Page 21 of Marked By Shadows
“Guilty,” Alex agreed. “Do you think we’ll find some new fabric to replace the curtain into the sin cave?” The bus began to move once everyone was on board. The small group from the B&B sitting around us.
I blinked. “Sin cave? Oh, the back of the shop. Why does it need a new curtain?” Right now it had something that blended in and was boring. Since sex toys was a small part of my business I’d never put a lot of effort into the space.
“Everything else in the shop is custom and handmade inspiration, right?”
“Yes. But I don’t make the toys.” Since adding the one-off costumes I made to the shop, I’d had to move things around to create an area where people could try them on. They weren’t exactly one size fits all. I’d found a market with capes, which took almost no time to put together, but a lot of fabric. In truth, I was running out of space. “I thought about adding a small area, taking part from the breakroom, and moving the adult section to a more enclosed space.”
Alex seemed to consider that for a few minutes. “That would give us more room for costumes and quilts. But what about Narwal Dickmaster’s fans? Relegated to a closet. No one likes being in a closet.”
“Narwal what?” Jonah asked catching only part of the comment.
I smiled and shook my head at Alex. “I could put some of Narwal’s most popular design in the register case.” In the main part of the store, beneath where we processed payments with an iPad, was a locked glass case of custom jewelry.
Alex’s eyes went wide. “Like have dicks… big alien ones, right there for everyone to see?” His face went red when he realized he was sitting on a bus filled with old people. The quilting hobby really did seem to be dominated by old white women, but we were in the South. “Fuck.” He slapped his hand over his mouth.
“Alien dicks?” Now our whole group was interested. “I could use a big alien dick,” Jonah said. “How did I not know your shop carries alien dicks, Micah?”
“It’s a small part of the business. I have a couple artists who provide specialty pieces, and the rest is part of a company agreement I have.”
“Specialty pieces?” MaryAnn wanted to know. “How special can a dildo be?”
Chad’s eyes were huge, absorbing the conversation. Julie and Nicole laughed. Jonah fished out his phone. “Girl, let me show you pictures.”
“Have you tried the alien impregnator?” Alex asked Jonah. “It seems to be a thing.”
“I’ve seen videos,” Jonah stated. “It looks capital H.O.T.,hot.” He showed a few pictures on his phone, which I couldn’t see, to MaryAnn and Chad, both whose eyes grew wide and a bit shocked. “I have a bit of a collection. But what can I say? I like dick.”
“Narwal Dickmaster strikes again,” Alex said. “Converting another sweet angel to the darkside with his demand for obedience and subjugation. It’s a growing religion.”
“I must meet this Dickmaster of yours,” Jonah said. He turned so we could see the pictures on his phone. There was some sort of bluish green phallic shape with segments and beads at the top. It looked sort of bug-like. “This is my favorite. It tingles in all the right places.” There were a couple more angles of the dildo in pictures, and even a picture of it next to a book. The thing was huge.
“Wow,” Alex said, suddenly at a loss for words. “I didn’t know using a thing like that was humanly possible.”
“Sugar,” Jonah said, “This baby is magic. I’ll send Micah the link so he can order one for the two of you to play with. If this Narwal religion has got a hold on you, wait until you meet the Scorpion King’s cock. It is up there with the giant Spaghetti Monster, but instead of wearing a strainer on your head, you got a thick cock in your dock, nudging all those delicious things inside.”
“Cock in your dock?” Alex tried to translate. “Wait, Spaghetti Monster? Strainer on your head? What?” He narrowed his eyes and looked at me. “Monster spaghetti? Does spaghetti come alive like some old blob movie and eat us now? Just how much did I miss while in the military?”
And for the rest of the bus ride to the first shop, I spent explaining what a Spaghetti Monster was, and how it had become a thing of pop culture. Alex looked several times back at Jonah’s picture of the Scorpion King’s cock. I ordered one to be delivered to the shop in a handful of clicks, wondering what Alex would do if I brought it home with us. Either way, as the tension left his shoulders, and he chatted with the group, even after they teased him, I was happy he’d come along. If anything, his ease with the others made my own anxiety fade.
Chapter 8
The first shop was large and filled with a lot of traditional prints and walls of Batiks. “Batiks are hand dyed,” I explained to Alex as he marveled at the rainbow wall of color they were arranged in, like some horizontal cascade of fabric. “The quilt I made you had green Batiks in it. That leaf design, which looks sort of like it’s dyed in the fabric rather than printed on top of it.”
Alex stood out of the way of the people entering the shop, not really moving, but sucking in air for a minute. Was it too crowded for him? There were a couple dozen people in the shop, but there was plenty of space between us and everyone else.
I squeezed his hand. “You okay?”
“Taking it all in.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the awe in his words. “The convention makes this,” I waved at the walls of color, “look like nothing.”
Alex turned his gaze my way and blinked several times, the words processing slow enough with him that I could almost see the wheels turning. “For real? There’s more?”
“The convention fills a giant convention hall. Hundreds of booths, dozens of designers, classes, and even machines. It will be packed with people.” Mostly Alex seemed okay in crowds, but I planned to keep a close eye on him. “I have a vendor pass, which means we actually get in for a sneak peek on Wednesday. It will be less crowded, but not all the booths will be ready, and there won’t be other events like classes or those live tutorials.” Ideally, I would find a few lines to carry in my shop and begin discussions with the line owners. It was much easier in person than trying to work through the bazillion walls of marketing directors for some of the larger lines. My goal was to aim for newer designers, establish a relationship, and help them build their brand.
“Your eyes got all glowy,” Alex said to me.
I tilted my head and looked up at him. “Glowy? Is that a word?”