What's next?

A firm deal

"Look." Mitchell said, Mitcheller-of-factly, "We don't have that kind of money." One last glance at the limited edition collectible that lay so close, and yet so far from his grasp, was all it took for Mitchell to make up his mind on what needed to happen next.

"However..." he said, slowly, with a side-ways look at a red-faced Tanya. "Perhaps we could, well, ahh, come to an arrangement?"

Mat looked meaningfully at the manager, and when the man's eyes swivelled back to his scantily-clad girlfriend, the beginnings of an agreement began to form in the silence.

Slowly catching on to the implication, Tanya became even more nervous.

"Umm.. guys... what... what are you talking about?!"

Mitchell leaned closer to the manager, and the two of them suddenly dived into a short, urgent, and whispered conversation.

Tanya tried to nervously smile at the others, and in particular the sensibly dressed other woman, who had withdrawn back slightly and was partly obscured by some shelves.

"Ahh, hi?" Tanya said, with a small hand wave that was careful not to move that hand too far from where she needed it to cover her most private of regions.

Several of the guys tried to stammer a greeting in response, and Tanya could see some of them were as nervous as she felt. Tanya almost felt good at that. As the realisation that they couldn't string words together with her standing there, she even had the faintest feeling of reassurance.

That reassurance lasted all of ten seconds, before Mitchell suddenly turned around to face her again.

"Good news sweetheart. Tommy here is going to give us the figurine for only $25. An absolute bargain!" Mitchell seemed delighted with this change in fortunes. Behind him, Tommy the manager's face leaned around Mitchell and gave her a sickly grin.

After a couple of seconds of confusion, Tanya quietly said "Really? He's going to drop the price $225?!"

"Well," Mitchell conceded, "I can't take all the credit for this great bargain. You had a role to play as well!"

Tanya grimaced at that. "So let me get this straight, because I've walked in here and absolutely fucking humiliated myself, and made myself look like a little girl for these... weirdos... they're going to give us a 90% discount?"

Mitchell looked wounded on behalf of his friend behind the counter.

"Certainly not, sweetheart!" Mitchell chided her, "Tommy here is a small business owner. Tommy can't afford to give us a 90% discount just because you make a decision to let me choose your wardrobe."

Treating Tommy to a friendly hand gesture, Mitchell continued with "That's hardly fair on him, is it!"

Tanya fell silent in confusion, and began to feel slightly bad for calling these people weirdos. As Tanya's shoulders drooped in resignation at her current situation, she quietly mumbled an apology for her insulting language.

"That's right. Tommy can't give a 90% discount just because a sexy woman comes in to his store in sexy clothing." Mitchell said, pausing for a few seconds before concluding on, "however, he _can_ give a 90% discount if a sexy woman comes into his store in sexy clothing, and he and his regulars can spank that sexy woman on her fine curvy ass five times each!"

Tanya simply stood there for a minute, her jaw dropping open, and her hands falling down to her side. For those sixty seconds, all thoughts of covering up was lost on her. For that unreal moment, Tanya's world began to spin around her.