Five Minute Girl, Chapter 3 (Patreon)

When the series was over, John activated Erica and went to bed. She went over to the window to watch the occasional passerby during the long boring night. Something was off. It wasn’t until the middle of the night that she could put her figurative finger on it. John had not talked during the show. He was always talking awkwardly around her as if she might join him in conversation. Tonight had been different. She hoped that wasn’t going to become an issue between them. This was the first time in ages she had felt remotely human.

She lost track of time as she fretted and she did not hear John walk up and activate her.

“Morning,” he said. “I've showered. We'll leave for the store soon.”

“Great, I'll get out of these pj's.” She went to the bedroom where there was a drawer of her clothes. She removed her pj's and then picked out clothes for the ride to work. She brought them into the living room before getting dressed in case she needed to be reactivated.

She was half-dressed when she froze. John must not have been paying attention as it took him a few minutes to reactivate her. That was unusual. Had she done something? She could not imagine what. Maybe it was something he expected that she had not done? She really had no clue.

When she could move she decided not to bring up her concerns yet. She waited until they were in the car. After he pulled out of the parking space, she said, “You never said what you thought of the show last night.”

“It was good,” he said.

She paused as he usually followed such a statement with a long speech about some aspect of the show. Nothing. “I thought Jan was going get killed.”

“Yeah, that would have been poetic.”

She froze before she could continue and he did not reactivate her until they arrived at the shop. In the store, she went to his office as he picked out clothes for her to wear. When he returned she was frozen. The phone rang and he answered it without restoring her. He had wondered if part of her curse was that owners would lose interest in her over time. Maybe he had been right.

He hung up and said, “Oh, I thought you were dressed.” He reactivated her. “When you are ready, you know where to go.” He left the room.

“Yeah, um, no problem,” she said. She got dressed and put herself in the store window. The morning passed quietly. The first couple days John would stop by and just talk about something unimportant. Today she had not heard his voice at all.

At the end of the day, John spoke to her. “There's a weekend sale so I'm going to leave you here at least until Monday. You said yourself you didn’t want to be living on my couch, right? Okay, I'll talk to you Monday.”

The weekend passed at its normal pace for Erica. It was her first time over night in this store and she was hoping it would not be boring. Instead it just made her wonder. It was good that she was not sitting on John's couch. He needed to have a life without her taking up his time. This was how it always was.

Monday came and John was in the store, she could hear him. He did not greet her when he arrived. He seemed a bit grouchy.

On Wednesday, around lunch time, Shelly appeared beside her, “Hi, you want to go to lunch?” After a second, she added, “Oh, yeah,” and then pressed the button.

“Sure,” Erica said. “I assume you mean now. Lead the way.”

Shelly led the way to the break room. It wasn't occupied but there was food in bags that had been delivered. “I can't believe I forgot the button. I thought about what to say a hundred times.”

“It's no big deal. Just understand I don't really eat much.”

“I know. John said as much.” She closed the door. “What did you do to John?”

“What?”

“He's all mopey like someone told him his dog died. Was he like the last time you were at his place?”

“Nothing unusual. But, in the morning he was rather cold. He's been cold to me ever since.”

Shelly pulled out a sandwich and gave half to Erica. “Well something must have happened. Describe what happened that night.”

They ate as Erica tried to recall the details of the night they finished watching the show. After a few pointed questions from Shelly and a couple button presses, Shelly sudden started nodding.

“What is it?”

“You sat on the couch and froze before he got there, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“He said something to me about you snuggling up to him the nights before.”

“I'm not following.”

“John loves you.”

“No, he doesn't. That's impossible.”

“Well, maybe not love but it could easily get there. You're like the ultimate damsel in distress because you potentially need rescuing every five minutes. He's got a really big Galahad complex. He wants to save people and today people don't want saving.”

“I still don't see how this applies to watching TV.”

“He thinks you rejected him. And I suspect he's trying to maintain his distance out of respect.”

Aptly, Erica froze before she could reply.

“Think about it a minute,” Shelly said, as she resumed eating her sandwich. After a moment, she pressed the button.

“Well, that might be true.”

“You rejected him?”

“I had to. I'm a mannequin. Not a girlfriend.”

“Not to him.”

“But, how would that even work? We couldn't go out together. We couldn't...”

“Why couldn't you go out together? People can make things work.”

“I don't want people seeing me like that.”

“People see you as a mannequin all the time.”

“Yeah, but when they do they’re expecting to see a mannequin. No one expects to see a mannequin at a restaurant. Or at a show.”

“For those people, it's none of their business.”

Erica did not reply.

“In any case, apologize to him and give him a try. Because he's miserable like this. I'm certainly miserable being around him.” She finished her sandwich and cleaned up the garbage.

“I don't know.”

“At least get it out in the open. Him sulking all day is killing me and Tamika. Just freeze yourself and wait here. I'll send him in when he gets back.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Now, freeze so I can leave knowing where you are.”

She froze. Shelly left. Maybe an hour passed before John entered, “There you are. Shelly said you wanted to talk to me.” He reached over and pressed the button.

She kissed him. She kissed him until he started kissing back.

When they separated, he said, “What was that?”

“Shelly tells me you've been avoiding me because you want to fall in love with me or something. I thought you'd reject my kiss.”

“Why would I reject it? You're beautiful, funny. You really know how to listen. And you don't lecture.”

“And you can control me.”

“Well, yes, I can. Someone has to. That's kind of a downside really. But, it's something that I'd like to see if we can get past.”

“So why did you get so aloof?”

“You made it clear you wanted a business arrangement with an occasional TV binge. If I continued doing that it would have been torturous. I had to protect myself. Stick strictly to business.”

“You could have asked.”

“You work for me. I can't date my employee.”

“You don't pay me. I'm not an employee. I'm property.”

“That just makes it sound perverse.”

She laughed. “Shelly says we should at least try. I think it's insane. We can't go to dinner. People would stare.”

“So?”

“So?”

“Yeah, so?” He said. “Let 'em stare. Maybe you wouldn't feel so alone if people knew about you.”

“Or maybe I'd become a government lab experiment.”

“Do you think your situation can get worse? They could cure you, maybe.”

She shook her head. “We're getting way ahead of ourselves.”

“We are. Let's just finish today. We'll go home tonight and we can figure what we do from there.”

“Okay.”

John spent the rest of the day apologizing to the staff for being such a grump.

At home, after dinner, they sat on the sofa. “What have you been watching without me?” She said.

“I’ve been playing video games. I just didn’t feel like starting something.”

“Without me?”

“Maybe.”

Ironically, she froze up just then. He quickly pressed the button.

“If we are going to do this,” she said. “You have to not get a panicked look on your face when I freeze. You don’t have to drop everything to press the button. I’ll be fine for a ten seconds instead of five seconds. Frankly, I’ll be fine for months instead of days.”

“I couldn’t be around you frozen for a month.”

“We’ll have to work on that.”

“Why? You want me to ignore you for a month.”

“There’s a difference between you being too busy and you ignoring me. I don’t want you to get hurt because you prioritize my mobility over safety. When I’m a mannequin, I’m somewhat indestructible.”

“I’ll try to remember that.”

They cuddled up on the couch and started watching a new show. When John got tired, he said, “I guess you don’t get tired.”

“I’m usually not active enough to get tired. If you need to go to bed, I’ll just rest in the window.”

John hesitated a moment before saying, “Do you want to come to bed with me?”

“Are you sure? It’s not like I’m soft and warm at night.”

“Cuddling on the sofa with you feels nice. I’m sure the bed will, too.”

“Okay.” They got up and went to his bedroom. She had been here before. Her clothes were stored here. But, she had never considered sleeping here. “Which side is mine?”

“Doesn’t matter to me. I’ll be right back.”

She got into bed on the right side and lied down on her side facing the bathroom door. As she expected she froze before he came back.

John turned out the light and climbed into bed beside her. He pressed her button. “Do you want to spoon?”

“Okay.” She turned over and he put his arms around her.

“Good night, Erica,” he said.

“Good night, John.”

He had her snuggled in close when she froze herself. The night passed peacefully. She enjoyed feeling his warm breath on her neck. And morning came, she felt a certain part of him pressing into her back. It had been a long time since she’d felt one of those hard things touching her.

His started moving, he hand reach over her and groped her breast. She had always thought she enjoyed having her clothes changed because of her mannequin nature. Could it really just have been because the clothes and the person’s hands were touching her. His hand on her breast reminded her that being touched could be very sensual.

His lips brushed against her button and she unfroze. “How was your night?” He said.

“Comforting,” she said, rolling over to face him. “I also enjoyed being groped in the morning.”

“I could grope you all day. I mean. I mean…”

“I would love for you to grope me all day. But, we have to get to work.”

They kissed for a moment and then got up to get ready for the day.

Around noon, Shelly liberated Erica from the store window to have lunch together. Tamika followed them into the break room.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Shelly said.

“What did I do?”

“I have no idea. Whatever it was, John has been floating on Cloud Nine all morning.”

“It’s true,” Tamika said. “John get lucky last night?”

“We can’t do that.”

“Have you tried?”

“No.”

“Then you don’t know.”

“Ladies, you can’t all be on break together,” John said from the break room door. “Enough pumping Erica for information and more working.”

“I’ll leave,” Tamika said. “It’s Shelly’s lunch time.”

“You really know how to kill a room,” Shelly said to John.

“It’s a gift.”

“I didn’t mind,” Erica said. “I haven’t had a friend in decades.”

“Well, you have several, now,” Shelly said. “I’m done eating. John, take care of the mannequin.”

“Don’t call her that.”

“Look.”

Erica was frozen.