Maing Nice with the Store Cler

There are three people ahead of me, but I don't mind since I get to check out the new cashier behind the counter. There is just something about her that is appealing. She's about five foot four and maybe one hundred ten pounds. Her brown eyes are large and almond shaped and her hair is strawberry blond, curly and long; hanging to down her back. Her face is pretty and she has small breasts. Since she's busy with other customers, I'm able to get a good look at her. I'd say she was in her late twenties or early thirties, but it's hard to tell.

The first person finishes paying and the lady in front of me asks the cashier for directions. Mary, I finally am able to see her name tag, politely answers while she rings up the lady's purchases. When Mary finishes ringing her up, the lady suddenly asks for a pack of cigarettes, so Mary walks to the rack and pulls out a pack from the bottom shelf. This allows me a view of her ass since she has to bend over. She rings up the cigarettes and the lady turns to walk out. As she passes me she whispers "You're welcome. I hope you had a nice view. I know I did." My head almost falls off it spins so fast. I heard her chuckle as she walked out the door and now it's my turn to get rung up.

I turn to Mary and put my coffee on the counter. "Good morning Mary." Mary blinks at me and looks at my face to figure out if she knows me.

"Do I know you?" she finally asks.

"No, I just read your name tag."

Mary blushes in embarrassment and rings up my coffee. "That'll be a buck twenty seven." She doesn't look up as I hand her my money.

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you, but it's a trick I learned for my job. I used to be really bad at remembering names and by using them right away, I'm able to learn a person's name quickly."

"You just surprised me. Most of the people I've met this morning aren't quite so friendly."

"Thanks for the coffee, and I'll see you around."

"Bye. Have a nice day."

I drove into work and was quickly pummeled with phone calls as soon as my laptop booted up. I'm an IT consultant for a mid-sized accounting firm and apparently there was a server issue that never got resolved last night. It took me till after lunch to get the problem resolved and then got caught up with all the other work. My partner at the company was on vacation and I became extremely jealous of his freedom. I managed a quick lunch before I started to work my way through the rest of the day.

The next morning I found myself four deep waiting for Mary to wait on me. This had been my daily routine for the past two years. I was never one to buy into the whole Starbucks thing, but I was also too lazy to brew my own. When it was my turn, I stood in front of Mary and said "Good morning Mary."

"Oh, hi. I met you yesterday, didn't I?"

"Yes."

"I didn't get your name", she said as she rang up my coffee. "Do you come in here every day?"

"Yes, for the past two years or so."

"Wow, that's dedication. We must have some fantastic coffee", she laughed. "I'm guessing I don't need to tell you how much?"

I laid down exact change and said "Nope. It's been the same price for as long as I've been coming here. By the way, my name is Chris."

"Nice to meet you Chris. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Mary."

Another long day at work and a restless night of sleep and I found myself groggy as I walked into the store. "Good morning Chris." I looked over and saw Mary waving. I waved back and smiled, grabbed my usual coffee and stood on line. When it was my turn Mary said "Boy, looks like you tore one up last night."

"I wish. Work's been busy and my partner is on vacation, so I've been handling a double load this week."

"Wow. Sounds terrible. Guess you really need that coffee this morning."

"Oh yeah." I laid my money on the counter, grabbed my coffee and headed for the door.

"See you tomorrow Chris" I heard Mary yell.

I turned and said "Tomorrow."

When I got to work that morning, the server problem had resurfaced and it took me most of the day to fix. I found that someone had tried to load something onto the server that was screwing it up, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. I didn't have much spare time as other issues popped up, but I decided to work on it after hours when most of the people would be gone. As I sat there monitoring the server I saw the network connection spike and stay high. After a few commands I found what I was looking for. Someone was downloading some videos into a folder that they had somehow hidden from detection unless you were looking for it. Now that I had the problem isolated, I documented what I found, took snapshot and sent everything that I had found to my boss.

First thing that morning, actually, it felt like before first thing, I got a call from my boss. He wanted me in his office immediately. So I quickly showered and headed to the office. On my way in, I stopped for my coffee and found the only one there was Mary. "Good morning."

She jumped a bit and turned to me. "Oh, good morning Chris. You're in early today."

"Yeah. Something came up at work and I'm needed in the office."

"Well, you're timing is good. I just finished brewing a pot of coffee. How do you take it?"

"Black with a pack of sugar."

She poured me a large cup, poured in one pack of sugar and handed the cup to me. Then she walked behind the counter and rang me up. "Do you always start this early?"

"I'm in first thing in the morning. It's not too bad since I've always been an early bird."

"I'm not and this is way too early. I'd rather stay up all night."

"Yeah, my ex was like that."

Hmm, so there was an ex. "Is that why you broke up?"

"No, I left him because he's an asshole who loved to stay out all night and come home drunk, then wake me up and try to have sex with me."

I took a step back at her show of anger and she covered her mouth as she realized what she'd said.

"I'm sorry. That's not exactly something I should say to someone I hardly know."

"That's OK. It's good to vent sometimes."

"Well, I'm sorry about that anyway."

"I've got to go. But I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Chris. See you tomorrow."

Part of me was intrigued, but another part was a little scared that she may be a bit of a psycho. That all left my head when I got to the office and I was called into my boss' office.

"Is this report accurate?"

"Yes sir. I watched the entire thing happen last night right after mostly everyone had left."

"And you can find the files again?"

"Yes sir." I walked around his desk, entered several commands and showed him the file.

"Can you be sure this is the person who did this?"

"Well, it's his user id, so that's all I have to go on."

"OK, let's do this than. I want you to be here tonight and monitor things again. We know where he'll be located by his IP address. I'm going to act like I'm leaving, and then I'll come back in through the service door. I'll be able to park around the building so it'll look like I'm gone. When he starts to do download his stuff, we'll go to the computer and see who it is. Are you OK with this?"

"Yes sir." I didn't have much of a choice. Whoever was downloading the files was infecting the server with viruses and we needed it to stop before someone broke through our security.

"Good. Act normal if you can and don't let anyone else know about this."

"Yes sir." I went back out to my desk and got busy. Since I was so early, I was able to catch up on a lot of my work that had become backlogged since I spent so much time fixing the other problems.

I didn't know who was doing the illegal downloading since I only had a user name. It wasn't someone that I was friendly with at least. The company was big enough that I didn't know everyone. At five o'clock, the office emptied out and I saw my boss leave. I was already logged onto the server and had been monitoring it for any suspicious activity. No sooner had the managers left than I saw the network activity spike again and the downloading began. There were about six people still in the office and I couldn't tell who it was.

About twenty minutes later, my boss came in through the service entrance. He looked over at me and I nodded my head to let him know that it was happening again. He walked over to a cubicle at the other end of the office from where I was seated and stood in the entrance. He stood there for about fifteen minutes before I heard him clear his throat. Immediately the downloading stopped, but it was already too late.

When the guy stood up, I was surprised to see an older gentleman that I didn't know. He looked extremely upset, but followed my boss into his office. Once inside, my boss closed the door, went over to the desk and made a phone call. After another thirty minutes, two police officers entered and my boss waved them to his office. Then I was called into the office as well.

When it was all done, Jack, the man who was downloading the videos, was led in handcuffs out of the office. I had made copies of all the files and Jack's computer was handed over. It turned out Jack was downloading porn to the server and then logging in from home to watch. I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. Jack is in his mid sixties and only a few months from retirement. Now he just lost everything. Apparently his wife had caught him and he found a way to do it at the office. He was a grandfather and now was heading to jail.

It was almost eight o'clock when I left the office and I was exhausted. I'd arrived before seven in the morning and was ready to go to bed. I stopped in at my little store to get some beer and saw Mary behind the counter.

"Hey Mary, what are you still doing here?"

"Hi Chris. I'm filling in for someone who called out sick. What about you?"

"I just got off from work myself."

"Wow, must have been pretty bad."

"Yeah. I can't really talk about it, but someone got fired because of something that I found."

"Oh, that sucks. For both of you." She sees the beer in my hand and said "Going to drown your sorrows?" She smiled at me as she rung me up and her smile made me feel a bit better.

"Something like that. What will probably happen is I'll drink one of these and fall to sleep right away."

"I know how you feel. As soon as I get home, I'm going to pass out. See you tomorrow?"

"Maybe. Do you have to come to work again in the morning?"

"Yeah. I'll get home about midnight and I have to be here to open at six. I guess it's a good thing I'm on my own."

"That sucks. At least my boss said I could come in late tomorrow."

"Lucky guy. If I knew what time you were coming in, I'd make sure you had a fresh pot of coffee."

I smiled warmly at her and received a warm smile back.

"I still feel bad about what I said earlier about my ex. We've been separated for only a month and it still stings."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Your ex must be a real ass. You seem very nice to me."

She blushed at that and took my money. "Thanks."

"Well, I'm off to bed. See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow Chris. Have a nice night."

"You too", I said as I walked out the door.

I was right and after one beer, I was sleeping soundly. I forgot to change my alarm and it went off at its usual time. I wasn't feeling too bad, so I decided to go in at my normal time, hoping I'd be able to leave early.

When I got to the convenience store, Mary was working the register. She looked like hell, but still very cute. "Good morning Mary."

"Chris, I'm surprised to see you. If you give me just a minute, I'll put on a fresh pot if you want."

"Oh, that would be great. I'm not in a rush."

She finished with the last person on line and hooked me up with some fresh coffee. "So, do you have any plans for the weekend?"

"No. Probably sleep late tomorrow and go out with some friends tomorrow night. What about you?"

"Nothing. I have to do some furniture shopping for my new apartment, but that's all."

"If you're interested, I'll probably be going to the bar right around the corner. Why don't you meet my friends and me there?"

She chuckled at that and asked, "How old are you Chris?"

"Twenty four, why?"

"I'm thirty six. I'm not sure you guys want an old lady like me hanging around with you."

"You're thirty six? I never would have guessed. I was thinking maybe twenty eight or twenty nine."

"Oh, you're sweet. I've got an eighteen year old son who's a freshman in college. But I appreciate the offer." She poured my coffee and rang me up.

"Well, if you change your mind, that's where we'll be tomorrow at about eight."

"I'll keep that in mind. Have a good day Chris."

"You too Mary."

I arrived at work and my boss called me into his office. He gave me the details of what had happened, let me work till noon and then sent me home. My weekend went exactly as planned and I found myself with several of my buddies at the bar watching some of the ball games. I kept on eye on the front door, but didn't really expect to see Mary. I was a few drinks into the night by ten o'clock and I was in the back room playing pool. I had just missed a shot badly when someone whispered "Maybe you should have some coffee to help your game."

I turned around surprised to see Mary standing there. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and looked incredible. "What are you doing here? Thought you were too old to hang with a bunch of kids?"

"Yeah, well, I was sitting on my couch trying to find something on TV. I flipped through the channels for about an hour and just gave up. Then I tried to go to bed and wasn't successful with that either, so I decided to see if you were still here."

"I'm glad you came. Let me introduce you." I introduced her to my friends and bought her a beer. There were seven of us, five guys and two girls. I neglected to mention Mary's age to anyone and my friends guessed she was just a bit older than us. She fit in nicely with the group and we had a good time. I noticed Mary start to yawn about midnight and her third beer.

"You OK? Looks like your starting to get tired."

"Just a little. It's past my bedtime." We were standing away from everyone else and our bodies were fairly close together in the crowded bar.

"Interested in another drink?"

"No, I have to drive home."

"I have an extra bed if you want."

"Oh really. Do you always invite virtual strangers to sleep over?"

"No, only the really cute ones." Her cheeks colored slightly and she dropped her eyes to my chest. "Besides, you're not a virtual stranger. You already know how I take my coffee."

"That's true. That almost makes us husband and wife." I wasn't sure if she was kidding, but she finally smiled.

My buddies had ordered another round, which included one for Mary. She looked as if she was going to decline, but suddenly took the beer. "Thanks. This doesn't mean I'm taking you up on your offer though."

"It's still out there if you change your mind." She didn't say anything, just took a long drink of her beer. "Where does your son go to school?"

"Just the local community college for this year. With me and my husband separated, he decided to stay close to home."

"That sucks about your husband."

"Not really. It's been coming for a long time. We got married very young because I got pregnant and it just caught up with us as my son got older."

"Well, it still sucks."

"Thanks. What about you? No girlfriend?"

"No, in between right now."

"What kind of girl interests you?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm more interested in someone that I can have fun with."

"What kind of fun?" She had a gleam in her eye as she asked that, so I decided to see how far I could push her.

"Oh, you know. The kind of girl that likes to be adventurous."

"You mean like sky diving?" I could tell she knew what I meant.

"Exactly. Someone who will let her hair down and just get crazy."

"I know exactly what you mean. When I was in high school, I could let my hair down with the best of them." I noticed her nipples start to poke through her shirt and her cheeks had reddened slightly.

"Oh yeah. Way back in high school you say. So you don't like to be adventurous now?"

"I think about it from time to time. I like to have fantasies about getting down and dirty. Helps me go to sleep some nights."

"So, you get down and dirty yourself or do you have some help?"

Her cheeks got a deeper red, but she kept it up. "Most of the time by myself, but every once in a while I play with some toys to make it seem more real."

She chugged the rest of her beer and excused herself to the ladies room.

"Dude, she's cute. Are you going to bag her?"

"Probably not, but she is cute. And she's got a nice ass to boot."

"Yeah, a little small in the chest for my taste, but I'd do her."

"Man, you'd do anything in a skirt and gave you the time of day." I got punched in the arm and laughed. "Am I wrong?"

"Maybe not, but you're a whole lot closer tonight than I am."

"I don't think so." I looked to the bathrooms and didn't see Mary. "I'd like to, but I don't think she's really interested in more than flirting."

"Trust me dude, if you push just a little you may be surprised."

Just then we spied Mary coming our way and our conversation changed to nothing all that important. As soon as she joined us, my friend stepped to the other guys.

"Did I interrupt anything?"

"No. We were just checking out your ass." Maybe my friend was right, so I figured I'd keep up the banter.

"My fat ass? Please. I could barely fit into these pants."

"Are you serious? Your ass is fantastic. And it looks great in those jeans or those pants you wear to work. I may take up smoking just to watch you bend over."

She gave me a playful slap and was blushing again. "You're bad."

I just laughed back at her. "You interested in one more drink?"

"Sure, but I'm buying this one."

"No way. This one's on me."

I checked with my friends, but they were all done for the night, so I ordered two more and brought them back to Mary. By the time I'd gotten back my friends were all gone. When I looked around, it seemed most of the bar had emptied and I found Mary and I mostly alone in the corner.

"Seems like most of the people have the right idea. It is pretty late. I can't believe I'm still here drinking beer with you."

"It's good for you to get out once in a while."

"Yeah, that's what my ex used to tell me. Of course, he never wanted to go out with me. Just have me stay up so I could take care of him when he came home drunk." She sighed and said "There I go again, moaning about my ex." She was swirling her beer and staring at the table. "I'm sorry. I'm turning into a real bummer."

"No biggie. It must be hard to separate after being together for a long time."

"It is, but I sure don't need to burden you with my problems."

"I'm all ears if you want."

She smiled warmly and sighed. "Do you mind if I share something with you?"

"No, not at all."

She sighed again and finally looked up at me. "I haven't had real sex in about two years. My ex stopped trying after I told him I was done with being nothing but his sex toy when he was drunk."

I just watched her and when I didn't say anything she continued, but with her eyes lowered to the table.

"He used to come home late at night after drinking with his buddies, climb into bed and start to paw at me while I slept. He'd pull my pants off, spread my legs, fuck me and then roll over and fell asleep. I was left with nothing but a wet spot and the stench of stale beer and cigarettes. For a long time it was the only time we had sex. He never even tried if he was sober."

She looked up at me again. "I tried everything and nothing worked. Now I'm thirty six and separated. I took the job at the convenience store to make ends meet since the low life won't pay for anything."