Reassure her, and more dial tests

This chapter originally written by BiBiComte, minor edits by Samus1001

"Hey hey, Sophie." Sophie was still fixed on involuntarily ogling the store patrons when Caleb tapped her on the shoulder. Her head swung towards him, hair flipping across her face in that immaculate way. "It's okay if you're not a pervert like me, really. I don't judge. I actually kinda like prudent girls; they're more hard to get that way."

Sophie's face seemed to relax. She stepped back and opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "Right, of course. You know, perverts are totally not my type, anyway." Despite saying this, she was looking at the teen amiably. Indeed, her playfulness had returned, a look of relief washing her tensions away. It seemed that even if Caleb revealed to her that he embodied traits that she would deem in such a way, she still liked him and looked up to him, rather than shunning him. As if his opinion of her mattered more than her own standards.

Caleb really didn't know how that worked, but, then again, didn't everybody in some degree employ that kind of double-standard towards people they liked?

Only, in this case, he technically did pretty much nothing to earn such affection.

Wrong, he corrected himself, eyes flickering down. I found this watch. That's as much of a thing I did as anything else you could do, isn't it?

Like a fish in a barrel. Briefly he wondered what else the watch could do and how far its scope was when a staff member of the store appeared next to them.

"Hello, are you two finding everything to your satisfaction today?" she smiled professionally. 'Rachel' was scribbled on a nametag, and her ponytail hung cutely behind her. "Ma'am? Sir?" When she looked at Caleb, she tilted her head and sent a hand over her scalp. Subtle. But as proven with Sophie, there was no denying the fickle glint in her eyes as their gazes met. It really did seem like the effect emanating from the watch at the moment was basically causing people to be instantly fond of him.

"Yes," Sophie lifted up the sweater she had picked up accordingly, "Thanks."

"Actually, I was wondering," Caleb said, pushing his luck, "about your lingerie selection."

The store employee acknowledged, "Yes, sir, we have our female underwear section just over there -- "

"Would it be too much to ask you to model them for me?"

Rachel blushed. "Well, I really don't think that's a part of normal store procedure, but..." After one last glance at Caleb's face, she relented. "Of course, sir. Just give me one second."

Caleb grinned. As she walked away, he grazed her ass with his hand. She looked back and winked before continuing on her merry way.

"Oh Caleb," chuckled Sophie as she nudged him in the side, "you can be so dirty sometimes."

She was not wrong. They occupied the space by the shelf for a while, shooting the wind. Finally, after a few minutes, Rachel emerged, looking a little flustered but more or less the same as before.

When she reached Caleb and Sophie, she took her uniform top and raised it to her collar bone, showing off a lovely, lacy pink undergarment that her D-cup breasts filled just nicely. "This... this is one of our most popular brands. These measurements fit my body best. If who you have in mind shares my body shape then I'll be more than glad to point you in the right direction regarding proper measurements and sizes to get for her. And down below, here, is how the bottom part looks..." In front of Caleb, in the middle of the store, though with her back to the majority of the rest of the store which kept her actions mostly discreet, she unzipped her black trousers and spread the front flaps open slightly, showing off her panties. Pointing her finger, she showed off the fabric and style with well-trained effusiveness.

Thinking how it would be no more far-fetched than everything he'd seen so far, Caleb took a chance. He brought his hand over, tugging the employee's panties forward and pulling it out.

"Oh, my god, sir," Rachel gasped. However, she made no motion to stop him as he looked down and saw her trimmed pussy staring back at him. "That is highly inappropriate," she said. When he glanced at her face, however, she was smiling.

"And that is a very cute pussy you got there," Caleb dropped back down to the snatch below him.

"Thank you, sir."

Sophie watched patiently, a default smile coloring her lips, when finally, Caleb let the panties slap back into place. Finished with his boundary test, he let Rachel go. She stretched out a hand. As they shook each others' he felt her slip a piece of paper in his hand, and opened it to see a string of digits, which he assumed was her phone number.

Once she was gone, he looked at Sophie, who raised a brow at him. "Oh, what's that, there, playboy?"

"Nothing," he stuck it in his pocket and looked back at the girl. He made a note to punch it into his phone later. It was a crazy feeling, having everyone approve of what you did and were. He wondered what would happen if he re-adjusted the dial, as things were, right now.

The watch glistened under the ceiling lamps. Before he could make any other thoughts, he felt his hand move to the same wheel as earlier.

A few seconds later, both hands were situated before the top N like before.

Okay, he thought, if I'm understanding this correctly, this should mean that they would revert to how they formerly were... right? Caleb paused. No, wait... I originally got this watch with these hands in this same position, and Sophie was still acting weird. She was still not minding the things I did. But she also didn't seem so infatuated with me... which means...

Caleb looked up. Sophie had gone back to perusing for clothes from a nearby rack. He took a breath, and grabbed her ass, stroking it. Very punctually, Sophie reacted by slightly pushing her buttocks out, gyrating them against his hand. He was more than aroused by the time she turned back to look at him and witted, "At this point, you're probably going to end up in my pants tonight." She pulled his hand away from her ass and into her crotch -- right into the woman's most precious center. "See how wet you're making me, you dork?"

Gulping, Caleb tore away, wiping his hand on his pant leg. That wasn't something to complain about by any means. But in this case, it seemed odd that she was still displaying the same traits she only seemed privy to after he had relocated the big hand on the watch. Maybe it hadn't done anything? Maybe she really did feel this way? Or maybe this was just a natural escalation of things?

But holding on, Caleb remembered there was one other thing she did.

"Sophie." The girl turned back to face him, as he lifted up his wrist. It was worth a shot, at least. "Do you see my watch?"

She smiled. "As established, I think it looks more than good on you."

"I remember." The teen beckoned the slightly older girl over, and she came by him. "Would you take another look at it and tell me what you see?"

Sophie leaned in to look at the watch more closely. Deja vu struck Caleb. She was in nearly the same position as before, her body once again pressing against his. Her warmth and aroma were resplendent. "I see..."

A brief flash radiated from the watch, into her eyes.

Caleb's own pair widened. There it was again; so he didn't imagine it before, either. It was like something out of an old sci-fi flick!

"Sophie?" The girl remained quiet for a moment, before finally letting go of Caleb and looking back at him, a complacent look in her face.

"Yes, Caleb?"

The teen inhaled. He hoped he didn't just break something. This didn't exactly have a warranty. "Do... you feel fine? Anything different at all?"

Sophie looked at Caleb curiously, shaking her head. "I feel the same as usual. Why?"

It was hard to tell from just that admission. Going on, he prodded, "Do you remember what I said about me being perverted? What do you think about that?"

A shrug served as the young woman's response. "Well... it's not really my thing, and I would ditch the first or last man to prove himself to be a creep... but you, I mean. You do you, you know?" She smiled briefly. "In any case, I think I might be going now. After all, I already got my cousin his pesky shirt." Laughing, she began for the check-out. "Nice meeting you, um, Caleb, right?"

"Right," Caleb shook her hand, while hardening at how easily this device seemed to manipulate people's mental states. "Sophie."

It really was as he suspected... in both cases, he was accepted, only in here, it was in a fairly more passive fashion, whereas moving the hand to the bottom 'N' had made her practically kiss his ass. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She still had some fun at his expense -- but it came out of nowhere, without any set-up. It was as if she was utterly trusting of him, like Rachel had been when he asked her to come out in lingerie, despite the risk it represented towards her job. Maybe each 'N' did the same thing, only with varying intensities.

Not just that...

Caleb scrunched his nose. For some reason, the watch had produced a brief flash of light when Sophie looked at it; twice. Once after he had first moved the hand, another after he had moved it back. He wasn't sure why. What he did know was that her more proactive display of affection was retained until he had made her look at the watch again -- then she had returned to being normal. Weirdly normal. You get the picture.

Hm.

Rushing to Sophie's side, he placed his fingers against the wheel of his dial and once again moved the hand to the bottom 'N'.

Before he could say anything, she turned her head towards him and smiled. Her arm pushed onto his, leaving no space between them. Caleb once again enjoyed the feeling of her body on his own.

"Hey Sophie," he greeted.

"Hi Cal."

Breathing in, he returned the hand to the top 'N'. Without a word, Sophie's arm quietly removed itself from Caleb's, not slowing her pace or showing any sign of disorientation. They were still closer for comfort than typical for two strangers, but she didn't seem to actually be vying for his attention. Venturing his hand down, he slapped her ass. He still remained amused at her lack of reaction as she approached the check-out section, slipping into the back of the line.

"Sophie."

"Yes?" she turned to see Caleb smiling at her.

"You're really pretty, you know that?"

Smiling politely, she replied, "Thanks, Caleb, you don't have to."

"Oh, but I do. I can't help it after all, you know me."

Sophie laughed briefly. "Yeah, that's right. Not with a perverted fellow like you, I suppose."

Caleb liked the fact that she could still be friendly with him even at this gradient of the watch's effects. It felt like they were mostly the same thing; it appeared people could still form personally based opinions of him this way, but it came at a much more natural, leisurely pace. Which he was also fine with.

When Sophie had finished putting the sweater into a bag, not questioning what Caleb was doing standing with her or why, they exited the store. A beep rapped against his thigh, and the teen pulled out his phone. He had an unread text from Zack, which read,

"at the rink, where u at?"

Caleb was about to reply, when he remembered Sophie.

Grabbing her arm and gently pulling her to face him, he said, "Sophie, do you want to come to the rink with me and a couple of other friends?"

She gave the teen a capricious stare. "You're all still in high school, right?"

"Yeah, but it's all right. Besides, we could use some adult supervision."

Sophie hesitated. "Well, I was hoping to get back home in time for the new Law and Order..."

"Oh, in that case," Caleb rebounded, "you can always come to my place, too. My sister and my parents are there right now but I'm sure they wouldn't mind. I got a nice flat screen hooked up in my room."

Sophie thought it over, as if it was a reasonable proposition in the middle of the afternoon from a no-name stranger, and finally said, "How about we set something up later? I'll give you my e-mail, and we can..."

Raspberrying, Caleb said, "If you want to do that, we might as well exchange phone numbers, don't you think?"

"I -- "

"Pleease, Sophie, pleeease."

"Fine," Sophie finally agreed, hanging the strap of her bag over her shoulder. "If you want to hang out with me that bad, I guess."

As she began pulling out her phone, Caleb thought quickly. He could just convince her to come with him, and she'd likely have no issue with it -- at least not in the bigger picture of things. That said, either way, he was also feeling a little tired; maybe the rink wasn't worth it. Home and a cozy appetizer sounded pretty good. And that worked either with or without Ms. Bodeau over here.