Authors: Annette Archer,Steam Books
“How about iron chest plate bra of doom,” Jack said as he headed toward the closet in the back where they kept the special orders.
“Seriously, Jack, I will slap you,” Alexis said with a giggle.
Jack took the measuring tap out of the closet and Alexis took off her shirt. In the last two months working with her, Jack had touched more women's breasts than he had previously thought possible in one lifetime. Of course, the one woman whose breasts he actually wanted to touch and mold into his hands thought he was gay. Jack closed his eyes as he faced Alexis. He wanted to see her breasts, but this was not how he wanted to see them.
“Jack, open your eyes, you silly, pasty boy,” she said.
“I just don't want to see you naked,” Jack said with his eyes still closed.
“You are gay,” Alexis said. “They are just titties. You worried that mine are so good looking they'll scare you straight?”
“No,” he said, slowly opening his eyes, but keeping them on focused on her face. “Do you want to see Lola naked?”
“Why on earth would you ask that?” Alexis asked and then it dawned on her. “Oh wait, we work together and you don't want to see all of your coworkers naked. Got it. But these orders are from the boss. If I have to wear a bra, then you gotta look at my boobs. Sorry, kid.”
Jack laughed and pulled the tape measure out. He tried not to stare at the beautiful mounds, but he couldn't keep his eyes off them for long.
“So, I thought that we could put you in a pretty standard minimizing sports bra,” Jack said.
He hated to suggest it. First of all because those were the ones that Alexis hated the most and secondly, he hated the thought that he wouldn’t be able to see her breasts move softly under her shirt.
“Why do women do this to themselves on purpose,” Alexis moaned. Alexis tried on one that Jack handed her and then quickly took it off and handed it back. “It works. But don't you expect me to wear it except for that yucky old hag.”
“Here's your shirt,” Jack said, handing her back her light pink t-shirt.
“Oh Jack, you are always such a gentleman,” Alexis said. She started to put on her shirt, but stopped. “Have you just, like, ever squeezed a boob? Even once?”
Jack had of course squeezed his fair share of breasts in the past, but he wasn't about to share that with Alexis right now.
“Have you?” Jack asked, avoiding the question. Luckily, the front door alarm jingled, alerting them to a new arrival. “I better go get that customer.” He slipped away, hoping that Alexis didn't notice the hard bulge in his pants.
That was not the only time that Lola nearly got him in trouble. It was almost as if she knew he wasn't gay and was trying fix him up with Alexis.
"Hey Jack," Alexis said coming up to him. "Lola and I were talking..."
"That's always dangerous," Jack quipped back. He stopped folding clothes on the counter and turned around to look at her. He always believed at looking at a woman when she was talking.
"Lola made me a dare," Alexis said.
"Even more dangerous," Jack laughed, but he was cut off from his next thought as Alexis grabbed him and passionately smashed her lips against his.
Holy shit
, Jack thought.
He wanted to grab her butt and pull her hips into him, but he realized that Alexis had been dared to kiss him. He thought about placing his hands on her hips, but that would be too much too. So placed his hands behind him on the counter, propping himself up and concentrating on the way her tongue felt sliding across his lips.
"What was that about?" Jack asked when Alexis finally stopped kissing him, even though he secretly wished she hadn't stopped.
"Lola bet that I could turn you straight," Alexis said, smiling impishly.
"I'm not sure that's how it works," Jack said, which was the truth because he didn't really know how homosexual attraction worked. He knew how his attraction to Alexis worked, though, and her kissing him like that was not helping.
"Yeah, that's what I told Lola, but she said if any girl could win you over to our side it would be me," she said, leaning against the counter with Jack.
"Why would you even want to try that?" Jack asked. He was always curious how women's minds worked. They were always such a mystery to him.
"Just for fun. Besides, there aren't a whole lot of good straight men that are still available," Alexis said and then followed it up with a sigh.
"So... you have a little crush on me?" Jack asked. If she had a crush on him, then maybe she would actually like him, be with him.
If she says yes
, Jack thought.
Then I'm going to tell her that I'm not gay.
"Well, maybe, but it's not like that. Just a whimsical need to have a good guy, mostly," she said.
Jack decided that was a sign he needed to tell her. Or maybe he could just pretend that she turned him straight...
No that wouldn't be right,
Jack thought.
"Look, Alexis," Jack said, trying to figure out how to tell her, but she cut him off.
"I know you're not attracted to me like that," Alexis said. "Can I try one more time?"
Jack sighed. Maybe today wasn't the right day to tell her, but he decided that he would come clean with her sooner rather than later. And he would tell her the whole truth.
"Um...I guess," Jack said, trying to play it cool. He wanted one more, desperately, but he wasn't sure he could contain himself.
"Why don't you at least try to like it this time," she whispered softly into Jack's ear. Her hot breath sent tingles down his spine and all the way to his toes.
Jack was more than happy to oblige her request by grabbing her hips and holding them close to him. He eagerly invited her tongue into his mouth, kissing her back and forth. He let his hands roam slightly on her back. He wanted to push her back on the counter and undress her, slowly.
Jack pushed her away. "Okay, okay, that's enough," he said trying to catch his breath.
If things would have gone on any longer he would have made love to her right there. And that wouldn't have been fair to Alexis. She deserved better. She deserved to know the truth.
"Eh, oh well," Alexis said as she walked away.
Jack sat down on the lounging couch that Lola kept in the back. He was a little overtaxed at the moment and needed some time to collect himself. He had often imagined taking Alexis on the lounge. This was beginning to become torturous. He swore that after they finished a fitting with Mrs. Van Dedema, he would take her out for a nice dinner and tell her the truth. Right now, he needed to concentrate on the first small heist at Mrs. Van Dedema’s estate.
He had noticed that she had a small jewelry box in her room. It didn't have her most valuable jewels in it, just some smaller trinkets. When Jack had mentioned that the box itself was beautiful, Mrs. Van Dedema had commented.
"It is quite beautiful," she had said. "That's why I still keep it out. The box isn't suitable for the jewelry I actually wear. It tarnishes them too much."
Jack knew that he would be able to take pretty much anything from that box and she would never notice. The box itself looked like an antique from India. It was a puzzle box, but Jack saw the old hag open it, so he could open it himself later. The only other thing protecting the box, he noticed, was a small lock on the front that kept the correct puzzle pieces of the box from moving. But it was just a small diary lock and would pose no threat to Jack's skill. Perhaps he would give Alexis a piece of Jewelry that he stole from it.
No,
he thought. I think that would be too much too soon.
She doesn't need to know that I just stole it, that I’m a thief, a criminal...
Alexis and Jack had set out to Mrs. Van Dedema's house for her latest fitting. She was complaining that her latest evening gown purchase was not working properly with any of her current underwear. Alexis had to turn around and go back to the store when they were half way there because she had forgotten to put on her special bra.
There were no words to tell how much Alexis disliked Mrs. Van Dedema.
When Alexis got to the expensive, over the top mansion, he rang the doorbell and waited for the help to answer the door. She was quickly sent up the stairs that were carpeted with an expensive and bright white carpet.
Alexis got to the fitting room where Mrs. Van Dedema was standing in front of several full-length mirrors admiring her surgically enhanced but still wrinkling and sagging body. Why she needed a separate fitting room, Alexis had no idea.
I wonder if she knows that an entire inner city block could live in her house and be comfortable,
Alexis thought.
“Mrs. Van Dedema,” Alexis said knocking on the door.
“Yes, dear, come on in,” she said.
“Where's Jack?” Alexis asked.
“Oh, I just sent him down the hall on a small errand,” Mrs. Van Dedema said. “I needed a dress from my room to see if this new style he suggested would really work more modestly as he suggested.”
“I'm sure it will,” Alexis said. “Jack's great at his job. He knows what works with a woman's body.”
“Too bad for you, then, that he's a fag, dearie,” Mrs. Van Dedema said. “That and you being a negro.” She added the last part on quietly like she knew that she shouldn't be saying that.
Alexis bit her tongue. When she got back to the store, she was going to tell Lola that the store wasn't going to deal with this horrible woman any longer. It didn't matter how much money the Van Dedemas had, it wasn't worth being treated like a second class citizen. No. Her people and the homosexual community had worked too hard for someone like this to trample all over it.
Alexis backed out of the room to keep from lashing out. Even though this was going to be angry until the end, she didn't want to get thrown in jail for attacking an elderly woman. She had more at stake there than that.
Alexis wandered down the hall to Mrs. Van Dedema's bedroom, which was separate from her husband's. Alexis had a hard time imagining the old, wrinkled hag ever having had sex. Alexis thought about the last time she had sex herself. It had been forever. She didn't meet many men, except through David and the shop, which meant they were all gay.
Too bad about Jack,
she thought to herself as she got the bedroom door, which was propped slightly open. Who cared if Jack was gay, he was the nicest that any man had ever been to her. If he wasn't gay, she wouldn't care if he was white, black, or alien, she would take him.
Alexis entered the bedroom, her mind too preoccupied with her own frustration for the sight in front of her to register. But it only took a second, and she stopped in her tracks.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
She saw Jack sifting through Mrs. Van Dedema's small vanity jewelry box. He looked up at her casually and stuffed a small pair of emerald earrings in his breast pocket.
“Taking what belongs to the people,” Jack said, carefully closing the lid. “The old woman said that she hates green. These were at the bottom. She'll never notice that they were missing.”
“Jack, you can't do that,” she said.
“Sure I can. What can't be done is letting that woman continue to treat us and the rest of the world like crap,” he said walking toward Alexis.
“Have you done this before?” Alexis asked in a hushed voice. She still couldn't believe what was happening.
“Well, not with Mrs. Van Dedema,” Jack said. “Maybe I’m not a good person, I don’t know. But I know I can’t be that bad. I just...steal from the rich and give to the poor...”
“By ‘poor’, I assume you mean yourself,” Alexis said incredulously. She pushed him slightly away from her.
“No, I take enough to live quite modestly on,” he said. “You know, small apartment, decent food. And I give the rest to the people that need it.”
“Then why are you working at the store? Did you just want to get close to the old hag?”
“No, I was just lucky that she was your customer. I thought that your brother was an informer. Old Saul, the guy who had that newsstand before him, always knew how to find the best jobs...black market jobs,” Jack said, quietly. “I thought that David had taken over. I didn't realize that he was a gay rights activist who thought I was attractive.”
“Wait...” Alexis started, her mind sifting through the curtains of deceit. “Are you saying you're not even gay?”
The question started at almost a yell, but Alexis toned it down when she realized how loud she was being. Truth be told, she was a little happy on the inside that he was available, even though she couldn't believe the conversation that they were having.
“No,” Jack said, matter-of-factly. “That's why your brother isn't my type.”
Alexis stood in the hallway looking at Jack dumbfounded until they both heard the old woman's voice calling for them from down the hall.
“I'm still waiting back here,” Mrs. Van Dedema. “That dress was right there on the bed.”
“Oh, right on the
bed,”
Jack said, hollering back down the hallway. “Silly me, I've been searching in the closet.”
Jack looked at Alexis with a pleading look in his eyes.
Alexis wanted to be furious with him, she knew she ought to be furious with him, but really all she could think about was that Jack wasn't gay.
And how glad she was about that.
She knew what he wanted with the way he looked at her. He wanted her to keep quiet. She knew that she should turn him in. He was stealing. He was a thief. But something inside of her just wanted to make the old hag pay for the remarks she said earlier. She let him pass by her without saying a word. And then she let him continue the fitting with Mrs. Van Dedema without saying a word, either.
She couldn't decide if she was more pissed at Jack or Mrs. Van Dedema. Jack was her friend. She thought she knew him; she thought she could trust him. And now he was just another guy that had used her… but maybe he was still an alright guy. Jack had genuinely liked helping out with the kids at the shelter, after all.
On the other hand, Mrs. Van Dedema had always bee—and would always be—a terrible person.
After the fitting, Alexis stormed out of the Park Avennue mansion. She could hear Jack running after her.