Sharon and Becky worked at "Textures", a department store. It was really women who came to shop here, albeit
many of them brought husbands or partners along. The colours and shapes of goods could please both sexes, but
only one paid so much attention to how things felt against their skin. Hence the name of the shop, of course.
Like today, where Sharon was in the furniture department. This couple had already decided on the lounge suite
they were going to buy, but they were still trying to make up their mind what covering it should have. Sharon
was holding the large sample book, with its metre-square sheets of material, and the woman was running each
sheet in turn over her belly and buttocks, savouring the differences in feel between them.
"This one feels more—canvassy," she was saying. "That one more tissuey. Tissuey or canvassy—which do you
think, darling?"
The man shrugged. "I can't tell the difference. You'll have to decide."
The woman rolled her eyes at Sharon. "Men," she said with a sigh.
Becky, meanwhile, was at the perfume counter. "This range comes in little microcrystalline granules," she was
explaining to a customer. "You can feel the shape of them as they evaporate. Each scent goes with a different
granule shape." She sprayed two samples in turn on each of the woman's wrists.
The customer sniffed each wrist in turn, and smiled at the lingering sensation of the spray on her skin. "This
one is round, with a citrussy smell. And that one is more pointy, with roses. How appropriate."