Growing into the Job, Post 540: Retail Therapy, p14

“You don’t think it shows off too much cleavage, do you Dr. J?”

I was seated on a little pink ottoman just outside the swimsuit-area fitting room corridor, trying not to look as shaken as I still felt. My feet dangled a few inches above the floor and my silly pajama pants clung to my calves. I had my hands resting in my lap like I didn’t know what to do with them.

Across from me, Lakshmi stepped out of the curtain and did a slow half-turn, her face carefully neutral.

“What do you think?” she asked, like someone asking if a bandage was too tight. “Is this too much?”

She was wearing a one-piece bathing suit -  high-cut hips, plunging neckline, bold blue and magenta stripes that made her look like a technicolor fertility idol carved by an adoring cult of beach-goers. The way the fabric hugged her was unfair to the male race: how were any of us supposed to function, confronted with this? Maybe that was the point. Her body had always been curvy, yes, but now it was something shocking -  wider, taller, fuller. She looked like she could have picked up the ottoman I was sitting on and crushed it between her thighs, had she the inkling. I swallowed.

“N-no,” I managed. “I mean, no, it’s not too much. You look… good. Really, um…developed...”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Good,” she echoed, as if sampling the word, testing out some new feeling, “Not, I dunno…intimidating? Because of the, uh…”

For modesty’s sake, instead of speaking its name, she decided to show me how her most dramatic feature looked in this swimsuit. That feature being her perfectly formed ass. 

And in case you were wondering, it looked enormous. 

“I-Intimidating?,” I admitted, voice cracking like a kid’s, “m-MAybe a little.”

She smiled, soft and self-deprecating. But the way she shifted her hips - the subtle, rhythmic sway of all that mass - told me she wasn’t unaware of the effect.

Josie called from behind the curtain, laughing. “He means you look like a goddess, Kiki.”

In return, Lakshmi scoffed, maybe hiding a bit of self-conscious reticence. “Sometimes I feel more like an inflatable pool toy,” she said dryly, glancing at herself and her pneumatic curves in a mirror, “or a rescue vessel.” But her eyes flicked to me again, and softened.

They were being gentle with me, the three of them, I knew that. There had been the scolding from them but I’d been through something - again - and they were trying not to overwhelm me. Just enough teasing to ground me. Just enough bare skin to distract.

But I wasn’t okay.

What had just happened - the gang of five girls, the crowding, the laughter - that would have been bad enough. But the rescue…that maybe freaked me out even more. 

I still wasn’t sure what I’d seen. One moment, I was hemmed in by five towering young women, strangers, bullies. Their perfume had been in my lungs, their voices ricocheting in my skull, their hands on me. The next moment-

Snap.

They were gone.

Lifted and pushed and pulled away from me like rag dolls by some all-but-unseen force. Something that had shot from down the aisle. Fast. Violent. I thought - I swear I thought - I saw hair. Josie’s long brown waves…but alive. Writhing. Twenty feet long. 

And then I was pulled too -  not lifted, but slid, by a tentacle of soft brown. Like a shopping bag grabbed too hard. I was dragged down an aisle and deposited at their feet - Josie, Aubrey, Lakshmi - standing there like my holy trinity of feminine salvation.

I’d yelled out, and I expected screams from the girl gang. Panic. But as I blinked back up towards them, trying to crawl to my knees, I saw Aubrey stepping forward.

She wasn’t yelling. She wasn’t threatening. She was just speaking - calm, firm, steady, like a mother quieting a nursery. Her words weren’t sharp - but whatever she was saying, the bully girls were listening.

The girls had frozen, had been scattered apart. Their chests still heaved, wide eyes rimmed in shock. And then they nodded. All of them. They backed away. Quietly. Not a word. Not a phone lifted.

“You’ll never say anything,” Aubrey had told them, voice smooth as deep, eerie water, “Now, please leave us.”

They turned and melted into the racks like ghosts. And somehow, I believed they wouldn’t. Say anything, that is. About what just happened

Josie, standing beside Aubrey, just smirked and added: “And if you do ever mention a word of this, girls? We’ll have Lakshmi sit on you.”

That part I definitely believed.

Now, not fifteen minutes later, Lakshmi was standing in front of me in a skin-tight one-piece, arms folded under breasts that had quite frankly seemed to have grown since this morning. She looked like a superhero on her day off.

“You still look a little pale,” she said gently.

“I’m okay,” I lied, but my voice cracked.

Aubrey emerged from another fitting room just then, her hair up, wearing something stretchy and dark. She gave me one glance - one - and I could already feel the remaining edges of panic in my chest begin to dull.

I let out a breath. I looked at her breasts. They were huge, definitely bigger than they’d been earlier. And then I looked into her eyes. 

Maybe I was safe again, but what did ‘safe’ mean?

“You’re not okay, are you?” Aubrey said, stepping out of the changing area towards me, to stand alongside Lakshmi. She also was wearing a one piece swimsuit, though more full coverage, solid black. 

She stepped closer, and I looked down - first at her bare feet, then slowly up the elegant curve of her body, wrapped in simple black from hips to shoulders. Her swimsuit was more modest compared to Lakshmi’s, a racer, covering her more completely. But that only made it worse. Or better. Or something.

Because her breasts were massive. No other word for it. Soft, high, full - and I was sure they hadn’t been that big just a few hours ago. She seemed to know it, too. There was a slight flush in her cheeks, and her arms didn’t hang easily at her sides, like she hadn’t quite adjusted to carrying the new weight.

“I’m sorry we had to scold you earlier,” she murmured softly.

I opened my mouth to say it was fine - that I understood - but she continued, stepping just close enough that I could feel the warmth of her legs.

I looked away.

And just like that, I was back there again in my memories. Right after the girl gang vanished, after Josie’s hair had whipped around like a furious storm, after I’d been pulled like a ragdoll back into their orbit, and after Aubrey had cowed them with that voice and sent them sheepishly away.

I’d collapsed. I remember that. Knees on tile, breathing like a drunk at sea. Then-

Josie had knelt down in front of me, eyes soft but scolding and a familiar, golden-green that I recognized from-

“Here you go,” she said gently, and extended her wrist toward my face. “Take a deep breath of me.”

I did, without thinking. Her scent hit me like medicine. Sugary and sharp, like orange blossom and peppermint. My nausea drained. The headache cracked and fell away.

And then she let me have it.

“Jay Monroe,” she barked, gemstone eyes flashing, “that was VERY NAUGHTY!”

I blinked up at her. I was immediately embarrassed but what did she just call m-

“Yes,” Lakshmi added, stepping forward, her eyes weirdly the same color as her friend’s. “You cannot wander off like that. Not again. Not ever.”

“I swear if you step away from us one more time,” Josie seethed, “I’m going to put a leash and collar on you.”

“I’m sorry - I didn’t mean to - I was j-just -” I’d been reading an email, from Lucia’s manager. “I thought I could-“

“Shhh,” Aubrey said, crouching beside me, putting one arm under mine, “You don’t need to explain. But you do need to learn.”

I nodded, breath hitching.

“You need to ask permission before stepping away,” she continued, the strange flicker of green-gold also in her normally dark eyes,. “It’s not safe for you without us.”

“I know,” I whispered, “I d-didn’t think - I thought I’d only be a minute-”

“That does not matter,” Lakshmi said from above. Her voice was low, and not unkind. But it was final. “We will decide what is safe.”

Josie took my other arm, and she and Aubrey helped me to my feet, each brushing my hair back from my sweaty forehead. “From now on, we want you holding one of our hands. Always. Understand?”

“I…” I knew there was no point in arguing. “Y-yes. I understand.”

“And what else?” she prompted. “Tell us back the rules.”

“I…I have to ask before I step away. I have to stay close. I have to…h-hold your hands.”

“And?” Aubrey’s voice dipped.

I blinked.

“And what are you always going to do for your mommies?” Josie asked, slower now, like a daycare teacher.

I hesitated. My stomach flipped. My cheeks flushed.

“I…I don’t know.”

She smiled, almost sweetly.

“Obey,” she said.

My heart had skipped, I gulped, and I dropped my chin. Again, no point in arguing. 

“Good boy,” Aubrey said, putting her hand on my shoulder. 

But - now, outside the changing room, back to the present, Aubrey was in her black one-piece racer suit and her hand was again on my shoulder. She was leaned down towards where I sat on the little pink ottoman, gentle and steady. Her eyes had returned to their normal color. Almost. “You needed it, the scolding,” she said, “We had to do it. You scared us.”

“Do you understand,” Lakshmi said softly, “that it was for your own good?”

I looked up at her. At her face. At her chest. And then at Aubrey’s chest. Good lord she’s huge. 

I nodded. “Yes, ma’am,” I said quietly.

And I meant it. But my brow was still troubled, the worry still tugging at me like a loose thread I couldn’t help but pull.

“C-can I ask one question?”

“Of course, honey,” Aubrey cooed.

“Anything,” Lakshmi agreed. 

I licked my lips, hesitating. “Wh-what happened back there?” I asked. “What did you girls… do?” And do I want to know??

There was a sound - the rustle of fabric, the jingle of curtain rings - and then Josie stepped out of her dressing room.

And for a moment, I forgot I’d asked anything at all.

She was radiant - lithe and luscious all at once - “clothed” in a tiny fluorescent pink bikini that left nothing to the imagination. Her skin glowed like she’d been dipped in sun, her stomach was flat and taut, but her hips curved like summer hills. Her breasts weren’t enormous, not like Aubrey’s, but they were big, high, perfectly shaped, jiggling with every playful step she took toward me. Her hair spilled in a loose ponytail, but a few strands had fallen loose to hang about her neck. 

“Oh, come on,” Lakshmi said, half-laughing. “Josie. That is indecent.”

Aubrey clapped one hand over her mouth, eyes wide, giggling. “You’re not wearing that out in public.”

Josie spun once and winked at me.

“I don’t know,” she said airily, “I might kinda like the attention.”

“You will get it in that,” Lakshmi quipped, taking a moment to rest her hand on her giant hip. . 

Josie just giggled. Then, turning toward me with a teasing smile, she spoke to me. “You asked what happened? With the other girls back there?” she answered. One of the loose tendrils of hair curled around her cheek like a wild vine. “Let’s just say the, like, power dynamics around here have started to change.”

The way she said it made something tighten in my chest. My mind fluttered again, back to the flurry of movement, the hair of hers that had come alive to yank those girls away from me without warning or struggle. The way Aubrey’s voice had then cracked through their panic like a tranquilizer.

I blinked.

But none of them were offering more. They weren’t going to explain it. Not here. Not now. And the more I thought about it, the more my head spun. So instead, I let them distract me, with their bodies, with their warmth.

Josie twirled again and grinned. “I mean look at Lakshmi over here showing off those hip-goddess hips - and I’m standing here basically naked - but you, little boob-monkey that you are, can’t stop ogling sweet little Aubrey even though she’s covered up like an old lady.”

I turned red immediately. My eyes dropped to the floor, but it was too late.

Aubrey looked down at her chest and then at me, her cheeks pink. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “It just… happens. When I feel you need us. When you’re scared or hurt.” She gave a little shrug, her black suit stretching tight across her chest. “They’ll go back to normal. Eventually.”

Josie snorted. “What’s normal anymore?” Then she looked back at me and laughed. “Wow, it must drive you insane, being the world’s most breast-obsessed little man right now, surrounded by, like, us.”

“I…I’m not-” I started, ”uh- obsessed…w-with breasts.” 

Josie, obviously not buying it, placed one hand on her hip, cocked her head, and asked sweetly, “Be honest, Daddy… how do we look in these swimsuits?”

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out at first. Then-

“You all look… perfect.” That was all I could manage. And it was all they needed.

“Awwww!” they sang in perfect harmony, like a trio of angels. From Heaven…or somewhere else? Jury was still out on that one. 

“You’re such a charmer!” Josie beamed.

Lakshmi bent low and stroked my cheek with the back of her hand. Aubrey crouched beside her, her soft breasts bubbling over the neckline of her suit, barely contained as she reached forward to kiss me on the temple. Josie leaned in and started planting kisses - one on each cheek, one on my forehead, one on the tip of my nose.

“Stop, s-stop-!” I mumbled, already blushing furiously.

But that only made it worse.

They giggled, doubled down. A kiss on my jaw. A kiss on my eyelid. Lakshmi kissed my scalp, and Aubrey laughed, leaving a little glossy print on my nose. That made her giggle, and they all attacked me again. Within moments I could feel the smear of lipsticks all over my face. My whole head must have looked like a Valentine’s Day card.

And still - they weren’t done.

“Awwwwwwww, look at youuuu,” Josie crooned, drawing the sound out like a song.

“We don’t ever want anything bad to happen to you,” Aubrey murmured, nuzzling her cheek to mine for just a moment.

“Ever,” Lakshmi agreed. “We love you, Dr. J.”

“We do,” Aubrey echoed. “We love you.”

“We LOVE you,” Josie finished. 

And they redoubled their efforts - giggling, sweet, overwhelming, and with glimmering, strangely green-gold eyes -  their laughter wrapping around me like perfume, like hands, like home as their playful kisses covered my face again.

I was theirs.

And they made sure I knew it.

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