Growing into the Job, Post 523: What Was In Those Cookies?

Lakshmi’s grip on his wrist wasn’t exactly rough, but it was firm. Firm enough that he didn’t argue. Not that he would  have - his cheeks were still blazing from what she’d walked in on, from having her bear witness to what he’d allowed to happen. His mind was still muddled, tongue muffled, from the ‘secret ingredient’ of Jewel’s chocolate chip cookies: Katarina’s breastmilk, infused with the effect of making him near paralyzed with attraction to the new South African PA…and possibly some other added bonus features. 

Lakshmi didn’t say a word as she walked him out of the shared workspace and down the corridor of the Far Horizons Medical Associates Clinic, the geriatrics practice inside this newly renovated facility. He shuffled along beside her, currently grateful for the silence. His thoughts were loud enough to fill the space, anyway.

At the reception counter, Aubrey - tall, lithe and bosomy in a buttercream sweater-dress and huge gold hoop earrings - looked up from her tablet with a raised brow.

“Hi guys,” she said, face lighting warmly, earnestly. Every time she saw him, it made her feel sunny.

“Hey, Aubrey, favor?” Lakshmi asked, “I need you to babysit him for a sec.” Her voice was low and breezy, but there was something in it -  a slight edge, betraying a concerned anxiety. 

Aubrey’s gaze dropped, to give him a sweet smile. “Aww. Of course.” She put her hands on her knees, bent down at the waist to get closer to his level across the front desk. “Hi, Doctor.”

“Hi,” he muttered, looking anywhere but up at her.

Aubrey cocked her head. Her preternatural empathy telling her something was up. She asked Lakshmi if everything was okay.

Lakshmi leaned over the counter, dropped her voice even lower. “He has been with…Jewel.”

Aubrey’s brows lifted meaningfully. “Oh.”

“I will right back,” Lakshmi said, already moving. “It is probably better if you keep him with you. And away from her.”

“For sure, Lakshmi,” Aubrey assured, as the other two girls at the desk looked on, “we’ve got him, don’t we?”  She offered her hand across the counter, and directed him to start stepping around the desk to join her behind it. 

Without a word, he complied, and she pulled up a chair for both herself and him, scooting herself closer.  “We’ll do sudoku.”

“Thanks Aub,” Lakshmi said

Lakshmi left him there, and as she walked away, she sent a text to Katarina…

…ugh, thought Lakshmi, putting away her phone and stepping into the room where the other girls were waiting: Melissa’s huge, beautiful office.

The door wasn’t even fully shut behind her before Lakshmi said:

“Okay. I am sorry, but something is not right with that new PA.”

Inside, Randi, Josie, and Shanette were splayed out like they owned the place. Randi, long and darkly lean but in a flowing, floral, pink and yellow skirt and matching top, was lounging lengthwise on the curved couch of white leather, legs up and scrolling through a tablet. Josie, in a mint-green tee that clung to the lioness curves and full breasts of her upper body, its short sleeves just barely capping her shoulders, was seated behind the desk, flipping through one of Melissa’s binders like it was juicy gossip. Shanette, a study in contrasts in a bright white, sleeveless, mock-turtleneck dress that was set off nicely against the dark, rich skin of her arms and crossed, bare legs, had claimed the accent chair and was slowly chewing a grape from the little crystal snack tray someone had set out. Pristine white platform crocs, one dangling from her foot, glittered with charms from every vent hole. 

All three looked up in sync.

Shanette raised a brow. “Her? The girl from South America?”

“I think it is South Africa…” corrected Lakshmi. 

“Well whatever. Jewel, right?”

“Yeah it’s Jewel,” Randi confirmed, “”Why? What’s she up to?” She patted the couch cushion next to her. “Here, BoomBoom, sit.”

“Well, I am not sure she is really ‘up to’ anything, I guess,” Lakshmi, in her sky blue scrubs, continued, stepping more into the room, towards the couch where Randi was moving her long legs aside, opening up a space for her to put her bottom. She didn’t sit yet. “But I had a funny feeling. Aubrey did too. So I went into his old office, where I knew they were, and caught Jewel with Dr. J. on her lap,” Lakshmi said, ”She was, like...”

The girls all leaned in a bit. 

“…letting him suck her finger.”

Randi sat back. “Phhhst,” she scoffed, “that’s all they were doing? He’s sucked a lot more on me than a finger. Melissa didn’t seem to mind.”

“I think she was feeding him cookies, too,” Lakshmi added. Today she was in her favorite scrubs - she liked how fitted they were at the waist - with her new badge clipped cleanly to her breast pocket. Her thick dark hair was up in a messy bun. 

“Feeding him?” Josie blinked, putting down the binder she’d been browsing. Her hair, long and soft and that sort of warm brown that always caught the light, had been flat-ironed into perfect straightness and tucked behind one ear with a glittery pastel barrette. “Cookies?” 

“Hm. Is that a big deal?” Shanette asked, popping another dark grape off a stem. The fruit matched her lipstick, a deep matte shade. Waves of thick, soft hair fell dark about her long neck and shoulders. “Missy's always been cool with us all…sharing him.”

Josie, eyes narrowing, sat forward. “But, yeah, you're right, Kiki. It is a little weird. We all barely know this Jewel person. And she’s only been here, what? Two days?” She paused a moment. “And Missy doesn’t know?”

“Melissa is at Evolution today,” Lakshmi explained, though the girls probably already knew that - they likely wouldn’t have taken over her office like this if she’d been here. Lakshmi shook her head. “And I do not know if it is urgent, exactly. But I think it is…something.”

Randi sat up straighter. “What kind of something?” Lakshmi still hadn’t sat next to her.

Lakshmi hesitated. She had on no visible jewelry except for a slim black elastic around one wrist. “Well, I smelled the cookies.”

That got their attention. Heads and brows cocked. 

“Katarina’s milk,” Lakshmi said quietly. “I knew right away. It smelled like her.”

“You think..?” Shanette trailed off.

“No, I know,” Lakshmi stated, “I just asked Katarina about it and she admitted it. Jewel baked them with it. Said that Jewel wanted him…uh…’horny’.”

The girls, the four of them, all paused. They knew what sort of things the blond, Polish woman could do to men with her breastmilk. How she could influence thren - physically and emotionally -  in ways she wished. They suspected they hadn’t seen the entirety of her capabilities, in fact. She was sorta squirrely when talking about her husband and babies - who knows what home life was like for the Vacek family. 

Randi exhaled hard through her nose. “Do you think she’s telling you the whole truth?”

“I do not know,” Lakshmi answered, shaking her head. “But Dr. J certainly looked out of it. Happy, I guess? But out of it. Like…more out of it than usual. He was sitting there with Jewel, on the lap of this woman he had just met, with her finger in his mouth, like it was the most normal thing in the world.”

Shanette muttered, holding a dark grape between two fingers, “Hmmph. Grape, Randi?”

“Sure,” answered Randi, who then opened her mouth far, far wider than any human should be able.

Shanette tossed the grape eight feet through the air, into Randi’s gaping maw.

Randi’s jaw clamped shut, and she chewed, casually. “So are we thinking that this giant chick from South Africa just really wants a piece of our Dr. Vulni - lots of girls would want the same thing - or are we worried about something bigger?”

Lakshmi crossed her arms, jaw tightening. Her nails were painted a clean red, tapping her elbow, her lips balmed but bare. Still, there was something effortlessly lovely about her - sharp brows, a long nose, and clear skin that glowed naturally beneath the fluorescent office lights. “I do not want to overreact. But I also do not trust her. And I do not know if Melissa would want her around him unsupervised - especially if something really is going on.”

Josie nodded, already flicking open her phone, tucking an errantly serpentine lock behind an ear. “You want me to tell her?”

“Not yet,” Randi said. “Let Missy do what she needs to today at Evolution. If it’s a real problem, we’ll loop her in. But until then…”

She looked around the room, meeting each of their gazes one by one.

“..she left Squirt in our care today.”

A pause.

“So let’s take care of him. Lakshmi, girl, sit that big butt down.”

The energy in the room, suddenly, changed. 

“Well okay then!” Josie chriped, tossing her phone aside and leaning her healthy chest forward into Melissa’s desk, arms folded. She watched her friend Lakshmi sit herself - gracefully, for someone who could make themselves weigh as much as a small hippopotamus - onto the leather couch across the room, next to Randi. “So what now? Are we babysitting or…?”

Lakshmi sighed and perched on the edge of the couch. “Technically, he is supposed to go to that endocrinology appointment this afternoon in the city. The one his doctor friend scheduled for him.”

“Oh, right,” Randi said. “The shrinking check-up.”

“Yes,” Lakshmi nodded. “Melissa asked Aubrey and me to drive him, make sure he gets there safe, keep an eye on him.”

“She doesn’t want him going alone, hm..?” Josie asked, biting her lower lip.

“No,” said Lakshmi.

“She treats him like a kid sometimes, huh..?” Josie followed, biting her lip even harder. 

“Yeah, like all the time,” Randi answered, starting to smile as she watched her younger friend’s temperature start to rise.  

“That’s so hot,” Josie finally groaned, rolling her eyes as the errant tress of hair came back to life, joined by three others, each for a moment slithering down to her shoulders or curling into the air. Paying them no mind, her eyes sparkled. “Can I go too?” she asked, “I don’t mind driving…”

“You’re feeling it, huh Joze?” Randi asked, now in a full smirk.

With a knitted brow, Josie looked across the room. “Feeling what?” Casually, she started to discipline her mischievous hair, lock-by-lock. 

“Like you want to be with him, baby him? Like, bad,” Randi answered, “Yeah, I’m feeling it too. Happened to me last week, when Melissa left him with me. It’s like…maternal instincts on steroids, huh?”

“Oh, ladies, yesss!” Shanette laughed, with a huge bright smile and a hand to her chest. Her bust, enormous even by Far Horizons standards, created a dramatic silhouette beneath the clingy white of her dress’ top, which was stretched to the edge of physics. A hint of nipple bulged through bra and knit fabric. “Just thinking, like, he’s ours for the afternoon?  Makes me want to-“

“Diaper him? Like you do Scottie?” Randi poked with a tease, “Get in line, give the rest of us a chance. You already have a man-child of your own back at home.”

“Omigod seriously Shanette do you have any diapers with you?” Josie suddenly asked, eyes newly alight. “We could-“

“No, Josie!” scolded Lakshmi, loudly, demonstrably, suddenly commanding the attention of the other three women in the room. Lakshmi was the quietest of their group of friends, but when she spoke up, people listened. “Randi! Shanette! We have a responsibility this afternoon! He has his appointment, we promised Melissa we would try to help him. We promised we would take good care of him-“

“That’s what I’m saying…” Josie said softly, with a sly smile, lashes fluttering just a little longer than necessary when she looked up at her friend. One hand went to cup one breast, bulged against the edge of the desk. “It couldn’t hurt just to-“

“No, BoomBoom’s right,”  Randi sighed, slumping back into the couch, crossing one racehorse leg over the other, “We have to try to control ourselves. Act like adults.”

“Like moms?” Josie offered, eyes brightening again. 

“Would you please-“ With surprising swiftness and accuracy, Randi chucked a throw pillow at the girl. “…calm your ovaries??”

Two thick tentacles of Josie’s hair, suddenly three feet long, caught the pillow before it hit their master’s face. Josie giggled. Her hair tossed it back. 

Randi caught the pillow, placed it in her lap. “I can’t go anywhere this afternoon. Too much to do here.”

Shanette, as nonplussed by this display of weirdness as Lakshmi, who looked on mildly, spoke up again. “Yeah. I can’t go either. I have this fashion thing I promised my mom I’d do, at the new mall. She wants me to sing, too.”

“Oooo that’s right!” Josie chirped, “That’s today?”

Now it was Randi’s brow’s turn to knit. “Wait what?”

“I’ve told you before, right?” Shanette began to explain, plucking off another grape for herself, “My mom is a buyer for Hera’s. The reopening of the old downtown mall as a new Vendare center is this week, and I promised I’d do a little runway thing that the store is putting on there. They’re showing off some dresses and stuff. They want Scottie with me too. It’s this afternoon.”

“And you’re singing, too?” Randi asked, not without a bit of surprise.

“Have you heard her voice?” Josie marveled.  

“Yeah it’s amazing…” Randi admitted.

Shanette, popping the grape in her mouth, cast her eyes down and smiled demurely. “Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve never really sang in front of, like, people before.”

“I swear to god, Shanette, you got-”

“Randi, language,” Lakshmi scolded.

Randi rolled her eyes, not loving being scolded. “I swear to goddess - is that better? - Shanette, you got the coolest power. Josie’s got snake hair, KiKi has BoomBoom butt, Amelia’s growing claws, I’m stuck with this stupid mouth….”

Randi unhinged her jaw, let it drop down nearly to her bosom.

She snapped it back up again.

“ - but you could be a superstar,” she finished. “What are you going to sing?”

“They want me to do ‘Rise in Her Name’.”

“OoooooOOOoOoo!” Josie ooo’d, soft pink gloss highlighting the pucker of her lips.

“Oh I love that song!” Lakshmi lauded, “We all sang that at the rally we went to, remember, Josie? It was pouring rain on us but it was so inspiring.”

“Yeah, you’re going to kill it, Shanette, I know it!” Josie beamed, eyes wide and warm as she looked at her friend with newfound respect. “Can we come watch, maybe, if there’s time after his appointment?”

“Wait you are going?” Lakshmi asked, “To Dr. J’s appointment?”

“Of course!” Josie answered, laughing, “Like I said, I’ll drive! My car is much nicer than yours or Aubrey’s anyway. So, can we come, Shanette??”

Shanette, again demurely, looked away. She was not used to this sort of attention, but the girls couldn’t help but notice the flush of pride across her dark complexion. “I don’t know how I’m gonna do but you can come down and watch me crash and burn, sure,” she answered, “At least you can see the new center. It’s supposed to be really cool. Like, nothing like the old mall. All new stuff, all owned by women.”

”Dinner there later? If we can all make it?” Randi offered, “Maybe Missy will be done by then, can meet us too.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Josie chirped, dangling her keys. “So who wants to go fetch him for a little drive?”

Four hands went up, and the laughter of girls filled the room. 

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