The Naked Consumer

"So which shops are you going to? Presumably not the clothes stores" Bethany laughed, apparently amused by her own wit, even if Ellie wasn't "Seriously, you must save a fortune on clothing. And I guess you never have to worry about staying on trend. I mean, nudity never goes out of fashion, right? Haha!"

"Like I said, I hope to be cured of this soon" Ellie repeated tetchily.

But the truth was, she didn't know when or even if James was ever going to free her from this fucking command. He seemed to be enjoying it way too much, and theoretically there was nothing to stop him from leaving her like this for life. He could even make her think it was as normal as everyone else did if he wanted.

Doing this to her was, of course, very shitty of him and far from loving, But in the context of the curse and all of it's potential powers it was hardly monstrous either. Ellie had seen way, way worse done to her mother back when she was a teenager. And James had put in plenty of safeguards to keep Ellie safe, comfortable and prevent her from becoming too much of a public spectacle. It was also the only thing he had used the curse for so far. He hadn't tried a single other thing. Which told Ellie this was strangely important to him. though she couldn't fathom why. He had seen her naked before. He would have seen her naked again, with or without the curse. So why did everybody else have to as well?

"What stores are you heading to?" Ellie asked Bethany, **** for any excuse to lose her.

"The mall, I have a few different shops to visit" her unwanted companion answered.

"Oh right, I was just stopping at the grocery store right here" Ellie lied.

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you around then. Kind of hard to miss you, haha!"

Bethany was even more annoying to Ellie when she was naked than when she was clothed. She was relieved she was able to give her colleague the slip, but needed to go into the store and linger there for a while to ensure the deception stuck. It was strange, walking into a new and different kind of environment gave Ellie a sudden, sharp reminder of just how naked she was. Like it was her first time being nude in public all over again.

For reasons she couldn't account for, being in here like this felt even more jarring to Ellie than walking outside had done.The temperature in the store, where some food needed to be naturally chilled, was very noticeably cooler against Ellie's completely exposed skin than the warm early summer weather outside had been, and didn't feel particularly comfortable.

She decided, though, that since she was here she may as well get some shopping done. There were a few things she needed to pick up, and perhaps bringing back some evidence to James that she had done more than just walk around the block might go some way to fulfilling his mystery criteria of "giving this a chance" and convince him to let her have her clothes back. How desperately she missed them!

Having filled a basket with the few items she wanted, Ellie made for the check out.

It was only when the cashier started ringing up her purchases that Ellie realised, with horror, that she didn't have her purse or any cash with her. The idea of walking around naked with a bag or purse felt so absurd that Ellie hadn't even thought about bringing one. As if being naked in the grocery store wasn't embarrassing enough already, not being capable of paying for her items was only going to add on another layer of humiliation.

"I'm really sorry. I just realised I forgot to bring my purse" Ellie apologised, attempting to get ahead of the problem.

"It looks like you forgot everything" the woman behind the counter laughed "I'm just kidding, Miss Janus. The store has an arrangement with your partner on account of your unique situation. It's not like you can have pockets like a normal person. And I guess you would look pretty strange walking around like that with a bag on your shoulder, right?"

Normal person? Strange? Ellie decided to let those go since at least it seemed she would be able to pay without further embarrassment. But what was James doing setting up an arrangement for her with the grocery store? Just how long was he planning on keeping this going? And how many people was he discussing her nudity with? After putting through all her purchases, the store clerk picked up the phone.

"Hello? This is the grocery store. I have your partner here with me. She has bought a few things and they come to a total of thirty six dollars and forty two cents after tax. Are you happy to pay that over the phone?"

It seemed he was, and Ellie was soon on her way home with a carrier bag in either hand. She really didn't want to see James right now. He was probably jacking off at the thought of her having been shopping naked. But she had nowhere else to go, especially while she was stuck like this. But, curse or no curse, she was going to have a serious talk with her partner when she got back.