"Hey, where did that come from?" Nicola asked, animatedly pointing straight ahead of her.
"What?" James replied wearily. Lunch break was nearly over and he didn't need any more distractions.
"That creepy shop" his friend clarified "It looks like it sells magic spells and stuff. We should check it out!"
"You don't believe in any of that nonsense do you? Anyway, we should be getting back to the office." James answered dismissively.
"Well you go ahead then, if you're going to be boring" Nicola retorted "I'm going in, it will only take five minutes."
James sighed as Nicola strode purposefully into the shop. He had a real problem saying no to her, at least partly because of how hot she was. The cute Asian brunette had showed up at his workplace a few months ago. Still in her early twenties with long dark hair, big brown eyes and large, firm breasts he had quickly been drawn to her and struck up a solid friendship. It could be no more than that, for now at least, thanks to her boyfriend but that didn't stop her getting her own way in situations like this. Reluctantly James followed her into the store.
"Wow! Look at all this stuff!" Nicola seemed genuinely amazed and James had to admit to himself this was an intriguing place. The shop seemed much bigger inside than it had looked on the outside, almost impossibly so and far more clean and less creepy than he would have expected, though in a somewhat old fashioned and understated way. There were a vast array of goods on display - books purporting to contain spells, crystal balls, wands, rings that claimed to be enchanted, odd looking dolls, vials of different coloured potions and many other trinkets too numerous to take in all at once. He didn't believe any of this was magic for a second, but it did a pretty convincing job of looking that way.
"Oh wow, look at all these magic wands!" Nicola picked one up and began to wave it around playfully when an attractive, plainly dressed older woman with long, black hair suddenly appeared as if from nowhere and gently took it off her.
"Please don't touch the items" she smiled, in a friendly but firm kind of way "If you wish to try anything out come and see me first. My name is Meredith"
Nicola rolled her eyes when the woman's back was turned, picked up a small crystal ball and began examining it.
"She said not to touch the products!" James cautioned. Nicola merely shook her head and giggled. This was the side of her the rest of her colleagues never saw. In the office she was serious, officious, unfriendly even but outside she was mischievous, funny and flirtatious.
"You'd better take it off me then" Nicola challenged, raising an eyebrow and placing one hand on her hip. It was a hot day and she was wearing as short a skirt as she could get away with at work with the top buttons of her untucked white shirt undone to reveal her ample cleavage. She was pretty hard to resist. Not that James didn't have other options. He was a good looking guy, tall dark and handsome with blue eyes and boyish features despite being a couple of years older than his friend.
"I'm waiting!" Nicola grinned, please to have the upper hand yet again.
"Look, just give it to me and I'll..." James walked towards his friend, Nicola jolted her hand out of reach and...
SMASH!
"What have you done you clumsy fools!" Meredith appeared as instantly as before, though wearing a much less friendly expression as she surveyed the shards of crystal on the floor "I warned you not to touch anything"
"I'm really sorry, we'll pay for..." James began but Nicola quickly cut over him
"It was an accident. It was a cheap piece of tat. You shouldn't insult your customers like that" she retorted unwisely.
"Cheap? How dare you? That was worth thousands of pounds!"
James was about to apologise again but Nicola was into her full blown office persona now.
"Are you kidding me? Don't tray and scam us, it's not worth anything like that. We'll pay what we owe."
"Well, I'm glad you agree" the woman smiled, calmly and somewhat ominously. She waved her hand and the door seemed to somehow lock itself as the shops blinds quickly fell down "You will indeed pay what is owed and you will begin paying now"