At that moment Marcus froze. Victoria’s foot suddenly stopped moving. The brunette stared at her client in surprise, quickly covering it up with the smile of a professional. “Is it that obvious?” Her voice sounded a touch defeated.

The blonde giantess merely laughed yet again. “I’ve been in this business a long time Victoria. I know a tiny head of hair when I feel it. He can come on out now, I won’t bite.” She eagerly looked down below the desk and smirked. “I can’t leave until I get a goodbye from him too. It’d be rude.”

Marcus felt the pressure holding him in place go away. Even without a word between him and his boss he knew there was little choice. Hesitantly the man got back up and walked from his spot under the desk, into the open area before the towering Helen. She giggled slightly upon seeing him, her toes starting to impatiently drum along the worn edges of her sandals.

“Oh my you’re a cute one. Not bad at all Victoria.” She grinned. “It’s nice to meet you little man. It might be a little late for introductions but I’m Helen.”

Marcus stopped in front of her and gently lowered his head in greeting. As terrified as he was he knew better than to show it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Carter. You can just call me Marcus.” He said with his best neutral voice.

“Oh I think I like you.” Helen snorted. “I might just have to talk with Victoria later and see how much she’d be willing to give you up for. But for now I have to go…” She sighed and pouted.

“Don’t worry I’m sure we’ll see each other again sometime. Until then you take care.” He flashed the older woman a wide smile.

And she didn’t so much as move one step.

The words hung awkwardly in the air with Helen still staring expectantly at Marcus like he hadn’t done anything. Two large brown eyes stared at him, narrowing and growing more stern with each passing second. What did she want? She wanted a goodbye and Marcus gave it. Her increasingly unnerving expression was making him…well…unnerved.

Helen eventually shook her head. “Is that how they teach you to say goodbye around here?” She clicked her tongue. One large finger pointed down to the sandaled feet before Marcus. “Kiss my toes.” She said it as though it was such a natural thing that was so obvious even a child should know it.

Marcus, however, simply gave the giantess a perplexed look. He looked down to the bare toes then back up to her expectant face, repeating the motion a few more times until it was painfully clear she wasn’t joking. He turned back to Victoria as if she would weigh in on the situation but there she sat with the same professional look on her face. There wasn’t a hint of sympathy in either of their expressions. They both looked at him expectantly. The more seconds passed the more painfully obvious it was that there was no getting out of this.

Marcus let out a defeated sigh and dragged himself towards the awaiting woman. The toes wiggled, more than eager for their appeasement. Marcus grimaced at them, each one coming up to his ankles and bigger than either of his feet. He knelt down and slowly brought his face closer. All things considered it could have been worse. If the stories were to believed there were people who had to do this sort of thing as a living and their owners weren’t necessary the most attractive people. By comparison Helen, while not a model by any means, was certainly beautiful and her feet seemed well cared for. Each toe was nicely shaped and evenly painted with no particular fault or even scent to them. Even once his lips pressed up onto her big toe it didn’t seem especially gross or even bad, just humiliating. Not that it was anything people hadn’t done before. You did what had to do to get by in a world filled with wealthy giants.

It wasn’t until Marcus had kissed each individual toe that Helen finally let him go. “That should do. I’ll let it slide this time but don’t be so sloppy next time, you’ve got that?”

“Yes M’am.”

“Good boy. Now you two take care. Don’t let me take up too much of your time. Here’s a little thank you for letting me use your toy Victoria.” The woman pulled a slip of paper from her purse and quickly wrote something on it, handing it to Victoria. Whatever was on it must’ve been impressive, because she grew a foot taller just from seeing it.

“Thank you Mrs. Carter!” Victoria was now all smiles.

“Anytime. And for you little man.” Helen pulled a large bill from her purse and knelt down towards Marcus. “Say ahhh~”

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, where a hundred-dollar bill was quickly shoved in between his lips. Letting out another, now incredibly annoying, laugh Helen exited the room, waving the two goodbye and tossing the smaller young man a wink as he pulled the bill from his lips.

Once she was safely away and out of earshot Marcus gagged and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I can see why you didn’t want her to know about me. I think I need to go brush my teeth after that.”

Victoria shrugged. “She isn’t so bad once you get to know her. But she certainly has a way about her doesn’t she?” She pulled away from the desk and began opening drawers on her end, pulling out various documents and forms. “After that little number I can’t in good faith have you work the rest of the day. Just one last thing and you can head home early.” As she said this she slid one of the forms to the other side of the desk and placed a pen beside it.

Marcus quickly climbed into his seat and stood on top to get a clear view of the paper. “An employment contract?”

“Just a formality to get your name into the system. You know, cover our bases and such.” Victoria quickly explained. “When you’re done reading it just sign at the dotted line on the bottom. Then you can head on home.”

Marcus took the pen in hand and nodded, giving the contract more of an in depth look while his name hovered over the signature.

The following agrees to become an employee of Charlottesville National Bank and all of its subsidiaries. The employee cannot be wrongfully terminated unless he or she is shown to be inept at their duties and fails to perform them as directed or is incapable of completing his or her work due to personal injury or other related illnesses. Charlottesville Bank is not held responsible in the event of injury or sickness brought about by but not limited to incidents involving crushing or digestion and would otherwise like to encourage safety in working with its clientele to avoid such incidents as well as humanly possible…

Marcus blinked, rereading the line another few times. “What’s this about crushing and digestion?”

“It’s corporate’s way of saying if you get eaten or stepped on we can’t be held responsible. In our line of work we get a lot of different sized people walking in here and it’s not unheard of for an incident or two to happen. So long as you’re smart about it you should be fine though. Aside from that you do get some health coverage, it should be buried somewhere in the third or fourth section. Plus dental coverage too.” Victoria smiled, never taking her eyes from her computer monitor as she busily typed.

“Ah. Makes sense I suppose.”  He muttered vacantly. The contract did as all contracts did and soon became incomprehensibly complex as it went on and on about every minute little thing. Eventually Marcus just shrugged and signed his name along the bottom.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Ms. Lockhart.” He waved and promptly left.