Customer Satisfaction [COMPLETE]

The Magic Word

"Jess, you're exaggerating!" Kate guffawed, hoisting her bag higher over her back and shivering slightly when the wind ruffled her too-short waitressing skirt. Jess was doing an impression of a guy who she claimed had had his eyes glued to Kate's butt throughout their night shift without Kate realizing. They  were walking back home after a long day of college, some shopping, followed by their night shift at their job.

"I'm homing into your ass...wait...I'm getting a signal--" Jess said, a hand to her temple, her eyes huge and fixed at Kate's butt. Kate howled.

"It wasn't that bad!"

"I believe your ass is trying to communicate with me!" she jumped excitedly, turning around Kate as they turned, earning dirty looks from an old couple.

Laughing, they stopped in front of a bookstore where Mark worked part time, and after a few moments, Mark ran out to catch them, looking tired but cheery. He gave Jess and hug and a kiss, and then slung an arm around Kate's shoulder, staring in confusion at Jess when she evaded his arm, continuing to stare at Kate's ass as they walked home. "What's up?"

"It has its own gravitational pull." Jess exclaimed, "I swear it."

He raised his brows, "Something I should know about you?"

"Only that I'm awesome?"

Mark rolled his eyes at Kate.

The three of them stopped to get ice cream cones, and then licked as they walked, Jess and Kate shivering even more with the combination of chilly wind and the ice cream. Mark looked between them and then at his one hoodie, and then shrugged, walking ahead. Gasping in exaggerated outrage, Kate and Jess walked behind him, trying to get him to give his hoodie.

"I'm not going to suffer just because I was sensible enough to dress appropriately."

"We have to wear these tiny costumes at work while you get to walk around in a hoodie." Jess said theatrically, "It's sexism. Are you going to take advantage of your male privilege while your girlfriend shivers in the cold?"

"Perhaps my girlfriend should find a job that doesn't objectify her beauty. But, oh, right, objectification pays." Mark sneered, only to have both Kate and Jess narrow their eyes at him and step forward. Realizing he was cornered, he turned around, laughing and running away. A few footsteps away, he threw his hoodie at Jess, who shrugged it on and turned to Kate with open front. "Want to share?"

"Oh, no!" Kate raised her hands, "I'd rather not be so close to his body odor, thank you."

"Excuse me. I smell great." Mark said, as Jess snuggled into his hoodie and ran to hug him around the waist like a tree, and they turned towards Kate's hotel. It was only a two minute walk from there.

"You didn't in childhood."

Mark grimaced, "Ah...what fine weather we're having." he said in a loud voice.

Kate grinned and stopped, looking around. "I can take it from here." Kate assured, suppressing a shiver and licking the ice cream just the same. She waved at them and turned to walk away, and saw them snuggling in the cold and watching her. They would watch her until she turned safely in the corner, and she turned to grin at them in affection, feeling a slight pang of awe at how beautiful they looked together, pink cheeked and happy.

Her ankle twisted on a sheet of frozen rain water. There was a blaring horn and a flashing light, and with pinwheeling arms, she found herself falling on the hood of a screeching car, which came to an abrupt halt, catapulting her onto the road.

Her ice cream splattered on the ground and her arms scraped, and she blinked, her mouth opened in a gasp, stunned.

She heard Jess and Mark yelling, and blinked furiously, sitting up, her mind spinning.