Staff Discount
#19 of Hockey Hunk Season 3
How has the world lived on without Rory?
Hehhey, and welcome to reading The Hockey Hunk once more! Another fun chapter here, I hope, and with some extra length for the fun of it! *smiles*
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Have a fun read y'all!
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Both Mason's ears and his tail flicked sharply at the sight of me, so strongly in fact that he almost dropped his omnipresent earplugs with that quick flap of both of his pointed ears. I could definitely see the surprise at the sight of me all over his eyes.
"Come on!" Marge waved her paw at the frat wolf again.
It felt slightly...odd...to be seeing Mason again. The last time we had been in touch was on that night after the miserable date night out, and Mason had been also hopelessly drunk during our slurred phone conversation. The mystery of the wolf persisted, though it had understandably taken a very...subdued quality in my mind that was more preoccupied with other pressing matters.
I couldn't deny the little nervous flicker in my belly while Mason approached our gaggle of shop staff with unhurried steps. The customers were starting to give us looks, too, but I don't think anyone cared, especially not Marge and Crystal who both had their paws and hands, respectively, on my shoulders, as if to prop me up.
"Hey!" I said, a broad smile all across my muzzle, by the time Mason was close enough for polite conversation and ritualistic greetings to happen.
Mason unplugged his ears and stuffed the little nubs and the cable into his breast pocket, the very same that also held the little "YOU'RE BEING SERVED BY: MASON" pin on it as well. He proceeded to shove his paws into his pants pocket as soon as he was finished.
"Hi," Mason rumbled.
I didn't know quite what to think of that, but I kept on smiling. There still wasn't evidence about Mason not wanting to talk with me. This was his usual frat boy behavior, I thought.
"Come on!" Marge's tail flapped about in a pretty good Indiana Jones impression. "Show some love for the fallen!"
Mason's face easily twisted into a "LOLWHUT?" expression that was probably reflected on my own muzzle, briefly, though I was determined to keep on smiling through whatever insanities my coworkers were planned or were going to improvise for my amusement.
The wolf's bushy tail tickled his own calves while he looked at me from a few feet away, probably trying to decide what to say in reaction to what Marge was telling him to do.
"Everything going nicely with you?" I asked politely.
"Sure it is!"
That wasn't Mason speaking, though but Alex, who declared it in a cheerfully bark that made my ears jump with surprise. The black Lab waddled his way over to the wolf and placed a casual arm over the wolf's shoulders, just like that. Mason's ears flicked sharply.
"Mr. Stephens has been sucking on me like a sponge," Alex grinned in that way that was meant to warm up the whole room with love and harmony and energy, but made me feel more like someone had decided to shove an un-lubricated urinary catheter into my bladder all suddenly.
I almost coughed.
"Seriously," Alex patted Mason's shoulder, the one under his paw, "I've been teaching young Mason here everything he ever needs to know about retail, and he's been taking it all by heart."
Mason snuffled and looked even more embarrassed than before.
"Uh...thanks for the tips," the wolf rumbled.
Alex's tail went flap flap flap over his enviously firm butt cheeks and only added to the manic impression the black Lab gave.
"If only I could lure you to come to karaokespinning with me, I could give you some extra tips on how to especially work your magic with the ladies...and gentlemen, if the need arises," Alex smirked.
Crystal nickered.
"Hey!" the mare muttered and left my side to walk over the Mason.
I watched in awe as she grabbed Alex's paw and pushed it away, only to replace her own arm over Mason's shoulders as she squeezed the wolf against her own about a foot taller, thin frame. Alex's eyes widened with surprise, and Mason let out a soft grunt.
"My wolfy here needs no extra tips on how to work his magic," Crystal bared her buck teeth briefly and let the pink tip of her tongue flash between them, just for extra emphasis. "I'm all ears..."
Marge chuckled by me and curled her arm carefully across the small of my back, just above the thick base of my surprise-paralyzed tail.
"Well if you're having the wolf, I'm going to secure myself a piece of this cat right here," Marge purred.
Alex rubbed his chin and let his head dip against it as he surveyed the sight of the two new pairings taking place right in the front of his very eyes. I wondered whether he knew what it felt like to be the extra wheel, and this was definitely looking like one of those situations.
"Oh, Marge, but what would Goggy say?" the Lab sounded outraged.
I just kinda stood there and waited for this to pan out, with minimal involvement from me. I didn't want to end up in a situation where I would have to try to hobble my way out of things. I wasn't quite ready for dramatic sitcom dashes just yet.
Marge purred and tapped my left crutch with the tip of her tail.
"He'd say that as long as my paws don't go below his waist..." she said and then patted my bad hip, very softly, that was, though still enough to make me gasp with surprise at the contact, which probably made it look a bit...suspicious in the eyes of the on-lookers, "...it's alright..."
Marge tilted her head and made a sensual face, and I kinda smiled back, though I tried not to provoke her again into even further acts of embarrassment.
Alex didn't have the time for a retort, though, because a coughing noise caused all of our ears, and subsequently, our heads to turn into one direction, which was behind me and Marge.
Two vixens were standing there, both clad in dark coats of undetermined color. They clutched recently removed gloves and handbags in their paws, and the strange sense of identical quality was only highlighted by the presence of mirrored frowns on their muzzles.
I almost dropped my crutches.
There was no mistaking these women. I had served them once before, recently, and I had to face the nightmare of everyone working in retail...the question of telling someone that you didn't have the product the customer wanted, and even though you promised that you would have the product soon, the customers promised to never come shop here again.
And here they were...probably armed to the...teeth with demands about the publication of the next Adalmina Woolsworth novel.
"What is happening here?" one of the foxes, the one with the sharper nose, I think, spoke in a shrill voice. "Why is there no service but all the staff is gathered here doing God knows what?"
Well, they had a point, kinda. Why on Earth was the entire staff of the bookstore standing there right in the middle of the shop floor, practically blocking the counter and the main path into the back of the store with our group of entangled furs in red and black uniforms and guilty expressions on more than one face?
I wondered whether Alex could claim this off as a team spirit -building exercise gone haywire. It sounded like something he could say.
He still wouldn't have the chance.
"Good day!" Marge let go of me and spun around at record speed, quick enough so that her tail smacked my knee when she did so. "I apologize for the inconvenience, we were simply celebrating a private matter here at the Albrecht Brothers."
The foxes did not look impressed.
Marge made a good effort at happyhappy-smiling at them, though.
"You're very welcome to the Albrecht Brothers, and to ensure the best service to you, Alex will be your personal shopper for the duration of your stay," Marge spoke, her smile so broad that it was almost toothy. "Alex, would you please step forward?"
I had to bite back my own smile as I spied the surprised expression on Alex's face. Nonetheless, the black Lab walked a couple of steps forward, stopped by Marge, and clapped his paws together.
"Good day, ma'am!" Alex crooned. "How are you doing today? Such a nice sunny weather, it's a wonderful day to be shopping, isn't it? Just demands that you go out and have a lot of fun!"
"Please do not hesitate to ask Alex to help you with any of your shopping needs today," Marge continued in a viciously friendly tone, "Now, I must ask you to excuse me, we have something to discuss among the staff."
Marge grabbed my arm into the crook of her own.
"Now, Rory, shall we go downstairs?"
I nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes, please!" I said.
"Let's go," Marge hissed.
We made our way slowly through the shop floor, and even more slowly down the stairs, which proved to be a bit tricky, even with Marge's iron grip on my arm. Mason and Crystal trailed us a couple of steps behind me and Marge.
By the time we reached the old books section, my leg felt tired, but my ears flicked happily at the sound of Alex's hyper-enthusiastic voice speaking something about psyllium to the two vixens.
"Hey," I said once I felt stable non-stair-like floor under my paws, and turned to look over my shoulder, "I think I'd rather stay down here if that's okay with you, the doctor told me to avoid stairs and it's a pretty long way down to the back room."
Marge, still by my side, simply nodded.
"Just a sec," Mason said.
I watched how the wolf rushed quickly behind the small counter on the downstairs section, right by the door into the back room, and soon returned with the stool from behind the counter, now clutched into his paws.
"Would it be okay for you to sit on this?" the wolf asked me seriously.
I smiled.
"Sure," I said. "Could you put it against the counter so that I'll have something to lean on when getting up and down?"
"Okay," Mason nodded in reply and then placed the stool right in front of the small counter.
I took a couple of Marge-supported steps and then arranged my tail and my crutches for the exciting act of sitting down. I sighed with pleasure once I had my weight off my paws. My arms were starting to feel a bit tired, too, from having to carry the best part of me on them. I rumbled happily and smiled as I gathered my crutches into one paw and then balanced them against the counter as well as I could. My three co-workers formed into a sort of a line, standing by one of the "FIND A TREASURE FOR 2 DOLLARS!" bins opposite the sales counter. It felt a bit odd to have an audience like that, but still, I was among friends, and that felt nice.
"Thanks," I smiled. "I think those foxes might have a grudge on me after I failed to sell an Adalmina Woolsworth book to them."
Crystal nickered softly and threw her head back briefly, so that her mane slung from side to side.
"Don't think we were running away from them," the mare grinned.
Mason's tail flicked sharply from side to side.
"It's been pretty crazy here for the past couple of weeks," the wolf began to scratch his neck slowly.
Marge snuffled loudly.
"What Mason wants to say is that new self-appointed assistant shop manager Alex has been driving us hard to improve the customer service record of our shop," Marge mused. "Whatever that means and whatever they do in the Stepford Center, I've no idea, but here it seems to mean that he wants all of us on anabolic steroids or something so that we'd be prettier, faster, and...uh..."
"Generally more like Alex, I guess," Mason rumbled.
I chuffed, both with amusement at their faces, and also with shock at the terror that was Alex.
"Done much karaokespinning yet?" I grinned.
Marge chuffed.
"Just be careful, or he'll suggest that for you as a rehab," the cougar licked her lips threateningly.
"Or suggest a special diet," Crystal added, "he already tried to poison me with his high fiber blueberry and organic cocoa cupcakes sweetened with something called stevia. My toilet practically exploded afterwards."
Marge grinned.
"You might benefit from some super food," she said, "you look a little bit like you were run over by something."
My eyes widened.
"Well I was practically run over by a car, I guess I'm allowed to," I mused.
Mason let out a deep chuff I suspected was the ass end of a long-held back chuckle he had managed to sublimate into a sudden exhalation. The two women turned to look at the young wolf sandwiched between them. Mason appeared innocent.
"So how're you doing?" Crystal asked. "We've been so worried!"
I folded a safe arm over my chest and decided to put it into words.
"Well, I'm allowed to walk again, though with these," I flicked my tail in the direction of my neatly stacked crutches, "and the doctor said that I haven't broken anything permanently, so I should be back to shape in a few weeks."
"That's cool," Mason's head bobbed up and down as he declared his approval of my road to recover.
Crystal grinned happily.
"That's so great to hear!" she said quickly. "It's definitely not been the same here without you Rory."
"Yeah," Marge purred, "We've all been missing our daily dose of ogling at that studbutt of yours, haven't we, Mason?"
She elbowed the wolf, whose outraged look told it all.
I just kinda stared.
"Ow," Mason rubbed his side and decided to take some distance to his boss by walking over to stand by me instead, leaning on the counter. "You're a bunch of pervs."
"Yup," Crystal said, "I mean, Alex's is great but the rest of him kinda makes us forget the good ass...sets."
I shook my head briefly and flicked an ear at each of them in turn.
"Well I don't think I quite realized how much you guys appreciate my rear," I rumbled.
"Sure we do!" Crystal smiled in a way that was surprisingly wolfish for someone who wasn't a wolf.
"And Goggy's offer to paint it is still open," Marge added. "He's always for new models for his...projects."
The idea of my ass becoming a pair of hefty melons in a bodypainted fruit basket was a thought of such epically absurd proportions that I wondered how it could have come from the mouth of that leopard rather than PERHAPS THE GREAT MIND OF A CERTAIN COBB HEY HEY THAT'S ME AND I'D DO IT IF I COULD DRAW SHIT!
I blinked to allow my mind to go zen for a brief moment before I dared to open my muzzle again.
"Maybe some other time," I replied. "I don't think I'm quite up to full nude modeling capacity just yet."
Marge licked her lips sensually and I wondered quietly in my mind whether her pregnancy hormones were driving her to become even more salacious that usual, in addition to generally being boob-i-licious. I wondered whether hers were going to finally burst out of her top, considering how I understood they were supposed to react to the state of being pregnant.
I wondered whether the others knew yet.
"Will you be coming back to work soon?" Mason interfered.
I turned to look at the wolf by me, and smiled a little, simply because he looked relaxed enough, there, and I knew that Mason must have had his own share of drama recently, what's with the Haakon best friend punch and all.
"Probably once I get confident with my legs again," I replied. "Almost took a couple of stumbles on my way here."
Marge cleared her throat.
"You walked here?" she exclaimed.
"Yeah," I nodded. "From the end of the Boulevard."
"Ouch," her ears dropped briefly.
"It's okay," I rubbed my right thigh, as if to show that such a gentle act wasn't enough to bring excruciating pain. "Just a bit tiring at first."
Marge nodded.
"Guess it's nothing compared to the fact that you could have died," she said. "The picture was horrible."
My ears and my tail perked with surprise, as I stared at her.
"The picture?" I snorted.
Marge snapped her fingers.
"I've got it downstairs, I'll get it," she said.
She disappeared through the door in an instant, leaving me together with Crystal and Mason, who continued to look at me with a mixture of curiosity and concern.
"She's not joking, is she?" I asked with a small frown.
Mason shook his head.
"Nope," the wolf rumbled. "The car crash was reported on The New Kirk Times."
_ _
"Wow," I snuffled.
"It's a pretty horrible picture," Crystal replied. "Just to give you a warning."
I shrugged.
"Would be a first for me," I said, "I can't remember anything about it."
"Really?" Crystal's eyes seemed huge and curious, as they bore into me.
I nodded seriously.
"Don't know if it's concussion or shock or something, but I can't remember anything between a few moments before the crash and then when I woke up in the hospital."
Neither of those memories was anything to savor, either, and I'd gladly lost those memories, too, to the crash, but I wasn't quite so lucky.
"So it's like amnesia or something?" she continued her curious questions.
"I guess so," I replied. "The doctors told me that it's very common, and that it might come back or not, but there's no permanent harm done."
Crystal's tail flapped from side to side, as if she was getting nervous at the very thought, via this conversation.
"It's still horrible," she said, "I mean, what if you had lost days instead of hours?"
I felt like shuddering at the thought, but remained calm, for everyone's sake.
"I'm really glad I didn't," I smiled.
"Tough shit," Mason rumbled.
I smiled to him, a moment before the heavy fire door clattered open and Marge re-appeared. She was holding a piece of paper in her paw, which she then promptly placed onto my lap.
"Here," she said, "I printed it off the web page. It wasn't in the print edition, I checked that out too but it didn't make it."
My eyes first caught the "DUI DRIVER INVOLVED IN THREE-VEHICLE COLLISION, SIX INJURED TAKEN TO HOSPITAL" headline, printed in big bold Times New Roman letters, and under which was the on- site photograph.
It was bit a fuzzy, probably taken with a cell phone camera and the color printer hadn't done too good job with it either, but still, it was enough to give me a proper stop.
Victor's car was in the middle of the road, flipped 90 degrees to the left from its original position so that the car was practically covering both lanes of the road. The pickup that had been driven by the drunk fur stood nearby, with the windscreen and the front grille and the light completely smashed. Even further to the left, a small red car was upside down, and covered in what looked like firefur's extinguishing foam. The looming shape of the supermarket formed the background, and I could also see some yellow police tape and out-of-focus furs standing everyone, ogling at the entertaining sight of the car crash site.
I felt a painful clenching in my stomach as I looked carefully at the picture, to see whether I could see the telltale shapes of myself, or Victor, inside the crashed car. To my relief, it seemed to be empty by the time the picture had been taken. I wouldn't have wanted to see that.
"It's horrible," Marge said, "I tried phoning the hospital but they wouldn't give out any information."
My fingers clenched around the edge of the printed-out page. Listening to Marge's hushed confession made the tension in me grow again. I was starting to feel uneasy.
I scanned the text under the picture quickly. It didn't reveal anything I didn't already know about the car crash. I knew that the drunk driver came on that pickup and smashed onto the passenger's side and pretty much almost sent me and Victor up to gay heaven, wherever that existed. The other car flipped from the shock of Victor's car hitting on their side. Nobody was seriously injured "among a family of bunnies", the text said. I felt glad for at least that. To have children hurt in such a despicable incident... I shuddered from the very thought, and the picture, and the headline, and the three pairs of worried eyes staring at me while I looked at the printed out story.
I breathed out quietly and turned the paper over on my lap and put my paw on it.
"Thank you, Marge," I said, "Nobody showed this to me before."
Marge gave me a concerned look.
"I didn't realize..." she started.
I waved a quick paw and shook my head.
"It's okay," I said quickly.
Marge nodded.
"How about your friend?" she said.
Yeah. The newspaper mentioned that there had been two furs in the car, a lion and a Doberman. I had told Marge over the phone that I had been in a car crash with a friend. And Mason...Haakon surely must have told him about Victor, his hunky hockey buddy...and all that added up to the fact that everyone at the shop must've now known about Victor...though not about the exact nature of things between us.
I swallowed before I spoke.
"He..uh....Victor," what the heck, I thought, "he's getting better quickly, should be back to work in no time."
"Oh that's good," Marge said.
"Shame about the car though," Mason mused.
Crystal snuffled.
"You guys and cars," the mare nickered.
I chuffed and smiled at the sentiment, and gave a smile to Mason as well.
"Yeah, it's pretty much a goner," I noted. "And so is the guy who crashed us. Heard he's not getting out of jail anytime soon."
"That's about right," Marge snorted. "Can't let those kind of furs be on the loose, hurting others."
"What a bastard," Crystal shook his head.
"Well at least he's now out of the streets," I noted, "some good in that."
"Still it's horrible that someone has to get hurt first," Marge said, "and it had to be you, Rory."
I shrugged.
"Stupid shit like that tends to happen," I snuffled.
I didn't want our reunion to end up into a gloominess like that, but judging by their expressions, it wasn't far away anymore. I wasn't very sure what I could say that would be cheerful enough to keep that from happening.
"Well...I'm sure that...uh..."
"MAAAAA-AAAAA--AAARGE!"
Alex's voice echoed throughout the shop and easily reached us hiding from him downstairs. I could see a sharpness appearing on the corners of Marge's muzzle before she turned around on her heels and peered upwards along the stairs.
"YEAH!?" Marge called out.
"THERE'S A VISITOR FOR YOU MAAAAARGE!"
My ears flicked at the sheer volume of the exchange taking place between Marge and Alex, and it actually distracted me momentarily from seeing the leopard who soon appeared within my line of sight.
Marge clapped her paws together.
"Ohh, lunch!!" her smile spoke of lunch.
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