets what they want when they want it and nobody has to pay for what they don't."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Every time I think you can't make sex nerdier," Dante sighed, sagging back into his seat.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Stand in awe of my other superpower," Kathy said with a solemn nod.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Don't know if 'awe's the right word," Dante said and reached for his drink. "Do you at least get time for product testing?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm going to say I do," Kathy decided. "Especially if I can then, like, write reviews to help influence other shoppers. I'm doing it for the customers."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Totally for no other reason at all," Dante agreed. "Maybe go back for second and third tests too, just to be sure."

[spin_kick_snap]

"The first time could be a fluke!" Kathy said, wide-eyed and innocent. "Three times is minimum, just to make sure that it's a reliable orgasm."

[rebelseekspizza]

"And then you can't really sell the one you used..."

[spin_kick_snap]

"That would be unsanitary," Kathy sniffed. "Fortunately, my bed came with not one bur two drawers. I'm sure I could find room there, so as to not be wasteful."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante let out a soft snicker.

He drained his glass. "Sounds like a good plan," he said, setting it down. "Anyway, I should probably get outta here before I finish all your vodka."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Bottle of vodka's a small price to pay for a chance to talk kinda like old times," she said softly.

Not entirely like old times. She was still too guarded around what she said around him and they'd never progressed past the kind of flirting that was more banter than anything else. But it was something, at least. And even if it wasn't exactly what she wanted, she cherished it just the same.

"Next time, I'll bring the booze, you bring the snacks, all right?"

[rebelseekspizza]

And Dante... still wasn't sure how to talk to her, exactly. He was glad they had the surface banter shit figured out, but that was it. Maybe there was still a wound inside of him about last year that all the talking hadn't patched up yet; maybe it was that.

So leaving before they could hit on something they'd have an awkward silence about... seemed about right.

"Works for me," he said easily. He got up. "You call the time, I'll be there."

[spin_kick_snap]

"If you're really lucky, maybe I'll bring lunch around the music shop sometime," Kathy said, grabbing a handful of candy to pass off to him before he went. "Or you can come by the shop and see all the ways I'm nerding it up."

An open invite. Nothing too specific yet, but there. Baby steps.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Guess I'm gonna have to stock up on some stuff anyway," Dante said.

He tossed her a casual salute as he took the candy with the other hand. "It's a date."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy waved him out the door, kicking back in her chair with a casual smile and tried to figure out how her heart could feel so full and so empty at the same exact time.