They say “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”  That was bullshit, of course, but she couldn’t deny that her line of work was never dull.  She wasn’t a workaholic by any means; she just found enjoyment in peddling porn tapes and sex toys.  She loved convincing a tired mother-of-three to buy some lingerie and flavored lube to reignite her love life or having customers come back and tell her about the sexcapades they had with items they’d purchased from her.  That said, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d stepped away for more than a weekend.  She never really felt the need.  Hell, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do than show up at the shop.  She didn’t have kids or family to spend time with.  Most of her “friends” were on her payroll… and it was those so-called friends that bullied her into finally taking a week off.

Time off was a rarity when running a business, especially one that was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and most holidays.  Someone always needed something.  Something always had to be taken care of.  People needed to be paid, orders had to be placed, and someone had to make sure that the arcades weren’t as filthy as the patrons that frequented them.  Leave the place in someone else’s hands long enough to take a break and you might return to the smoldering ashes of what you spent your entire life working towards.  She pushed back as much as she could, insisting that she was better off not taking one, but they had none of it.  The long-time managers insisted that they’d been around enough to keep the place afloat while she took some time for herself.  She eventually agreed, if only to shut them up.

The thing was that she had not the slightest idea of what to do with free time.  She wasn’t a globetrotter.  Traveling made her feel more exhausted than rested.  She didn’t have any projects to work on at home.  She rented; her landlord took care of that.  The only thing she had outside of her job… was Dude.

Against her better judgement, she reached out to him to see if he wanted to hook up.  He did, so she had to go out and pick him up.  On the way back to her place, she was telling him about how the girls peer-pressured her into taking time off.  He didn’t say much, just listened and nodded his head until he randomly asked her to pull up to this house they came across and he went inside.  Her fingers drummed the wheel as she waited for him to finish up whatever run he’d tricked her into making.  She pressed the power button on the radio to check the time.  He’d been in there for ten minutes now.  She was torn between laying on the horn and going in there herself, but he made her decision easy by stepping out with his hands deep in the pockets of his trench coat.  He slid into the passenger seat and gave her a nod.

“Do I need to ask?” she said, to which he pulled his hand out of his pocket and a baggie of caps unrolled in front of her.  The sight confused her.  She was expecting a bag of rocks.  Mushrooms were some kind of weak shit that she’d do.  “Shrooms?”

“Figured I’d be a gentleman and treat you to a trip during your time off,” he replied, tucking them back into his pocket.

His pun got a snort out of her.  She shook her head with a smile as she started the car.  He could be sweet when he wanted.

~

An hour after returning, she was already sprawled out on the bed with her head in Dude’s lap, talking a mile a minute between incessant giggles.  He just grinned as he listened to her chatter, too out of it to form words of his own.  He could get used to this cute, clingy version of her.  She had a pretty smile.  He couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen it before; not a genuine, ear to ear smile like this one.  Her resting bitch face was sexy, but seeing her so happy and carefree was like looking at a different woman.  The sensation of her soft hair on his fingers as he combed through it was unlike anything he’d ever touched.  In that moment, he would have given anything to stroke her hair forever.  It crushed him when she pulled away, but he quickly got over it when she laid atop him.  His hands found her hair again and his eyes shut as he was reabsorbed into the tactile trance.

Her big smile didn’t wane as she watched his serene expression, waiting for him to crack open those gorgeous green eyes and look at her.  She took it as a personal challenge and stared down at him for God knows how long, snickering like she was playing some master prank.  She almost gasped when her brain came up with the perfect way to get him to look at her.  She leaned in, pressing her lips to his forehead.  His eyes did shoot open, just like she predicted.

“Made you look,” she giggled, lowering her face to brush her nose against his.  He closed his eyes again and exhaled a soft huff of a laugh.

“Sure did,” he mumbled.

He could feel himself getting harder the longer they stayed tangled like this, and she could too.  Before either of them knew it, their pants were gone and they were doing the same thing, but accompanied with a languid roll of hips.  It was a far cry from the rough, brutal fucking they were both used to.  This was less for sexual gratification and more about chasing the cozy warmth of full body contact.  Something foreign to both of them.

“Had a lotta sex,” she mused.  “Nothin’ like this.  God, I can feel everything…”

Dude chuckled at this.

“Sounds like you should take more trips,” he teased.

She thought about his words.  Maybe it was the mushrooms speaking, but she couldn't help but feel like maybe she did have something worth spending her time with...