Growing into the Job, Post 444: Gala, p2

I’d been herded out of my apartment by the two girls, hurried down the little spiral staircase, and all but carried through Melissa’s office and then the waiting room. I could hear the party on the other side of the door, classical string music and the sounds of a large  crowd drifting through; it was clear that the gala in the atrium was already in full swing. . I felt my anxiety spike and my mouth went dry as Lexi and Katie took a moment to adjust the tie and lapels of my rented suit. They each gave me a big smile and kissed me on the top of the head before opening the door and pushing me out, trembling, ahead of them. 

I couldn’t help but gasp - though the sound of my breath was lost in the cacophony of the party - as I looked out into the grand new space. It dwarfed our old offices in scale and splendor, and, though I had already seen it earlier today, I couldn’t help but marvel at it again. Huge and soaring, done in warm white stone for its walls, floors and columns, it made me feel like I was entering some glorious temple. And if it was a place of worship, its deity was Woman. The enormous stone statue of the goddess, a distance to my right, now stood watching dominion over her throng of partygoers at her feet, all of whom were done up in their celebratory best. Rather than lit from above by sunlight through the glass ceiling, she was now bathed in dramatic lighting from below and from sconces on the walls. She loomed above all like some great protectress in her robes and majestic beauty…

…and looked exactly like Melissa, despite what everyone was trying to tell me. 

Though my knees nearly buckled, as they had when I took my first sight of her this afternoon, I had the wherewithal to quickly gather myself and try to enter the party unnoticed. I spotted a large potted tree aside a tall stone column that I knew could probably hide behind and began to make my way  towards it when I was suddenly stopped from behind by Lexi’s hand to my right shoulder, then Katie’s on my left.

“Ladies..!!” Lexi announced, over the romantic expressiveness of the string quartet, “here he is, the man you’ve all been waiting for!!!”

I was immediately overwhelmed. Eyes, too many eyes, were  on me.  Cameras, flashing, giggles, and gasps made me instinctively shrink backwards, lost in my new confusion. At first, I didn’t recognize any faces. I felt small, vulnerable, unprotected, and I was suddenly happy for the two girls with their hands firmly on my shoulders, their strong presences behind me. Without Melissa near me I palpably needed them, their magnetism a necessary substitute for her solid solace. They felt like my protectors, the others surrounding me felt like…others. 

With the flashes going off, both Lexi and Katie  beamed with their biggest, most camera-ready smiles. I, on the other hand, winced with every flash as I imagined what every photo would look like: a shrunken,  humiliated twerp cowering before two gorgeous Amazons.The image made me try my best to keep some semblance of a grin. I hoped my discomfort wasn’t too noticeable.

<flash>

<flash> <flash> 

My weak eyes couldn’t take it. 

<flash> 

I started to feel really nervous. 

<flash><flash>

But my rictus brightened a bit when I saw two new faces - ones I counted as friends now, like family, reinforcements here to save me - pushing through the throng, coming in to join us....

It was Randi and Marisela, each in nearly matching black dresses, each with a champagne flute in their hands and each now standing between me and the cameras. At my height I had a good view of their bare, well-muscled upper backs: Randi’s smooth skin a tanned olive, Marisela’s more pale framed and decorated by a number of tattoos, which seemed to direct the gaze towards something. My eyes focused in on Marisela’s back, following the intricate patterns as the two both smiled, patiently indulging the cameras, at least for the moment. 

“Okay okay okay guys,” Randi said, loudly, addressing the photographers and other randoms who seemed to want pictures of me. Marisela had her hand raised, absentmindedly rolling her shoulders and giving me the briefest glimpse of some kind of marks - not tattoos - on her shoulder blades. Is that some kind of scar tissue? Marisela kept them all at a distance as Randi continued. “We talked about this. We know everyone wants their piece of shortstuff here for the morning edition, but his photo ops are later,” she directed, “Leave him alone until Melissa gets here.”

Lexi had taken her hand from my shoulder, and stepped forward to help handle the press in her duties as our event coordinator. With Randi and Marisela forming my human shield, and Katie’s warm body now fully behind me, I’d begun to feel a bit more sheltered and protected from the ‘others’. Being a four-and-a-half foot man in a normal-sized world could be scary at times, but with these women around me I felt strangely safe. 

Lexi took charge, apparently unwilling to let this opportunity go to waste. She turned on the charm and stood at the head of the throng of camera people. “Hey c'mon,” she said, addressing Randi, and then turning back to the crowd, “they’ve waited all night for this, pictures of all of us together.” At that, Lexi flashed her best megawatt smile, stood tall and thrust her chest out for the cameras. In her red slip of a dress, her figure was arresting. “Science is so fake, isn't it guys?” she brightly asked the cameras, which all now exploded in a burst of flashes, “saying the hottest thing is the sun….” She tossed her brown hair, smiled even wider. “…when we all know it’s actually Far Horizons girls.”

More flashes followed, and some tolerant smiles from Randi, Marisela and Katie. 

“Why don’t we let them have a few shots, of all of us with him?” Lexi offered. Her suggestion came with a turn of her head and a conciliatory smile, and between the other girls and her I could already sense some growing tension, “Before Melissa gets here we can-“

“Nope,” Marisela interjected, dryly putting a stop to Lexi’s appeasement plan and pulling even tighter to Randi’s side, effectively blocking me from the cameras entirely. There was a dark threat in Marisela’s energy, a cold, latent violence; I could feel it shiver my bones and the photographers could, too. They all backed away a step, the male photographers retreating noticeably more. 

“Later,”  Randi added, with finality, “When Missy arrives.”

Lexi had some argument in her, but all it took was another glance from Randi and a glare of Marisela’s, and she begrudgingly turned away from us, now ushering the throng away. “C’mon, guys,” I could hear her say to her charges as she left, “let’s go take some pictures of the new mayor under the statue…”

There was a pause, as Katie, Randi and Marisela watched the crowd disperse, the party falling back into its previous rhythm, the entrance of the midget-man (ie: me) seemingly forgotten, at least for the moment. Katie’s vigilant grip on my shoulders began to relax, and Randi and Marisela turned their attention down towards me. 

Suddenly, rather than safe, I felt surrounded…but also like I should thank them. 

“Th-thanks, guys,” I said, looking up at Marisela and Randi, “they were really annoying.”

“No worries, we got you baby,” Randi answered, a funny hint of something almost maternal mixed into her smoky, normally acerbic tone.

Katie pulled me in tighter, holding my head back against her firm breasts. The black-haired Marisela bit her lip. 

“So, how do we look?” Randi asked, her dark eyes glittering down on me while Marisela’s blue gaze gleamed. All three of these young women silently compelled me to ogle their bodies and, at the same time, daring me to try and look away. 

They knew, of course, my eyes had a mind of their own, and I predictably goggled as I took in their figures. I knew, by this point, that I should no longer be surprised by the sight.

“We didn’t do this on purpose, I swear,”” Marisela offered dryly, “wear the exact same thing.” 

“Yeah I knew I should have worn my blue dress,” Randi agreed, in her smoky tone. 

“Aw I think you two look cute, like twinsies,” Katie giggled. 

It wasn’t, though, the fact that Randi and Marisela were wearing the same dress that had made my eyes gawk. Yes, I’d fallen in love with Melissa’s incredible, impossible figure, which frankly transcended theirs, but that did nothing to make their curves any less phenomenal. Their tight black dresses may very well have been painted on, with plunging bustlines held to hug their big bosoms by the thinnest of straps resting elegantly on their shoulders. Arms were left entirely exposed, revealing expanses of perfect skin and, on Marisela, a collection of tattoos. Slits ran down both side of their skirts, clearly to show off the perfect thighs, calves and ankles of their astoundingly well-developed legs, legs which showed wonderful in their high-heeled shoes. 

“So who wears it better?” Randi asked in her signature tone, sardonic

“Uhhhh…” I began, unsure of how to navigate this obvious trap.

“You don’t have to answer that, cutie,” Katie assured me from behind, “that’s a trick question.” 

“Well I think you both look gorgeous…” came the voice of a newcomer, a brown haired woman in her thirties, looking lovely in a white dress and hair done in elegant rings which called up a retro style. I knew I recognized h- Yes! Abby. Abby Sol-i-something. Sales rep for Evolution and a friend of Melissa. She’d sidled up to the four of us and now stood alongside Randi. “Hi Katie, Randi and…Marisela, right?”

“Yeah,” Marisela drawled, “hi.”

“Well, thanks for getting rid of all those cameras,” Abby lauded, “they’re as bad as paparazzi!”

I’d known Melissa and Abby had been friends for a couple of years, though to hear Melissa tell it Abby wasn’t nearly as much a part of the group as Randi, Shanette, and some of the others. It explained, though, how she knew Randi and Katie better than Marisela. 

Then she looked at me. Though she was not as tall as any of my employees here, she still peered down at me from more than a foot above. “And - oh! - I barely saw you there!” she laughed, “Hi Dr J., nice to see you again!”

“Y-you too,” I agreed. 

“Though - wow - there’s so much less of you, isn’t there?” she chuckled, casting an observant eye up and down me, from head-to-toe. “How tall is he, Randi?” Abby asked. 

“Tell her, little guy,” Randi said, her smirk from above me clearly belying her amusement - but also something else. She and Marisela had swooped in to save me from the others, and now we were among friends - right? Or did I sense some more tension here?

“I’m…uh…”

“Say it, Dr. J,” Katie urged me, from behind.  

“I’m…four-seven,” I admitted, face flushing. 

“Whoah, for real?!” Abby gushed, eyes widening, “And you used to be…?”

I swallowed, dryly, trying to put it together. I could barely believe it myself. 

“It’s okay, Dr. J,” someone said, “you can tell her.”

“I used to be five-eleven.”

“WOW that’s…amazing!” Abby raved, something going on behind her eyes that I couldn’t quite read. “And…are you alright? How do you feel?”

“Uhhh…” How do I feel? Shrunken? Withered? Weak? Sidelined, pushed aside? At times befuddled, confused? Could I admit to all these things, to this woman, here at a party? “I feel…okay.”

“Do you know what’s happening?” Abby continued, voyeuristically curious but also with that same, strange something that belied some other interest, “Like, a diagnosis?”

“Umm-”

“Because if we could bottle it up, whatever it is that’s doing this to you,” Abby continued, half in jest but also not, “Girls would love it! My job would be so easy! Evolution would make billions!”

“Not happy enough that this new Product is going to help enhance women,” Marisela chimed in, “sort of like Melissa’s doing to us?”

“Yeah now you’d want to shrink the men? Like Nexifem is learning how to do?” Randi suggested, referring to the demonstration on that talk show where some guy had been reduced to doll-size - though I’d heard the expense was currently astronomical, and there were even rumors that it wasn’t real, just some sort of camera trickery. Even so, it was frightening.  “And put it in a pill…?” she mused, “it’s an appealing thought…”

“Yeah he is turning into such a cutie,” Katie purred. Her breasts were still warm softness behind me and I felt her embrace become more enveloping. “Everyone should have one.”

“Omigod imagine!” Abby laughed, “I’d love to be able to sit my boyfriend on my lap like Missy must do to him.”

“She carries him around on her hip sometimes,” Randi said, “You should see it.” She glanced over Abby’s shoulder. “So, is your boyfriend here?”

“No, I left him home, I don’t think he could handle this thing,” Abby answered, just as a server came up to us with a tray of champagne glasses. Each lady began trading their empty glass for a fresh one. “All these gorgeous women would freak him out,” Abby continued, taking her first sip, “plus he’s got my laundry to do.”

When I reached for a glass, Katie stayed my hand. 

“Not tonight, sweetie,” she told me. 

“Yeah, in fact,” Randi spoke up, addressing the server, “Can we get a glass of milk, for this guy here? Make sure to warm it up.” 

I flushed again. How far was this going? Had I been this reduced? That I needed someone else to order warm milk for me where everyone else was drinking champagne and cocktails?

The server had left before Abby started speaking again. “I love how you all take care of him,” she said, “it’s pretty adorable.”

“Yeah, one big happy fucking family,” Randi drawled. 

“Emphasis on the ‘fucking’,” added Marisela, dryly, downing her champagne in one go. 

“Well, I know Missy loves being supported by powerful women,” Abby said, eyeing Marisela with a wary gaze, “and I understand you guys are all-”

“Turning into superheroes?” Marisela spoke, without a hint of jest. 

“Well, I uh-“ Abby began. 

“Don’t believe everything you hear…” Marisela finished dismissively, before turning on her spiked heel. “I’m going to go find Lakshmi,” she said, and then flew off…

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thanks to RiF for not only his editing, but in helping upscale the first image. And, oh yeah, Beetlebomb for helping build the statue....more of her to come :)