Christina handed the sales clerk the new Visa card that she and Brian had opened together. She fingered the white georgette pleats on a see-through nightie with a small smile, daydreaming, as the cashier ran her card through to complete the purchase.
A moment later, the woman was pushing the receipt and a pen her way. Christina accepted the slip of paper and blindly signed her name. The woman said, “And don’t you worry a thing about your man fussing over the cost; trust me, there ain’t a man alive that would complain about paying for fun like this on his honeymoon. This is one bill that they never mind paying, even when it’s not for a special occasion.”
Christina blinked stupidly at the woman for a moment. The cost…? Good Lord, she’d been so busy fantasizing about the honeymoon lingerie she’d just picked out, she hadn’t even been paying attention to the total of the bill, as the clerk rang everything up.
Wincing now, she glanced with a sinking heart at the amount: three hundred seventy-seven dollars and forty-seven cents.
Holy shit!
The sales clerk cheerfully snatched back the receipt and then, to Christina’s abject horror, took up a stamp and loudly smacked it down on top of the sales draft: ALL SALES FINAL.
Oh, boy.
“Um…” Christina began, looking up at the woman imploringly. “I think there’s been a mistake. I mean… I made a mistake. I wasn’t paying attention to how much this stuff was all going to cost.”
The clerk, an ample sized woman who was sixty, if she was a day, smiled winningly at Christina. She looked more like someone’s grandmother than like the kind of person who would be working in a lingerie shop; especially one like this that sold some of the kinkier stuff. “Now, don’t you get cold feet, honey. I promise you, you don’t have a single thing to worry about. That man of yours is just gonna love this little honeymoon surprise you put together for him. They all love this stuff. Mark my words, he won’t even bat an eye when he sees the receipt.”
Christina didn’t even consider this for a moment. She knew Brian. He wasn’t going to be happy about her little surprise, once he saw how much it had cost them.
“And besides, dear, if you’re really worried about his reaction, you just hide the bill from him. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?”
She felt her eyes grow large and round at the cashier’s suggestion. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt him, but when he found out about it (and he inevitably always did find out about her little indiscretions), it would surely hurt her!
“Now, you just put your fears to rest and go on home and plan your honeymoon.”
Christina reluctantly accepted the bulging bag that the other woman shoved her way. “Are you sure there’s no way you could bend the rules about returns, just this one time?” she begged. “I haven’t even left the store yet, let alone worn anything other than to try them on here in the dressing room.”
“All sales are final, dearie. I’m sorry.”
She didn’t look very sorry, Christina thought. She looked rather pleased with herself.
With a heavy sigh, she picked up her ill-begotten purchases and shuffled dejectedly out of the store.
A shiver of apprehension tripped down her spine, as she mulled over her actions and the repercussions that were sure to follow. And while she felt dread, there was also a healthy dose of sweet anticipation in that shiver.
She was going to get her butt spanked.
Oh yes, she was going to get spanked, and good, and on her honeymoon, no less. Of course, knowing Brian, he would have found some excuse or another to spank her on their honeymoon anyway, but now she’d just given him a whopper of a reason to really let loose on her butt.
As she let herself into her car, tossing her goodies into the back seat, a second, stronger shiver shook through her. I must be crazy, she thought, as she started the car. Only a crazy person would actually start to fantasize about getting spanked…
It almost made her wonder if on some level she’d known what she’d been doing all along today…