Page 79 of The HalloQueen

ANNABEL

The fall launch had sold out and I’d had positively nothing to do with it. It should have made me feel successful, but instead, it made me feel inconsequential to my brand. I’d hired some college kids to go help Shannon pack and ship orders while I “convalesced” at my mothers’ house, but I was losing my mind from being so absent from work. With some witchy help, I’d been healed for over a week but Mama insisted there was a “rule” for sake of appearances that I had to remain at home to have proper time to heal from my “mugging.” Knowing that I was perfectly fine, and yet be stuck hiding and reading plant books at my mommy’s was enough to make me climb the walls. I wanted to get back out there. I wanted my life back. The fact that Monique had stolen any semblance of normalcy from me made me want to stake the bitch myself, though, again, know it all Mama had “rules” about that too - this one stating that I would have an absurd amount of paperwork if I killed someone in my jurisdiction without prior authorization or use of an approved hunter. So bossy.

Bossiness must have been genetic because I was annoying myself with how much micromanaging I wanted to do while away from HalloQueens. I’d gotten Shannon to recycle some of my old videos as well as posting a few explaining that posting would be sporadic as I’d been assaulted, but that orders would be shipping out at a regular pace, but she was hesitant to put her face on the social media pages, even just to release statements, and our pages had gone stagnant as a result. I had tried to convince her on a video call that it was the perfect time for her to step into the role of thirst trap marketer, but she turned white as a ghost and hung up with the excuse that one of her girls needed her. There was apparently a rumor going around that I’d been assaulted by an internet stalker, which resulted in many people reaching out to tell me about how I needed to be safer online and how I needed to practice more discretion when posting about my body. After all, it was the tempting videos of myself that I posted that were tempting stalkers to act out. Cause that was a subtle slut shame if I’d ever heard one.

Despite having to pay a staff to handle to launch for me, I still managed to turn a sizable profit, which had my Mom all excited about how I could step back, maintain my role as “CEO” and divert my attention to the Coalition. I supposed I could, but I wasn’t even 30. The idea of going hands-off seemed impossible and irresponsible, so that led me out the second week of October to reclaim my life and my brand.

Bringing in the new staff had already complicated Shannon’s life during the launch and she was flustered by having to train the four temps on our shipping procedures while basically running the back end by herself. Apparently mailing packages in an aesthetically pleasing way was a hard thing for a few of them to understand and she wanted to rip her hair out. She needed me back just as badly as I needed to get out of the house.

“You shouldn’t be going anywhere until this is taken care of.” My mom scolded me like a child while I packed up the things I’d been keeping at her place. I wanted my life back, I wanted to go home and I wasn’t about to hide out at my parents’ house for the rest of my life. And I missed my cat! Besides, Monique couldn’t come out during the day, and I was a motherfucking witch - that should mean something to the supposed flocks of Others that would be seeking me out. The attack of a green witch had drawn some attention and I had no more fucks to give. If anyone had the audacity to touch me again the hammer was going to be laid down.

What I wasn’t going to tell my mothers was that from the very moment I left their front door until I got to my office, I could feel eyes drilling holes into the back of my head. I sat in my Jeep for a few moments after parking, assessing the area around my office, seeing if I could sight any danger that I might be in, but I ended up chickening out and texting Shannon and asking if she’d come walk me inside. Thankfully her mother-hen tendencies were perfect for the job.

“Thank you for just admitting you were uncomfortable instead of trying to brave through it,” She said, opening my car door and hugging me before I could even exit the vehicle.

“I’m fine. I swear. God, you look great!” Shannon had the world’s most impeccable pear-shaped body, which was only exacerbated by her hips widening more during her pregnancies. You could tell that the axe handle across her ass bothered her a bit, but I thought it was the most amazing body shape I’d ever seen. She had slender shoulders and perfect mid-sized breasts with a flat feminine stomach and ass and thighs for days. Seriously, her thighs were so delicious looking I frequently wanted to chew on them like a drumstick. Having the girls totally messed up her confidence and in a last-ditch effort to turn my absence into a positive and for her to reclaim her sexuality, I suggested again that she shake out her frustrations on film while I “healed”. She suggested that I kindly go fuck myself. I wished I could just tell her I’d gotten bit by a vampire and she should be proud of her body and show it off everywhere without fear of a stalker. It was a showstopper.

“You look better than I was expecting.” She said, assessing me from top to bottom. She looked around my car and got a glint in her eye. “Dude, did you ever actually try this on?” She quickly lifted her loose green crop top to show me the black sheer bra that was covered in small mesh bats and I squealed, not caring that we were in the fucking parking lot.

“Oh my god, that looks so good! Did it-”

“Yep, sold out. But I put one aside for you once I saw it on me, I knew you’d want one too.”

“Goddess bless you, dear one. Gosh, I love your boobs. I wish mine were tiny like that.”

She cackled, “They’re still D cups, it's not like I’m on the itty bitty titty committee.”

I gestured at my enormous chest and arched a brow at her, “comparatively? I think if I got a reduction they wouldn’t let me go any smaller than where you’re at now.”

Taking my hand and pulling me out of the Jeep to walk inside she grinned, “well, don’t get a reduction. That would be a crime - I’ll tell you once your back starts curving and you need to take care of them. Just wait until you’re done having kids cause let me tell ya, kids are brutal on the boobies. We opened the door to the suite as she cupped and lifted her chest musing “19” before releasing them and watching them fall and spread, “29.” She repeated the process, lifting and dropping her breasts until I thought I was going to pee myself from laughing.

“There. Now you’re inside.” She stopped fondling herself, smiled softly, and hugged me.

“Did you really just distract me with boobies to help me through the parking lot?”

“It worked, didn’t it? Don’t question the method if the results are what you needed.”

“You’re the best friend I could ever ask for.”

“Doesn’t sexual harassment exist in this place?” A strange male voice muttered and my head shot up. The college kids, Matteo, Nevaeh, June, and David were huddled around a computer that Shannon had set up specifically for printing and viewing orders as she was growing murderous with how often they were looking over her shoulder to have her print out packing slips.

“Not when you’re the bosses and you’re harassing each other. Guys, this is Annabel, the owner of HalloQueens, and she’s in to work with us today. I expect you all to show her just how helpful you’ve been around here.” Shannon’s boss voice was stunning. Firm and commanding, yet soft enough that they’d approach her if they needed her - like she managed two small children daily or something. The new staff smiled and waved at me before disappearing into the stock room with stacks of empty buckets to pack up orders.

“How has that been working out?” I asked out the side of my mouth, watching them smile and joke with each other while the printer spits out slip after slip.

“It’s been amazing, come look.” She led me to the stock room after the staff and I gasped at the amount, or rather the lack of, boxes lining the space.

“Holy shit - we need to order more inventory.”

Shannon nodded and beamed, “we’ve been working very hard to make sure you had the time you needed to heal from your ordeal. I’ve already talked to them all about staying on for the Christmas rush and two of them are locals and said they’d be happy to help over winter break, the others would be traveling home to see their families.”

“Well, I can’t be mad at that. If the added bodies are increasing productivity enough to reflect it in sales I’m happy to keep people on.” We headed back to our desks and I plopped into my pink chair, turning on my computer for what felt like the first time in ages.

“My moms want me to go more hands-off with the boutique,” I grumbled, rotating my chair to look at her.

“How do you feel about that?” She asked, reawakening her screen.

“Well… we’ll see, I’m not quite sure how I feel about it right now.” I knew rationally that the eventual goal of all business owners was to reach a point of success where they got to step back and let the brand run itself, but it was hard to wrap my head around the idea when it was all balanced precariously on a few seven-second movies of my ass.

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