Comic book shop

Looking up, she noticed they were now making a direct line for a nearby shop, and her heart sank as she realised precisely what shop it was. The comic book shop. Oh Christ, Tanya thought, shaking slightly.

She'd been in there before, dragged in by Mitchell after he'd admitted he still read comic books. Tanya remembered snorting derisively at that announcement, but had - in her mind - demonstrated great maturity by looking past such a childish hobby and still loving Mitchell for his other fine qualities.

Quite what those fine qualities were, Tanya could not currently be drawn on.

Her impression of Mitchell's hobby hadn't improved on the one occasion she'd been in the store. The dank smell of sweaty men had not been a turn on, and she recalled feeling slightly superior to the shop's inhabitants. Of course, that was back when she was appropriately dressed. That was back when she wasn't dressed like some immature eleven year old.

Oh no, no, no!

Tanya instinctively pulled back, and tried to silently encourage Mitchell to rethink. Her embarrassment was matched only by his determination though, and within moments she found herself crossing the threshold of the shop, and into a whole new world beyond.

Any conversation that might have been happening between the half a dozen shop regulars ceased immediately as Tanya hovered into view. The sharp light of the store, and the relatively open style of the shelves and aisles, meant there she was clearly visible from all angles of the relatively small shop.

The tall red head actually towered over most of the regulars at the best of times, and there was certainly no indication that they were looking at her face now. No, their eyes were firmly fixed further south, and Tanya gave a short whimper as she resumed her futile tugging at the material.

The noise of a large book hitting the floor announced the fact that the Store Manager was now solely fixated on Tanya.

"Ahh... Mitchell?" he stammered, instinctively pushing at the pair of glasses that hung awkwardly off his face.

The rotund forty year old man wore a Superman shirt that was sharing the same struggles in covering his body as Tanya's top had in covering hers. The only difference was that his top was an extra large adult t-shirt, and had a hefty and hairy stomach to deal with. The shirt was tucked into a pair of dark black jeans, and a mop of poorly combed brown hair sat like a disgruntled ferret on his head.

Tanya resorted back to her old strategy of having one arm across her breasts, and one hand shoved down by the crotch of her panties. That this brought even more attention to her attire was the penalty for not wanting to have these guys to see what decorated her current outfit.

Of the five other people in the store, only one was a woman - a nondescript brunette in heavyset clothing that hid her figure. The Tanya of an hour ago would have recoiled from wearing what the other woman had on, but right now it seemed like the most beautiful and desirable creation of a world-class fashion designer.

Tanya yearned to hide her own exposed body behind those wonderful layers of baggy pants and jumper, and she surprised herself with a clearly audible groan of longing.

The sound of her own uncontrolled reaction served only to embarrass her more, and her face was steadily turning a beetroot red.

Mitchell was already walking up to the front counter, where the manager stood slack jawed in his appraisal of Tanya. Scuttling after him, she heard Mitchell open up by asking immediately for some weird Batman collectable.

Distracted as he was by checking out Tanya's lame attempts at covering up, the manager initially didn't react to Mitchell's attempts at conversation. It took some clicking of fingers in front of his face, and several coughs from Mitchell, before he reluctantly dragged his attention of the beautiful, severely under-dressed redhead standing nervously in front of him.

"Wh... what is it..." he looked with unfocussed eyes at the man in front of him, a man whose name he should easily remembered, and yet struggled to think of who he actually was.

"Mitchell." Mitchell supplied, helpfully.

The manager nodded silently, and then shook his head. "And... umm, what are you after?!"

Tanya tried to listen in on the conversation, if only as it meant she didn't have to deal with the fact that everyone in the store was just standing there are staring at her. Even the other woman was watching her, although Tanya could get a sense of resentment steaming off her. Was she the alpha female in this store - hell, the _only_ female in the store - and threatened by what she saw? Tanya would gladly swap with her in a heartbeat.

Mitchell was explaining again what he wanted, and the manager and just gathered his wits enough to quote a price back.

"$250!" Mitchell exclaimed. Even while dealing with her own acute sense of exposure, she detected a hint of disappointment in Mitchell's voice.

"Ahh... I can't afford $250." Mitchell said, ruefully. Silence reigned for a few moments longer. While Tanya dealt with everyone running their gaze over the skimpy pink clothing, and dawdling over her exposed legs and stomach, Mitchell only had eyes for a large Batman figurine posed in some kind of weird fight scene.

Mitchell looked longingly at what Tanya could only classify as a toy, and then back up at the store manager.