Keep The Change

“Hello”, he greeted the customer as they walked in. The customer was a gorgeous woman with tan skin and auburn hair. Adam, as printed in black, bold letters on his nametag, could not help but watch as she walked towards the Pepsi cooler door. She was wearing tightly pressed blue jeans, a blue collar shirt that hugged her bosom, and a pair of all gray Vans on her feet. 

It was 9:30 in the evening, and his shift at the local gas station was already dragging on. The usual rush hour crowd had dispersed hours earlier, the side work had been done when he first got there at 6 o clock, and it was customary for Adam to simply operate the POS system and sell stuff.

“How are you this evening, beautiful?” Adam asked as the tanned goddess walked to the counter. She was slim, and plump, in all the right places for Adam to be in complete awe. He didn’t let this show, however. She had deep brown eyes that made Adam feel tired, sleepy and eager to fall into a warm bed with her.

“I’m good.” She replied. When she bent forward some to read Adam’s nametag, he could smell her hair; that sweet autumn aroma of fallen leaves. “How are you, Adam?” She was smiling, signifying to Adam it was okay to flirt with her.

Picking up on the hint, Adam took the Pepsi and scanned it into the system. “I am spectacular, dear” he said excitedly with a handsome smile. “Anything else? A snack, cigarettes…lottery ticket?” He was not always the best salesman, but he did pride himself on his ability to suggestively sell. He couldn’t understand how people fail in sales, when all you do is talk to the customer.

“I’d like a snack” she said. She lifted her head and brushed her hair to the side of her right eye. “But I only see one snack in here, Adam.” Her voice was low and playful, teasing. She reached into her back pocket of a pair of Bullhead jeans she was wearing and pulled out her cellphone.

“What’s your name, sweetie?” Adam asked, leaning over with the ball of his right hand on the edge of the counter. He let his eyes breathe in her eyes and hair, bosom and waist, long legs.

“Anne”, she replied. The corners of her delicate lips were curling upwards, as if she was thinking of the terrible things, she’d want him to do. The sensor bell rang when two more customers came into the store, two drunken regulars.

“Adam and Anne, huh?” He proposed. “Take my number, and text me later. Or call me.” She bit her bottom lip, setting Adam ablaze with passion.

Anne took his number, paid for her soda and left the store, adding an extra pop in her waist to show Adam the plumpness of her ass.

“Whoa, Adam, she was sexy” one of the drunken men said. His name was Jeff and always bought two 40-ounce bottles of King Cobra. “If you don’t fuck her, I will” he added as he put the two cold brews on the counter with a loud clunk. The way he made the remark made Adam feel disgusted, imagining Jeff’s sweaty, burley stomach on top of sweet, little Anne. The smell of alcohol burned his nostrils.  

“Be respectful, man. Might be my wife one day.” Adam snapped. The other drunken man, Jeff’s friend Lawson, walked up with his usual case of Bud Light and set it down on its side, long side up.

“Yeah, Jeff. We can’t fuck another mans wife” Lawson said. He looked at Adam, and it made him feel uneasy. “Especially one that’s already married. We saw her outside talking to her husband.”

Adam wasn’t sure what to make of that. “Well, I can” was all he mustered in the moment. The three of them laughed together. Adam scanned their items, gave them their change, and they were out the door.

An hour went by before another customer came into the store. It was normal on school nights to be slow, so Adam swept the floors, organized shelves, counted packs of coffee for his bosses’ inventory in the morning. He had just finished when his phone vibrated in his left pocket.

He had a text message from an unknown number. Adam smiled, knowing it was likely Anne, since it’d been a few days since he gave his number to a stranger.

“Hey, handsome! It’s Anne” the message said, followed by a kissing face emoji.

Adam: “Hey there, gorgeous. Was wondering if you were gonna text me”.

Another two hours went by. Adam had waited on a couple more customers, regulars mostly and one tourist who was traveling from Raleigh. The traffic came to a complete stop after midnight and the boredom of third shift had began settling in. Adam was cleaning the bathrooms when he got another text message, and he smiled. He hurriedly swept the bathroom floors, wiped the shit residue off the men’s toilet, and the blood and caked up piss stains of the woman’s toilets. When he was done, he swiftly moped both and set out the “Wet Floor” warning signs. He checked his phone.

Anne: “Wanna bite?”

There was an image attached to the message. When Adam saw the naked photo of Anne, beautiful and sexy in all her glory, his heart fell to the floor. “She goes fast, don’t she?” He exclaimed to himself.  

Adam: “Maybe just a nibble”

With his text back, he sent a little heart emoji because he was under the impression woman thought emoji were literal expression of emotion, instead of taking his words for what they were. Women are tricky like that. If they don’t think you care, they become bitter. Before he could put his phone back in his pocket and finish his duties for the night, his phone vibrated again. Another message from Anne.

Anne: “Show me you”

Adam smiled. “I’m at work. You’re crazy” he muttered to himself. But he found himself contemplating it. Anne was quite possibly the most attractive woman he’d seen there, and even though he was confident in himself, no woman had ever sent him naked pictures that soon. He took a glance around the store, and out the windows to the poorly lit parking lot. “Fuck it”, he said.

His parents would have been ashamed if they had seen him in the bathroom with his work pants and boxers to his ankles, trying to take a decent picture of his dick. He tried different angles, closeups and the opposite, trying to make it look…good? It’s hard to make the third member of a man’s body have a photogenic quality. It’s a strange body part. When he finally got the picture he liked, he sent it to Anne with a feeling of nervousness. He wasn’t sure if she’d like it or not, but figured what the hell, there’s a sea of many fish. When he was pulling his pants back up, he heard a loud clutter come from the main lobby. “Shit!” he yelped.

He stormed out of the bathroom, casually, as to not seem like he was doing something he shouldn’t.

“Get on the fucking ground!” A loud, angry voice came. It was so sudden and harsh that it shook Adam. He was looking at a man wearing a black mask, accompanied by another masked person, who were both aiming military issued 1911 pistols at him. An odd gun for petty criminals to carry, Adam thought. “I said get on the ground!” the man yelled.

“Okay, easy” Adam said. Before he could lay down, the man pulled the trigger, and sent a bullet into Adam’s right leg. He fell to the floor, off to the right of the counter, where the bathroom hallway was. The shock of the bullet penetrating his leg, left a delayed pain reflex. He didn’t realize how bad it hurt until moments later. “You fucker!” Adam screamed at the man. His hands were at his leg, trying to stop the bleeding.

He knew he would live, from watching the various true crime shows on television, but seeing so much blood still freaked him out. He was sweating and panting.

“Katie, get the register,” the man ordered his companion. He pointed at the register behind the counter.

“Don’t use our real names, dumbass!” she shrieked. “He can tell the police.”

“Sure, if he’s alive.” The nameless man replied. Katie ran to the counter and jumped over it with a limberness that reminded Adam of a fleet-footed cat. She punched in numbers and commands into the digital POS until the cash tender sprung open.

“Get all of it” the man said. His pistol still steady on Adam, who was still grasping at his legs. Adam wasn’t sure what to do. He noticed the lights in the canopy over the gas pumps were out, the cooler lights were out. The more he thought about it, he never heard the door sensor go off either. He looked at the main door and saw no evidence of forced entry, tampering, or even if it was locked. He assumed it was locked though. He watched the man and tried to get a look at him at an angle where he could see the measuring tape by the door behind his head. Right above his head, he saw 7’5’’, which put this man at being around 6’1’’ since Adam was on the ground.  

He heard Katie rustling up the bills and change from the tender and stuffing it all into a grocery bag the store kept under the counter. When she came back around the counter and walked by Adam, he saw she was wearing a pair of gray vans. She had on blue jeans too, like Anne, but the shirt was different.

And then to his amazement, Katie shot her companion square in the forehead, plastering his brain tissue across the glass door of the store. His black mask quickly reddened. “Oh my god!” Adam shrieked. He was suddenly terrified, more terrified than before. He tried to get up and leave but fell back down. The pain in his leg was agonizing.

“It’s okay”, Katie said. She walked over to Adam as he was backing into the hallway. “I’m not going to kill you.” Her voice was soft.

When she was in front of Adam, she bent down, and tilted her head to the side. The mask she wore was all black, like a giant beanie with slits cut for eye holes. Her eyes were dark brown and deeply intense. She lifted a hand and tore off the mask. Long auburn braids fell to her shoulders.  

“Nice dick, handsome” she said. It was Anne, or Katie…Adam was confused, and in too much pain to comprehend the situation. “Curved ones are my favorite.” She let out a sinister giggle.

“Anne?” Adam said breathlessly. He looked into her eyes and was amazed by how just earlier in the evening they were sensual, bedroom eyes, and were now psychotic.

“Or Katie!” She said ecstatically. She stood upright and tossed her mask and the bag of money to the side. “Or whatever you wanna call me.” She shrugged as she said this.

She turned around, and took off her shirt and then her pink, satin bra. When she turned back around and Adam saw her rounded breasts with small, pink nipples, he turned his head. Under most circumstances, he would have loved that, but there was something about Katie (or Anne) that petrified him, especially since he was wounded. She unzipped her jeans and slid them off. She was wearing a purple pair of undies with a pink star on the crotch.

“Do you like?” She whirled around, showing Adam her buttocks. “I wore these for you.”

“What are you doing, Anne?” Adam asked. “Just take the money and go.” He was panting.

“Oh, tsk-tsk. That’s no fun” she pouted out her lips in a bratty type of way. “I’m not here for the cash, Adam. I’m here for you.”

She bent down in front of Adam and plopped down on her bottom. She took off her socks and shoes, and slid a bare, tanned foot towards Adam. The nails were painted a sleek ebony. Adam was sitting with his legs outstretched in both angles, and when her foot slid towards his crotch, and pressed against the bulge of his jeans, he fought the urge.

“No, Anne. Just leave!” The pain in his leg shot up through his thigh as he waved her foot away. He pushed himself back towards the wall, feeling suddenly vulnerable with an open space behind him.

“Awe, don’t be shy now” she said. Anne slid herself closer to Adam, a foot still outstretched towards his crotch. “I just wanna play, baby. Afterwards, I’ll go, I promise. Besides, I wasn’t the one that shot you.”

She leaned forward, and tried to kiss Adam, but he moved his head away. Her brown eyes deepened. Her pointer finger went into the bullet hole in Adam’s leg.

He screamed in pain, but also in terror. There was no way of knowing what was going to happen. The burden of death was on Adam’s mind.

“You bitch!” He spat.

“Just kiss me, Adam. Play with me. Then I’ll leave.” Her voice sounded trusting, innocent. She leaned in for another kiss, and when their lips met, Adam was met with a feeling of disgust, but also pleasure. It was sickening to him. He needed help. He needed to alert his boss, the cops: the situation felt totally out of control. He didn’t noticed Anne remove her underwear, but she took his finger and slid it into a wetness between her thighs.

“No” Adam said, receding his hand back. “I don’t want to. I need help, Anne. I am hurt. And the store has been robbed. Kill me or just leave.”

She looked hurt and defeated. “I can’t kill you” she said in a saddened voice. “You’re the first guy to see me. To really see me. I want you inside me, Adam.” She undid his pants, and after a few moments of further denials and tortures, Adam reluctantly gave in.

She was on top of him, thrusting her hips against him, her hands climbed the wall that Adam’s back was pushed against. Anne moaned in hysterical pleasure, while Adam let out lifeless “no’s”.

He let the moment take him away. His mind traveled to an open field of roses and lilacs. He imagined the smell of the flowers, and what it would feel like to walk through the field. He tried to not think of the bullet wound, and how he could never walk again. He tried to let the sound of the wind in the field drown out the hysterical moaning of his captor. He tried to not let himself finish and tried very hard to remember every detail of her clothing, time when she first came to the store, the time she left…that is, if he survived.

When she was finished, she stood up and walked to the bag of cash. Adam laid against the wall with his pants to his ankles, shirt ruffled up and pools of sweat beneath his chin. Anne bent down and picked up the bag, then walked back to Adam. She dropped the bag in front of him.

“Keep the change, handsome” she said.