Page 1 of Bonus Game
1 /ALLEN
Workingat a sex shop wasn’t as fun as Allen thought it would be.
He had applied for the job, thinking he would talk to awesome people all day, indulge in gossip, and meet a cute guy or two. But no, half of his shift was cleaning and restocking, while the other half was spent dealing with red-faced, giggling teenagers who had come in on a dare.
Again, who knew working in a store that had a wall dedicated to silicon cocks would be boring?
Allen leaned on the shop counter, sighing as he watched a girl separate from her cluster of friends to shyly reach out and poke the largest toy in their collection. When itswayed, the girls squealed and stampeded to the door, exiting with less grace than a herd of elephants.
“Kids,” said a disgruntled voice beside him. “It makes me sound old saying that, but it had to be done.”
“Patsy, you’re seventy-eight, I think we’re past that.” Allen gave the older woman a teasing smirk to rile her up. “How cool was it to see dinosaurs walking the Earth? I’ve always wanted to ask.”
Patsy looked frail with her tiny stature, big blue eyes hidden behind rainbow-framed glasses, and her curly silver hair, but the smack she landed on his armstung.
“I’m not the one who just turned thirty. Isn’t that the end of the world for your generation?”
Allen scowled. He hated being reminded of his birthday because he hated this time of year, and hehatedChristmas even more. His birthday heralded the upcoming holiday that had been the bane of his existence since he was a child, and now it was almost here.
The music he had been trying to tune out all day caught his attention, and Allen slumped further onto the counter.
“I’ve never seen someone get so depressed over cheerful Christmas music,” said Patsy, reaching a hand to jingle a pair of holiday nipple tassels along with the beat to prove a point. “You’ve always been a miserable brat, so I’m not sure why I’m surprised.”
Allen moved the display of bells and accessories out of her reach before he snapped and threw them across the room. “We’ve known each other for five months, so why are you acting like we’ve been friends for years?”
Patsy opened her mouth, likely to say something rude, but Allen beat her to it.
“Past lives don’t count. Just because I died and reincarnated during your lifetime, doesn’t mean I’m the same person you knew in the eighteen hundreds.”
Whatever insult she had loaded, flew out the window when she tipped her head back and laughed obnoxiously.
Allen left her to enjoy the moment, choosing to sanitize the shelves again while he listened to her laugh, fighting to hold back his smile.
The door jingled, sending him into customer care mode as the day continued to drag on. The one good thing aboutChristmas was how busy they were, which helped the day pass more quickly and less painfully.
The highlight of his afternoon was helping a woman pick out a strap-on to use on her husband and explaining why she should stick to novice-sized dildos. He had nearly choked on air when she went straight for a nine-inch monster that would have takenhimeffort to conquer.
Patsy went home at 5 PM, leaving Allen to finish the evening shift and close the shop. The wave of customers trickled down to one or two an hour, giving him a moment of quiet to stare out the window and watch the snow fall.
Allen was so caught up in his weather watching that he had no time to prepare himself when the shop door opened, and an entire team of rambunctious hockey players stomped into the small space.
How did he know they were hockey players? If the fuck boy hats, ridiculous hair, and giant equipment bags didn’t give them away, thesmellwould have.
Cue reason number 5000 why he hated this time of year. Hockey was the bane of his existence.
The cackling men were obviously on a mission as they pushed further into the store, dragging snow, salt, and noise with them. They were all talking so loudly at the same time that Allen couldn’t understand what they were saying, but he had a feeling it was a prank or a hazing thing.
The loudest one in the group had his arm swung over the shoulders of his taller companion, forcefully walking him to the back of the store where the dildos were glittering in the shitty store lighting.
“A deal’s a deal,” said the leader. “And stop pouting. What you did to me last year was ten times worse.”
None of them were paying any attention to Allen, who had perched himself on the stool behind the counter to watch thechaos unfold. They were too busy smacking their tall and scary-looking teammate on the back, forcing him closer and closer to the wall of dicks.
And yeah, Allen wasn’t a saint. The hockey players were hot.
At least this group was older than the barely legal teens he usually dealt with. As long as they remained respectful, Allen was fine with them horsing around for five or ten minutes.
“Get the biggest one,” said a man in the back. He was an older gentleman with grey peppering his beard. “It’s the size of an arm. What would you even do with that?”
