Hello! This is the second part of Foxbutt - you can find the first part
here
or just check my profile.
The story continues as Thomas arrives for work. This is my first-ever furry story and I'm posting it here to gather pre-release feedback. I hope you enjoy it!
He's gonna be late for work,
thinks Lily Williams, a 22-year-old customer service representative who believes that the term "customer service representative" is bullshit nonsense for corporate sociopaths, and prefers, depending on her mood, the terms "Register monkey," "Game wrangler," "Nerd herder," or "She who stalks the stockroom and brings forth treasures, speak not her name for it is not for clumsy mortal tongues." Lily, like most people, is an unremarkable human except to those who get to know her, and at this moment she is cursing at the vacuum cleaner.
She is cursing at the vacuum cleaner because the fucking cheap mass-produced plastic piece of planned-obsolescence garbage has shit the bed yet again, making it the third vacuum cleaner to die this year, and it is only July for fuck's sake, and corporate has Opinions about which vacuum cleaners stores should be equipped with, even though they've spent more money on cheap throwaway junk than they would have spent on a proper industrial machine with some decent oomph behind it and you can't kill a shopvac even if you're really trying.
The vacuum cleaner is actually a midrange model designed fairly competently, but Lily Williams, nerd herder, age 22, single, frustrated and about to have a very interesting day, has killed it by taking out the filter, inspecting it carefully, somehow failing to notice an inch-thick carpet of fox fur clinging to it, muttering "Well the filter's fine, must be the motor," and putting it back in.
She cannot be blamed for this, as nobody can see a fox, or indeed much of anything that would give away that someone is a fox, unless they're looking
really closely
and thinking
really hard.
And Lily has, to be fair to her, been looking very closely at a fox, and thinking fairly intensely about him too, but these things are complicated and inconsistent and nobody really knows how the whole thing works, just like this vacuum cleaner.
She is not thinking about a fox right now, but she was last night. Last night, she watched Thomas' bottom as he walked towards the door to lock it, and did not notice the tail swishing between his legs - but something did give the sensation of movement, in the corners of her vision, and she blinked a couple of times before looking away guiltily, her eyes strangely watering.
While driving home she thought about biting that bottom, and while lying in bed she thought about how it would feel against her tightly squeezing hands, tensing and relaxing as Thomas moved between her legs.
She allowed these thoughts to come to the forefront of her mind, rather than suppressing them as inconvenient fantasies to be having about a coworker, because she received news last week that she was to be promoted to manager and moved to a brand new store opening in the next county over, barely two miles away - with almost immediate effect, should she accept. When she got the news, she immediately thought of how much she would miss Thomas, which was a very big clue that she should spend some time with him outside of work and therefore not have the opportunity to miss him as much. Also, as their relationship would no longer be a professional one, it was now okay to spend some time thinking about how his cock would feel against her tongue.
"Fucking work you bastard!" exclaims Lily, running the vacuum cleaner back and forth over the same dusty spot. The beater brush happily picks up the dust, spins it around, and puts it back down on the floor again, content with a job well done. The motor continues its high-pitched whine. Its coils are becoming very hot and the motor will soon begin to smoke unless Thomas opens the door and distracts Lily from this pointless endeavor, which he conveniently does now.
"Hey, you made it," says Lily, over the dying whine. "I was about to call."
"Sorry," says Thomas, turning his back to her to lock the door behind him, to the disappointment of the line of customers patiently waiting outside. "I got held up even before I got out the door."
"Well, we've only got a few minutes left and we're down another vacuum cleaner."
"Again?" asks Thomas, crestfallen. "What are they
making
these things out of?" he asks as he walks over to her, looking down at the vacuum cleaner. He suddenly pauses midstep, eyes widened - Lily is about to comment when Thomas seems to shake it off and continues onward, saying "That's the third one this year, isn't it?"
"Third of many, probably," says Lily, watching Thomas walk behind the counter.
"If you want me to run out and grab a new one at lunch once we've dealt with these guys, then -"
"We won't have time," says Lily with a shake of her head. "It'll have to wait until tomorrow. We can go a day with a dusty floor, it'll be alright." She looks into a blank television, at the reflection of the customers waiting outside -
never make direct eye contact with the horde until it's time to open.
"The carpet's gonna be a warzone in half an hour anyway." As she watches, the television comes to life, Thomas hurriedly turning things on.
"I've never worked a release this big before," says Thomas, heading back out from behind the counter and towards the rack opposite Lily.
"That's okay," says Lily with a grin, "
nobody
has. The whole world's learning together, today."
She feels a warm glow beneath her bellybutton when Thomas smiles and replies "Thanks for your reassurance." Behind him, a stack of games falls off the shelf and clatters into an untidy floorheap. He turns around quickly - "Oh, damn it."
Lily frowns. "What the hell?"
"I'm on it," mutters Thomas, picking the games up.
"These damn cheap-ass shelves," groans Lily, unplugging the vacuum cleaner and retracting the cord. "Just have a quick look at the brackets, make sure the whole thing isn't about to fall down."
"Sure," says Thomas weakly as Lily wheels the vacuum behind the counter and into the stockroom.
"You remember what I said last week," she calls back over her shoulder, eyeing the endless stacks of the year's soon-to-be best seller. She stashes the vacuum cleaner and heads back out. "We've got the smallest retail space and the biggest stockroom of any branch within forty miles. That makes us the designated whipping boy." She leans over the counter, watching Thomas picking up the fallen games. Another sneaky glance at his ass, of course. The boy must be a jogger. "About lunchtime, other stores nearby will have depleted their stock."
"And all the players within an hour of here will start converging on us," says Thomas, straightening up.
"We're gonna suck 'em in like a black hole," says Lily, coming around the counter and towards Thomas, "so we won't have time to think." She pulls her phone out, checks the time. Not much.
She surprises herself by taking Thomas gently by the shoulders. "Tom, I have some news, and very little time to tell you before there won't be time for anything at all."
Am I holding him? Shit, what am I doing?
"I'm being promoted to manager of a store a couple miles away. The schedule's been messed around and Molly's going to be working with you more often from now on, because I go in for briefing
tomorrow.
"
She watches Thomas' eyes widen. "That's -" he hesitates.
"You're happy for me, I know," says Lily. "I'm sad that we won't be coworkers anymore."
Thomas swallows, his eyes shining. "Me too," he nods.
"I'm going to miss you," she says, quietly, but quickly.
"I'm - I'll miss you too, Lily," he says, his eyebrows doing a very cute thing, surprise and elation for her success and sadness all mixing together to overwhelm him.
"I'd like to not miss you," says Lily, "and we won't have time to talk today and I'm all hyped-up so I'm just gonna ask you now if you'd like to go out on a date with me tonight, if you're free?"
Thomas blinks. He exhales, and laughs, all at once - "Yes! Sure, that sounds awesome! Where?"
"I have no idea," says Lily, grinning, "we can figure that out later. Now we have to open up, get your ass behind the counter."
"Yes ma'am!" giggles Thomas, bounding over behind her with a spring in his step as she moves towards the door. The customers stare at her, perking up, checking the time on their phones.