Holiday Rush

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Kate smiled as she looked around at all of the other crazy people out here this early in the morning. The last time that she’d braved the day after Thanksgiving sales, it hadn’t been such an event; of course, that had been more than ten years ago. Back then they had started at a respectable hour and a body had had time to grab a decent breakfast first.

Hitting the Friday morning sale was actually her husband’s idea. He figured that she could go a little crazy and not have to worry so much about how much everything cost. He’d even come along, claiming that there were some things he needed to pick up. She knew how much he hated shopping, so she really appreciated the gesture. Thanksgiving had been rough; this was the first one she’d spent with just Ben in more than twenty years, and she’d taken it pretty hard. Her oldest, Bethany, was married to a soldier stationed in Germany. Normally she still would have made it home, but this year she was eight and half months pregnant and unable to travel. Her son Trent, in his third year in college, had stayed on campus to work on a final project that was due just after the holiday.

An alien landing in the parking lot would find it hard to believe that yesterday everyone was talking about Pilgrims and eating turkey. Everywhere you looked you saw splashes of red and green, and just inside the store employees were lined up, ready to thrust a savings card and a candy cane in your hand as soon as you went through the door.

At exactly 5:30am a store manager materialized in front of the big glass doors and unlocked pushed them open with an exaggerated flourish. She was swept up in the tide of holiday shoppers, toward the center aisle and the “early bird deals”.

An hour later she was laden with goodies and Ben was nowhere to be seen. Not that it would have mattered much; she had so much crap piled on that she couldn’t even see her own feet, let alone anyone next to or in front of her. Which is probably how she ended up flat on her ass in the middle of the floor empty handed a minute or two later. She sat there, dazed, as a burly man about her age -- that’s to say, middle aged -- scrambled to collect all her stuff before it got trampled or reclaimed by another holiday shopper. When he was done, he helped her collect the contents of her purse, which lay scattered around her as well.

“Sorry about that, ma’am,” he said in a pleasant drawl. “I don’t know where my head was at.”

“It’s my fault, I’m sure,” Kate corrected. “I was trying to carry too much anyway.”

He squatted down and looked into her eyes intently. He had an open, weathered, face, with a strong jaw and pale blue eyes. The hair at his temples was graying, and had the unkempt look of a bachelor’s. He grabbed her chin and turned her face toward him. His hands were rough – working hands, just like her husband’s – and she flushed a little, suddenly self conscious.

“Hold still. You took a nasty bump; I just want to make sure you’re alright.”

“Are you a doctor?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, but I’ve seen my share of concussions.” He studied her a little longer. “Looks like the spill didn’t do you too bad.”

“You should see my butt,” she quipped, and then realized how that must sound and flushed again.

He chuckled, and it was an easy, rugged sound. “I think I got your meaning.” He stood up and extended his hand. “Let’s get you out of the way before you get trampled by these crazy people.”

She let him help her to her feet. She swayed a little and he put a hand on her waist to steady her. The contact was brief but it made her uncomfortable – like somehow she was being unfaithful or something. It didn’t make any sense; heck, she’s the one that had gotten knocked over. Looking at the mountainous pile of stuff on the floor, she sighed.

“Here, let me help you to the register,” he offered.

She shook her head. “No, every man for him self today.” she smiled. “I’ll manage somehow.”

“Nonsense,” he dismissed, and grabbed the whole mess in his arms. “I’m done here anyway.”

That earned him a confused look. “Where are your things? Everything here is mine.”

He shrugged. “I can get what I want later. It’ll still be around.”

Since the truth was she welcomed the help, she didn’t protest any further. The line was already pretty long and he made no effort to surrender her purchases. As the line inched along he stood by her silently, content to leave her to her own thoughts rather than try to fill the time with meaningless small talk.

When Ben finally found her, he handed her stuff over to him without being prompted. Ben looked from him to Kate, the question obvious on his face.

“I’m Tom,” The stranger said after a moment of awkward silence.

“And you know my wife how?” Ben asked bluntly.

Tom looked a little sheepish. “I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was walking and ended up sending knocking her down. Figured the least I could do was see that she got to the register alright. Now that you’re here, I guess I should be getting on.”

“Yeah, maybe you should,” Ben said unkindly.

Tom didn’t seem to notice. “Y’all have a good rest of the day,” he said, then turned and set off back the way they’d come without waiting for a response. Ben looked at Kate who shrugged as if to say, “Don’t ask me, I just met him.”

The two of them talked about nothing the way longtime married couples do while they waited for the line to move. Ben had been right; the shopping HAD been a good idea. By the time they reached the actual register she was in a better mood than she’d been in in weeks.

As they collected their shopping bags and walked toward the glass doors Ben admitted that she’d even managed to spend less than he’d expected.

“So does that mean that I can go back and try again?” she joked as passed between the upright inventory control sensors. Suddenly, an ear-splitting siren went off. Kate saw that they were the only ones near the front doors and stepped back immediately.

A young woman in khaki pants and a hunter green blouse, the chain’s colors, materialized out of the crowd near the register and motioned for them to come over. Despite her age – Kate put her at least fifteen years her junior – she had an authoritative presence.

“She must have forgotten to scan something,” Kate said defensively.

“I’m sure everything is fine,” the woman assured her. “Could I just see your receipt please?” Kate fished around in one of the bags and handed it to her obediently.

The woman studied it for a bit, then removed everything and scanned it again just to make sure that all of the RFID tags had been deactivated. She handed Kate and Ben back their bags.

However, as soon as Kate got to the front door, the sirens went off again. Kate turned back to see the young woman was already walking toward them.

“Would you mind coming with me?” she asked politely.

Kate looked around; a crowd was gathering. “I really don’t understand why it keeps going off,” she said, fighting to keep her voice from wavering. Ben patted her arm reassuringly.

“I’m sure we can straighten this out up in the office,” the woman agreed.

They followed her back to customer service, then through a door and up a set of stairs. At the top of the stairs a door opened onto reception area tastefully decorated in green and beige.

“This way, please” the woman directed, opening a door to the left marked “Logistics”. This led to a hallway containing several doors unmarked doors, and she proceeded through one of them seemingly at random. They found themselves in a room done up in the same green and beige colors, set up to look like a living room. The woman turned to Ben.

“Mr…” she began.

“Jenkins,” Ben finished for her.

The woman nodded. “Mr. Jenkins,” she continued. “Would you mind waiting here while I interview Mrs. Jenkins in the next room?”

“Yes I do mind. What do you need to say to her that you can’t say to the both of us?”

The woman’s smile turned frosty. “The question was rhetorical. Actually, it’s store policy.”

“So?” Ben challenged. “What if I still don’t want to?”

She shrugged. “Then we wait for the Sheriff and they get to interview you,” she said evenly. Ben went noticeably pale. “I’m sure we can get this cleared up without having to involve them, don’t you?” she asked smoothly. Ben nodded quickly. “Good. Why don’t you just make yourself comfortable and we’ll be back in a bit.”

She picked up several of the bags and walked through a door set into one of the walls on the side. Kate followed after her, her face ashen and her movements wooden. She was so scared she was afraid she might wet herself. When she was in the room, the woman closed the door and engaged an electronic lock. Kate started at the sound of the bolts sliding home.

Whereas the other room looked like a living room, this one looked more like a doctor’s office. The walls and floor where stark white, and all of the furniture was a combination of white laminate and chrome. The woman placed the bags she was holding on a table that looked a lot like an operating table, and invited Kate to do the same.

“I’m Laura King with store security,” she said, offering her hand like they were meeting for the first time. Kate accepted it and shook it limply. The younger woman’s grasp was firm, which really wasn’t a surprise. She looked like one of those athletic mannequins you saw on all the television shows. Her brown hair was cut short and stylish, and she carried herself like she’d either been in the military, or desperately wanted people to think that she had been.

“Kate Jenkins,” she said meekly. “Am I in trouble?”

Although the woman’s face still held the smile, it didn’t reach her hazel eyes. “That remains to be seen.” She walked over to a matte stainless steel desk and sat down. She opened up one of the draws, rummaged around for a few seconds, pulled out a form, and began scribbling.

“Sit down please,” she said, gesturing to a seat across the desk from her without looking up. Once Kate did she began firing questions at her: full name, address, employer, etc.

“Do I need a lawyer?” Kate asked nervously.

Laura looked up, and this time the smile was genuine. “Not until you’re arrested.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “I’m kidding, Mrs. Jenkins. This is still just an interview. It’s my job to decide whether or not a crime has been committed, as well as whether or not to involve the authorities.” She let an uncomfortable silence grow between them.

“Are you sure that there isn’t something that you would like to tell me?” she asked finally.

Kate shook her head. “I paid for everything in my bag. You checked it yourself.”

Laura shrugged. “We can do this the easy way or the hard one; it makes no difference to me.”

“What?” Kate finally exploded, exasperated. “What do you want me to say?”

Laura sighed, shaking her head. “Okay, hard it is. Stand up please, and empty your pockets on the desk. Start with your jacket.”

Kate sat there, unmoving.

“Mrs. Jenkins, you are here because it appears that you may be a shoplifter. That’s pretty serious.”

“But I didn’t steal anything!” Kate protested.

“Maybe you did, and maybe you didn’t. The way I see it, you only have two choices: You can do what I say, let me follow my procedures, and you can go about your merry way; or, I can call the police, have you led out of the store in handcuffs, and let them determine whether or not you are guilty down at the station. As I said before, it really doesn’t matter to me.”

“Fine,” Kate said shakily, rising to her feet. Hands trembling, she reached into her coat pockets and turned them out, spilling the meager contents onto the desk. Then she did the same thing with her pants’ pockets.

“Now empty your purse on the table.”

Defiantly, Kate unzipped her purse and turned it over, letting everything spill out. Laura smirked, amused at the childishness of the act, and sifted through the debris. Her hand passed through a small pile and stopped.

“Hmm, what do we have here?”

Kate saw that she had something small and sparkly in her hand. She leaned closer and saw that it was a set of small diamond earrings.

“What are those?” she sputtered.

Laura leaned back in her chair and favored Kate with the same wintry smile that stopped Ben in his tracks earlier. “They appear to be a pair of earrings from our jewelry counter.” She tossed them on the desk, next to the form she had filled out. “Looks like I’m going to have to perform a strip search.”

“A what?” Kate almost screamed.

“A strip search. You attempted to leave the premises with property that you didn’t pay for. I need to make sure that there isn’t anything else.”

“I have no idea how those got there, but I’m not taking off my clothes,” Kate said, dropping back into the chair and crossing her arms defiantly.” For awhile, the only sound in the room was the piped in Christmas track, which just made the whole situation seem more surreal. Finally, Laura leaned forward, and spoke as she was addressing a recalcitrant teenager.

“Look Mrs. Jenkins, this dance is getting old. Put yourself in my shoes. I just pulled a pair of earrings out of your purse worth several hundred dollars that you claim to know nothing about. That’s pretty much all I need to press charges. So if you’re really so innocent, shouldn’t you be bending over backwards to prove to me that this is just some bizarre misunderstanding?”

Kate glared at her, but nodded sullenly.

“Good. Now that we have that out of the way, please stand up and walk over to that table,” she directed, pointing to a table that looked frighteningly like an examination table. Kate discovered a long table next to the first, separated into a series of compartments.

“Please remove your clothes one at a time and place them in the compartments. There’s an inventory control sensor like the one at the front door, and it will go off if anything you’re wearing has a store tag on it.”

Shaking, Kate slipped off her sneakers and placed them in one of the shallow holes. She knew she didn’t have anything on her that should set off a sensor, but she also hadn’t believed there was anything in her purse that would set it off either.

Next she removed her sweatshirt, then her pants, and finally her socks. She stood there shivering as much from fear as from cold, with her arms crossed protectively across her breasts.

“So far so good,” Laura congratulated. “Now please remove your underwear.

Kate’s eyes widened again, and almost immediately tears of humiliation spilled out. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed silently. Laura let it run its course, but made no move to comfort her. Eventually, Kate got herself under control and Laura handed her a wipe from a box nearby. Kate dabbed her face, took a deep breath, and peeled off her bra and panties. Neither set off an alarm when she dropped them into a compartment.

“I’d like to get dressed now,” she insisted, and was stunned when Laura shook her head no. “But all my stuff passed!”

Instead of answering, the security guard’s eyes traveled along Kate’s naked body, starting at her feet and moving slowly up her legs and torso.

“Please put your arms at your sides,” Laura said clinically.

Kate dropped her arms, the feeling of self-consciousness increasing so much that she felt nauseous. All she could think about was how flabby and out of shape she must look to the younger woman. Not that she was ever in the kind of shape that Laura probably was – bookkeeping wasn’t exactly a strenuous occupation – but she imagined that her swelling belly and large full breasts weren’t exactly what the other woman pictured when she thought about what she might look like twenty years from now.

Laura walked around behind her and Kate’s discomfort grew. It was one thing to think that your butt was not as a firm as you’d like it and your legs were thicker than you felt was sexy, but it was entirely something else to have to display yourself so blatantly to total stranger, especially one that made you feel inadequate in comparison. After what seemed an eternity, Laura finally spoke again.

“Please position yourself up on the table on your hands and knees.”

Kate felt like she’d just been doused with cold water.

“Excuse me?”

For the first time, Laura’s voice was gentle. “We’re almost done. I just need to do a cavity search and you can get out of here.”

“A c-c-cavity search?”

“Mrs. Jenkins, it’s about a fifty-fifty chance this is all a misunderstanding. But if I let you go and it turns out you WERE hiding something, I’ll lose my job.”

“But that’s so…personal,” Kate wailed.

“I know,” Laura agreed. “Because of the jewelry, we have to have one done. You can let me do it, or you can have it done down at the station, but you will be searched.”

Kate bit her lip. “It’s so humiliating. I swear, I didn’t do anything wrong,” she pleaded.

“Look, you’ve done nothing but cooperate. Help me so I can help you. Let me do the search without involving the police and I can fill out my report, and we can put this all behind us. I’ll make it as quick as I can, okay.”

Kate seemed to consider her options, and then reluctantly agreed. Gingerly she climbed up on the table and put her ass in the air.

“There are handholds on the side; you might want to grab them,” Laura suggested kindly. “Also, slide your feet into the stirrups near the edge of the table; they’ll keep you steady.”

As Kate adjusted her position, she heard the elastic snap of a rubber glove. Presently, she felt the warmth of latex move along her inner thigh. Her legs started to tremble.

“There, there,” Laura soothed. “Just a few more minutes,” she promised.

The next sound she heard was that of something being squirted out of a tube.

“This is going to be a little cool,” Laura apologized. Then, with no other warning, she felt a strong thin finger snake between her legs. It was still for a moment, then probed deeper, stroking the inner wall of her pussy. Kate shivered again, but this time it had nothing to do with the temperature.

The finger continued to explore her pussy, causing Kate to pull hard against the hand holds. Laura’s other hand spread her lips wider so that she could work a second finger in and Kate bit her lip to choke back a moan. She didn’t think she was supposed to be enjoying this, but she couldn’t help it.

With both fingers twisting gently Kate felt Laura’s other hand, the one that she’d used to spread her wider, settle over her clit and start to rub. Laura wiggled the fingers inside as she coaxed Kate’s clit out of its hood and Kate let out a low, guttural moan. She’d never been touched like this before by a man OR a woman and her body was responding to it strongly.

In order to get her legs to stop trembling she dug her heels into the stirrups, which effectively locked her legs and trapped the fingers inside her. Laura’s hand left Kate’s excited clit long enough to slap her ass sharply, making Kate clamp down harder on the fingers inside her. She moaned louder, her former embarrassment all but forgotten.

Laura extracted her fingers from Kate’s pussy but returned her other hand to her swollen clit, rubbing vigorously. Kate felt a finger press against her asshole and shook her head weakly.

“Please, I’ve never had anything go in there,” she whimpered.

“Rules are rules. Need to check everywhere,” Laura reminded her, her voice husky, and pushed her finger in past Kate’s anal ring.