Chapter 12: Out of Eden

Sylvie Paoli - Monday, June 22nd, 2015

I slipped out of Eden's bed while Matthew cuddled my roommate. What a night! Eden was always so rigid and controlling with her boyfriends but last night she really let go. I loved a good threesome. Matthew snored right into Eden's ear and Eden dreamily smiled. Good. I hoped next time they'd go to his place.

I picked my pajamas off the floor outside Eden's door. The clock said it was nearly seven in the morning. I went straight for the shower. I don't think either of them would complain about me walking around naked but you never knew how people would react after they've had a night to sleep on it.

Our shower sucked. It was the worst part of the apartment. The water pressure was inconsistent but never better than almost strong enough. I didn't bother with the cold water knob. I was up about five minutes early and used every additional second of that under the spray. I heard people rummaging in the kitchen after I had my hair dried. I brushed it out, wrapped a towel around my torso and stamped the last of the water off my feet onto the bathmat. I kept my ears perked up in case I heard someone in need of the toilet but I took my time with my makeup.

Eden sped right past me with the whoosh of cold air when I opened the bathroom door. I said good morning and she slammed the door. The kettle steamed and I perked my ears up, Matthew was brewing a pot of tea. Good boy.

"Good morning," I chirped with a smile, "How are you feeling?"

"Fantastic," He smiled up at me, "You got time for a cup of tea?"

"Not much more than that," I shrugged as I crossed to my bedroom. "A little cream, no sugar."

"I'll have a cup for you," He said as he filled my china teapot.

I was going to work so I got dressed for that. Thong, shorts, ankle socks, bra and work shirt. I fluffed out my hair, put in a pair of earrings and stepped into the sneakers by my door. I returned to find my cup waiting on the kitchenette counter next to Eden. Matthew was in the washroom.

"Yours is the green mug," She said without eye contact. Oh, poor girl. I picked a pen out of a jar by the fridge and made sure my work apron was in my bag. Matthew got the tea right. Good man.

"So, last night..." I said looking over at Eden. She opened her eyes wide and looked down her fluffy robe to her slippered feet.

"I don't want to do that again," She declared forcibly.

"With me or with Matthew?"

"With--Look don't be mad. That was way too fast for me. I can't speak for Matthew, still I--"

"Say no more," I sipped my tea and checked my phone. I had to go catch the bus, "Matthew's a great guy. Try and make it work."

"Thanks Sylvie. Don't mention this at work, OK?"

"Oh, everyone's going to know you brought Matthew home," I smiled and she rumpled her nose.

"Of course they are," She laughed and smiled at me, "It was good, whatever it was."

"It was fucking great," I grinned. Matthew stepped out of the washroom. He was wearing the clothes he had from last night. That shirt had wrinkled up good, "Bye Matthew, see you at work today."

"Yeah, I'll be in for 10."

"Me too," Eden remembered, "Shit."

"Bye, Sylvie," Matthew smiled as Eden barrelled to her room.

"Bye, lover," I mouthed and laughed. I grabbed my stuff. Hi, ho. Hi, ho.

Gwendolyn Ashcroft - Monday, June 22nd, 2015

Sylvie had come in for her shift beaming like the sun. She had always been bubbly but this was excited. Her golden hair fluffed behind her as she strutted through the front doors already dressed in her work uniform. She waved hello and my eyes went immediately to her wrist. I breathed a great sigh of relief when I saw no bracelet. Matthew wasn't fucking her too. I replied with a cheery good morning and carried the tray over to table 4.

The shift continued for the next three hours like a standard day. We were never full up but there was seldom a third free table all morning. New girl ... Old habits, Dawn came in for eight and she looked haggard. Two hours of restaurant had given her quite the pile to climb through. She should have been scheduled for seven. We all felt sorry for her but she did the right thing, putting her head down and getting to work.

"How're you handling it?" I stopped by and asked as I carried her a bustub full of dishes.

"It's simple work but there's a lot of it," She grumbled.

"We don't often see girls back here, but it's good to know that we can do it," I admitted to Dawn. Dawn was the first girl to work in the back of the restaurant since Erica had left.

"I can do it," Dawn smirked at me.

"Yeah, maybe I couldn't," I grinned.

"It's not a heavy lifting kind of job. It's just constant work. You guys slow down, I just get a bigger pile," She sighed. She dragged the bustub in and started sorting the dishes into the next rack.

"Yeah, don't think the rest of us don't appreciate what you're doing. You collapse and the restaurant follows shortly. You should be OK for another hour though? Matthew's in at 10, you'll feel better with backup."

"I'm counting down the minutes," She said, clearly interested in Matthew beyond his help at work. So was I. I wondered, dreaded, anticipated, hyped the idea of him interrupting my shift to fuck me. Where though? I mean the only comfortable place would be in one of the larger booths out in the front half. Right by the windows. I licked my lips, beginning to blush. Dawn kicked me out of my reverie, "You should get back to work."

"Good luck, Dawn," I smiled at her, something you learned how to do in spite of your feelings at a restaurant. I turned away from the dishroom towards the line to grab a set of drinks for table 3.

The front was standard chaos but the kitchen and the line were boiling crazy by the time Matthew and Eden arrived. I had been expecting that just been fucked glow on Eden but it was dimmer than Sylvie's had been. Clearly, Eden was grinning more than usual but she wasn't floating like Sylvie Le Pew.

"You're looking anything but well rested, Edie," Franklin wolf whistled. Eden just flashed the same enigmatic smile to every comment and question.

"Matthew's in that intolerable happy mood again," Zina warned me in a hurried whisper, "I mean, I'm glad someone's finally laying him, but I'm glad it's not me."

"I'm glad it's not you either," I smirked and she laughed raucously. Good, she thought it was a joke, "Hey do you mind looking in on table 4? And table 2 has only ordered drinks? I'm starving."

"Sure, but I'm taking 2's tips." She told me and that was fair. I rang up my dinner and printed off the bills to table 1. They were a nice college age threesome. A couple of sisters and a goofy big eared blond guy. I hovered while the older sister, I guessed, used the portable debit machine. I thanked them, before looking at the tip she typed in, she rounded a 46 and change bill to 50. I'm glad I gave them a smile before I read that. I pushed that out of my mind and clocked out for lunch. It was close to a half hour early but the opportunity was there and I wanted to talk to him before his shift started.

Eden and Matthew were in the breakroom. He was collapsed in one of the chairs and she was switching her shoes in her cubby locker. We all wore sneakers at work, I had like several dozen pairs that I seldom wore any twice in a month. Eden picked a pair that she switched out for a cleaner looking pair every six or eight months or so. I said good morning to her but I tried not to confront her. I was feeling bad enough with all the others. There was no use rubbing the salt into the wound sparring with Eden over Matthew who seemed impervious to cattiness.

"Hey Gwen!" Eden almost seemed girlishly excited. She was still pretty reserved.

"Gwendolyn, milady," Matthew pushed the chair out across from him with one foot under the table.

"Your lady, huh?" Eden looked at me with only a moment's worth of scorn, "Eh, you could do worse."

"Thanks," I smirked feigning sarcasm. Eden walked over and wrapped her arms around Matthew's shoulders. I recognized the territorial move even if Eden's smile knew it wasn't necessary.

"Treat her like a lady," She warned. I sighed behind a laugh. Eden was in and taking care of the other girls. I had been expecting a fistfight. Eden could take me, then again so could Deborah, Courtney, or Melody. I gave myself even odds versus Phoebe. She waved and headed out. When her footsteps were lost in the kitchen I took the offered seat across from Matthew.

"Good morning," I whispered, putting down my chicken caesar wrap on the small half table.

"Hey, Gwen," He smiled, "Last night was awesome! The play was great and the band was better."

"Good," I barked. I dumped a packet of honey across the wrap and picked up a fork and knife. I steadied myself with a deep breath. "How's Eden, you know, after everything?"

"She's fantastic!" He beamed looked out. There was a Ninja Turtles clock on the wall, it was so incongruous in Deborah's restaurant but we all loved it. Matthew should have been on his way to clocking in right now. I wanted to spend a bit more time with him and expected to see him get up and hustle out. I realized he owned Deborah. He leaned in, "I could talk for hours about all the things we did, but I realized something important last night."

"About what?"

'About you," He looked at the door again and grabbed the fingers of my left hand, "No one is as a cuddly to sleep with as you."

"What?" My eyes went wide. Cuddly? Is he saying I'm fat? Is this a good thing? Do I remember how to breathe?

"I've slept with, by which I mean snored against the back of, Eden, Dawn, Sara and, uh, anyways," He squeezed, "You're the best girl to cuddle up with at night."

"That's sweet," I felt a real smile forming. I wanted to be hurt but I wasn't. He had no interest of focusing on me; he just wanted me for his stuffed animal to help him get to sleep. I felt like I was lifting off the ground by my toes. I squeezed his fingers back. He stole his hand back as soon as Deborah's black hair whooshed around the break room door.

"Hey Matty," Not forceful like she would be to anyone else in this situation, "Can you clock in now? The new girl's wound up and I don't want her pretty brains exploding all over my kitchen."

"Yeah," He got up and spun her around with hand on her waist. She looked at me and then him as if to say 'Don't! Not in front of the help.' I swallowed a retributive remark and dove into my lunch. Deborah slumped her shoulders as Matthew headed out to work.

"I'm so scared he's going to say no to things I need to run Flynn's now," She shivered.

"He did say he wanted Courtney and me to treat you like Ms Flynn and not one of us," I reminded her, "He wants you to be the boss."

"At work," She nodded and then slipped in across from me.

"Are you normally the boss elsewhere?" I blushed a moment after the sexual connotation caught up with me.

"I don't think twice a year is enough to be considered normally, no matter who I find myself over or under." She scoffed and I blushed deeper. I liked candid and juicy sex talk, I guess I just always saw Ms Flynn as an adult. Like how my parents are adults. I'm twenty-seven years old and I still separated us into classes. I filled my mouth with another forkful so I wouldn't have to talk straight away.

"Is that honey on the wrap?" She asked me, "Interesting."

"It's pretty good," I agreed happy to be off topic.

"Well have a good lunch," She stretched, "It never stops around here."

"And that's how we pay rent."

"That it is." She smiled, "Out of all the people we're stuck with now, Gwen, I'm glad you're one of them."

"I'm happy to see you finally getting that mean streak taken care of," I retorted. Gwendolyn! It's only three syllables! Plus she had basically said "Thank you for being a slave with me." That also stung.

"Matthew's going to need to put in a few more man hours to take care of my mean streak," She really stressed man hours. I blushed and she headed back to the restaurant.

I got back to work after lazing around with a delightfully full stomach. I dropped my dishes in the dishroom and saw the new girl was considerably brighter and bushier tailed now that she was caught in Matthew's orbit. They got their work done but they were laughing and chatting all the while. Franklin stopped at my shoulder.

"What has he done to get all the girls lately?" He sighed and flashed me an overacted frown.

"He became a wizard." I liked when the truth was a joke in and of itself.

"Ah, so the boy doesn't have a magic wand but a full on staff? Good for him. Better for you girls."

"What? Oh don't be gross!" I stepped away from him.

"Oh, are you saying size doesn't matter?" He chuckled.

"Well, I wouldn't want one that's too big," I tilted my head at Matthew. I never really thought about dick size since listening to teenaged bluster during a few virginal slumber parties in the ninth and tenth grades. Porn had cartoonish ones but porn wasn't really for me. Give me a steamy book on my Kindle any day. I walked back through the rogue's gallery I had seen, held and accepted into me. Was Matthew big or small? Average? We had only had that one go, and I had spent that time being mortified that the room was full and watching me.

"Well then I'm not the man for you, Gwendolyn," Franklin laughed. Great that's when my name is right.

"I had better go clock in," I walked away from him.

"Yeah, there'd be hell to pay if anyone finds out you're the one who ruined Deborah's great mood."

"Deborah's in a good mood?"

"Deborah may as well be grinning like a slit throat," Franklin laughed, "How have you not noticed, you've worked here since when?"

"2007 ... Wow, shit."

"Yeah, Back when Everett was doing all he could to keep himself from being a millionaire," Franklin cackled. Everett had been the boss until the 2011 divorce between him and Mrs Flynn. Ms Flynn. Well she was Mrs then. I kept off of the Everett bashing. As far as I knew, Franklin and Everett were still the best of friends and sometimes you have to be in the circle to make fun of those in the circle.

Work continued. Eden and Deborah's good moods continued, though the sun was setting on Eden. A couple hours later. I was refilling the coffee urns when Eden hurried across the line from the dishroom to me. She ignored personal space rules and whispered harshly.

"Matthew and the new girl are awfully friendly," She caused me to raise an eyebrow. Of course they were, we were all harem sisters now. Is there a word for that? Harem girl sounds more like a fetish than a vocation.

"Matthew saved her from homelessness," I recalled, "Got her an apartment and a job."

"What?" Eden's feverish glee returned like a gut punch. "He did that? I barely would have said 'No, I don't have any change.'"

"Matthew's a great guy," Zina appeared from around the corner, "All of us are a little bit jealous of you, Eden."

"Good, you girls be envious. I'll be greedy," She stuck out her tongue at the Eastern European blonde.

"I'm much better at sloth and lust," Zina retorted with a smile.

"Ladies, break meal for Matthew," Franklin called from the kitchen side of the line. He slid an oval plate of fish and chips onto the steel surface.

"I'll call him," Zina whisked away from us and took the plate towards the dishroom.

"You know, we've only had one date," Eden turned to me as I closed the big urn's lid and turned on the hot water, "And it didn't go anything like I planned. I should make sure we go on a second one. So I can get a bit more control."

"How would you get control?" I snorted looking down at her bracelet.

"You poor creature," She laughed and rubbed my arm, "Boys always need a good dose of control. Nothing stifling, of course. You just want to make sure you've got a seat at the top. If you don't and he doesn't too, then someone's going to get stepped on."

"He might like that," I said. I realized that I didn't know what Matthew liked sexually at all. Pretty girls and blowjobs and giving anal a try weren't definitive of anything. The only pattern I saw was that there were a lot of blondes.

"I might like that too," She grinned, "Just not everyday."

"I'm skeptical," I thought remembering Melody's catlike screams from two nights ago.

"Good, if you knew better I'd be the one getting jealous," She chuckled. It wasn't right.

"Well, I'm sure Matthew will make his designs known shortly," I replied. Hadn't Eden noticed the bracelets? Like with Dawn. It hadn't been some act of altruism. Matthew had enslaved a girl, stuffed her in a tower and put her to work. I wanted off that train of thought and the only way out was my early conversation with Franklin, "Hey, um, does Matthew have a big dick?"

"Size queen?" Eden grinned.

"What?" I had to parse the words to understand. I held off most of the blush, I think, "No, I just. I dunno."

"What do you want? Centimeters? Inches?" She poked me under the ribs. I was so glad I had finished with the big urn.

"I had a ruler in elementary school," I answered her question, "I know that 12 inches and 30 centimeters are about the same but if you told me in metric I'd mess up picturing it."

"Here's an idea," Eden laughed, "Picture someone else's dick. I've got dibs."

"OK," I scrunched my nose. What the hell was up with her? "How big's your dick?"

"Massive, I'm surprised it's not sticking out of the leg of my shorts," She laughed. I laughed back.

"You know, you're acting kind of weird for all of this," I grumbled.

"How do you mean?" She tilted her head.

"Isn't that his bracelet?"

"I hope so, part of me thinks he found it in the back room and Kelly or somebody's going to get mad I stole their jewelry," She lifted up her wrist. She really did smile when she looked at it.

"No, that's his for certain," I replied. I looked over into the kitchen. If I talked quietly, as we were, we wouldn't be overheard by Franklin and the cooks, "Just like all of the others."

"What others?" Her eyes narrowed, her voice lowered. I almost took a step in retreat.

"What do you mean?" I raised my arm and showed her, "Then there's Dawn and Ms Flynn and--"

"Why is he giving you bracelets?" She huffed.

"That's how he does his thing," I scratched my hair, "I mean, isn't it?"

"Are you fucking him?" There wasn't any anger directed at me in that question. That surprised me, I didn't breathe in relief though. I didn't tempt the bear. I picked my words perfectly.

"Not since he went out with you."

"Table 14's up!" Franklin shouted. That was Eden but she was striding out of the line towards the dishpit and then back to the breakroom. He hadn't gone back there.

"Table 3 is up!" Another cook announced and I went over to grab the two omelettes. Eden came back, nearly stomping as she rushed right towards me.

"Where's Matthew?" Eden's eyes scared me and I sheepishly pointed to Ms Flynn's office. He had walked that way with the food Zina had delivered.

Matthew Reid - Monday, June 22nd, 2015

"Matthew, food's up," We didn't clock out on our breaks until our meal, if we were ordering one, was ready. I thanked Zina and pulled off my rubber gloves.

"You good kid?" I squeezed Dawn's shoulders. She seemed incredibly more human after a plate of indistinguishable mess under three quarts of gravy. She was learning, certainly, but she hadn't been the disaster I had been warned about. It wasn't crazy but it had been pretty busy.

"I think I've got the hang of this," She smiled at me and I rubbed the ballcap she had her brown hair tucked up inside. I walked out of the dishroom and accepted the steaming plate from Zina. Normally, I would take the plate back into the restaurant, away from the line, to the breakroom. Today, I carried it forward, to the waitress station in the back half and slipped inside Deborah's office. It was empty, but she was working and would be floating back here soon. I sat down at her desk and realized I didn't have utensils. I shrugged and picked up the fish stick with my fingers and bypassed the tartar sauce.

The desk was it's standard mess, yet was suspiciously easy to make sense of. Deborah had left a to-do list for the catering company. I smiled. The best part was she had put a bunch of post-it notes all over it. Have Gwen call this number about about uniforms. These are the permits that are needed and Melody wasn't working during these best hours to wait in line at the Access Nova Scotia office. There were even four things she had already crossed off as she had done. I figured I'd finish eating before I got deep into it. I started on the fries. The door flung open and slammed shut behind Eden.

"Hey babe, c'mere," I rolled the office chair out from the desk and gestured to my lap. She stormed over and plopped down on my lap crossing her arms. I rubbed her back as she scowled, "What's wrong?"

"You're fucking Gwen?" She hissed. Her nails were digging into the flesh of her arms. She wasn't as done up as she was last night but even this angry she was hot. I had learned just how long it took to set her hair this morning. It was way more work than I'd ever commit to. It looked great but I kind of wanted to see the natural curliness. I also wanted Eden and Eden took the time to straighten her hair. Eden took the time to present herself like this. She looked great.

"Oh, well I guess this should have come up last night," I put myself onto the rails. I wanted to calm her down and my reaction was to run my fingers through her hair but, smartly, I sucked the salt and grease off my fingers and chose not to, "You've seen the girls around wearing the bracelets today?"

"Yeah, Ms Flynn, Gwen and the new girl," Eden's eyes widened. She shook her wrist and her jaw slowly fell open.

"Her name's Dawn," I reminded Eden.

"Do you think you can just bribe your way into all of our pants with trinkets! And we'll be OK with this?" She turned to me and I reacted to feeling her thigh brush across my crotch. She didn't share my smile.

"The way I've come to understand it," I didn't mean to laugh but I do that when I'm nervous, "Is it's some sort of magic."

"Magic?" She deadpanned.

"Yeah, horseshit right? Doesn't seem to be. I keep expecting all of you to parade in here and slap me in a long train of deserved anger."

"I can arrange that," She was still angered but she smiled.

"Please don't," And I almost looked contrite.

"So, how does this magic work?"

"Well it starts with the bracelet. No that's the second step. It's why the bracelet didn't work until the bar," I mumbled sorting myself out.

"It started in the bar?" I could see her running back over last night. She had lost control and knew it and was trying to pinpoint when, how.

"Yeah, when we ran into Dawn," I triggered something and she closed her eyes to flush away some angry demon.

"She did this?"

"I think so," I winced, "Please don't blame her. I'm to blame, I think."