Alexandria held the cell phone up to her ear, 

“Hey, Tay-Tay.” Alexandria said cheerfully, taking another bite of her pizza.

…

“Yes, we’re at the hotel now.  We checked in about an hour ago at 7:30pm.”

…

“Yeah, not too bad…just eating some pizza now.  Do you know what room you guys are staying in?”

…

“Okay..whatsup?”

…

“Yeah, I think she said the flight was getting in at 8:30pm, right?  Did your flight get delayed or something?”

…

“...what?” Alexandria said quietly.  The smile melted from the raven-haired girl’s face and the mouthful of pizza rested statically in her mouth. Katie watched as Alexandria set her pizza slice down, slowly swallowed her mouthful of food, and listened quietly. 

…

“...Albuquerque?!” Alexandria’s eyes widened and Katie gasped. 

From atop Katie’s bed near the pizza box, Dante looked back and forth between the two girls with confusion.  Katie urgently tapped Alexandria on the shoulder to get her attention and mouthed the words ‘speaker phone’.

Alexandria quickly tapped the button and Taylor’s voice projected loudly from Alexandria’s phone.

“--had no control over it…I’m sorry Alex. We’re trying to figure out what to do.

“Taylor, this is Katie…what’s going on?” Katie asked, leaning in toward Alexandria.

“Hi, Katie. One of the passengers was having a heart attack or something so they had to divert the plane to New Mexico for an emergency landing.”

Katie gently took the phone out of Alexandria’s hand and held it closer to her face.  

“Are the airlines putting you on a different flight?” Katie asked quickly.

“Yes, but there are apparently a bunch of problems at the airport and the earliest flight won’t get us to you guys until tomorrow evening at 7pm.”

“That’s way too late, Taylor!” Alexandria hissed, “The investors’ meeting is tomorrow morning at 9:30am sharp! We need Sabrina for the presentation!”

“I know! I’m sorry..and I know Sabrina’s sorry.  She was all in on helping you with this.  This isn’t her fault.”

Retaining complete control of her emotions, Katie calmly said, “Its okay, Taylor.  We know this isn’t anyone’s fault.  Is it possible for the two of you to rent a car and drive the rest of the way here?”

The phone was quiet for a few seconds.

“...yeah, I was thinking about that too, but that’s a 12 or 13 hour drive…I don’t know if that would get us there in time.”

Katie looked down at her wrist watch.  It was 9:45pm.  

“They wouldn’t make it in time…” Alexandria said. 

“I agree, but there are no other options.  We have to try; maybe we can reach out to the investor’s tomorrow morning and ask to delay by a few hours.” Katie said to Alexandria as they both looked at Dante, who was quietly watching the situation unfold. 

“We wanted to do a test run with Dante installed in Sabrina’s rear but clearly we won’t have time for that now.” Katie said. “Please try to get here as soon as you can.”

“Got it, Katie. Sabrina and I just got into the rental car line. We’ll be there tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks, Taylor.  We’re staying in Room 1818.  Please keep us updated.  If you can, leave Alex a voicemail when you are halfway. We’ll need to know first thing in the morning just how much time we have to buy.”

“Sure thing, Katie.  Wish us luck.  Bye.”

The call ended and the two girls looked at each other grimly and then over to Dante ominously.  

“Well, we were hoping to slowly transition you into being wedged between Sabrina’s buttocks…but it's looking like we won’t have time to do that now.” Katie said.

Dante nodded, his tiny little throat moving as he swallowed hard.  

“It’s okay. I understand what’s going on and there’s no way around it.”

Katie smiled, attempting to comfort Dante. “You’ll only have to remain between Sabrina’s buttocks for an hour during the presentation, okay?  We promise. Thanks for being a team player, Dante.”

“Yeah…” Alexandria said, gently picking him up.  “We really, really appreciate it…and look on the bright side, Katie already gave you a little bit of a preview of what it’ll be like to be compressed between two soft masses so I think you’re all set for tomorrow.”

Dante blushed and Katie rolled her eyes, “You are quite the comedian tonight, aren’t you?”

The alarm clock blared loudly and Katie managed to silence it on its third beep. She could hear Dante shuffling within his shoe box.  Perhaps it was a mistake to position him so closely to the alarm clock.  The sun was shining brightly through the window and Katie squinted to see the time on the clock.  It was 8:30AM.  Alexandria had pulled the covers up over her head as Katie slid her bare feet into her slippers.. 

The first thing the brunette did when getting up was check Alexandria’s cell phone for a message from Sabrina and Taylor. Katie pressed the home button and nothing happened.  She sighed deeply.  Alex must have forgotten to plug her phone in overnight and now the battery was dead.  Katie unplugged her own phone, now at 100%, from her charger and attached Alex’s phone.

“You requested an east-facing window, didn’t you…” Alexandria’s muffled voice grumbled from under the covers.

“Maybe.” Katie said playfully, bringing her clothing and shower supplies to the bathroom. She could hear Alexandria getting up as she shut the door.

“Let me bring Dante in to use the bathroom before you start.” Katie could hear Alexandria say from the sleeping area of the hotel room.

“No need…” Katie announced, adjusting the water to her liking.  “I set him up with a small receptacle last night.  Best just to let him rest.  He has a big day ahead of him!”

The brunette had just removed her slippers, bra, and underwear. Hot, inviting water had kissed her left foot as she prepared to step into the shower when she was jolted by a loud noise.

“Katie!” Alexandria shouted, now knocking on the door.  

“Alex, I told you…there’s nothing cruel about keeping him in the box. He probably prefers–excuse me!?” Katie said shocked, quickly wrapping her mostly dry body in the closest white towel she could reach as Alex came in.

Katie was angry at first, thinking that Alexandria was just that insistent about letting Dante use the bathroom, but her anger quickly turned to trepidation…concern…fear.  

It wasn’t the tiny quarter-inch tall man in Alex’s hand.  It was her cell phone.  The small screen said:

MISSED CALL

3:17AM

TAYLOR BECOTTE

Katie looked up from the phone screen. 

“There was a voicemail…” Alex added.

Katie took a deep breath and sighed slowly.  “What did it say?”

“They were caught up in a bunch of traffic, accidents, road work…pretty much anything you can think of that could go wrong…did go wrong.” Alex said grimly.  “Taylor said they’re not going to make it here until 2pm..at the earliest.”

Alex dropped her phone on the tile floor and gripped Katie’s bare shoulders.  “What are we going to do, Katie?  They’re expecting us in a little less than an hour!  We can’t do this presentation without a demonstration…and it won’t be enough to just show Dante by himself. Sure, they’ll be impressed at how small he is, but we need them to see rear installation and confinement!  We have a shrunken boy…but no butt to put him in!”

“Alex…calm down.” Katie said, turning the shower off.  “Let me get dressed and I’ll come back out.” She stepped back into her panties and began getting dressed again. She was thinking hard about anything that could get them out of this problem, but nothing came to mind.  

Katie had barely emerged from the bathroom before Alex, getting dressed herself, said, “Did you think of anything?”  Katie shook her head no and Alex’s shoulders slumped.  The brunette then looked from Alex over to the dresser.  The shoebox was open and Dante was standing outside of it.  Alex must have let him out.  Katie took a seat right next to Dante on her bed and began putting on her socks. 

“What’s going on, Katie?  Why are you guys freaking out?” Dante asked.

Before Katie could answer Dante’s question, Alex spoke up.

“Maybe…and I know you’re not going to like this…” Alex prefaces, “...we go back to MC.”

“What’s MC?” Dante asked the girls who continued their conversation.

The form of Alex’s shapely chest was still largely concealed by her sleep shirt, but their huge outline became prevalent as she cupped them.  “You and I are both more than large enough to house him.”  

“MC?…” Katie asked in disbelief, the two letters dripping with disagreement, “...you want to do a last-minute switch of our funding request presentation, which will consequently alter the trajectory of our entire research and development plan, from Gluteal Confinement to Mammary Confinement?”

Alex didn’t say anything, she just stared at Katie and raised a defiant eyebrow, challenging the brunette’s condescension.

“First of all…” Katie started, “we’ve discussed this and we both agreed that MC is a dead end.  We will have a MUCH harder time finding women who meet the much stricter size, softness, and density requirements, which will create serious feasibility-of-expansion issues later on down the road. Not to mention the drift problem.” Her brown eyes caught Dante sitting quietly on the nightstand between the two girls.  She returned her gaze to Alexandria and continued speaking, gesturing toward the naked man.

“Case in point, you saw yesterday that Dante was between my breasts for minutes, and he was already practically slipping out the bottom of my cleavage. We both know Mammary Confinement is inferior to Gluteal Confinement.”

“Okay…” Alex sighed deeply, looking at Dante and then back at Katie.  “...which one of us has the bigger butt?”

“Alex…” Katie said, shaking her head.

“..no seriously.  Come on…you know these presentation slides forwards and backwards.  You can present by yourself just fine.  I’ll house Dante.  I know the demonstrations. I even practiced them with Sabrina because she felt silly doing them on camera by herself.  We both know my rear is a little bit bigger than yours, anyway.” Alex said.

“Wait, I’m going in Alex’s butt now?” Dante asked in uncomfortable confusion.

“It will appear uncompelling and exceedingly unprofessional if one of us houses him.” Katie annunciated strongly and stubbornly.

“Ever heard of Jonas Salk?  He tested the Polio vaccine on himself.” Alex said, her arms crossed over her large chest.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” Dante asked, looking back and forth between the two concerned girls sitting on their beds facing each other.

Katie shook her head, trying to find another way to reach the stubborn raven-haired girl.  “Alex…you’re right. Our rears do meet the theoretical housing requirements…BARELY.” Katie put strong emphasis on the word.  “...but testing on ourselves…I mean…” 

Katie was trying to find the words; she wasn’t often this stumped.  “It wasn’t strictly necessary for Sabrina to practice housing Dante in her rear prior to the meeting since her rear is so large; his confinement and concealment between her buttocks was never a concern due to their size...her buttocks are massive…they were going to do all the work on their own.  …But our buttocks? …Our buttocks are not nearly as large as Sabrina’s AND neither of us have practiced.  In a different world, if you or I had buttocks as large or larger than Sabrina’s…then maybe…but we don’t.  We just can’t take that kind of risk.”

Katie’s shoulders slumped down.  Was this the end?  All this work…only for it all to end here?

They worked so hard on this; they compromised so much.  They moved into a dreadful, smelly apartment where homeless people loitered in the lobby drinking alcohol and sang terribly. What was it all for?

“So I’m NOT going in Alex’s ass?  What are we going to do? Stop ignoring me!” Dante was clearly shouting, but it came through to the girls as a persistent, distracting, and annoying squeak.

“Will you please be quiet?!” Both Katie and Alex said in unison, leaning in close to Dante and returning the intensity but their voices carried much more intensity.  The force of Katie and Alex’s voices along with the accented stomps of Katie’s bare foot literally knocked Dante on his back.  

Dante immediately shut his mouth and stared on quietly.

“I just need a few moments to think…I know we can solve this problem…” Katie said, rubbing her chin. Katie wasn’t ready to give up.  Not yet. They had the quarter-inch tall subject.  That was supposed to be the hard part!  Finding a large set of bare buttocks to wedge him between?  That was supposed to be easy!

As if by fate, the stiff, uncomfortable silence was broken by three sharp knocks at the door.  A distant voice could be heard on the other side of the door.

It was a woman’s voice.

It was vaguely recognizable to Katie.

The voice said, “Housekeeping”

“No thank you; we’re fiiiiiiiine.” Alex said loudly, rolling her eyes. The raven-haired girl’s look of annoyance abruptly shifted and then she tilted her head in confusion as she noticed Katie.  

“What’s wrong, Katie?”

Katie’s eyes were wide.  Her lips were moving but she wasn’t speaking as she mumbled to herself.  Her big brown eyes danced back and forth between Alex, Dante, and the ceiling. 

“...is she okay?” Dante asked nervously, but Alex didn’t acknowledge him.

Katie was progressively appearing more excited and then suddenly, she sat straight up, her shoulders pushed back confidently and her chest pushed out.  The brunette exploded up from her bed.  She gently yet quickly put a confused and shocked Dante back into his shoebox. 

“Don’t take him out of there until I get back!” Katie exclaimed as she slid her feet back into her slippers and briskly walked to the door.

“What?!” Alexandria asked, confused.  “Where are you going?”

Before Katie walked out the door, she turned back toward Alexandria and smiled. She said one thing before pulling the door shut behind her, leaving Dante and Alexandria alone in the quiet hotel room. Katie’s tone was confident and optimistic.  It made her partner feel like things might just be okay…that there might just be a way for this to all work out…that the brainy brunette might have a plan.

Katie had said, “I’m getting our Wardeness.”

~