Eight o' clock on Tuesday night, and I'm about to make my move. And I don't mind telling, I'm scared shitless. All that bravado I was showing Suzy this afternoon has vanished, leaving nothing in its place but fear and uncertainty.
After dinner, Nicole went over to Kim's house. They're going skating, so she won't be in until late. And Paul has spent the last hour or so sitting in his recliner, sipping whiskey from his big ass plastic cup and dozing on and off. He finally came to long enough to shamble off to bed.
Which leaves Naomi sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette and watching Frasier. She's been eyeing me in my dollhouse for the past half-hour or so, and I know it's only a matter of time before she gets bored and decides to play with me.
I can't wait that long. If I let her come to me, it puts me on the defensive and I can't afford to be there tonight. God knows this plan of mine won't work if Naomi thinks I'm bluffing.
So with a knot in my stomach and my heart pounding in my chest, I march out my front door and across the dining room, towards my inevitable confrontation with Naomi.
She's sitting on the couch, with one leg propped on the ottoman. Her other foot rests on the floor, just inches from her discarded sandals. The very air reeks of sweat and leather, a smell that's become all too familiar in the last couple of weeks.
For nearly I minute, I stand there just under the couch, watching her bare toes toy idly with the strap of her shoe. It's not too late, I tell myself. I could just turn around and walk away right now. She'd never know I was over here...
I take a deep breath and, on trembling legs, I step out from under the couch and touch her foot.
Naomi lets out a surprised gasp and grins down at me. "Well, hey there sweetie," she says playfully. "Did you come over here to massage Momma's poor, aching feet?"
I shake my head. "We need to talk, Naomi."
She seems amused. "Ooh, you sound so serious. What do we need to talk about?"
"About the situation here," I tell her, wondering if she can hear the quaver in my voice. I must sound like a ridiculous little cartoon animal to her.
"Oh, what situation is that?" She raises her foot and lets it hover above me. I stare up at the bottom of her toes, watching helplessly as they wiggle over my head. I try to back away, but her foot follows, relentlessly looming over me.
"Dammit, Naomi! Stop it and listen to me!"
She giggles as she brings her foot down, pinning me beneath it. "You might as well make yourself useful while you're down there," she tells me, pinching me playfully with her toes. "Why don't you go ahead and start rubbing?"
"I know about you and Benny!" I shout at her. Immediately, her foot lifts from me. Before I have time to relish my newfound freedom, she bends down and snatches me up between her finger and thumb. She whips me through the air at alarming speed until I'm dangling only a few inches from her face. Her smile is gone, replaced by a threatening scowl.
"What did you say?" she asks. There's anger in her voice, enough to make my blood chill.
God, this is it. If this doesn't work, Naomi might just make good on her constant threat to "stomp the shit" out of me. I take a deep breath and raise my head to look into her monstrous face. It hurts like hell - my neck is still sore from my ordeal this afternoon - but I've got to look her in the eye if I'm going to make this work.
"I said, I know about you and Benny."
"Tell me," she says, shaking me with a flick of her wrist. "What do you think you know about me and Benny?"
"I know you met him at a club about three weeks ago, and I know that he's new in town and not 'an old friend of yours.'" I take a deep breath and give Naomi a cruel smile. "And I know that you're fucking him."
"What?" Worry washes over her face. "You're crazy!"
"Oh, come on, Naomi. I mean, hell, it's not like the two of you are speaking in code or anything. You sit right here and talk to him two or three times a week."
Worry is replaced by blind panic. "You little shit. What are you trying to pull?"
"I heard you tell him that sometimes, when you've got me between your toes, you like to pretend like I'm him."
She blushes. "Shut your mouth," she snaps. "You think you're going to blackmail me with this?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking," I tell her.
She shakes her head. "You just try telling your daddy," she says. "It'll be my word against yours, and I'll tell him you're just trying to get back at me for grounding you." Her voice becomes more confident, more sure of itself, and that infuriating smile creeps back onto her face. "You know he'll believe me, because he always does."
She pushes against my chest with a pink fingernail, letting me swing back and forth in her grasp. "So you still wanna tell your daddy about me and Benny? Because I can think of a hundred worse places for you than between my toes."
"I'm not going to tell Paul," I say, and she looks positively triumphant.
"That's what I thought," she says, baring her teeth in an evil grin. "Now, let's talk punishment..."
I take a deep breath and say as calmly as I can, "I'm going to tell SPECTRUM."
The smile holds for five seconds, then falls from her face so suddenly I expect to hear something break.
"You're going to what?"
"Actually, Suzy's going to tell SPECTRUM," I tell her, meeting her angry gaze with a cool stare. "And SPECTRUM has the resources to find out if I'm telling the truth or not. Because with the upcoming custody suit, catching you in a compromising position is really going to help them."
"What difference could it possibly..."
"By the time their lawyers get through with you and Benny, this house is going to look like Peyton Place to that judge. And by the time I get through testifying, they're going to think it's Sodom and Gomorra around here."
"You little shit," she whispers.
"You know I'm right," I tell her, trembling with exultation. She's bought it! She's really bought it! "If SPECTRUM finds out about your affair, you lose your shot at custody and your deal with GenetiTech goes out the window. You and Paul will lose that big, new house in Midland and that big ass stipend they promised you."
The look on her face is so frustrated, so helpless... I swear, I haven't been this happy in weeks! "Why risk it, Naomi? I'm not asking for much. Just grant me a few simple requests, and you can get back to snogging your boyfriend. Everybody's a winner."
She sets me in the cupped palm of her other hand and lowers me away from her face. "What do you want?" she asks in a voice heavy with defeat.
"Okay, first of all, my grounding is repealed. I want my car and my movie player back."
"Fine," she grumbles. "What else?"
"No more going to work with you. No more bath time in the morning. No more of those games that you and Cheryl like so much. I don't want to be played with anymore."
There are tears in her eyes, which surprises me. I expected frustration and anger, but not this. "I never did anything to you that you didn't want," she whispers, moving me closer to her face. Her breath is warm and sour, tainted with cigarette smoke. "You can pretend all you want. We both know how much you liked it."
I sigh. "It stops, Naomi. In fact, let's just make it easy. Nobody touches me unless they have my permission."
"You seriously think..."
"It's non-negotiable," I tell her. "No more holding, no more petting, no more touching."
"You little bastard," she mutters, wiping angrily at her eyes with her other hand. "Okay, no more touching. Is that it?"
"Almost," I tell her. "I want to spend the night with Suzy tomorrow. She'll take me with her when you get home from work, and she'll bring me back with her Thursday morning."
"No!" Naomi snaps, closing her fingers around me. "Absolutely not!"
"Uh, I think this counts as one of those 'bad touches' we talked about," I tell her. "Maybe you should just set me down for the rest of this negotiation."
"This negotiation is over," Naomi says. "And after I stomp the shit out of you, you'll know all about 'bad touches.'"
Uh oh. I'm desperate, but I can't let her know that. If she senses any weakness in me, I'll lose her completely. "Suzy knows everything I know, Naomi. And she's going to call SPECTRUM unless she hears from me."
"Well, how about this as a counter-offer," she says, holding me back up to her face. "We'll call Suzy right now, and you can tell her your little plan is off. And in return, I won't make you spend all day tomorrow in my shoe with your little face shoved up between my toes."
God, just the thought is enough to make me shudder. "The deal stands, Naomi," I say, forcing myself to sound confident, praying my voice doesn't break. Because I'm so scared right now, my arms and legs are shaking. "Take it or leave it."
She chews her lip, pondering her choice. Then asks, "How do I know you won't tell SPECTRUM anyway? I can't believe you'd pass up a chance to screw up the GenetiTech deal just to spite me."
I manage to look wounded, which is quite a performance because I really do intend to tell SPECTRUM, no matter what agreement Naomi and I come to.
I shake my head and say in an indignant tone, "This isn't about spiting you, Naomi. I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation. No matter what happens, I'm stuck with you guys until the hearing. I just want to make the next couple of months as pleasant as possible for the both of us."
She studies me, her face unreadable.
"When you think about it, have I really asked for anything that unreasonable?"
Naomi sighs. "No, I guess you haven't."
"So we're agreed?"
She closes her fingers around me again and glares at me. "I don't like blackmail, you little shit. And if I find out that you and that little whore double-crossed me, I'll... well, the last thing you'll see will be the bottom of my foot. Understand?"
I nod. "I understand."
She sighs. "It's not fair," she says, her eyes tearing again. "You know, Cheryl and I go out dancing like once a month, and she's always got the boys flocking to her. They adore her, they buy her drinks and proposition her and beg her to come home with them, and she just eats it up. And me, I'm usually just sitting there, watching her be the center of attention.
"But then, one night Benny came over and introduced himself to us. And I assumed that he was just there to fawn all over Cheryl like the rest of them. And she tried, Ray. She flirted and giggled and did everything she could to reel him in, but he ignored her and started talking to me!
"Cheryl was so pissed. And I swear, the only reason I was even talking to Benny was just to rub it in with her a little bit, just to remind her that he picked me. But one thing led to another and..."
Naomi smiles and shakes her head at the memory. "He's sweet and he's smart and he's funny and he's gorgeous, and he treats me like a goddamn princess. And your daddy... well, I love him Ray and I would never hurt him for anything. But what I have with Benny is special."
I suppose. He seemed like a bit of a goof to me, but there's no accounting for taste.
Naomi looks down at me, chewing her lip as she ponders the decision. Finally, she says, "Okay, I guess we have a deal."
She stands up and carries me to my house. She sets me down in front of it, then stands up, looming over me. "I guess you'll have to get used to walking from now on," she says, looking down at me.
"Yeah, I guess so."
She watches me for a few seconds, no doubt entertaining visions of me writhing beneath her toes. Then she sighs and heads back into the living room. I watch her bare feet walk away from me, then I walk into my dollhouse, shut the front door, and collapse in a huddle, giggling with mad glee.
My God! It worked! I can't believe it!
I spend most of the night watching movies, too excited and too wired too sleep. I lie there on my green sponge bed, watching Pulp Fiction and trying not to think about the precarious position in which I have placed myself.
Let's face it. I'm on the razor's edge. Naomi won't forget what I've done, and she won't stop looking for a way to worm out the trap I laid for her. And if she ever does manage to get the upper hand...
I remember her face, massive and threatening and grinning evilly. "Because I can think of a hundred worse places for you than between my toes."
It's not forever, I tell myself. It's only for a couple of months, until the custody hearing. After that, I'll be back at SPECTRUM and safely out of the Daltons' reach forever.
I hope.
Giantess World
Homunculus by Cayce