Standing to one side, he carefully pulls the string, undoing the bow knot. The soft, near-transparent fabric falls lightly away, revealing all a man could ever want to see pushing out from her chest. "And as you can see, no sagging from lack of support," the thin, small man states matter-of-factly, "This is one of our selling points over a natural woman." The sharp-dressed man turns to face the webcam set-up over on his desk, as if to say 'I have made my point now'. The two faces on the screen nod and reply with their approval.

The head on the left says, "I'll check back in with my client and get back to you by the end of the week." As his face disappears, the head that was on the right, which now has become larger on the screen being the only active camera showing, states, "This is still not quite the look he wanted, but I will double check. Thanks again for showing us your merchandise." As his head disappears, the young man who was doing the selling collapses onto the couch with the two gorgeous "women" on either side of him. "Whew," he exhales, "Tough crowd...and there were just two of them this time." He pats the bare silicone knee to his left with his left hand, and he does the same with his right hand to a different bare silicone knee to his right. "You ladies were perfect," he exclaims as his head tilts back to rest against the soft, brown leather couch.

The Asian looking woman to his right keeps the same smile on her not-quite-natural-looking face. Her eyes seem a little too large, and perhaps her nose and mouth are a little too small, but she has an adorable school girl costume on that makes her look unbelievably cute. And since she is sitting down on the couch, she has plenty of leg to show with her short, blue plaid skirt. The other "lady" on the couch is caucasian with long blonde hair, spilling over her shoulders and almost down to her narrow waist. Her front is completely exposed with her soft, frilly top laying to the sides from where he untied it. Her legs are crossed, which keeps her from revealing more than she should on a Zoom call.

The vibrating cell phone from the desk gets the man up and off the couch in a flash. "Hey, boss," he says quickly as he answers the phone, "Yep, I think it went really well. They both liked the models I had to show them...no, I went with the school-girl outfit like you suggested...yep, I think Mr Dalton liked the blonde hair over the red hair on P Dolly...no more today, but I have 3 tomorrow though...thanks, bye." Exhaling loudly again, he sits the phone down on the table with his laptop which has three monitor screens attached to it.

Clasping his hands together, he says, "Well, ladies, great job today." They both sit there unmoving, despite his compliment. "Once again, Ming, you have proved to be the best international product in our company." Ming sits silently and listens to the praise given her. "And Pamela," he says turning to the blonde, "I didn't forget how you maintained the tension in the big reveal. Perfection!" Pamela holds her pose throughout the whole monologue. "Well, I'm grabbing some dinner," he says as he leaves the room and turns off the light, "I'll box you two up later." The ladies never comment on their lack of light in the room, and seem to be content sitting just as he left them.

Sam Seel, as his business card says proudly: "Seels the deal!", walks into his kitchen from his Zoom room. His townhome is not very big, but for a single guy, he has enough room. Although, he thinks to himself while pulling out a frozen noodle bowl from the freezer, my "harem" takes up more of my home than I do. He has a two-bedroom townhome on the East side of the river. It has a bit of a "retirement home" feel, with all of his neighbors being much older than him, but he could not get anything like this near downtown for the price. He uses one of the bedrooms, the lone bathroom, and the kitchen for himself. The other bedroom, dining room (his office), and the living room (Zoom room) are all for business.

Covid nearly killed the company he works for: Luvdll, Inc. They had just opened their exclusive love doll company, providing premium fantasy dolls to anyone who could afford them, or wanted to rent them. Their business was completely dependent on trade shows, display models, and in-person demonstrations, but all of that came to a halt. However, Sam was able to avoid the 75% layoff that first year by going virtual. He quickly maintained the relationships he had started before the shutdown and then added more by going "live" with his Zoom-In Trade Show. As he pulls the hot bowl of noodles from the microwave, he frowns, not at the food but at his acronym for his show: ZITS. How could I not see that catching on?

Averaging 2 shows a weekday, ZITS is the most financially positive marketing tool for Luvdll. He is #1 in sales, customer satisfaction, and agent retention (most clients use an "agent" to purchase their "female companion"). He pulls out 2-3 from his "harem" to dress and display in his Zoom room. He shows their various poses and features, along with exotic costumes and professional clothing options. Even though he has the best set-up possible working from home, and continues to outperform his peers, he is still barely able to make it all work. Everything is just so expensive now, that he can just barely keep his head above water with this job that he enjoys so much.

Ding-dong! Which is why, he says to himself, I need a little help. Setting the food down on the counter, he moves to open the front door. Pulling it open, he sees the black high-heeled boots that look like they were just polished, standing outside his front door. Her cream-colored dress is just to her knees and matches her fur-lined jacket. Her straight, auburn hair is combed to one side, and looks to be plastered to her scalp with some type of shiny hair gel. Her dangling gold earrings and necklace seem to match her rings and bracelets. The smile on her face is covered by a crock pot she holds out in front of her, "Brought you something for dinner since I was coming over, baby."

As she comes in, he says, "Mom, I'm NOT your 'baby' anymore, and I don't NEED you to bring me food everytime you come over to help me." She walks past him and sits the crockpot in the kitchen. "It's Chicken Alfredo and still warm." Glancing at his food that is only half eaten, he starts to make another comment, but she has already scooped his former dinner up. "You didn't have to..." he weakly protests. The garbage lid closes as his old dinner falls in the trash, "Oops", she says, while then opening the fridge to put some plastic containers in there, "And a few sandwich and salad options for lunch later this week." He rolls his eyes, thankful his mom takes good care of him, but even more thankful that none of his friends or co-workers can see how much she does for him at his age.

Holding out her arms, she says, "A hug is all I need." He grins like he did back in middle school, then hugs her warmly. Even though he is barely 5 foot 5 inches, she has to wear heels to just get to his height. Her make-up is tasteful, her nails look like they were done professionally (but he knows she would not pay for that), and even though she is nearly fifty years old, she looks to be in her thirties. The only giveaway, but you would not hear him say this out loud, is that she carries around a little more weight than she used to. Dad always said he liked his woman with "meat on her bones", and she does. Evidently, she played softball in college, so her athletic build then, is much more curvy and somewhat "thick" now.

As he comes back to the here and now, he finds himself holding a plate of Chicken Alfredo with a fork and napkin underneath. Before he can realize it, he is sitting at the countertop-table eating area with a drink beside him (wait, where did this wine come from?). Looking at the small purse on the counter, he wonders how she got all that in there, because she had the crockpot in both hands at the door. "How was your day, sweetie?"

"It was fine, just busy, you know." He starts to say something about the "sweetie" part, but he's just too tired to remind her.

"I'm sure you were just as amazing at marketing like that Phil Swift." He can hear the vacuum cleaner going down the hallway drowning out anything else she might be saying, or what his reply could have been. She's got a thing for that "Flexseal guy" she has seen on TV, he chuckles. He does look a little bit like dad when he was alive, Sam recalls. He finishes up his plate of homemade food, which was infinitely better than his frozen noodles, and starts to stand when she comes around the corner. She hangs her jacket on the chair next to him, revealing her leopard print blouse stretched a little tighter than it should be, as it attempts to hold in her extra large chest, but tapers in tightly to showcase her narrow waist, before her skirt flares out for her wider hips.

"Ma, leopard print? I thought you said you..." he starts into his criticism, when she interrupts him, "It's cheetah print actually, and the salesman says it is more slimming than vertical stripes." He was going to make some comment that she was splitting hairs about leopard versus cheetah print like he might have tried when he was younger on something he would want to wear, when she continues on, "Which costumes am I sewing up again?" Changing the subject at just the right time, he notices she has her sewing kit in her hand now. Wait, was that in her purse, too?

"Uh, the Wonder Woman, the one-piece bathing suit, and the, uh, um, zipper on the silver go-go boots," he replies. He wants to say more, but she has already walked around the corner, heading back to the bedroom that holds all the love dolls and their costumes/outfits. Sure, he may not like the way his mom tends to treat him like a middle school boy, but he cannot argue that she takes good care of him. She brings him food, helps clean up around here, and sews up the things wrong with the costumes and outfits he uses. He would order new ones, but with tight budgets at work, he has to get his mom to come over regularly and mend broken seams and zippers, or make long sleeves into short sleeves. Occasionally, she'll get something from the thrift store and make it something amazing he can use. She is not a witch, but he wonders if she has some sort of magical super power.

Leaving his empty plate on the counter, he walks back to the "harem room", as she calls it. The small bedroom is packed with racks and racks of clothes and shoes, like a giant closet. The racks are spaced apart by large boxes between each of them. Each large box has a love doll standing vertically inside of it, with one of the boxes having two, since he ran out of space for her box (which he is using as a sort of filing cabinet in his office, which used to be his dining room). The middle of the room has a table, where he can lay out outfits and his mom can sew up what's messed up. When he gets back there, she is just sitting down.

"Okay, the Wonder Woman needs the 'golden eagle' design reattached, not sure how it came off, and the strap came off on the swim suit." She nods her head as she starts threading her needle while looking over the costume. Without looking up, she says, "If you need a few minutes with Ming, you can while I work back here."

"Mom!" he says in disbelief, "I'm not going to do that while you are here." She says without smiling, "You would not do that even if I was not here." She knows I'm not interested in women, he nods internally, and she says she supports me, and I think she does, but she also has no problem calling me out about it. "Haha, very funny," he replies sarcastically. "Can't have grandbabies unless my only son isn't looking for someone," she says without looking up. "Wait, you want me to look here, " he says with his hand sweeping around the room. "No," she continues to work on the costume, "You said you are not interested in them, so more importantly, are you interested in someone living?" This topic comes up almost every visit: are you dating? He knows she worries for his happiness, and she covers her concern with talk of grandbabies. He's just so busy, and the last couple of guys he went out with were not his type. He wants to have a relationship with someone, but time just does not seem to be on his side right now. I'm just so..."Busy," she says like she can read his thoughts, "I know you are. Take time for yourself. Don't work yourself into the grave like your father did." He really wants to reply smartly, but he cannot think of anything good to say to her point that won't sound degrading to his dad, so he just leaves the room to bring Ming and Pamela back "home".

Over the next hour, he gets Ming and Pamela undressed and back into their boxes. He carefully straps each of them into their boxes, making sure the soft fabric touches their skin rather than the hard plastic ties. Closing each box, which has a clear window over most of the door or lid, he hangs up the clothes in their proper section of the room. He goes back to the Zoom room to make sure he got everything, before pulling the heavy curtain over the opening, turning off the lights again. The living room is normally open to the rest of the townhome, but he has a thick heavy curtain that closes it off from the rest of the place, making sure he has a quiet place that he can control the lighting and surroundings more easily.

As he steps into the hallway, his mom comes up to him. "All done, and hanging where they should be." He smiles and hugs her, "Thanks, mom, don't know what I would do without you." She hugs him back and replies, "Nothing...you could not do anything without me. I birthed you, remember?" He chuckles and says, "Yes, I was there, and you seem to remind me of that alot." She smiles warmly, "Love you muchly," and heads to the door. Somehow, she got her jacket on, her purse in hand, and got to the door before he realized it. "Love you, too," he replies as she closes the door. Say what you will about her critical words to me, he tells himself, her actions to me are nothing but supportive. He smiles at the closed door, stretches, and then mumbles, "Time for bed...I'm whooped."