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It was yet another boring night and only a handful of sporadic customer visits were keeping Carmilla vaguely entertained. Sure, she understood that some percentage of the population was rather uncomfortable with visiting such specialty shops in person and heavily favored ordering online, but this evening was even more gruelingly slow than usual.
Especially with it being a Saturday night, there should have been loads more people filling the store, whether they be curious college kids looking for personal items and gag gifts, or couples of all kinds seeking a change of pace in their night life. The visitors that she enjoyed most, if she was having an exceptionally lucky night, were the brave souls who dared venturing in on their own because they were too embarrassed to shop with friends.
As if on cue, the entrance door budged open a crack and after a momentary pause, in popped a tiny girl’s head. Her apprehensive eyes scanned the dimly lit store with a mixture of naïve curiosity and mild trepidation - Carmilla smirked at the crosshair that was so easily painted by the girl’s tangible hesitation.
“Oh this is going to be good,” Carmilla muttered in a singsong fashion.
The smaller girl inched her way in through the door as if one wrong step would cause her to fall through a trap door.
Slowly but surely, the girl shuffled inside, making sure to keep as close to the walls as possible so as not to risk making eye contact with any employees lest it draw them over to see if she needed any assistance. Her gaze darted from the thoroughly stocked walls to the various well-decorated displays set up, and with each article that caught her attention, the blush on her face deepened ten fold to the point of looking like she ate the hottest chili pepper in existence.
Silently snaking her way across the floor as if she were practically gliding, Carmilla approached the smaller girl from behind. Stopping mere inches away from her back, she whispered in her ear.
“Everything okay sweetie?”
The girl instantly yelped and clumsily bumped into the nearest shelf, and though she didn’t completely destroy everything she did manage to knock down a couple of tubs containing discrete and portable sized flavored lubricants.
“Oh, oh my - oh man I am so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to knock them down, I’ll pick these up right n- oh my God it’s lube.”
Carmilla bit her lip hard in an attempt to stifle her laughter as the adorable tiny girl had dipped down to gather the fallen products, only to drop them seconds later after realizing what they were. Surely she had seen lube before? Regardless, it was infinitely humorous that the girl was freaking out over harmless tubes of lube; God forbid she run into a rack full of deluxe vibrators and dildos.
The girl’s hands paused briefly before she took a deep breath and nodded to herself, “Yep, I can do this, no big deal.”
Squatting down eye-level with the girl, Carmilla began helping her collect the scattered tubes, each time making a point to brush their hands together, and each time eliciting a small flinch or muted gasp from the squirmish brunette.
“First time in a shop like this?” she cooed in a smoky drawl.
The contents of the products completely forgotten, the flustered girl started to frantically cram the fallen tubes of lube back into the display tubs in her best effort to distract herself from the situation.
“What? No, no of course not? Why would you – I totally go to these kinds of places all the time! Or – uhh, maybe not all the time. A couple of times. Sometimes I guess, but uh,” she rustled her hair nervously, “well, what I meant to say is that I'm not some innocent newbie, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
Carmilla shrugged bemusedly, the corner of her lips upturned ever so slightly, “Could’ve fooled me, cupcake.”
“Laura.”
Carmilla’s eyebrow perked up, “Hm?”
“My name is Laura,” she pursed her lips in irritation, “so… so stop calling me all those weird pet names. Who are you anyways? Do you even work here?”
Placing the now refilled containers back on the shelf, Carmilla casually cocked her head to the side before sauntering up close to Laura until they were nearly chest to chest.
Laura’s palms became clammy, her face flushed, heart hammering a million beats per minute. Though her mind was yelling at her to move as each inch of space between them vanished by the second, her body felt cemented in place, transfixed by Carmilla’s piercing gaze. Laura’s concentration was spiraling into a dizzyingly one-tracked, tunnel vision haze to the point where the only thing in focus was Carmilla’s absolutely stunning and utterly breathtaking visage.
She felt the awkward shapes of unknown sex toys press against her back before silently realizing that Carmilla had her pinned against the wall with no escape in sight.
“What’s wrong Laura?”
Carmilla purred with a smug smirk painted on her face.
“…Cat got your tongue?”
Laura’s eyes bulged before she choked and sputtered on air, her brain too bewildered to function. Coughing up a storm, eyes now clenched shut from embarrassment, she flailed for the nearest product she could reach and shoved it against Carmilla’s chest to escape the situation.
“I’M BUYING THIS.”
Carmilla burst into unadulterated laughter that filled the store before grabbing the item thrust at her.
“Sure, whatever you want.”
She headed over to the cash register with a thoroughly mortified Laura trailing behind, her face and ears a shade of red thought to be humanly impossible. Laura kept her gaze averted, the entire transaction rung up in silence. Carmilla knew the girl had only grabbed the nearest thing in order to avoid any crisis, but that didn’t detract from the fact that the girl had initially come to the store with something else in mind.
Scribbling on the back of the receipt and promptly shoving it into the bag, she grinned slyly at Laura.
“Enjoy those fuzzy handcuffs, cutie.”
Laura’s face burned up and after grabbing the bag of shame, she bolted out the door. It wasn’t until she was in the safety of her home that she checked her receipt to see how much of a dent that the spontaneous purchase made on her bank account.
On the back of the receipt was a neatly written phone number and the name Carmilla.
Beaming like an idiot, she punched the number into her phone and pressed save.
5 months later
“Laura, where did you put the keys?”
“…uh oh.”