Alison reports for work

Alison inspected herself in the mirror, pleased with the effect of her blond curls framing her face. She wore a tight tank that clung to her lithe torso and accentuated her small breasts and her legs were encased in tight, fashionably ragged jeans. She pulled a zippered hoodie over the top and grabbed her backpack.

She was eager to get to her customer tonight. Since joining Brenda she hadn't worked a lot, partly because initially she wanted to take things slowly and then from schedule conflicts. In the meantime, Brenda had recruited some other girls, and as a result, Alison hadn't had a babysitting date in over two weeks.

"Dad, I'm ready!" she called as she closed her bedroom door. "You can still give me a ride, right?"

"Be right there," her father's voice called from the basement, as her mother looked up from the television.

"You have your homework, don't you?" her mother asked. "I thought you were planning to stay home tonight."

"I was, but this was a last minute panic. Their sitter was sick or something and cancelled and they were ****. They practically begged me."

"Well, just try and get some studying done."

"I'm good to go," her father said as he came up the stairs, jingling his car keys as he opened the front door and smiled at her. "Will you need me to pick you up afterwards?"

"No, that's ok, they said they'd give me a ride home when I'm done," Alison smiled as she flounced out of the house and towards the family SUV.

When he dropped her off Alison scrambled out of the vehicle and waved to her father before scampering up the pathway to the Shute house. A plump woman who could only be Mrs. Shute opened the door with a smile.

"You must be Alison, thank you so much for coming at such short notice. My husband only told me this afternoon that he was taking me out to dinner. Men, they never think to tell you anything ahead of time," she laughed ruefully. "Do you have a boyfriend Alison? No? Well you'll learn soon enough what they can be like. Can't live with them and can't live without them, right?"

Alison smiled at the woman, then glanced up to see a tall, handsome man in his thirties coming downstairs, his eyes flickering over her and obviously liking what he saw.

"This is the wonderful Alison who has been kind enough to save our evening out," Mrs. Shute said with chuckle. "You really should give us all more notice when you plan a surprise dear."

"I'm sorry, I guess things got away from me. But it's all worked out perfectly," he said, smiling and squeezing Alison's hand in greeting. She gave him a shy smile back, intrigued by his looks, and feeling even happier about being assigned work for the evening.