Chapter 160: More Shopping, Excellent!

Sunday, May 1, 2005 (Continued)

When things settled down a little, Julia said, "I can change the subject for you, because there's a little shopping we need to do. Now would be a good time to do it."

I said, "But isn't the Liaison Meeting due to start at 1:00? There's no way you can get any shopping done in two hours, especially - and this is very important - because we have to have lunch before the Liaisons arrive."

"Don't worry. I know exactly what we're buying and which store to go to. It won't take two hours, and if it somehow does, you can get a pizza delivered to eat while the meeting is on. Is that bribery enough?"

"Yes, definitely." It was even good enough to cheer me up after the embarrassing discussion with Vanessa. I realized that, according to what Julia had said, I'd only get a pizza if shopping took two hours. I knew I'd get pizza though, because I found it hard to imagine shopping taking less than two hours. Even if it somehow took less, having mentioned "pizza" to me, it would be cruel not to let me have one.

Julia stood, thanked Vanessa for the talk, which I had to echo even though I hadn't enjoyed any part of it, and we all left the room.

Julia asked, "Carol, Ava; do you want to come with us?" I may not know much about girls, but I do know how they answer, "Do you want to come shopping?"

"Sure," from Ava. | "Yes please. What are we buying?" asked Carol.

Julia answered, "It's nearly summer so Mark needs some new swimsuits."

"Good idea!"

"Umm, Julia," I said, "I don't need new swimsuits. I've got a couple of perfectly good pairs at home."

"I'm sure they're not appropriate for your new body."

"Yes they are. They've both got drawstrings, so I can pull them tight even though my waist is narrower than it was last year. Anyway, it's only the very beginning of May, so it's not even summer yet."

"Mark, you don't wait until the season starts to buy new clothes; you buy them ahead of time because that's when stores get the next season's range in, so that's when you've got the greatest choice. Despite your protests about having a couple of pairs already, I'm sure they're not suitable, so we might as well get their replacements now. Don't you agree, girls?"

Carol and Ava enthusiastically agreed, Ava saying, "I'd LOVE to help Mark buy new swimsuits. That's going to be sexy fun, haha."

I didn't think it would be, but anyway, "Honestly Julia! I don't need another pair. You haven't even seen what I've got now, so how can you possibly know they're not suitable any longer?"

"And yet somehow I know. What do you think Carol, does Mark need new swimsuits?"

Carol had no hesitation. "Does he ever! His current ones are big, baggy, board shorts. They're ugly khaki green, both of them! He bought two identical pairs, even the same color, if you can believe that!"

"Unfortunately," said Julia, "I can believe that. Any salesperson who took advantage of a poor male customer like that should be put up against a wall and shot! It's criminal that they would abuse their customers so badly."

"They didn't abuse me! I got a VERY good deal. They were having a 2-for-1 sale on an already cheap price at the end of the summer. They'll last me for many years so I did very well out of it."

"{SIGH}," theatrically from Julia. Carol and Ava laughed.

We were in our bedroom now, and Julia said, "Grab your keys and let's go, Mark. We've only got an hour and a half, because we have to pick up Donna on the way back." Donna was officially a Liaison, so she was coming to the meeting too.

"But I just explained that I don't need new swimsuits."

Julia disagreed, "Not only do you need them, but it sounds like an emergency. There's not a moment to lose, haha." Because it was an emergency, Julia picked up my keys herself. "There's a pizza at the end of this for you, and we're only going to buy a couple of pairs from one store, so how bad can it be?"

A real genius would have known the answer to that, but I'm not that smart, plus I was distracted by the mention of pizza. Carol and Ava were also urging me to "Come on."

"{Sigh}. All right, even though it's completely unnecessary."

Shortly after we started driving, I had a horrible thought. "We're not going to Rocky's are we? I'm horrified to imagine what his idea of swimwear could be. I refuse to been seen dead in a G-String! I get the shivers just thinking about them."

"Relax Mark. We're going to a perfectly ordinary store to buy perfectly ordinary, mass-market, off-the-rack swimsuits. You've got nothing to worry about."

#4: <Phew. I was worried for a second there.>

Ava said, "Rocky's is a great store, isn't it?"

"It's fantastic," agreed Carol. "I'd never been there before Julia took us a week or two ago. They've got some incredible..." I desperately tuned out.

#4: <{Sigh}. One day we've got to get ourselves a good girlfriend. "Good", as in not evil, like these ones are!>

#1: <Let's hope Chloe works out well. Apart from the obvious reasons, I mean. She seems a much quieter, politer girl.>

#3: <Yeah. It's a good thing we've put Julia in charge of training her how to be our girlfriend, isn't it?>

#4: <Oh dear! That might've been a tactical mistake, haha. If anyone should be buying a new swimsuit, it should be Chloe. In fact, it MUST be Chloe. We DEFINITELY have to get her to buy a small, thin bikini. That even fits pretty neatly into the plan for her, doesn't it?>

#1: <If it doesn't, we'll change the plan! But I agree that it does. We can't trust Julia when it comes to our own clothes, but we can trust her to look after our best interests when it comes to Chloe. Just to play safe, I think we should mention our idea of Chloe buying a new bikini? Just on the off-chance that Chloe doesn't already own one that's to our taste, haha.>

#3, #4: <Agreed.>

"Julia, I don't need a new swimsuit, but I'm pretty sure Chloe does. Not right now, but in a week or two would probably be a very good time to take her shopping, don't you think? We could build it into what she has to do to prove she's learned what she needs to learn." I was being vague because I didn't know how Ava would respond to Julia's and my deliberate manipulation of Chloe, especially this sexual aspect.

But as soon as I stopped talking, Ava said, "Oh boy! Chloe would look VERY sexy in the right swimsuit. Umm, that's what you mean, isn't it Mark? You want her to look sexy?"

#4: <The next time Ava says, "I'm not very smart," we should agree with her, if she has to ask whether we wanted Chloe to look sexy.>

Julia answered for me, "Exactly right, Ava. I'm amused that you became doubtful though. Any other guy and he'd be lusting after seeing Chloe in a little bikini, but you're right that Mark's motives are more complicated than that. I'm sure you remember how uninterested he was in your nude photos?"

"Oh yeah. And what happened to my photos anyway?"

I didn't have a clue, but Julia did, "I've got your letter and photos safely put away. I want to keep them because they might become important in the future."

"Eh? Why would they be important? I don't want anyone else to see them. I didn't even want YOU to see them originally, haha. I didn't understand about you then, but I still don't want anyone else to see the photos or read the letter."

Julia said, "Almost anything could happen with Mark's life. He might end up being the most important man in the world, and we three girls might be world famous too. It's possible that your letter and photos might become historically important. That sounds silly, but most historically important things started as ordinary items. Another thought I had was that you might want to show them to your parents before they died. You might want them to know you better, and I think your letter and photos show you to be a very good and honest person. The sort of person they'd be proud of."

"Oh, I don't think I could do that. I'd be very embarrassed."

"It's a sweet letter, Ava, and in your shoes I think I'd show it and the photos to my parents in a few months time, especially after they see how well things are working out with Mark and you. But you don't have to decide about that now. That's the point; I'm keeping them safe in case there's a future need. I have no intention of showing anybody, and I especially have no intention of embarrassing you. You're my girlfriend now, as well as someone I'm looking after, so you don't have anything to worry about. I know you'd forgotten about them until they came up in conversation just now, so you can't be too concerned. Leave them with me, okay? You can trust me, you know?"

"Okay Julia. But please don't show them to anyone without asking me?"

"I think promises like that are a little too childish for us now, Ava. We're nearly adults, and you should trust my judgment. I know you are a fairly modest girl who wouldn't like the letter or photos to get out, so I promise I will act responsibly, okay?"

"Yes, all right. I still feel uneasy though."

"Thanks for your confidence in me. You weren't uneasy about them five minutes ago, sweetie, so I'm sure it'll pass quickly. My keeping them probably won't matter, but maybe one day you'll thank me for keeping them.

^-- "Let's get back to Chloe. I told you before that Chloe's terribly paranoid about her body. That's why you and Carol are going to go into Mark's and her class sometime soon, with your tops adjusted so they show plenty of breast. That's one small plan Carol and I have to help improve Chloe's attitude to her body. It's currently impossible for her to have a long-term relationship with any good guy, as a friend or a boyfriend, but she's desperate to have Mark as her boyfriend so he's been refusing to agree to that until she changes her attitude. We're making her do various things to eventually teach her to loosen up and stop being so negative about herself and guys. Once she's learned her lessons well enough, Mark will take her as one of his girlfriends and we'll continue to improve her attitude. We hope that in a few months she'll be confident enough that she'll realize that not all guys are automatically evil, and she should be able to find some trustworthy ones, hopefully even a good boyfriend. We want to help fix her attitude so she can get on with her life properly, to have a chance of getting a good job, a good husband, raising a normal family, etc. At the moment there's no way she could do any of that. Mark's idea of getting her to buy a sexy swimsuit in a week or two is a good test for her."

"She's very lucky you and Mark are helping her. That's two of us you're helping now, Chloe and me."

"Yeah," agreed Julia. "But in some ways you and Chloe are opposites. Chloe doesn't trust any boys, but from what you told us before, you're too trusting. Chloe's had very few attempts to have a boyfriend and she's driven them all away in a few days, but you've had boyfriends more often than not for the last few years. Mainly what we're teaching her is to change her attitude so she can get a boyfriend. We don't have to teach you how to get a boyfriend, do we, Ava?"

"Haha. Not hardly! How to stop them chasing me now that I'm taken would be much more useful."

I offered, "I'll come to more of your classes, so the guys can see us together, if that'd stop them bothering you? Also, you know you're not really 'taken', don't you? You can have a boyfriend if you want."

"I do NOT want, Mark. I've got a boyfriend, a girlfriend, and a girl-lover - that's you Carol. What other guy is going to let me spend most of my time with the three of you rather than him? Guys aren't bothering me, Mark; they're just doing their usual flirting. I'm fine, although I wish guys did have an off-switch."

Carol and Julia enthusiastically agreed with Ava.

I stood up for my gender (it's not often I do it, but on this point I was sure I was in the right), "The problem isn't that guys don't have an off-switch, it's that girls don't have an on-switch. Positive solutions are better than negative ones, and the world would be a much happier place if that was the case."

Julia had a different opinion, "Much happier for GUYS. Also NOTHING would get done; guys would be screwing around ALL the time. And God help the good looking girls! Every girl would have to dress as ugly as possible to protect herself. Is that what you want, Mark?"

"Ahh, no. That might be a small, technical flaw in my idea. How about every girl has an on-switch, but only I know where it is?"

"Deal, provided every guy except you has an off-switch."

"That's PERFECTLY fine by me. There are some small implementation problems to overcome, but I'll see what I can do, haha."

Julia said, "Please get it done as fast as you can. We'd love to be able to switch guys off whenever we wanted.

^-- "Where were we? Oh, yeah, comparing Chloe and Ava. I also had a couple of similarities in mind. Remember you're opposites about trust and boyfriends, but you're similar in that Mark and I want to achieve something specific with each of you. With you Ava, it's to help you get through your parents' illnesses. With Chloe it's getting her able to have normal relationships with guys. The other similarity is that when Chloe catches up, you're both going to be Mark's girlfriends. Chloe's a virgin of course, and she's heard me and other girls saying how good Mark is, but I'm sure that deep down inside she thinks sex isn't a good thing. It's going to be very funny seeing that attitude of hers get blown away by Mark. She's in for a VERY big surprise, haha."

"I'll say!" agreed Ava.

Carol laughed her agreement too, then sensibly added, "All the other girls are begging Mark for a repeat session. Chloe's going to find it very strange to beg for sex."

"Park anywhere along here," said Julia, because we'd arrived. "I think getting Chloe to buy new swimsuits is an excellent way of judging her progress, but I think she's far too likely to suspect you're suggesting it so you can stare at her body. She knows we're trying to change her attitude, but that's still going to be her main thought. I think we have to show her that sex with you is far better for her than she currently thinks. To use one of your favorite expressions: I've got some good news and some bad news. I think you should take Chloe to bed sooner than we thought, and give her a very, very good time, BUT do not have a good time yourself. Give her as many orgasms as you can, but leave her a virgin. So it'll be totally unselfish sex. That'll start to shake some of her silly preconceptions loose. What do you think?"

"If that'll help Chloe, I'll do it for her. All things considered, I'm willing to get Chloe naked and play with her breasts."

"Good. It'd be best not to tell her what's going to happen. Just take her by the hand and lead her into the bedroom. She'll assume you're consummating the start of her being your girlfriend, so that should make her agreeable. After that she'll be wiped out from all her orgasms, but confused about why you didn't make love to her, so we'll be able to teach her some good lessons. She still won't buy a sexy enough swimsuit the first time we send her out shopping, but by the third or fourth times she should have caught on."

#4: <Trust Julia to complicate things. I just wanted to take Chloe bikini shopping, and enjoy watching her put on tiny bikinis, then buy the tiniest. That's a perfectly reasonable fantasy, isn't it?>

I asked, "Julia, I don't understand the 'third or fourth times' comment you made? I thought we'd simply take Chloe bikini shopping. Why would we need to do it three or four times?"

"Because there's no way Chloe will even think about putting on a bikini, let alone one as small as you want to see her in. We'll have to work her up to it. Or 'down to it' in this case, as they'll be getting progressively smaller. I'll tell her at school tomorrow that we're going to the Aquatic Center on the weekend, and that she's to buy herself a sexy new swimsuit to show that she trusts you. That'll put her in a real dilemma, as she'll have to wear it in public at the pool. It won't be nearly sexy enough, but we can repeat the same thing every few weeks, and she'll eventually get one sexy enough. By the way, Ava, please don't tell Chloe about our plans for her, or even that we have plans. She knows we're trying to help her, but she'd get paranoid if she knew we made plans about it. That's silly, but it's how people are."

"No problem, especially because you're doing it for her benefit. The only way I can pay you back for everything you're doing for me is to be helpful, so any way you want me to help, just say so. I should get a sexy bikini for myself, shouldn't I? So I can be an example for Chloe. That's if I can come swimming with you?"

Even before I could answer (and I was very eager to assure Ava that she could - indeed, SHOULD - buy herself a sexy bikini), Julia said, "Of course you're invited. The more girls the better, because that'll make Chloe feel safer. It'll also show her up badly, because Carol and I bought sexy swimsuits a couple of weeks ago, and if you wear one too, she'll stand out as being very frumpy, which will be good."

"I'll do that. Does the store we're going to sell girls' swimwear too, Julia?"

"Yes. It's a surf store, so plenty of gear for males and females. More for females, of course. It's aimed at the teenage and college markets so they've got heaps of good gear for us to look at. Quite a lot of it is fairly sexy too. This is where Carol and I bought ours."

"Good. Normally I don't wear sexy clothes, so this is going to be interesting."

This was more than merely "interesting"; it was a subject of CONSIDERABLE importance. I said, "Ava, I'm surprised you don't wear sexy clothes. You've got a very fit, good looking body, and you've got a very enthusiastic attitude to sex, so I'm surprised you don't dress sexier than you do?"

"Mom and Dad don't like to see me dressed like that. Mom always dressed me middle-of-the-road, and I do the same now. It's not as if girls have to dress sexy to attract guys. Just having a pulse is enough, haha."

We'd parked a couple of minutes ago, and had been finishing our conversation before getting out. Julia must have decided we'd finished, because she said, "Speaking of sexy swimwear, shall we go find something for Mark?"

All the girls thought this was an excellent idea, and quickly leaped out of the car. I followed, somewhat more reluctantly.

As soon as we were walking down the sidewalk, I said, "Ahh, Julia, I don't want anything too sexy. Just ordinary, male swimsuits. Okay?"

"Sure. We're going to get something that hundreds of thousands of guys wear. Don't worry."

Funnily enough, I kept worrying. I'd seen Julia's swimsuit, and it was VERY sexy. Ordinarily that'd be a very good thing, but not if I was going to be pushed to buy something similar, ESPECIALLY because the bottom of Julia's suit showed a great deal more of her bottom than I wanted to show of mine, which was NONE!

I would've thought it'd be illegal for a store to sell men's swimsuits cut like Julia's and certainly illegal for men to wear them in public, and quite possibly illegal to wear them in private too! I couldn't imagine "hundreds of thousands of guys" would wear swimsuits that were G-strings rather than decent, so I was somewhat reassured.

To distract myself until we reached the store, I said, "Ava. I do remember something that I particularly thought of when I looked at your photos: your tan lines were conservative. You don't have to buy a sexy bikini if you wouldn't be comfortable in it. We don't need you..."

Julia interrupted me. "Mark, Ava's got plenty of confidence about her body. With good cause too, because it's in great condition and looks very attractive." That earned Julia a smile from Ava. "I'm sure she's happy to wear a sexy bikini for us, aren't you, Ava?"

"More than happy; I want to! It's very nice that you're concerned about me, Mark, but Julia's right. It'll be fun, and I'm glad to be able to help you with Chloe. I don't want to dress sexily around my parents, but when we're together will be fine. I'd feel left out if Julia and Carol were sexy and I wasn't."

Ava seemed sincere and happy, but I suspected Julia's answer on behalf of Ava had been some sort of psychological ploy to get Ava to agree. On the other hand, I wasn't highly motivated to argue Ava out of her position, so I said, "Good. I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy seeing you in a sexy bikini. Your body would suit a bikini very well."

I hadn't really planned to say the last bit, but I'd been imagining what Ava would look like in a small bikini, and the images my three minds had been sending back and forth were very appealing. I felt my comment was entirely accurate and justified. So, of course, all three girls spent the rest of our walk to the store teasing me about it.

As soon as we entered the store, Ava made sure I heard her ask an assistant, "Where are the VERY small bikinis?" She had to almost yell, over the loud music they were playing. The stores where I buy my clothes are never as impractical as this.

#4: <I like Ava!>

#1: <No argument from me. We're going to like her even more soon, when we see her in whatever she buys, haha.>

Julia and Carol led me to the guys' swimwear section. It was about 5% of the store's floor space. There were some other guys' clothing, but at least 75% of the store was for females. Just as I'd feared, we walked right past the nice, comfortable, practical, baggy board shorts, and straight to the Speedos - sigh.

Both girls knew what size I was, and started emptying that section of the rack, pulling them out to show each other, discussing which colors would complement me the best. Girls really are very illogical and silly. In this case because how could they possibly match my coloring when I'm white at the beginning of summer and brown by the end?

I observed, "They're not very big, are they?"

Carol said something that cheered me up, "They are rather small, but not nearly as small as what we've got." I hadn't seen Carol's new swimsuit yet, so I was extremely pleased to hear her say "we". I was now looking forward to going to the Aquatic Center EVEN more!

Carol and Julia agreed on two choices, and told me to go try them on. I sometimes feel sorry for guys who aren't Lords; they must get ordered around TERRIBLY!

I obediently headed to the changing rooms, followed by my two slave drivers. Ava was still going through the racks in her section, so I suggested to Julia and Carol, "Why don't you help Ava and I'll look after myself?"

"No," disagreed Julia. "We'll take care of you first, then help Ava."

That was a pity. I'd been hoping to try the two pairs on myself, declare them fine, get dressed properly, then leave the changing room. Now I knew I was going to have to parade each of them in front of my girls, which meant repeatedly coming out of the changing room and into the store. No doubt I'd have to do 'twirls' too. Excellent!

The changing room had a sign telling customers to leave their underwear on when trying on swimsuits ("For hygiene reasons..."). I took my pants off to put the first pair on. It was very tight around my hips and ass, but that's the penalty of such a stupid design. It looked fine to me, except that I looked ABSOLUTELY stupid because of my underwear sticking out everywhere! There was NO WAY I was going to walk out into the store looking as stupid as this, and there was no point in trying on the other pair because they were the same size, so I got dressed in my pants again, then carried the swimsuits out to Julia, telling her, "They're fine."

Julia explained patiently, "You have to SHOW US, Mark. We can't tell whether they're fine or not unless we see them."

"I've seen them," ("them" was an exaggeration but I was comfortable making it; certainly much more comfortable than I'd be with the alternative scenarios), "and they're fine."

"We have to see them, Mark. Guys aren't to be trusted with something as important as choosing clothes. Please go back, try one on, them come out and show us."