"Mom! The meeting starts in 2 minutes!" Sam shouts as he adjusts Wonder Woman's tiara. She stands next to the couch, hands on her hips. Her thick jet-black hair looks shiny to match her outfit and bracelets and tiara. Her smile is genuinely fake as she stares at the webcam. On the couch, Pamela or P Dolly sits in a dark, pin-striped business suit. She looks to be dressed for work, except that her outfit is too shiny to be anything but leather or latex.

The curtain pulls back as his mom comes into the room. Her black high heel shoes look shiny and match her black leggings. He has told her that she shouldn't be wearing something that tight on her legs without a skirt or dress, but fortunately, her gray sweater top hangs past her butt, because nobody wants to see my mom's butt. She wears a belt around the sweater, to show off her surprisingly-narrow waist. "Here they are," she says, handing him the glasses, "I had some super glue in my purse." He mutters, "Of course, you did," while rolling his eyes. He puts the glasses on Pamela and turns around to thank her, when he sees the screen go active. Oh no, he curses to himself, they are early. "Don't move," he whispers sharply to his mom, "Please, just freeze."

Zerah knows she is not supposed to be there. Her son works for a company that makes money doing something that makes no sense to her. She has tried to get Sammie to explain it to her, but it just makes no sense. Why would a grown man want a doll? But past that, she does not work for Luvdll, so she is not actually allowed to touch any of the merchandise, and she is definitely never allowed in the Zoom room, which is part of the company's intellectual property. Sammie really appreciates her help, trying to make his part of the business work. She knows he is stressed, overworked, underpaid, and she is happy to do her part. But, all of that would be lost if they knew she handled their proprietary goods without permission. She knows he would lose his job if they find out, but he could also lose it if she did nothing. It was a tightrope to walk, but nothing a woman like her could not handle.

Trusting him, she stands right where she is, facing away from the camera. "Mr Smith...Mr Dehial...Mrs Chiang...so nice to have you all here today. I apologize for not being quite ready on time, I got busy doing more than I should." The three nod and go back to the phones, with Mr Dehial saying, "We were a bit early, so finish up and we can get started in the next minute or so." Sam nods his thanks, then turns to put his hands on his mom's shoulders. I have got to remember to set-up the waiting room so this doesn't happen again, he chides himself.

Whispering quietly, he says, "I'm going to lower you slowly into the armchair behind you. Don't move unless I move you. You are facing away from the camera, so they can't see your face. As far as they are concerned, you are just another incredibly attractive love doll." Directing her into the chair, she sits stiffly, as he bends her arms and legs naturally. The look on her face is one of displeasure, yet a hint of playful appreciation for the offhanded compliment, but there is really nothing she can do about this situation. Satisfied with her comfortable pose facing away from the camera, he reasons they should only be able to see the back of her head, her right shoulder and arm, along with part of her right leg and shoe.

"There, I think I'm ready now, again, sorry about that," Sam says as he sits on the couch with Pamela.

"Before we start," Mrs Chiang asks, "How did you get that model to stand up without a stand?" Zerah wonders if he had thought of that, to which Sammie replies, "Ah, that is a good question. We have special shoes and boots for models that need to stand. For example, Wonder Woman has specially weighted boots to help her stand." He points down to her platform boots. Looking at his mom's shoes, he decides to go ahead and close the door that she could be anything but a fake model.

He kneels down on the floor, "Here," he says while extending out his mom's leg to hold up her right foot, "See the platform under the front of her shoe? It is weighted to help her stand without much assistance. Obviously, the pose has to be just right." The people on the screen nod and make some notes about what he said. He then returns to the couch, confident they will not think his mom is anything but fake. "You gonna leave her leg like that?" Sam chuckles uncomfortably, "Oops, my bad..." Just like he asked, his mom kept the place he left her leg, extended out straight. He carefully puts her leg back down, to which she winks and grins at him. Sheesh, he thinks, even when she is at my mercy, she still finds a way of making me feel incompetent about it.

Over the next 30 minutes, Sam goes about his presentation, pointing to and moving Pamela as needed. Wonder Woman was more of a prop for this meeting, while Pamela will be more of a prop for the next one. Zerah has never heard him give his presentation before, and for the first time since maybe his first college speech in Communications class that she snuck in the back to hear, she is impressed by the way he speaks and carries himself. He seems less like the boy she knew, and more like a grown man. Knowing they cannot see her face, she smiles proudly at him.

Saying good bye and turning off the camera, he breathes a heavy sigh. "Wow, that was close, huh?" She does not move yet, but says, "The couch makes you slouch...sit up...makes you look more trustworthy." Sam shakes his head ignoring that, "Thank you for playing along today...that could have gone horribly wrong." She stands and stretches her legs and back, "That's what mother's do: we save our children." She smiles warmly and they hug. "What would I do without you?" She replies, "Nothing...remember?" They both laugh as she moves to leave and he resets for the next meeting.

"I put the lasso on the table, along with the hand bag you asked for," she says stepping into the hallway, "I brought you a different pair of shoes for Pamela." He smiles knowing why she did that. "Thanks," he says, and does not add the line, "the shoes I picked are fine." She moves to grab her purse, adding, "I'll be at work for just half a day today, as I'm helping with the neighborhood clean-up of the park this afternoon." He starts to thank her again, when a sharp knock comes on his front door. They both look at the door then back at each other. He shrugs his shoulders and checks the peephole.

He curses softly, to which she chastises him softly, "Language, sweetie." He does not comment on that but says, "I don't know why, but my boss is here, and obviously, you are not supposed to be." She frowns and begins to say that she can be at her son's home whenever she wants, but he holds up his hand and presses on, "Not during work hours when the 'harem room' is open...I'm not supposed to allow anyone in during those times. You know that." She looks at him crossly, "I'm here to help you, so if you don't want it, I can leave." She moves towards the front door, to which he puts both arms on her shoulders and looks into her eyes, "You know how much I need you and love you. That is not what I meant, and you know that." Her expression changes quickly from cross to happy, and she says with a smirk, "I'll be in the 'harem room' being very quiet." She winks at him and takes her purse with her.

Breathing a heavy sigh, another family conflict avoided, so now let's see if I can avoid a work-related one, he tells himself. With the 'harem door' closed, he opens the front door. "Boss," he says with a big smile, "What brings you out here?" The tall, broad shouldered man with more weight around his waist than he would probably like, bullies his way in like usual. "There's my #1 keeping me out of #2! How's my boy?!" Sam cringes at the same joke he makes every time he sees him, wondering if he should say something about it, but then he always talks himself out of it. "I'm good, just had a Union Agency meeting wrap up, and then I have another for Find It! in about an hour."

His boss picks up the lasso and handbag, "For your meeting, or for your date tonight?" Sam laughs as he usually does at jokes like that, since he always has strange things lying around his home. "Both," he says heartily, and they both laugh at that. "Show me what you got, huh?" Sam pulls back the curtain, showing his boss his last set-up and what he plans to do for the next one. His boss makes some comments about it, groping each model fondly, never making eye contact with Sam after entering the room. Knowing that the clock is ticking and his mom is in the back room, he asks with a smile, "So what is with the surprise visit? Not in trouble, am I?"

His boss takes on a serious look then tilts his head to the side, "Not here, let's go back to the back room." Ugh, that's not at all what I want. As he tries to protest, his boss adds, "Camera with microphone might pick it up, and this is secret business." Sam knows his boss' dislike for Internet-connected cameras and mikes, as he fears "big brother" showing up at any time. Gulping loudly, but his boss seems to not hear it, they move out of the Zoom room.

The walk to the 'harem room' seems to be a mile, with each step in slow motion. He knows his job is over now. No matter if he is #1, when his boss discovers his mom, he will be fired. He violated 12 proprietary rights on his contract having her in that room, plus the 7 others when she was in the Zoom room, and he has no idea of how many when she sat in on the actual Zoom call. He never read that section, as he told himself he would never be that stupid to have any non-employees in a Zoom meeting with him. Like a man walking to his execution, Sam takes his time, letting slow motion dictate his movements.

Wait, maybe she went to my bedroom that is across the hall, so she might be hidden there. Unfortunately, his boss turns left into his bedroom, "Gotta hit the head, be right out." Bathroom! That would have been a great place to hide, until now he reasons, what if she is in there? Deciding not to chance it, he says, "Uh, boss, I was not expecting you and it is a..." Slam! The bathroom door closes before he could finish. He waits a second for the scream. Not hearing one, he does a quick check of his room, not finding her, he moves across the hallway. Maybe she tucked herself into the clothing racks, which seems odd to think of his mom playing hide-n-seek as a mature adult.

Before he can really investigate that, his boss comes in and closes the door. "Now that we are in the bat cave, I can tell you what I came all this way to say." Still glancing around the room, Sam nods his head, only halfway paying attention. "Sales are not rebounding like they should for our branch, and budget cuts are coming again." At the word "cut", Sam focuses in sharply, his face reflecting his fears. "Don't worry, you are safe, but I'm afraid you are going to have to make some decisions about how you move forward. It is easy for me to say them, but the real work falls on you."

Sam starts to reply then something out of place catches his eye, wait is that mom inside one of the boxes? His facial twitch gets interpreted incorrectly by his boss, "I know, I know, how can I ask more of my #1 guy, but times are tough, as our stockholders all the way at headquarters have been lining their pockets more than helping our business run smoothly down here." Sam does not want to draw attention to the living model just a few feet from his boss, but then he does not want him to look at her either. Not realizing he said, "What do I do?" out loud, his boss puts his hand on his shoulder, "Hey, don't worry...a man of your...type of person...can handle this better than anyone."

"My type?" Sam asks, turning to face his boss again, not realizing he had been staring at his mom standing at attention in Linda's box wearing only her underwear for anyone in the room to see.

"Yep, this is the pitch. Rental department needs bailing out, as most of them are being let go next week. They don't know that, so mums the word, right? Anyway, we are going to expand our demonstration rooms department to cover that, so with your extra bedroom in the townhome we are helping pay for in your paycheck, we want you to open it as a demonstration room when you are not on Zoom calls."

Sam was not expecting that at all, and his face showed that. "Wait, you want me to host future customers and agents here...in my home...for demonstrations? But, I don't have the right set-up." His boss waves his hands around and starts to look in the boxes of models, "You have everything you need right here," he says while knocking on Ming's box door. Sam starts to protest when his boss presses on, "True, you are missing the demo room, which you can modify your own bedroom during business hours for those, and we can get Idarasthi to book the demos for you from the main office."

Sam shakes his head, "Yeah, but what about the most important thing? Sure, I can streamline my bedroom to the demo and add some equipment the company provides, but what about the title: hostess." Zerah can hear them talking, even with the door closed on her box. She had removed her outer clothes, standing there in her underwear. This seemed like a crazy idea, but when she heard them starting to come back here, she could not think of any other way. There was no way, she told herself, I was going to wrinkle my outfit or mess up my hair by playing hide-n-seek. Fortunately, like every day actually, her top and bottoms match, and she is happy to have worn her purple satin bra and panties today. They are relatively new, and while she really does not want to show them off, it is nice to know they are clean and will get some exposure today.

Keeping her face blank and her body as motionless as possible, she knows what Sam is saying. She had looked on Luvdll's website when he started working there, as she did not want him hosting "parties" at his home for clients and agents. Fortunately, the company has a strict policy that all demonstrations have to be hosted by a female. Evidently, the first host was a male, and he spent all day banging all the models. He never held a demo, forging all the documents to fuel his addiction. Once he was caught, literally with his pants down, they made the rule that all appointments are to be made outside of the host's knowledge, and the host has to be a hostess now. The hostess will be given the details of the appointments the day prior, and they can only be done between set hours of the workday (no nights, no weekends to prevent temptation). Zerah wonders, what is Sam's boss really asking?

"I'll get a list of requirements for the demo room sent to you, and you can come by the warehouse and get what you need, or maybe we can have it delivered, but I guess you are more worried about the hostess part." As Sam nods, his boss stops wandering, right in front of a model wearing the most perfect purple underwear. "I don't care that you are gay, and if it makes you a better salesman, even better. So, I'm gonna need you to channel that inner girl in you and play the part of a hostess during demo hours until business rebounds." There, Sam thinks, he said it...he actually said it. He said it out loud. He just said it.

"Look, I gotta cut people...no question. But, you can save 3 jobs right here and now by saying yes. We can absorb much of the budget overage this quarter by you doing this. You will keep your regular pay...nothing I can do about that," he says while opening the door of the box. Sam had turned around, deep in thought over what his boss said. His boss gently strokes the purple satin stretched over the model's more-than-ample chest. "Idarasthi...Tia...Carl...they keep working for us, doing other things that need doing, while you take on a demo room. We drop the space we were renting for their demo room, return their equipment they were using, and keep this all in-house." He tears his gaze away to say, "When this quarter is over, hopefully numbers will rebound enough to return everyone back to their jobs." Seeing that Sam still has his back to him, he turns back to the model in front of him. Oh, he smiles, there's the nipples pushing through. Must have missed them earlier, he thinks as he runs his fingers over the satin shaped dots poking cleanly against the fabric.

Sam, not turning around and completely ignorant of what is going on with his mom, walks out of the room, his head completely spinning. His boss says softly, "Hmm, I love them thick...so sexy," he mumbles, almost moaning, closing the door and walking after Sam. Zerah lets out her breath that she had been holding, but it also sounded more like a moan. As a mature woman, she would never admit she needs a man touching her. She is complete without them, but her now heavy breathing with the tingling sensation starting from her nipples and going down below her waist is too hard to ignore. "So, this is what it is like to be played with," she moans gently with a smile, "I guess I can understand why the dolls might like this."

Sam and his boss continue their conversation while Zerah steps out of the box she had put herself in. She can hear the front door open, even if she cannot hear what they are saying, so she knows she can get dressed now. How am I going to concentrate at the boutique today after that surprising encounter?

With the front door closed, she walks out to find Sam slumped in the raised chair that goes with the counter-top "table" that connects to the kitchen. As she puts her arm around him, she says, "There, there, it's alright." He sniffs like he was 10 years old and replies, "No, mom, it's not. He wants me to dress up like a girl, uh, I mean, woman, and invite men over here to bang away at Linda and Pamela and Ming and..." She pulls him close, his face pressed into her bosom tightly. "You just tell him 'no' and find you a new job. You can do anything you want, you know." He knows she is about to rattle off his accomplishments from high school, which seem so far away from right now. She might try and throw in some of the things he did in college, but he interjects quickly.

"No...no," he says defiantly, "That's what he would want. He can avoid firing several if I leave, even if I am supposedly #1 in his book. He can avoid talking to three and only talk to one. No...no, I'm gonna do it...somehow." His mom sighs heavily, already knowing he was going to do it anyway, figuring if she pampered him a little, it would push him over the edge. She smiles to herself, I do not care what job he has, so long as he is happy.