C:
When Betsy opened the large doors of the building, we were blasted by the low buzz of machinery. From the sound, I expected a sweatshop with hundreds of workers crammed in next to each other.
Instead, I there was only one person in the large room that took up most of the building. The machines were mostly running on their own. The woman was the maid from earlier, she seemed to be enthralled by one of the machines. Betsy walked up to her and interrupted her focus.
"Are you on break already? Did you get someone to cover your shift?"
The maid looked nervous and turned away from the machine. She spoke to Betsy a bit under her breath.
"We, uh... there's no one else on staff right now, remember?"
Betsy seemed surprised at first, but over-corrected into a boisterous laugh.
"Oh, haha I know that. I was testing you. Glad to see you're still sharp. You're dismissed. Go take a break while I walk our guests around the floor."
Betsy turned back to us after dismissing the maid.
"Um... This is my break. I told Madame I'd make sure the new French Maid Swim Suit would be ready for the class trip to Ecchi Island. We already have several special orders."
That last part caught my attention.
"Did I hear French maid and swimsuit in the same sentence? Or am I hallucinating?"
Betsy took a warm grin after hearing my comment.
"This is fascinating, as I thought. Boys are really into this maid stuff, right? And girls will want to wear what boys like. I mean, not boys like you, Andy. Guys the girls actually like, like Cole and Shade."
"Haha, oh yeah, I thought so." I gave a small smile; I'd gotten better at turning the pain from such comments inward and not giving a visual reaction.
"Do the other boys like this, Andy? The normal ones?"
"Hey, I'm kinda normal—"
Marla took offense at Betsy's implication about me.
"Uh, excuse me. Andy is like, totally a normal boy. Actually, he's better than the normal boys."
"Wait? Really? Me, normal? Or better than normal? Wait, how can I be both—"
"I see. Thank you for explaining Marla. I don't know boys very well... Understanding the male gender is my one weak spot, and it's something Madame Bloomer has been on me to rectify."
"True, it seems like she understands boys pretty well. Andy can't stop thinking about her."
"Well in that case… Marla, if Andy doesn't mind, maybe we should have a bit of a show."
Betsy gave us a sly grin.
"Put on a show? You mean like an anime? Maybe if you write a script and have $2 million lying around somewhere."
"Nothing that fancy. I mean a fashion show. I guess I owe some explanation first.
After the incident, the family has realized it's time to diversify our enterprise. Bloomers were a real cash cow for centuries, but they aren't that popular anymore. But that's ok, we're moving into the 21st Century. And it's starting with our Maid-themed line of women's swimsuits."
Marla looked surprised.
"Really? But what about uh... "Bloomer Supremacy"? You sounded so passionate about it before."
"I'll admit that was wrong, shameful even. This was an accepted fact, but nowadays the mere idea of Bloomer Supremacy is odious. I realize now how much I hurt the girls wearing normal panties. Not to mention the thong-wearers. My reckless statement about the lack of fabric in modern women's underwear hurt the thong-wearing girls the most. It doesn't matter how much fabric your panties have. What matters is the quality of the character of the girl wearing them."
I'll admit, I always thought Betsy was sort of ridiculous. At school she took herself way too. The breakdown she had after we caught her was beyond embarrassing. And let me tell you, I have an extremely high threshold for embarrassment; if I find something embarrassing it is really embarrassing.
But the mini-speech she just gave, the passion with which she explained how she came to change her position on an issue as vital as women's underwear, nearly brought me to tears.
"That's... that's really beautiful, Betsy. I couldn't agree anymore. Thongs, and the girls who wear them, are great. There's nothing wrong with letting your ass cheeks—"
"Ugh, totally gross. That's enough out of you, Andy."
"So, that brings us to what I want from you, Marla. Would you mind modeling for Andy and me?"
Marla looked annoyed by the question.
"Uh, yes, I do mind. That's... totally awkward."
"Come on Marla, it's swimwear. I know you have a passion for fashion."
"That's right, I do love clothes, but it just seems so—"
"I know, let's ask Andy. Andy, would you like to see Marla try this on and model for us?"
I was ready to say yes without even looking at the outfit. But when Betsy held up the little two piece that was painted to look like a scantily clad maid outfit, I almost had a conniption.
"Yes! I'd love to see what Marla would look like in that!"
Marla sighed and rolled her eyes. But there was something in the way she did that made me realize she would at least try the outfit on.
D:
Marla ran behind a partition to get changed into the bikini. The partition only went down to right above the ankle. Changing partitions at that length always struck me as weird. I suspected the designers did this on purpose to tease their customers.
From what I could see from her ankles, Marla finished getting changed pretty quickly, but then she just stood behind the partition and said nothing for a while. Betsy called her out on it.
"Hey, it shouldn't take that long. Come out and show us. I'm sure you look great."
"Uh... I'm wondering if is a bit much. I thought it would be normal but—"
To me, it sounded like Marla needed some encouragement.
"C'mon, you can do it. It's not like I haven't seen you in a maid's outfit before."
The attempt to help only triggered a glare from Betsy, and what sounded like a muffled growl from behind the partition.
"It's so unlike you to be this shy, Marla. Is it... Oh, I think I know what the problem is."
"What... what do you mean?"
"I mean, you're shy because you don't want Andy to see."
"No, that's not it."
Obviously, Marla was trying to spare my feelings. I did the manly thing.
"It's ok Marla, I'm gonna leave. I totally get why you wouldn't want to let a creepy otaku see you a French maid bikini. After all, I'm sure you had guys more like Cole in mind when you picked it out."
With that statement, Betsy turned to me with a grateful look.
"Thank you Andy. I'm glad I didn't have to ask you to leave."
But as I turned and started walking to the door, Marla heard my footsteps.
"Wait! I hold on. I totally didn't say that. I'll come out, just like, give me a few more seconds."
I stopped and turned around. From behind the partition, Marla took a deep breath and stepped out into the open.
When she did, I was shocked. The outfit fit her perfectly; accentuating all her best parts.
Actually, I'm not afraid to say it. It looked like her chest was about to burst out of the top.
The top itself looked like a regular black bikini top, but it had frilly lace down underneath each boob and it made them "pop".
The skirt was a little more modest. It harkened back to the Bloomer's history, making modest undergarments. It was one of those that had a large piece of fabric on top and a skimpier bikini bottom underneath. The top layer sold the "French maid" theme. Like the top, it was black with frilly white lace outlining the bottom, but the front part looked like a maid's napkin over it.
On her left leg, right below the bottom frills of the skirt, was a white garter tied with a black string. This part left about an inch of visible skin between the lace and the garter. It was a nice touch.
And then, to top it all off, there was a frilly white lace choker with a black ribbon.
It was quite a work of art, in my humble opinion. If Betsy's family is going in this direction, I predict the new Bloomers will be just as successful as the old Bloomers.
I guess I was staring too much, because Betsy slapped me on the arm.
"Don't just stare at her, Andy. Tell her what you think? I'm getting to see that's not something you're very good at."
"I... it's amazing! Marla looks amazing, and the bikini brings the moe of maid girls to a bikini. It's just so—"
A burly voice interrupted from behind me. It was the guard from Bloomer Security. I must've been so distracted by Marla that I hadn't heard him enter the room.
"It's true. I'm stunned by your beauty, Mrs. Rhodes."
Things in the room got a little tense. The guard was a grizzled tough guy with an imposing frame. When he started walking towards us, with a certain look in his eye, we all got nervous. But when he got up to Marla and, instead of doing anything gross, he did something inappropriate. He got down on one knee and proposed to her.
"I know we hardly know each other. And I'm a poor kid from—" Marla cut him off.
"This is totally weird now. Let's get out of here Andy."
At that point, I had to agree. It seemed like the guard was prone to delusions other than "Bloomer Supremacy". Betsy wasn't quite ready for us to go.
"Dammit, Pierre! I'd fire you, but no one else is willing to get paid in women's underwear. Just get out of here."
Pierre shuffled off, but by the time he'd left, Marla was already dressed.
"Wait, Andy and Marla, hold on. There's still one more thing we need to do."
"What's that?"
"Andy needs to try on one of our new speedos. Guys tell me they're very comfortable."
"Not gonna do that, sorry."
"Please Andy, it's imperative for our research and development know how it fits on guys who are... how do I put this... carrying less baggage than most guys are."
Ignoring her baseless insinuation, it sufficed to say I'd had more than enough of Betsy for one day. Marla was already at the door when I came to join her. Betsy made one more attempt to get us to do some more free modeling.
"Wait, hold on, don't we need to talk about Augustine? Marla was such a great model, that I forgot we still have a lot to discuss."
Marla blew her off.
"It's totally cool. Did you look at the rooming chart the Shadow Lane sent out? We're going to be rooming together for over a week. We'll have plenty of time to talk about the case."