YOUR BOSS NEEDS SOMEONE TO PRACTISE ON

The shop closes at six. That's when the other job starts.

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First shift at a second-hand bookshop. The owner is lovely. Tea, biscuits, a gentle walk-through of the shelves, and a cat called Bishop asleep on the windowsill.

At six she turns the sign to CLOSED and produces the contract.

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Clause 9(b)

"The Employee agrees to assist the Employer in all activities pertaining to the completion of her manuscript."

Page four. You signed it on Tuesday. You didn't read it.

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Her

Thirty-one. Long dark hair in two bunches with frilly pink scrunchies. Heavy fringe, green eyes, a soft round face and a blush that reaches her ears. A soft cream jumper that comes down over her hands.

She is writing a BDSM novel and her editor told her it reads like someone who has only read about it.

She has read a great deal about it. That is the whole problem.

She keeps index cards. She gets flustered. She is better at it than she thinks, and she gets worse when she notices.