Readers,
I have recently completed several months of medical treatment for a serious illness. I am in the recovery phase now and won't get any indication on the success or failure of the treatment for another couple of months.
I'm of the belief that the creative process is some of the best medicine and with that in mind please enjoy the following short story I wrote to reintroduce myself to my muse.
joeehartley
Neighborhood Adult Store
Joe E Hartley
May 2022
A bored Tom entered the adult store looking for some new reading material. He didn't often shop at this store, but every month or so he welcomed seeing all the sex toys and glossy magazines. He never bought any of the magazines; they were too expensive and he could get plenty of visual stimulation online for free. He did enjoy some of the erotic novels and loved to exercise his fantasy life using the printed word. He was never looking for high quality literature, but loved reading about someone else's fantasies.
The store would have been more crowed if he had come later in the evening, but he was not interested in seeing others, the patrons of stores like this tended to ignore each other much like being in an elevator. He glanced over at the racks of magazine displaying naked tits and ass and felt his arousal building as it often did when he entered this store. He walking over to the toy section and checked out the display of floggers. It have been a while since he had anyone in his life who would enjoy being flogged, but his fantasy was strong.
He soon found his way back to the paperback novel section and stared to check out the titles and cover art. He had a book in his hand reading the description on the back cover when he noticed another patron walking down the aisle near him. Normally this would be no big deal as most patrons tended to avoid each other, but normally the other patrons were male. This newcomer was not male and although not dressed to entice, the mere fact that a woman was in an adult store was erotic in itself. He checked her out--she had a nice ass. She turned allowing him to see her front side as she picked up a paperback novel.
He immediately recognized her as one of his neighbors. He quickly turned away taking the book in his hand and headed to the cashier. He hoped this neighbor hadn't recognized him as he paid for his purchase, but he did notice that she was staring at him. Suddenly she stood directly behind him and placed her item on the counter along with some cash.
She waited until he left the building, before she called out to him. "Hi Tom."
He could no longer ignore her and turned to greet his neighbor. He knew he'd been caught inside the adult store and braced himself for the usual condemnation. He'd been called a pervert before and as he turned was surprised to see her smiling. "Hi Gail."
He noticed she also carried a plain brown paper bag similar to the one he carried.
"I haven't seen you in my store before. Do you come here often?" she asked.
"Your store?" Tom responded.
Gail smiled and answered, "I call it mine since I come here often. It has become my little erotic vacation spot."
Her response surprised Tom. He'd never thought that normal women enjoyed stores like this. He knew that a lot of women enjoyed erotica but that they would not go out on their own to seek it out. "I guess I come here once a month or so to pick up a new paperback novel," he shared, "What about you? Do you like the books or the toys?"
Gail responded, "I like both, but do you know they have videos in the back that you can watch?"
"Most of these types of stores have those, but you can see videos online that are just as good and free," he shared.
