Week 5 / Sunday

Larissa had wanted to sleep in, but Julian poked her awake. “Babe, listen.” She did, and she heard Fiona sobbing out in the lounge. Larissa slid out of bed, and found Fiona and Alan set up to do yoga, but Fiona was sitting there crying, and Alan had his arms around her, rocking her.

Larissa sat next to him and raised her eyebrow in query. “She’s just tired,” he said. “There’s nothing new, she just needs a break.” Fiona nodded.

“I understand that deep in my heart. I’m getting my break today. Fiona, love, you can’t keep doing this. Do you have to work today?”

She nodded, and managed to say, “We’re still too short. If I don’t go, my people won’t get fed or taken to the bathroom. So I have to go. But I just can’t.”

“But things are getting better, right? They’re not as short as they were?”

“No. I think? They’re not really saying.”

She gently rubbed Fiona’s tears away. “Have you told them how you feel?”

Alan shook his head. Right, they must have had words about it.

“Where’s my best bud Fiona who says that women have to stand up for themselves? Who loved me and loved me and helped me be ready to report my rape to the police?” Fiona looked at Larissa through her hair. “Right. You. Awesome you.” Larissa kissed her. “So I’m going to love you love you until you tell them how you feel. Because I need to pay the awesome back.”

Fiona looked at her in disbelief. “It’s not a big deal, it’s just telling them how absolutely tired I am.” Then she realised what she said. “Alright. I promise, I’ll tell them today.”

“Deal. But you have to tell them, you’re having tomorrow off, whatever. Lying here, doing nothing all day. If you don’t, I’m warning you, I’ll have to love you crazy amounts. OK?”

Fiona giggled at her. “You’re really crazy, you know that?”

“Yup, I know that. And you haven’t seen my full crazy, but you will if I need to. Fiona, I really love you lots, and I’ll go any distance for you.” She kissed Fiona again. And then she kissed Alan. “Thanks for looking after my love. I mean, your love that I love too. Fiona wouldn’t have got anywhere near this far without you supporting her.”

Fiona was fine after that, and gave Larissa a big hug before she left. “Thanks. I will send that email when I get to work.”

Well, she was awake now, at her usual time, and she wasn’t going back to sleep. They went for a run along the beach. When she got back, she saw a message from Tui: “Any chance for a call?” It must be Sunday morning, she thought. She sent back, “Sure. Gimme 5”.

When she facetimed Tui, Tui answered immediately. “Hi Larissa!” Tui wasn’t alone. Sitting next to her was a skinny blonde with heavily freckled skin. Right away Larissa knew that this was Marty’s twin sister.

“Hi Tui, Love you, and hi Sandi, I guess. It’s lovely to meet you.”

Sandi was surprised, Larissa could see. “Sandi, it’s not hard to guess. Tui’s at Marty’s home for the weekend, and she told me your name, and here you are. How’s things going this weekend?”

She got a lovely smile from Tui. Great, that was all she needed to know. The rest would be easy. It was Sandi who answered. “We’re having a great weekend, actually. I’ve never really got to know Tui before, and I’ve been getting a full court press. This weekend is ‘become friends with Sandi’ weekend.”

“Oh? Well, Tui does like to be friends with people. And Marty’s a great guy, just terrific, so it stands to reason that his sister must be a lovely person too.”

“Tui likes to...” Sandi paused, and then said, “It’s certainly very different to the past, that’s for sure. Tui says you have something to do with that.”

Larissa smiled. “A little. Not as much as Tui thinks, really. I did turn her just a little at a really opportune time, and then I gave her some relationship tools, and hints, but it’s Tui who did all the hard work of making it real.”

“Thanks, Larissa,” Tui said, “You lie, but that’s what I expected.” Tui turned to Sandi. “She’s always trying to weasel out of credit for what she did. Like with that woman on the plane!”

“Oh!” Larissa said. “I got a letter from her. I’ll read it to you, it’s lovely.” She read it out, without tears this time.

“That’s wonderful,” Tui said. “I’m really pleased for you. Anyway, Sandi, just ignore Larissa on this, but you can trust her on anything else.”

“What if I tell you how wonderful Tui is? She’s one of my bestest besties. And I have lots of besties, believe me.”

Sandi laughed at that. “Is it true that Layna is one of your friends?”

“Oh, you’ve seen Layna on Youtube?” Sandi nodded with a grin. “Then you haven’t watched the most recent video then.” Sandi shook her head. “Tui! You got to show her!” Tui grinned. “Layna and me, besties, yep. And both crazy. And the two of us are coming to see Tui as soon as we’re allowed to. Tui’s one of us now.”

“Nice, Tui,” Sandi said. “but tell me, Larissa, is it also your fault that Marty and Tui are, and I quote Marty here, ‘screwing like bunnies’?”

“You know,” Larissa said, “I have no idea who could’ve given you that idea. But I bet Tui won’t give me your sms number.” Tui burst into a peal of laughter. “Alright. I’ll cop that. I do kind of like sex, a bit, and Tui was hanging out with us on our honeymoon, after all. But I kind of felt like we did the relay baton thing, and I passed the baton to her. Tui, how many times did you have to stop on the way to Marty’s place?”

“Not saying. Though your record’s safe. For now. And you like sex, a bit? That’s kind of like saying the ocean’s got a bit of water in it.”

Larissa grinned. “Well, it has.”

Sandi was listening to all this in amazement. She pursed her lips. “Marty, man, he was such a dork. I loved him a lot, and he’s a great guy in his heart. But still a dork, no matter how much I taught him to dance. I mean, he was a virgin at the end of school. And then he got with Tui and ... Tui, sorry, you weren’t really friendly.”

“Yeah, sorry. Marty thinks the world of you, and I was a bit jealous of that, and I wasn’t ready to be friends as quick as you wanted to be. But now, I know it’s good for me if Marty loves his sister, and I really want to help with that because not being right with you is a big wound for him.”

Sandi smiled at Tui. “That’s lovely. I missed my dorky brother. Only, what happened to my dorky brother? I’ve got a stud instead!”

“You’ll have to meet the other Tui,” Larissa said.

“The other Tui?”

“Yep. There’s the Tui we have now. Sweet, good-natured, trustworthy. Oh, and also superwoman too. I totally love that Tui. Then there’s other Tui, that she lets out of the box with people she really trusts. The sex bomb Tui, the heartbreaker. The one that turns straight girls bent.” Tui was looking at her, a bit embarrassed. “I’m embarrassing Tui, so I’ll stop. But I saw it, and Marty sees it. He gets that at full volume. Hey, Tui, you should tell Sandi about your threesome wannabes.”

Tui laughed, and she could tell Sandi that, and did. Sandi’s eyes were boggling. “Serious? I wish I’d seen that,” she told Tui.

“Ah, but have you seen Tui dance?” No, Sandi had not. “Oh man, you have to! You did good with Marty, because he can nearly keep up. I like to dance, but I got nothing on Tui.”

“Larissa! You’re mega-famous for dancing on Youtube!”

Larissa shrugged. “The hit counts are up there. But you’re much better than me.”

“Larissa is famous for dancing on Youtube?”

Larissa grinned. “You’ll see. But for real, next time you have a chance, go dancing with Tui and Marty.”

Sandi laughed. “OK. You’re on. Tui, do you have to go home this afternoon? We could go tonight, there’s a barn open.” Then she stopped, and suddenly got a serious look on her face. “Larissa, seriously, now. Tui ... wasn’t someone our family was comfortable with. We tried, for Marty’s sake, but ... it wasn’t easy. Not that we had anything particular against Tui, she just didn’t ... mesh ... with us.” She glanced at Tui. “Sorry, Tui, but that’s how we felt. And maybe I was a bit ... short ... about that. So now Tui turns up, like she’s had a personality transplant, just so different. And she tells me you did it. I guess I want to know, is it real? Is it something we can rely on?”

Tui was a bit upset about that. Yeah. But also, it was a reasonable question. “Yeah, Sandi, that’s a good and reasonable question. But it’s also one that’s hard for Tui to listen to. So I’m going to give you my true answer, and maybe bits of it won’t be easy for you to listen to.”

“Okay. I guess that’s reasonable.”

“Right. So tell me. Is Tui actually a different person? Or is she just doing relationships a bit better?”

“I guess she’s still the same person. Just doing relationships better, as you say.”

Larissa nodded. “And maybe, a twin sister who’d ask such a blunt question in her face, but who’s really close to a girl’s man, maybe that’s kind of a challenge for a girlfriend?”

“Yeah. I guess I could be. I’ve rubbed people up the wrong way before, being too blunt.”

“Right. When we hang up, I think you should give Tui a good hug in apology or something. On the other hand, Tui, it is a reasonable question, right?” Tui nodded. “And I totally get your worry. Tui ... she worries that people will dismiss her. And that worry gets in the way of responding naturally to people. Does that ever happen to you?”

“Yes,” Sandi said. “It does sometimes.”

“So one of the things Tui and I talked about is ways to work with that. And I watched her all that second week, meet random new people and practice that. And she’s still practicing that, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Both Sandi and Tui nodded for that. “Nor would she have been telling you about threesome wannabes who totally fell for Tui’s natural friendliness.” That was a hit, that one. “But in case you think it’s all my doing ... did she tell you about next weekend’s visitors?” No? “Right. Before I gave her any advice, she met a politician and his kids, a full minister in Wellington, and they were so taken with her that he asked if his kids could come stay at her farm. That’s what Tui’s about, I just showed her some shortcuts.”

“So my answer is, you can rely on that change in Tui, but also, you have to play your part as well. Being a good sister to a girlfriend is about making them feel welcome, and then, once you’re over the hump, which you are, helping her be part of the family, and helping her manage her guy better, since you know him really well. And being a good brother’s girlfriend to a sister is about making her feel part of his life still, and being someone a sister can trust not to hurt her brother. Well, not much, everyone makes mistakes.”

“So, can you rely on Tui? And can Tui rely on you?”

They looked at each other, thinking about that. Then, pretty much at the same time, they said, “I’d like to.”

Larissa grinned at them. “And you’re on the journey. Blink, and you’ll be besties. Or at least, good friends.”

Sandi said, “Tui, I’d like to be. And Larissa’s right, I have to do my bit. If I do mine, will you do yours?”

“Hell yes. I’d love to.”

They hugged, a serious one, and when they stopped, neither of them moved back. Sweet. “Tui, how’s it going with Amanda and her kids? Have you told Sandi about them?”

“Oh yes, I sure have, and it’s all going really well. Amanda’s taking the visit next week as an excuse to get the kids to go back home, but they’re like, only if it’s a for a week, because we are coming back. But she’s feeling a lot stronger, and her daughter has really opened up, it’s lovely. This week she’s been riding behind me, and she’s been learning sheep diseases. She wants to be a vet, like her hero.” Oh, sweet. “She’s always sitting behind me on the bike saying ‘Larissa would fix this,’ or ‘Larissa would know that,’ and she knows which of us is really the superwoman. Anyway, Larissa, how’s it going for you?”

“Great. I have a day off, which is a lovely gift. Work’s been really hard but then I have these lovely things happen, births, or whatever. Covid’s slammed the community, but most signs are that we’ve turned the corner now. But the really big news is that Steph’s pregnant!”

“Oh, awesome!”

“Won’t slow her down, she’s still as crazy horny as ever, but you can’t tell the rest of the team, OK? It’s just family for now. Well, and you. You’re nearly family. Oh, and Layna knows, because Layna just knew.” Tui nodded, of course. “And I should go. Gotta get ready to go out for the day. Sandi, it was really lovely to meet you, and talk. Good luck, and enjoy the dancing. Bye!”

A few minutes later, she got a message from Tui: “Thanks, that was awesome. I think we’ll be right now.”

Cheryl was waiting for her at the entrance to church. “Hi Cheryl, how’s it going?”

“Great.” Cheryl told her all about how much she was enjoying helping with the covid thing. She’d talked to so many of the young people, knew who they were, and they knew her. That was great, and she’d realised that she was coping much better with what was going on because she was doing something to fight back! Larissa grinned, and Cheryl told her that her headmaster had officially asked for her to speak at school. Great! “Oh, and mum wants to talk to you today, she said.” Sure.

When she turned away from Cheryl, who had someone else she needed to talk to, she found herself face to face with Analiese, rather to her surprise. “Larissa?” Analiese asked.

“Yep, that’s me. It’s great to see you. How’s it going?”

“OK. I mean, mum’s alive, so it’s great, but we haven’t figured out our future yet. Thanks for giving us another week. And again, thanks for that in the first place. We just owe you so much!”

Larissa shrugged. “You don’t, you know. You owe it to the big guy,” and she pointed up at the ceiling. “So rest, and recuperate, and get strong, and then one day, your turn will come, and someone will need your help.”

“Yes. I guess. Can I ask you something?” Sure. “I just can’t ask mum. What Dad was doing ... the boys say that’s good. Well, and some girls. But when I told you what Dad did, you were just, she needs to get out of there right now. No hesitation. So it’s bad? Or not? I don’t know what to think.”

“That’s a real good question, but let’s get out of everyone’s way.” Larissa moved her to a corner where no one would overhear. “OK. So a guy putting his dick in a girl’s mouth, it feels great for him, and they all want to do it.” Analiese nodded. “And some girls, they like it. Others ... not so much. I like it. I have the power to decide to do it, to rock his world, and I like rocking my husband’s world. Makes me feel real good. And one day, you might too. It’s OK if you do. Or not. But. Letting a guy put it in there ... you have to be in control, because you have to breathe through there, and taste him, and there’s all sorts of things going on in your mouth and throat, and it’s fragile compared to your vagina. So you have to trust a guy a lot to think of letting him do that. I mean, you have to trust a guy a hell of lot to let him get his dick anywhere near any part of you anyway, but specially your mouth, OK? And you never ever let him do it when you’re not in control of him. That’s dangerous stuff. But your dad ... he did it when your mum was sick, not thinking, not in control of her mouth, let alone his dick. My first thought was that he wanted to murder your mum.”

Analiese thought about that. “Thanks. I guess that makes sense. I’m really glad it was you that I told.”

“Well, I’m really glad that you told me. Is your mum here?”

“Yes, over there.” Analiese pointed to her, talking to Beth. “OK. I’ll try and talk to her.”

“Before you do..., can I have a hug?” Sure, Larissa hugged her. Weird, with a mask on, but she’d long ago stopped worrying about that. “You’re awesome,” she told Larissa.

“Thanks. You can be too.”

Then she made a beeline for the couple that loaned them the spa, since they were there and not talking to anyone. “Hello.”

They gave her a smile. “I really wanted to thank you for letting us use your desk and spa again. Really, I had an awful day, and it was just so lovely.”

Evaline, the wife, said, “From what we hear, you deserve it. Always doing good for other people. And you cleaned it up lovely, so it’s easy from our point of view.”

“Great. You wouldn’t happen to be going out again this evening would you?”

“Why?”

“Well, I was woken up this morning by my friend Fiona, who lives in the same apartment as us. She was crying her heart out at the prospect of working another day. She’s done fourteen in a row, going to disabled and elderly people’s homes and feeding them and helping them use the bathroom. There’s not enough people doing it who aren’t sick or isolating, so she’s working really hard and if she doesn’t do it, no one will help them. But she just needs a break, hence the tears. So I was wondering...?”

“Yes, we could go out,” Evaline said.

“Oh that would be so awesome. We won’t ask again, I’m pretty sure we won’t need to; Fiona’s tough, but it’s ground her down.”

Evaline checked with her husband, and he was fine with it. She presented Larissa with the dongle. “You know how it works. We’ll be out from five to eight this evening.”

“Oh. Thank you, so much. I know it will make her feel so much better.”

Time for church to start. She sat down next to Julian and showed him the dongle. His eyes boggled, and she whispered “Fiona!” to him, and gave it to him. Julian gave her a thumbs up and picked up his phone, and she watched him message Alan, telling him the deal and giving him the details.

Church was doubly weird because it wasn’t Tim and Vicki out the front – they were still isolating. The replacement didn’t do it for Larissa, though it was probably because she didn’t have any relationship with him. When it was time for announcements, Tim and Vicki suddenly appeared on the big screen. “Hey everyone, we’re still here. You can’t get rid of us! And thanks to Zoom, we can be anywhere now.”

Suddenly the screen showed Tinky, who said, “Except the back of the house. That’s mine!”

Larissa had to laugh for that. Then Tim and Vicki were back. “And why is that, Tinky?”

“Because I have covid! I’ve got the back half of the house to myself. If only this had happened a few years ago, I would totally have enjoyed not having mum and dad looking over my shoulder so much more!”

Tim and Vicki reappeared and Tim said, “I’ve been looking on the web for a ‘over-the-shoulder-parent-cam’ for zoom, because lots of you have told me that’s an important market gap. No luck so far, I’m afraid.” He got plenty of laughter for that, and cheers from a group of kids down the back.

“Ok. So, announcements.”

“Our help program is working really well. We’ve made a huge difference. The local council called us this week, and told us that they’re getting much better public health outcomes around us compared to everywhere else that they measure. That’s what you did. Now you all know that things are getting better. And they really are, we can feel it now. The supermarkets are full again, people are getting out of isolation, and we can even get RAT tests a little now. But we’ve still got a long way to go, my friends, so can I ask you to keep doing what you’re doing just a little longer? And just to keep you motivated, here’s a little video we made.”

The video showed a series of local people, saying how they had covid, or they had to isolate, and how the various programs the church was running really made a huge difference. The last person was Ashley, saying how just being introduced to gaming had completely changed how he felt. Alright.

Then Tim and Vicki came on again. This time, Vicki talked. “Again, thanks to you all. I want you to know that we’ve made a bigger difference than that, but we can’t talk about what actually happened. Just know that there’s no doubt we’ve saved lives in the last couple of weeks.”

Then they got back into the details. Eventually they said that they were hoping to be back next week, and got a big cheer for that.

After church, Larissa headed over to talk to Analiese’s mum. “Hi,” she said, and she could see that Analiese’s mum didn’t know who she was. “I’m Larissa.” Now she knew.

“Oh, Wow. Thank you. So much. I can’t tell you how much we owe you. I do not know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t known what to do, and been able to do it.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognise you.”

“I didn’t think you would. You were really sick, and we were armoured up. I’m just glad that you’re better. Oh, hi Beth.” Beth gave her a smile. “I came over to check how it’s going, and see if you have any options after this week.”

That launched a three-way discussion between them all. Beth was working really hard to find them an option. None of them were good, really. The only thing for sure is that they weren’t going back. She was communicating with her ex-husband only through lawyers, and had decided that if there was any trouble she was going to charge him for rape. “It’s just really embarrassing that my daughter saw her dad doing that. She’ll be scarred for life!”

“No, she doesn’t need to be,” Larissa said. “I saw my father do that and much worse. Much worse than you can imagine. It would be much better if you she saw you two making love, but she didn’t, she saw him raping you. If you love her, you’ll be honest with her, and tell her how it was good once, and she can have it good, and how it went wrong, and what she should do to not end up where you did. I definitely would’ve ended up in the same place because mum didn’t talk to me, and I only escaped that because someone amazing rescued me. So please, don’t let her drift into the same trap, and talk to her honestly.”

That gave the mum a lot to think about. And she saw Julian pointedly looking at her and checking his watch. Right. “I have to go, but I wish you the best. Good luck, Beth!”

On her way out, she ran into Amelia, who said, “Larissa! I’ve been missing you!” though she kept her distance, and she was still thoroughly masked.

“So have I. Are you busy Friday evening?”

“Don’t think so. Why?”

“Want to come to our place for dinner and dancing?”

“Oooh, yes please! What should we bring?”

“A bikini, cause we’ll swim, and be ready to dance in your underwear. Come whenever, and let yourself in when you get there if we’re not there.”

“Fabulous! See you on Friday.”

When they got to the car, Julian said, “Babe, I know that I promised to go bikini shopping with you, but a couple of things have come up, so I was wondering whether I can take a rain check on that?”

“Oh, what’s up?”

“Well, I have to meet Alan to get him that key, and there’s someone who’s sick with a clogged drain, and I looked at it yesterday and couldn’t figure it out, and one of the old guys who was a plumber is going to go with me now and look at it, if I look after PPE for him.”

Those were compelling reasons. Very compelling indeed. “OK. I’ll be fine with Jo. It’ll be fun.”

She met Jo outside a major shopping centre, where Julian dropped her off. Jo took her to a specialist swimwear shop, where they welcomed her like royalty; clearly Jo was a regular customer. They started by looking through the swimwear on display. Larissa quickly discovered that Jo had very strong opinions about cut, material, pattern and colour. When she asked, Jo said, “I’ve learnt a bit from putting bikinis on Layna and having the whole world comment. The bikini has to sit right and stay right no matter what Layna does, and it has to look good on camera, and not create pixel jaggies in MP4. And it has to be thin enough, but not too thin. And Layna has to feel good in it, so your opinion does matter.”

“Thin enough?”

“Sure. We want nip bumps,” Jo said with a grin.

Larissa picked a couple of her own but let Jo pick whatever she wanted. Once she had a good collection, she said, “OK. Let’s go try these on.”

To Larissa’s surprise, they didn’t go to the change rooms. Instead, Jo walked her behind the counter and through a door into the staff area that was full of boxes of stock, posters, and a coffee table. There was a girl sitting there who said, “Hi Jo!” and looked at Larissa. Off to the side was a curtained off area that Jo led her into. “OK. Take your clothes off and put this on.” She handed Larissa a tiny little flesh coloured thong that she’d picked up from a pile outside the curtain. Larissa removed her clothes and bent over to place them on the floor. While she was doing that, the curtain opened a little bit and a woman poked her head through, and said, “Hi Jo, Layna, how’s it ... whoops. Sorry.”

“Hey, Andrea,” Jo said, “no problems. Come in.” Andrea pulled the curtain aside and came in. “Larissa, this is Andrea, the manager here. Andrea, meet Larissa, a friend of Layna’s.”

Andrea gave her a smile, and a quick once over. “Pleased to meet you, Larissa. Jo, you sure pick ‘em well.” She looked back at Larissa. “Dear, you’re made to wear bikinis. Let me know if you need anything, Jo, or you want our opinion.”

“Sure.” Andrea went back out through the curtain, and Larissa took that chance to pull her thong on. “OK. I just want a good look.” Jo came and crouched down in front of Larissa, and looked at her pussy, and pulled the thong at the top. She stood up and looked at Larissa with a grin. “OK. They have to sit right down there. No camel toe allowed.”

“Wow, I’m glad we’re friends,” Larissa said. “Layna lets you do that?”

“Yes. She does. Layna’s my doll.” Jo got a reflective look on her face. “I clothe her, do her hair, make up, and pose her. That was my childhood fantasy, to do that for a beautiful woman. And Layna ... she’s beautiful through and through. She doesn’t like showing off, you know. She just believes in the mission.”

“And you?” Larissa asked her. Jo was so quiet, she hardly said anything, unlike the others who believed loudly.

“Yeah, kinda. What I do believe in is Layna. She’s an awesome woman, absolute royalty. My queen, and I’m her maid. Old-fashioned, huh? And Joe ... he can be my king for sure. And my boyfriend is on board too – he thinks the same about her. I love her. And when she knew we were going to do this, you know what she told me? She told me that just like she has to pretend to like people looking at her, showing off, you have to pretend real hard to only like it a little. You do it well, she said, but in your heart you really like to show off.” Larissa gave her a rueful smile. It was kind of true. “And you know what? You can, here. This change area is for trade use, like me. Or strippers. But also, they catch customers out there playing games with their partners, or showing off, and they’re good customers ... they let them come back here and play. Andrea lets them.” She pointed to the corner, and there was a box of tissues and a roll of paper towels.

“Wow.”

“Yes. So if you want to, I won’t mind. And Layna told me you wouldn’t want to admit it. But you can, right here.”

Larissa didn’t know what to say. Layna was right, she didn’t want to, but she sure felt the pull. What would that be like?

Jo grinned and went and opened the curtain. “We need better light anyway,” she said to Larissa.

Fuuuck. Anyone in the staff area could see her. Not customers though. The girl at the coffee table looked up and stared at her, grinning.

Jo gave her a bikini. “Try this one first.” She put it on. Jo looked at her breasts, and then lifted the straps over her shoulder, pulling them up. She frowned. “Andrea?” Andrea poked her head around the door to the shop. “Opinion please.”

Andrea came over and the poked and prodded at her top and adjusted it. Then Jo gave her another top to try, and they adjusted that too. “I’ll get another,” Andrea said, and Jo removed the one she was wearing. Andrea came back a minute later and put another on her, and the adjusted that. “Yep,” Andrea said. “That’s right, yes?”

Larissa was just a body, could be asleep for all the interest they had in her. She kept her eyes up, watching the girl at the coffee table who was watching all this with great amusement.

“Ok, Larissa,” Jo said, “Touch your toes.” She did, and they looked at her breasts were now. “Ok. Half way up.” “Ok. Thanks. We don’t need to do that anymore. Thanks Andrea. I’ll let you know if we need anything else.” When Andrea was gone, Jo smiled at her and said, “Did you enjoy that?” Larissa wasn’t going to answer that, so Jo just grinned at her. “Might as well admit it. Anyway, take that off and try this.”

Larissa tried a sequence of bikinis on. Jo sorted them into three piles. All of them were some kind of thong or tanga, but the cut varied, high or low, and different style tops. Sometimes Jo would get her to stretch or bend, to see whether they moved. Jo wanted tight, she said, so they didn’t move if Larissa was working hard to land a fish. Jo had her own opinions, but each one, Larissa looked in the mirror and gave her opinion too. And staff came and went as she did this. Mostly girls, but one guy. The staff all looked, and sometimes gave professional opinions.