Got Milk?

Over the next week, Tia adjusted well to her new life. The café was always busy, especially at the peak times of early morning, lunchtime and evening, but apart from the problem of trying to keep her panties hidden, she quite enjoyed it. Leo told her he was very happy with her work, and she felt proud.

On Mondays Hilda’s was shut, so all the girls went out around the city together. Tia and Amille were given a tour of Sydney’s most interesting sights, and the best places to shop. Not that any of them had much money to spend- their pay was rather dismal at Hilda’s Attic.

“But all the fun’s in the looking, not the actual buying anyway!” Said Apple, leading them into a ritzy designer store.
There were no other customers, and the ladies there were surprisingly friendly, humouring them for a while as they tried on outfits they obviously couldn’t afford to buy. Primula and Apple didn’t bother trying to hide their ears or tails at all, and from the long skirts and bandanas and hats worn by the rest of them, it was easy to tell that they were all H-mods.
Apparently this was one of Cherry’s favourite hobbies, and she lead them into various places Tia felt she really had no business being in.


It was terrible when the store people would shoo them out though- she felt so embarrassed. Cherry would giggle and make fun of them, and Primula was so bold as to turn up her nose and call them ‘discriminating bastards’, but Tia wanted to run and hide away from them.
Of course, many of the stores didn’t even let them inside, saying they knew that they couldn’t afford any of their garments, and that they were interfering with business.

She couldn’t help enjoying herself though. Some of the stores had such beautiful things! There was a purple dress she’d tried on that she was still thinking about an hour after having left the store. The velvety material had been so soft against her skin, and the unusual style had made her body look prettier, and accentuated her perky breasts and long legs. Amille had said she looked like a princess in it.

After a while she began to get into the spirit of things, trying on various dresses and shoes, most of which she could never hope to afford in her life.
Apple, Shev, Primula and Cherry treated themselves to coffee at a café, enjoying being the customers for a change, while Tia and Amille, who weren’t thirsty went into a jewellery store.
The young man at the counter welcomed them as though they were welcome customers come to make purchases.
He let them try on everything they wanted, even telling them about the various specials they had going and complimenting them on how well things suited them. He introduced himself as Xandir, and chattered happily to them about this and that. Apparently it was his father’s store, and was somewhat bored working there.
Tia was particularly taken with a silver bracelet, even going so far as to ask whether they did lay-buys. Perhaps she could save maybe ten, or even fifteen dollars a week….but then it would still be months before she could afford it.

“We accept various methods of payment…” He replied, smiling. “I’m sure we could arrange something, if you like.”
“Really?” she asked, excited.
“Well, if you were to put it on lay-buy, we ask for a 20% deposit, and the minimum payment for something like this would be about, oh, say $50 a fortnight…”
“Oh…that… umm…” Tia knew she could never save $25 a week…nor could she afford the deposit- they’d already spent the money the school had given them.

“It is a little steep, isn’t it? But you know, because you’re such a pretty little thing, I might consider giving it to you for less…” He said, smiling.
“But even then…ah…” She felt herself blushing. What had she been thinking, asking about lay-buys? Of course she couldn’t afford it!
Xandir laughed.
“How does the price of your phone number sound?” He asked.
Tia froze. For her phone number?! Would he really let her have it just for her phone number?!
“R-really?” She stammered.
“Sure. It’s my Dad’s store, after all. He doesn’t mind if I hand out freebies once in a while, as long as it’s to a very lovely lady…” Replied Xandir.

What was she to do? It was an amazing offer, but… well, if she gave him her phone number, he’d call her, right? He might want her to come see him… that was a scary thought. He was certainly very handsome, tall and broad shouldered, with piercing grey eyes, regal features and obviously genetically enhanced blue-black hair. But there was a certain sharpness behind his friendly countenance that set off alarm bells in the back of her mind. Or was she just being a worry-wart, as usual?

She felt Amille nudge her side with an elbow. It was just her phone number right? Even if he were to call and invite her somewhere, she could decline, make excuses, couldn’t she? It didn’t mean she’d have to do anything other than talk to him! And the bracelet was so lovely… she might never again have a chance to own something like this! It was even set with tiny fake diamonds that looked oh-so-real.
“Alright…wow….”

And so it was that Tia walked out of the jewellery store with her very own real silver bracelet.
“He was so handsome too!” Remarked Amille. “Don’t worry, if he calls you, just make some excuse up or something.”
Tia nodded.
The other girls could hardly believe she’d gotten it just for her phone number, and decided they would all be visiting plenty of jewellery stores the next Monday.


Life went fairly smoothly for the next week. Work, cooking, keeping the apartment clean and hanging out with the other girls had Tia almost constantly busy. There was the protest coming up on the weekend to think of too. They’d bought plastic rods, material, and brightly coloured spray paint to make banners with, which they were all working on in their spare time.
Little wonder Xandir from the jewellery store was the last thing on her mind when her phone rang one evening.
“Hello?”
“Hi there Tia! It’s Xandir from the jewellery store.” Came his voice. She froze up, and looked to Amille for help, who just shrugged. Seconds passed, and still she made no response.
“Oh, ah… hello?” She asked.
“It’s Xandir. Are you there?”
“Hello? …I can’t hear anything…is someone there? Maybe there’s a problem with my phone….” Tia congratulated herself on what she thought was excellent acting, hung up and turned her phone off.
“That was good!” Amille giggled.

“And now what though? He could ring me again! I’ll have to get a new number!” Tia realised.
“Just leave it off for a couple of weeks. You can use mine if you need to until then- it’s not like we use them much anyway.”
“oh! I’m sure we mentioned where we worked, too! What if he calls the café?”
“He probably won’t…Leo wouldn’t let you talk to him while you’re working anyway. If that happens, I’m sure we can just ask Leo to tell him you got fired if he calls back, or something.” Said Amille.
“That’s right. I suppose he wouldn’t call the café anyway.”


Friday came around, and with it much anticipation of the next day’s protest. Primula was very knowledgeable about politics and laws, it turned out, and Tia learnt a lot from her. But she wasn’t able to share in the other girls’ excitement over the event. Weren’t they worried? It would be dangerous! There’d be a huge crowd, all fussing over H-mods such as themselves… extremists would probably be hanging about, looking for any chance to snatch one of them away…

They were busy talking about it as they cleaned up for the day that evening, when Leo came down from his office.
“Attention please~ everybody!” He called, “I am just had the phone call from a Mr Whitburn, wanting me to host a birthday dinner for his son here tomorrow night. It’s unfortunate about the late notice, but the other plans what they were having fell through, so they are coming here. Big affair, big cake, some girls from Black Panther’s come in as well, so you are all to come back here by 5:30, ok?”
“Black Panther’s? Isn’t that a strip club?” Asked Apple.
“Yes. They’ll be dancing… anyway, apart from that, I’ll need one of you to stay back and help get everything ready. Tia, you are very good with the decorations, ya? Don’t worry, you can still get half the day off. Just be down here by twelve, ok?”
Inside, Tia breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sure!” She said.


It was nice to be able to sleep in the next morning. She was woken up briefly by Amille, demanding to be wished luck before she left, but after that she slept until 10am, quite a luxury by Tia’s standards.
She helped herself to a bowl of cereal and café latte, then turned on the holovision. The news reports showed protesters already gathering around the harbour, but it was impossible to pick any of her friends out of the crowd. After lazing around a little while longer, she made herself ready for work, and headed out the door.

However, she didn’t get very far. Before she could even close it behind her, she felt a strong arm enclose around her, and a funny smelling cloth pressed up to her face.
Vaguely, she heard Leo’s voice saying “Good morning, pretty!” Before the walls began to swim before her eyes, then faded to black.