My first week of work was mostly uneventful. Mandy and the other coworkers I met seemed to be having a little too much fun teasing me when the shop was barren of customers, but I took it in stride.

If the shoe was on the other foot, I imagined I’d partake in the teasing as well. Since none of it felt malicious, I laughed along with quite a few of the jokes.

The biggest event of the week came during my off hours Wednesday night. My parents called out of the blue to tell me they were heading to Europe for a month-long vacation. They bribed me with the use of my mom’s car in exchange for getting their mail and feeding Sugar.

A month of not feeling like a burden for hitching rides almost every day? Talk about a no-brainer.

Mom and Dad dropped by my apartment early Friday morning. I drove them from there to the airport before heading back home to tidy up before I had to get ready for work.

Even though I had toned down on the formal work attire, it was still shocking as hell to get to the shop later that day and meet Mona for the first time.

“You the new girl?” she asked with a grunt. Her eyes scanned me head to toe and a grin spread across her lips. “Christy wasn’t kidding. You really are a virgin.”

“H-Hey!”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m just teasing. You gotta admit it’s pretty damn weird to see a priss like you wanting to work in a sex shop.”

Mandy gave me a vague warning about Mona the day before, but she didn’t come close to accurately describing the brash woman standing behind the counter.

Rough around the edges seemed like a gross understatement to me.

“I need the money,” I said solemnly, refusing to look at her as I stepped behind the counter and went to drop my bag in the back.

Mona wasn’t letting me go that easily. She called, “So you don’t actually want to be here, is that it?”

I froze. It was a question I’d been asking myself all week. So far I was loving working with my best friend and the others weren’t bad either. There wasn’t a problem with my coworkers—at least not yet.

However, I was still extremely embarrassed pretty much all the time. Stocking shelves was fine because my humiliation was private, but the manager—Christy—had already reprehended me once about not looking people in the eye while working the register.

I was terrified to see someone I knew. I was even more terrified to see someone my parents knew.

What would they say if they knew? Mom would probably splutter in confusion and Dad would be outraged that I ‘lowered myself’ to this. Would their answer be any different if they knew this job was the only thing keeping me from losing my apartment?

Doubtful. They either would have offered to pay the rent for me or insisted I move back in with them. Neither option appealed to me in the slightest. The answer was simple.

“I want to be able to pay my bills without relying on my parents. So... Yes. I do want to be here.” I nodded firmly—more to myself than to her—before the hesitation crept back in. “It’s just... I wasn’t making enough to cover everything at the coffee shop I was working at and this isn’t exactly a comfortable environment for me. I’m doing my best.”

By the time I finished, I was surprised to find Mona leaning against the door frame of the back room. Her arms were crossed over her chest but there was a look on her face that could only be described as... impressed.

“I get that. Well, welcome to the team.”

“Oh, uh... Thanks,” I said with a small smile. Maybe Mandy was right after all. Mona wasn’t so bad. “It means a lot.”

She smiled and shifted on her feet. I’d been staring so hard at her face that I didn’t even notice just how short her skirt was and how tall her platform boots were. Whoa. With the outfit, the black hair, and the piercings littered around her face—Mona looked like a rock star.

“What’s with the look?”

“Are you in a band?”

“No,” she slowly drawled, one eyebrow rising in amusement. “But some might refer to me as a groupie. It wouldn’t be that far of a stretch.”

“Oh.”

Ignoring my confused look, she said, “Speaking of which... There’s a show I’m going to tonight and I wanted to cut out an hour early. Can you close the store by yourself yet?”

“Um, sure. Mandy taught me how to lock everything up.”

“Wicked. I promise I’ll return the favor if you ever need it.”

With that, Mona marched out of the room with the grace of a bulldog and more confidence than I ever had. It was incredible how self-assured she seemed to be. As I stepped behind the counter and watched her open the shop, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of that confidence came from sex.

If I opened myself up more, would my confidence grow? Would working in this kind of environment eventually help loosen me up a little?

“I guess I’ll find out,” I muttered as the bell over the door signaled the first customer of the day.

I tried to meet the man’s eyes and smile, but my fear and embarrassment quickly made me turn away.

Oh well. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

* * *

Nearly seven hours later, Mona was impatiently answering a customer’s questions and glancing at the clock every five seconds. The phone rang and I answered with the standard greeting, only to be cut off mid-sentence.

“Yo, where’s Mona?”

“She’s helping a customer. Can I take a message?”

“Tell her to call Bobby before she comes to get me.”

“Um... Who is me?”

“Jake. Just tell Mona to call Bobby ASAP. You got paper?”

“Yeah, one sec...” I trailed off as I dug the block of sticky notes and a pen out from behind the register. “Go ahead.”

I jotted the number down and read it back to him, making sure I didn’t screw it up. He hung up without so much as a goodbye and I frowned at the receiver as I put it down. Mona’s attention was still focused on the customer, but she was clearly getting more and more irritated.

“Listen, lady. You don’t want that one,” she abruptly said, snatching the packaged dildo from the woman’s hands and pointing at another. “You want silicone. It’s safer and you can wash that shit in the dishwasher. I know it’s more expensive than the jelly one, but your pussy will thank you for it.”

My eyes went wide. How could Mona think it was okay to speak to a customer like that? Surely this woman was going to blow a gasket.

… Or she would just smile and grab the sixty-dollar dildo from the shelf. Her mouth opened to ask something, but Mona somehow predicted the question.

“Don’t use a silicone or oil-based lube with this, you understand? That’s not good for it. You want a lube that’s water-based. This one is my personal favorite.”

Much as it pained me to admit, I craned my neck to see the area Mona was pointing at. Thankfully the woman snatched a bottle from the shelf, so I’d at least be able to take a mental note of the brand when I rang up her purchase.

Maybe after I closed up the shop for the night, I’d pick out a few things to try myself. At least I had a starting point and it’d be a lot easier to shop without anyone else watching. Not that it stopped my cheeks from heating up at the thought.

The bell over the door jangled once more and Mona let out a frustrated growl.

“Yo! Go help him. I’ll ring her up and I’m getting out of here.”

“But I-I can’t—”

My spluttered protests didn’t faze Mona in the slightest. She strut around the counter and placed her palms on my back, pushing me forward as she quietly said, “I know, I know. But you got to get used to it at some point and I happen to know this dude. Just be friendly and try to relax. He’s a chill guy.”

Her sentence didn’t stop until we were upon him, so my choices consisted of assisting him or fleeing like some kind of crazy person. The only thing that kept my feet stuck to the ground was the fact that she was totally right—I had to get used to it.

Besides, what did I intend to do if someone came in after she left? Ignore them completely?

“Hello. Can I help you with anything?” I rapidly forced out.

I met the man’s eyes and was surprised at the knowing look I found. My head tilted in confusion as he gave me a warm smile.

“You’re new here.”

How often did this man come to the shop that he would know that? Instead of asking, I settled for a mute nod. The bell jangled and I spared a glance to the door, watching as the woman left the shop. That meant Mona would be gone in a matter of moments.

“Well, I know my way around the store well enough, but I could use a woman’s opinion this evening. Would you mind?”

“S-sure. Just one sec.” Mona was rushing toward the door behind me as I called, “Mona, wait!”

“Can’t! Already late!”

“You’re supposed to call Bobby before you get Jake! I wrote the number on a sticky note!”

She froze in her tracks and literally ran to the register, snagging the sticky note and holding it in the air as she yelled, “Thanks!”

She was out the door before I could utter another word.

“How can she move so fast in those shoes?” I muttered, completely forgetting about the gentleman waiting for my assistance until he chuckled.

“Lots of practice, I’d wager.”

His hand gently touched my shoulder and I jumped—startled both by the touch and his voice. He removed his hand immediately, holding it up with an apologetic expression.

“Didn’t mean to scare you. Just wanted to turn your attention where I need you.”

His hand gestured toward a rack and I muttered an apology before joining him. It was on the tip of my tongue to mention that—woman or not—I had no experience to make my opinion worthwhile. But how could I admit that to a total stranger?

I wasn’t brave enough. All I could do was wait and pray that he wasn’t going to ask about double-ended dildos.

“My wife wants me to pick out an outfit for her. We do it every anniversary—she gets something for me, I get something for her. But I do appreciate getting a woman’s opinion on what might make her feel sexy.”

I glanced at the lingerie on the clothing rack then back to him. Sure enough, a quick glance at his hand revealed the gold band.

“May I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you pick something you think she’d feel sexy in? Isn’t the point for you to pick something you like?”

The man froze in his mission to flip through items and gave me a quizzical look.

“Because if she doesn’t feel sexy, it doesn’t look sexy. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about the lingerie as long as it comes off later.”

I was floored. Even the wink at the end of his sentence couldn’t snap me back to reality. It just made so much sense that I wondered why I had never thought about it before.

This... This I could handle. I wondered if Mona knew that. The thought made me feel slightly less abandoned.

“I’d be happy to help you with this,” I said, taking up a spot on the other side of the rack and ignoring the remaining pangs of embarrassment. “Does she have a favorite color to wear?”

When he smiled and started to rave about his lovely wife, I realized that maybe this job wouldn’t be so embarrassing after all. Maybe I’d even learn something.

* * *

Half an hour later, I waved goodbye to John and wished him and his wife a happy anniversary. We’d gone through the entire stock of lingerie together before deciding on two different options—both of which being my personal recommendations. He thanked me heartily for my assistance before opting to purchase both items.

With no other customers coming in behind him, I was ready to close up for the night. I turned off the sign, locked the door, and approached my nemesis—the security system’s panel.

I avoided it like the plague since my first day—save for the times I watched Mandy turning it on and off. I bit my lip and narrowed my eyes as I entered the buttons I was sure would arm the system. If I did it right, it’d beep twice and the creepy monotone voice would announce that the system was activated.

But nothing happened. So I pressed the buttons once more, frowning when I didn’t recognize the message on the screen. What did those rapid-fire numbers mean?

“Oh my God!” I screeched as the system suddenly began to wail. I covered my ears as I yelled, “Crap, crap, crap!”

I ignored my throbbing ears and ran to the counter, blindly reaching for the computer screen and grabbing the sticky note before running back to the system.

“Okay, okay. It was five, nine... uh-oh.”

Clenched between my fingertips was a note clearly written by my own hand—the one meant for Mona, where Bobby’s number was neatly recorded.

With wide eyes, I looked between the paper and the system, praying for the remaining numbers to magically pop into my mind. It didn’t work.

“Fuck!”

I dug my phone out of my pocket and called Mandy, but the shrill sound of the alarm began to die off. I was too late.

“Hey, Jess! What’s up?”

“I screwed up the system! I-I must have armed it and didn’t realize it so when I tried to arm it again, it thought I was tampering and—”

“Did you enter the code?”

“No! Mona took the wrong sticky note!”

There was a brief pause before Mandy dryly said, “I don’t know what that means, but I’m assuming this is her fault. Look, the police won’t take long to swing by. Usually it’s someone already in the area with nothing else going on. They’ll drop in, make sure everything’s fine, and go. It’s no big.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Just wait for someone to show and apologize. Maybe ask them to wait for you to arm it correctly before heading out.”

“O-Okay,” I said, nodding to myself. “Wait, I think there’s a car pulling up. That was fast.”

“They usually are. I’ll text you the alarm code in case you need it. Call me after you get everything square, okay?”

“Will do. Thanks, Mandy,” I said as I ended the call and shoved the phone back in my pocket. I hurried to the door and undid the remaining locks, the apology already forming on my lips.

“I’m so sorry, officer. This is all my fault. I’m new and—”

“Jessa?”

My explanation died in my throat.

There he was. A head taller than me, uniform taut against his massive amount of muscle, green eyes wide with surprise.

Officer Aaron Wells. My dad’s good friend and next door neighbor.

My secret crush.

Oh no.