Pete woke feeling groggy. His head hurt. His body hurt. He was lying in his bed in his apartment, but couldn't recall how he got home the night before. The last thing he could remember was leaving Suite 4 after being manhandled by Jill's toes. Everything past that was basically blank.
But there were more important things to worry about, like a full bladder. Sitting up made his head spin. Maybe it was time to rethink this whole foot fetish thing? He considered it momentarily. He had barely survived his encounter with Jill. It felt like he was living the aftermath of a drunken bender, minus all the fun. Pete trudged off to the bathroom in his boxers.
Even though he lived alone, Pete still closed the bathroom door. It was habit. He always closed the door. The toilet awaited as he assumed the position. Mid-stream, the bathroom door swung open, startling him.
"Oh sorry! I thought you were still asleep!"
The door swung shut again, leaving Pete confused. The sound of his stream hitting the toilet seat instead of the water in the bowl drew his attention. "Shit!" He struggled to correct his aim. "Rachel?!"
"Sorry Pete, I didn't mean to interrupt. I need to finish my makeup."
"But why are you in my apartment?"
"Don't you remember anything from yesterday?"
"Not really," he admitted.
"You don't remember Jill's fee--"
"Yeah, I remember that part. It's the rest of it that's all fuzzy."
"Well, you were exhausted. So I drove you home. Anyway, finish up and meet me in the kitchen. I made breakfast."
Pete wiped up the mess he made then washed his hands. He noticed Rachel's cosmetics spread across the countertop. She must have spent the night, he figured. Pete wanted to kick himself. He missed the whole thing. He was unconscious the whole time.
"Hurry up Pete, the food is getting cold."
"Uh, coming!" He wondered what food she was talking about. It had been more than a week since he'd been to the store. The last thing he remembered putting in his fridge was whatever was left of a pizza. Did she reheat it?
Rachel set a plate in front of him, piled high with scrambled eggs and bacon. "I had to restock your fridge. You were out of, uh, like everything."
"You spent the night?" he asked.
"It didn't feel right leaving you here alone. You were really out of it. I had to... Well we can talk about that later! You're up and you're feeling better. That's what's important."
"You had to what?"
"How's the bacon? Is it crisp enough?" Rachel smiled.
"What aren't you telling me?"
"I don't know if I told you I used to be a nurse. I think I did. So it's not like this was the first time I've ever given someone a sponge bath."
Pete suddenly felt completely emasculated.
"Don't look at me like that. I had to! You smelled horrible, and your clothes were filthy. I don't know if I'll ever get the smell of Jill's rotten feet out of my BMW. What was I supposed to do? Push you out onto the curb and drive off?"
"Th-Thanks."
"You seemed more comfortable after I cleaned you up. Then I made you some soup and you went to bed."
Pete was crying inside. He was nothing more than a baby to Rachel. A baby that needed to be washed and fed. He would make Jill pay for embarrassing him in front of Rachel.
"Look, I know what you're thinking and it's not a big deal. Sure, I saw you naked. But it's no big deal. You see people naked all the time when you're a nurse. It's part of the job. You get used to it."
Pete nearly choked on his scrambled eggs. This was getting more awkward and embarrassing by the second. For the very first time since he'd known her, he wished Rachel would just shut up.
"Anyway, I washed your clothes. You don't have a washer or dryer, so I used the sink."
"Did we sleep togeth--"
"I slept on your sofa. It was uncomfortable."
"You didn't have to do that! You should have taken the bed."
"You were uncomfortable enough already. Sleeping on a couch all night would have made you even more stiff and sore."
"This mess is all my fault. I should have been more careful."
"It looked like it was all Jill's fault to me."
"No, that's not true! It was me. I wasn't being careful." Pete could tell Rachel wasn't buying it.
"We have security cameras, doofus. I saw the whole thing. She was standing inside the shrinking zone. You're lucky that airhead didn't kill you."
"You didn't say anything to her did you? She told me she was sorry. I know she meant it. She won't do it again."
Rachel smiled confidently. "I yelled at her."
Pete covered his face with both of his hands and groaned. "Jill is never going to forgive me."
"Yep, we had a lengthy discussion. I yelled at her. Then she started crying. She probably thought turning on the tears would make me feel guilty for yelling at her."
"Actually, I think she's just afraid of you." Pete interjected.
"Anyway, the tears didn't stop. So then I screamed at her until she was nothing but a curled up ball of nerves and snot huddling in the corner of my office. For such a tall girl, she sure can make herself small. I swear, she folded up like an accordion or something."
"Jesus Christ Rachel!"
"Then I dragged her bony ass to Suite 4, shrank her down, and ordered her to stare at the hazard line for the rest of the day. I told her if she decided to leave before I dismissed her that she was fired."
Pete knew his jaw was hanging open. He could feel it. He glanced down to make sure it wasn't actually touching the floor.
His shocked expression made Rachel laugh. "You can say whatever you want. I don't care. One thing's for DAMN sure, Surfer Barbie won't ever forget to stay behind the hazard line again. Yes sir, we are crystal clear on that one."
"Are you going to yell at me too?"
"Only if you don't show up for work tomorrow. You still need to fix the projector in Suite 4. I timed it when I shrank Jill. The customers were right. It really is functioning outside of optimal parameters."
"Yes, 9.5 seconds, I know."
"Okay, well you rest up for today and then I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning." Rachel set her empty plate in the sink. " Let me grab my things, and then I'll be off to the club."
Pete waited for Rachel to leave the kitchen then picked up his phone to call Jill. A sheepish voice answered with a weak hello.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"She screamed at me, Pete. And she was throwing things!"
"I'm sorry, Jill. I didn't tell her anything."
"I know. She made me watch the security footage before she deleted it."
"Don't do anything crazy, Jill. You know, like quit or something. Everything will be alright."
"Me?! You're telling me not to do something crazy? Do you know what she did to me?"
"Um, she mentioned something about shrinking you. But you know, we all went through that during orientation anyway."
"She pulled my hair! When I wouldn't come out of the corner of her office, she yanked my hair. Then she dragged me to Suite 4, by the hair. After she shrank me, she took her flats off. She made me sit in her smelly shoe for the rest of the day."
"I'll talk to her. It sounds like she went too far."
"You think?! I don't get it though. I can't figure out why she was so mad. I mean, you're okay right?"
"Ow!" Something smacked the back of his head.
Pete looked behind him. Rachel was standing behind him holding her shoe in her hand. She reached out and pressed the End Call button on his phone's large screen.
"I was mad because she could have killed you!" She bonked him on the head with her shoe again. "Understand?"
"Stop doing that!" Pete rubbed the top of his head.
"I think you're both thick headed. Someone has to keep the two of you out of trouble."
Pete watched as Rachel lowered her black leather flat to the floor. It was probably the same shoe that Jill had spent the afternoon in the day before. He knew Rachel didn't buy cheap shoes. These designer flats with gold buckles didn't look cheap either. The ornamental buckles were probably made from real gold. Inside the shoe, the inner walls were decorated with a stylish leopard print. The thick, padded insole was colored gold to match the buckle. Rachel's ballet flat looked as comfortable as it was fashionable.
"You aren't going to put Jill in your shoe again today, are you?"
Rachel tapped her bare foot beside the empty leather flat while she thought about her answer. The ball of her foot slapped against the kitchen's tiled floor noisily. Her toes rose and fell rythmically. "I might, if I feel like it. Maybe I'll put my foot in there with her so she doesn't get lonely." She stepped inside her waiting shoe right as she said it, sliding her toes forward and lowering her heel in one fluid motion. It was a perfect fit.
Now all Pete could think about was Jill trapped inside Rachel's sexy little shoe, pinned to that golden insole beneath her silky smooth sole. But he knew it was a bluff. She was just blowing off steam. Rachel would never break her own rules like that. It would make her a total hypocrite.
"Ow! Damn it! What was that for?" Pete forgot about her second shoe.
"You know what it was for. You were having some kind of weird sexual fantasy about Jill inside my shoe!"
"Was not..." he rubbed the dull throb above his forehead.
She smacked him again, but on his arm near the bicep. "That was for lying."
Rachel raised her left foot from the floor, bending her knee. She slipped the mouth of the flat over her petite toes and then pulled the back of the shoe up over her narrow heel. "And these flats don't stink in case you were wondering. Jill's full of it."
Pete knew Rachel was waiting for a reason to smack him again, but he decided not to give her the satisfaction. Instead, he returned to eating his breakfast.
"But if I do put her back in my shoe, maybe I'll take a picture for you. I bet you'd like that!" Rachel laughed as she walked out the front door. "Call me if you need anything."