Page 1 of Wanted

1

She was screwed. And screwing didn’t always refer to sex.

In this case, it indicated Marcia Galvin Daly’s innate propensity to fuck herself over.

In theory, she was enjoying a pleasant, uncomplicated evening. What could be more innocuous than discussing computer geekery with your boyfriend’s best friend? The fact that said best friend wore snug jeans that outlined…thingsa girlfriend shouldn’t notice on other men was irrelevant. That he smelled like cloves and mint and her nose had yet to stop twitching, equally unimportant.

But her need to wring out her panties to prevent chafing? Kind of a problem.

“The key to the site is virtual reality. It’s all the rage right now.”

Marcia peered at Caleb Parker’s laptop screen. She hadn’t seen many sites like it before but she didn’t spend a lot of time browsing. Except for shoes. And lingerie now that she’d, erm, grown out of a lot of her own. One of the downsides of having more free time since she was currently unemployed. She tended to snack. Often.

“Virtual reality,” she repeated. “Like the games.” Something else she didn’t know much about, other than that her boyfriend Tony and Cale spent too many hours laughing while camped in front of the TV.

Cale manipulated a little fat-bodied weeble wearing a hard hat until he bumped into a weeble with really big breasts. She also had long blonde hair like Marcia. “You got it. VR’s hot.”

She grinned. “Hey, that’s me.”

“Sure is, Blondie.”

“I think she’s a bit more endowed than I am.”

He glanced at her chest and shrugged. “Works for me.”

“I bet it does, perv.” She nudged his shoulder and leaned in closer. “It looks kind of like a library.”

“Not a library but close.”

The two weebles toddled down a wide aisle. Books extended up the walls around them. Rows and rows of books. The pair took a left and ended up in front of a fireplace bracketed by a pair of couches. On the opposite wall hung a sign for “coffee stuff”.

“What is this?” she asked, eager to grab the mouse and take her weeble for a spin.

“This is the new website for All About The Story.”

“No way.” Marcia inched closer to the screen, taking in all the details. Flames burned in the fireplace and other little nondescript weeble shoppers roamed between racks of magazines. “That’s so awesome.”

“You think? I haven’t proposed it yet. Kel and Spence are expecting a nice average site and I’m ready to spring a virtual shopping experience on them. But I think it works. They need something that stands out. They can bill it as the store you shop online then visit in person the next day.” He swiveled his chair to face her and grinned. “Just in case they hate it, I designed another site too. One more in line with what they’d expect.”

“Lemme see,” she said, already certain she’d try to convince her brother to go with this site. If Spencer needed a push, she’d happily shove him along.

“Sure thing.” He tapped keys and a perfectly attractive site appeared. Soft mauve and cream tones worked together to create a soothing ambience and the book in the center opened to reveal the different pages of the site.

“I want the weebles,” she muttered, making him laugh. “They’re so cute!”

“They’re more than just cute. An interactive site like this has a dual purpose. One, it’s fun and different. The other is that people will remember it and in turn remember the store itself. Or at least that’s the goal.”

“When did you learn to do all this?”

“I took a couple classes. Then I took some more. Working nights at the Nook left me with free time and I always liked learning. Eventually I decided to make some cash on the side doing sites. I offered my services to Kel for free,” he added, not noticing the face Marcia pulled.

“Kelly’s already getting free labor from you and Tony and the rest of the guys. For a site like this, she and Spence can fork up the moolah. It’s an investment and well worth it, especially in such a tech-crazy world. Without a site that stands out, they’ll fade off the map in no time.”

“Even so, I owe Spence. A free site doesn’t begin to touch that debt.”

“Why?”

“He gave me a job when I really needed one.”

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