Changing Tastes

The Sisters came in today with their usual shopping trolley - the old fashioned, pull-along ones with the rectangular body that always seems to be decorated with a tartan pattern - full of Mills & Boon books to exchange for more of the same. They're both in the 80's at least but are still light on their feet and almost constantly giggling to each other, real high pitched tee-hee-hees. Every few weeks they come in with a stack of romance books and let me or Minion1 go through them while they get another load. As I was sorting out how much credit we could give them they scuttled away into the stacks and shelves and less than ten minutes later they were back with another selection.

We swapped pleasantries as I went through the novels they'd selected - the standard contemporary romance with a dash of historical - until I paused.

"Are you sure you want this one, ladies?" I asked, holding out Forest of Bondage. The cover, while not terribly risque, was a little different from Wedding Bells at Wandering Creek.

"Ooooh," said Emily, taking hold of it and thumbing through the pages. Jane leaned in and the pair of them quietly read a couple of paragraphs, their eyes widening, their pencilled on eyebrows rising higher up their foreheads towards their too-black hair.

"Oh yes," Emily said, handing it back to me. "We'll take it,"

"Do you have any others?" Jane asked. "Like this one, I mean," she said, tapping the cover.

"Ah, yes, yes we do," I said and directed them over to the small erotic fiction section.

"Could we borrow your steps?" Jane asked; the books are on one of the higher shelves and neither of the Sisters is taller than four and a half feet. I pulled over the steps we use - Minion1 watching and laughing quietly from the Horror section - and helped Emily climb up.

When they returned to the desk, their arms were laden with Nexus, Black Lace and other titles: Slave of The Spartans, Memoirs of a Sex Toy and The Old Perversity Shop.

"We'll take these instead of those," Emily said, pointing to the Mills & Boon books, she and Jane tee-hee-heeing as they viewed the scantily clad ladies on the covers. They paid for the books and head out into the cold street.

"I pity the men down at the old folks' home tonight," I said to Minion1.

"I thought a lot of men liked the idea of two ladies together," she said.

"Not when their combined ages is over a hundred," I said. We leaned back from the desk and looked out of the bay window, watching the Sisters walk away, their shopping trolley full of erotic fiction, M&B having given way to S&M.