Katrina's costume collection

Chapter 2 - Making a Sale

“How can I help you?”

The customer kept her eyes glued to her phone. Mathilde couldn’t see it, but she could tell that the woman answered her with the same airy nasally vocal fry as the painfully stilted makeup tutorial that the phone was playing.

“I need a costume.”

“Would have never guessed.” Mathilde felt shielded enough by the distraction of the customer reminding herself about the glories of good contouring to throw the full weight of her sarcasm behind that remark.

Of course, that was the exact moment the video hit the ad read, and even Miss Princess couldn’t watch herself do that.

“Ummm- excuse me?”

Mathilde stumbled as she tried getting things back on track. Losing this sale would disrupt the turning of the wheel of cosmic karmic balance and cost this woman the punishment her vanity and cruelty so righteously deserved. Plus it would mean missing out on her commission which she really needed right now. The corset strings on this too were starting to get pretty taxed, and she was looking to upsize.

“Sorry. Uh, welcome to Katrina’s Costume Collection. We have a variety of definitely not cursed costumes.”

“What?”

“We have a variety of costumes. Do you have a theme you’re looking to fit?”

“Sexy.”

“Of course.” Mathilde took the opportunity presented by stepping out from behind the counter to turn around and roll her eyes.

“What?”

Mathilde turned back around with her smile pasted back on her face.

“Of course we have every kind of sexy costume you could want.”

She led the customer down an aisle and ran her hands over a couple of choice animal costumes.

“Would you like to be a sexy mouse? Sexy cat? Sexy piggy?” Mathilde’s voice quivered at the mention of sexy piggy, and for a moment she was afraid she had given herself away a bit, but luckily the customer was too busy overdoing her disgust at the mere suggestion of dressing like a swine.

“Ewww. Gross. No animals.”

Mathilde nodded and moved her right along to the next section.

“We’ve got any number of sexy professions. There’s sexy cowgirl.”

“Is that a profession?”

“I… think so? If that doesn’t do it for you, we’ve got sexy cop, sexy nurse. Maybe sexy French maid?” At that last one Mathilde pulled at her dress. It was hard not to play favorites.

“Those are all so cliche.”

That comment snapped Mathilde out of her momentary daydream. She would need to focus and not let this commission slide through her fingers. Unfortunately, she was beginning to run out of ideas. With her best customer service face on and her feet moving at the speed of restrained desperation, Mathilde made her way to the next aisle hoping that something would come to her.

“Well…. I’ve got a bunch of sexy produce?”

“Produce can be sexy?”

“Anything can be sexy with the right amount of fabric which is as little as possible.”

The customer nodded with an appreciation that was taking a moment to dawn on her. Mathilde hoped that this was one of Gwen’s secondary charms beginning to take affect.

“What you got?” asked the customer as Mathilde thought she caught the smell of burning sage.

Mathilde’s smile was real this time, and her voice perked up as she could feel herself getting closer to a sale.

“I’ve got sexy corn, sexy pumpkin, sexy blueberry.”

“I can’t picture anyone wanting sexy blueberry.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“People ask you to be a sexy blueberry?”

“Oh, they ask. It’s very popular.” Mathilde’s smile slid into a sly grin.

“I refuse to believe people are willing to pay for sexy blueberry.”

“They’ll pay.”

This time it was the customer’s turn to roll her eyes as her patience ran through her foot and caused her toes to tap on the ground.

“Well not me. Let me see the sexy pumpkin.”

Mathilde could hear the sales bell ringing as she pulled the costume bag off the rack.

“Okay. Now, technically this is a sexy jack-o-lantern, but I assume that difference won’t mean much to you.”

“Well let’s see how it makes my ass look first.”

“Sure thing.” Mathilde said with an unusual amount of glee.

As the woman took the costume and began to walk toward the changing rooms, Mathilde began to fantasize about what would await her.

“Wait!”

The sudden outburst caused the customer to spin back on her heel in confusion.

“What?”

“What’s your name?”

“Why?”

“We… uh, like to provide the best customer service possible, and being on a first name basis with our customers helps that.” And having a name to put to the face always makes the fantasy stronger.

“Madison.” the customer responded as she looked Mathilde up and down.

“Checks out.”

“Excuse me?”

Mathilde hurriedly pointed at the counter.

“After you’re done, checkout is right here. I’ll be happy to ring you up.”

Madison spun back on her heel and threw the bag over her shoulder. She gave her response without looking back at Mathilde.

“If it looks good on me first.”

It took everything Mathilde had not to tent her fingers.

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll look amazing.”

And as Madison stepped into a changing booth, Mathilde let her mind wander off and imagine Madison’s future.