Saving Sunni (2 page)

She didn’t say anything, looking totally absorbed in what she was writing. I wondered if she had even been listening to me. When she looked up, I couldn’t tell by her expression if she liked me or was going to call me a freak and tell me to leave.

“Tell me about the other slave in your household,” she said, as if that was a standard interview question.

“sage? She’s pretty cool.” I tried desperately to think how to describe her. “We grew up in the same small town in Michigan. She’s been living here for a long time, but she joined Sir and me about a year ago. We’re…really different, but we get along pretty well.”

“Different how?” Geri persisted. I wondered if she was going to ask about our sexual relationship.

“She’s more serious than I am,” I said, trying not to make it sound like an insult. “She and Sir are both really smart. I am more…” I didn’t know exactly what I was trying to say.

“Virgo?” she prompted, glancing down at my birth date.

I nodded, shrugging.

“I guess so. That’s probably why I like being a puppy; I can kind of get away from all of the…thinking.” I stopped, suddenly embarrassed.

She smiled, and I felt my face get hot, wondering how much of an idiot I sounded like, and if she was laughing at me. Instead, she said, “If this were your store, what kinds of things would you sell?”

It took me completely by surprise. Why would she be asking for business advice from someone who had just admitted she wasn’t very smart?

But she was waiting for an answer, so I glanced out the window in her door that showed the sales floor and took a deep breath. “I like what you do sell,” I told her, “but if I was going to add things, I think I would bring in more fetish stuff, like collars and harnesses. And maybe costumes too, like puppy ears, tails…things like that.”

I shrugged a little lamely, but she nodded and made more notes. Neither of us said anything for a minute or two, then she stood up suddenly, still looking down at the mess of papers on her desk. I stood up, too. Should I offer to shake hands or just walk out? It had been a really odd interview, and she hadn’t even given any indication of what kind of person she was looking for. I had the impression I was just too freaky, and she was rethinking her comment about me being the first human to apply.

I was just about to turn and open the door when she said suddenly, “When can you start?”

I froze, not sure I’d heard her right. I debated asking her to repeat herself, but I thought that would make me seem like an idiot. Hope bubbled up inside me, but I kept my face neutral in case she had muttered something completely different than I’d thought.

“How about tomorrow?” she asked, staring intently at the papers as if expecting them to sprout fangs and bite her. She seemed to be unaware that she hadn’t formally offered me a job, and I hadn’t accepted. We hadn’t talked about salary, or duties, or hours, or anything, and she was asking if I could start tomorrow?

“I guess so,” I said, and hastily added, “although I’ll have to ask Sir if it’s okay.”

She nodded, as if her employees always had to check with their masters before agreeing to their hours. “I’ll try to work with your schedule preferences as much as possible, if you can work with the others on theirs,” she said in the most businesslike tone I’d heard her use. She rooted through several stacks of papers before finding a bright pink one that she handed to me. It was titled “Working at The Fringe Element.”

“Here,” she said. “I never remember all the details to tell people. If you have any questions after reading this, we can discuss them tomorrow when you’re filling out your forms. Welcome to our family.” And then, surprising me even further, she jumped up and raced around the desk. Throwing her arms around me, she hugged me ferociously.

“I feel like we’re going to be
best
friends,” she said as she let go of me, opened the door, and swooped out of the room.

I stuck my head out and called after her, “What time tomorrow?”

“Ten, if you can make it,” she said, disappearing into a door in the back. “Or whatever time your sir can spare you.”

I shook my head as I gathered up my instruction sheet and purse and wandered toward the front door, absently touching the clothing on display as I went through the store. This was going to be an interesting experience.

Chapter 2

I ran up the steps to the apartment, hoping both Sir and sage would be home so I could tell them about Geri and how her idea of a job application was to run an astrological chart and discuss vampires. I heard them talking in the living room, so I tossed my purse to the floor and went in to join them. sage must have just gotten home. She was kneeling on the floor in front of Sir, and he stroked her hair, smiling down at her.

He looked up at me and nodded as I entered. I took my place next to sage, exchanging a smile with her.

Sir sighed happily, laying a hand on each of our heads.

“You two are the best things that ever happened to me,” he said, then started our normal greeting routine. “Girls, what are we?”

“We are a family,” we said in unison. This had seemed pretty corny to me at first, but I was getting used to it now.

“And to whom do you owe loyalty?” He smiled indulgently, and that look, along with the pressure of his hand, made me feel more at home than anyplace else I’d ever been.

“I owe loyalty to my sister slave and my master,” we replied, smiling at each other before turning back to him.

“And I love you both and give you my loyalty in return.” He concluded the routine by helping us to our feet. “Get undressed now. You may wear robes for the evening.”

Over dinner I told them all about the store and Geri’s unusual interviewing techniques. sage laughed, but Sir just shook his head. I hoped he wasn’t going to decide The Fringe Element wasn’t a serious enough job. But he only said, “What time does it open tomorrow?”

“Ten, I think. That’s when she asked me to come in.” I silently kicked myself for forgetting to check the store hours. Ten sounded reasonable, though, and if it was something different, I’d just have to deal with it later.

He nodded. “I think you should be there when it opens.”

sage agreed, and I hoped she wasn’t going to give me job advice. I really liked sage, but she was sometimes a bit of a know-it-all. But she just said, “At least you can wear fun clothes and don’t have to buy suits and stuff.”

I grinned, thinking how much fun I could have with this job if it worked out well. Sir gave me an odd look and said, “sunni, you are not to spend your entire paycheck on clothes. Is that clear?”

I gave him my best “Who, me?” look and said with all the innocence I could muster, “Of course not, Sir. I wouldn’t dream of it.”

I showed up at exactly ten the next morning. The sign on the door did say it opened at ten, but I had to wait for about fifteen minutes before Geri came through the store with a huge bunch of keys and opened the door. She looked surprised to see me, and I wondered for a minute if she remembered who I was.

“Good morning,” she said cheerfully, either remembering me or deciding that it would become clear in a minute who I was. “Traffic is
horrible
today! I thought I’d
never
get here. Why don’t you move your car around to the back and I’ll let you in?”

Today she was wearing a filmy leopard-print shawl kind of thing that came down to her knees over a black bodysuit. She had no makeup on, but I suspected that would change later in her office. She carried a huge coffee mug with a picture of Bettie Page on it that I made an immediate mental note to find and buy. I would have told her how much I liked it, but she was still talking as she led the way back to her office, flipping light switches as she went.

“Let’s see now. You’re Jessie Chambers, but we’re to call you sunni, right?” she said as she rummaged through the papers on her desk. I felt a stab of disappointment. Had she remembered on her own or left a note? She probably had a system for documenting what she had done the previous day; she certainly didn’t look like the type who could recall things on her own.

“That’s right,” I told her.

She rummaged some more, then handed me a few sheets of paper and a pen. “You sit down here and fill these out and I’ll make us some tea. Then we’ll get started on your training. Okay?”

She was gone before I could agree, and I bit my lip to stop from laughing. Sure enough, when she came back five minutes later, still with her huge purse on her arm, she had done her face, complete with exaggerated eye makeup and bright red lipstick. She carried two mugs of hot, sweet tea, and after glancing over my paperwork, motioned me to follow her into the store.

She had said that she and her employees were like a family, but they didn’t seem much like it to me. There were two other girls, one named Debi who came in at noon three days a week and one named Tina who came in most days at three. They were both very pale, dressed in Goth styles, all black, with dramatic makeup and huge, clumpy boots. They each looked me over and said a casual “Hi,” but not much else. There were also a couple of pimply teenagers called Dennis and Trey who came in for a few hours to work in the back. They laughed a lot and played loud hip-hop but didn’t come out front much.

The rest of the day was spent listening to Geri ramble about her customers, her life, her ex-husband, daughter, stock, employees, the state of the world, and whatever else came into her mind. If she was as tired from talking as I was from listening, she must go right home and collapse. At about six she told me I could go home, and tomorrow if I came in the same hours, she would put me into the schedule.

The next day, Debi showed me the stock that the boys had unpacked the previous afternoon, and we worked almost in silence, putting it out and straightening the store. When there were no customers and we didn’t have specific jobs to do, Debi and Tina seemed to spend most of the time lounging around the cash register, reading magazines or staring at their cell phones.

Geri didn’t seem to notice. She spent a lot of time in her office, but I wasn’t sure what she was doing in there. When she came out, she did all of the talking, not noticing or caring that no one else actually spoke. Even when I tried to answer her, she didn’t really pay any attention.

“So are you in school?” I asked Debi as we sorted out a batch of fishnet stockings for the display rack.

She sniffed a little. “Not really.” She sounded bored. “My dad thinks I am, but I’m only taking two classes this semester. I’m trying to decide what to major in.”

I had a surprising flash of sympathy for her father. “Oh? What are you considering?”

“I don’t know. Maybe philosophy. Or art. I’ll probably get married and drop out, anyway.”

“Are you dating anyone?” I suddenly felt like an aunt trying to connect with a teenager. A very old aunt. It was depressing.

“Yeah,” she said, “but my dad doesn’t like him very much.”

“That’s probably why you do,” I said, laughing a little, but she just gave me a disgusted look and wandered away, leaving me to finish putting up the stockings by myself.

I wondered if this was going to turn out to be a good job after all when Geri came breezing up, her purple velvet shawl flying in her wake, and said, “sunni, you look like you need a break. Come into my office.”

Was I being fired already? I tossed the empty box into the back room and followed Geri. It had to be those two little bitches. I knew they didn’t like me. I must be too old and too normal-looking for them. Or maybe Geri had told them about my lifestyle and they thought I was too weird. I felt a flick of pride at being too strange for teenage Goth chicks. That had to take some doing, especially for someone in her thirties.

“So,” Geri said, plopping down in her oversized desk chair. She pulled each foot up onto the opposite thigh in a way that made me want to sign up for yoga, and picked up her tea mug. “How are you doing so far?”

I debated how to answer that. If I told her that the two girls in her “family” were snotty little brats, that might not go over too well. “Fine, I think. I like the store a lot. You have some really cool things here,” I said lamely.

She nodded and smiled broadly. “It is fun, isn’t it? And don’t you just love the clientele?”

So far I hadn’t met anyone particularly interesting. In fact, there had probably only been five or six people in the store in the two days I’d been working there. But I nodded and tried to look enthusiastic.

“sunni, the reason I wanted us to talk was that I’d like you to take on a project for me.”

I was surprised—a project after two days? I didn’t know if I would be able to handle a special assignment, or how Debi and Tina were going to feel about me getting it instead of them. Then again, they would probably be happy they weren’t going to get stuck with extra work.

“What kind of project?”

“Well, I am absolutely hopeless with technology.” She directed a glare over her shoulder at the very expensive-looking computer on the table behind her.

“Oh, I am too,” I agreed, and then mentally clapped my hand over my mouth. My boss was giving me an opportunity for advancement—or at least it sounded like it—and I was telling her I wasn’t capable. Smart.