The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

❧ November 11th. Thursday.

Bullwarks was an odd place, the kind of thing you’d never expect to see in a busy mall. But somehow in St. Patrick’s Arcade, amid architecture still reminiscent of the old churches that had once occupied the site, it fit right in. The first thing you noticed was the old stone pillars, octagonal grey things worn by immense age. They weren’t really part of the original church, but the arcade’s designers had decided to repeat some parts of the design, giving it a strong and distinctive atmosphere. In this store, the pillars had rows of shelves around them, showing off some of the things you could buy.

They weren’t like store shelves, more for display. Here, rather than buying a box of chocolates off the peg you could choose from dozens of different, elegant boxes lined with tissue or silk or even rose petals, and then make your own choice of what assortment to place in them. I was glad of that, if I was paying more than a dollar each for a box of chocolates I didn’t want one of them to be an almond creme.

It was a large store, but the pillars together with little huddles of chairs made it feel kind of cosy. You could stay here to sample the chocolates, because nobody had the self control to get back to the car without sampling at least one. If you were eating here, you could get a couple of bites of delight on a tiny plate with a doily, or they even did coffee and a small selection of cakes. I really shouldn’t be shopping here, but it was so long since I’d been in this part of town and I felt it would be nice to revisit one of my old haunts.

I sauntered up to the counter and smiled at the girl behind it. Her name was Henrietta, and we’d got on pretty well in high school but I hadn’t seen her in what must be nearly six months. It felt like a lifetime.

“Henry!” I giggled, “You’re working here now? I’m amazed you can resist eating everything!”

“Oh, it’s all around me every day. After you spent a couple of hours in the production room, chocolate’s just stuff. ‘course, when I have a day off I take full advantage of the staff discount. I’ve gone up two dress sizes since summer!”

I looked her up and down. That must make her a size ten, then, I thought. The uniform wasn’t particularly flattering, but she’d got the shirt turned up to show a few inches of light tanned, flat stomach. She had her hair in long waves down her back, with a few wayward strands spilling forward over her shoulders. It was probably based on some celebrity style, I couldn’t imagine this girl leaving her style to chance, even for a work outfit. She looked stunning as always, and I felt a little flash of envy. It didn’t last long, though, because she couldn’t possibly have a life as perfect as mine.

I glanced at the queue, and cut off my curiosity so I wouldn’t hold them up. She smiled as she tapped it into the screen in front of her, it looked like they were using some fancy new computer system now. She picked up a pair of tongs and a box, and then started to select my choices from the racks beneath the counter. The less common items would be brought through from storage in the back room, or directly from the kitchen downstairs. I guessed that the old practice of shouting through for those items had died with the computer, and was proved correct when a heavy wooden hatch slid open to reveal the last 3 items for my selection.

“A present for your new boyfriend, then?” The question took me by surprise and I didn’t even hear the price. I just handed her my card anyway, as she continued: “I’ve not seen you in forever. Why don’t you get a cake or something, I’m on break in a few minutes, maybe we can catch up.” I nodded, and quickly chose a cake to go with my box of chocolates. I’d originally come in just to get a treat for Alex, and Henry hadn’t been a particularly close friend. But I’m not too good at resisting an idea that involves eating really nice desserts.

I sat in a little booth, with heavy hardwood chairs styled after church pews. They were pretty comfortable, and added a lot to the place’s atmosphere. I ordered a cup of tea, but was already halfway through my delicate slice of lemon drizzle cake by the time Henry brought it over. The cake was divine, but in a place with that kind of reputation it would never be anything else. She remembered me better than I’d expected, bringing over another slice of cake and two extra sugars for the tea.

“Thanks,” I took my tea, and she slid one of the dainty cake slices over to me.

“You’re not sampling the merchandise before you get home?” she nodded at my chocolate box, “You really are getting them for someone else then. I heard you got a serious guy now, I didn’t believe it at first! So what’s he like?”

“Umm…” I hesitated, not really sure what I could say. Through most of school, she’d been dating someone, usually someone popular. As soon as she got out of a relationship, she’d be ready to start another, and I’d been a bit jealous of her easy success. Sure, I wasn’t interested in the same kind of guys, but she seemed to put almost no effort in and half the jocks were falling over themselves to impress her. Now, I thought I finally had the perfect life so I could feel a little prouder. The only downside was, I couldn’t tell her about my happiness. I had no idea how to answer that question.

“Don’t tell me you’re dating a nerd,” she passed it off like a joke, but I didn’t remember her being so shallow before. She wasn’t being mean, she just cared a lot about looks. And as much as I wanted to surprise her, I realised she was kind of right, if for entirely the wrong reasons. Alex was a lot better with the computer than I was, and she had all the sci-fi interests she could share with Jim. It wouldn’t be the first word that came to mind, but she was a nerd. Yeah, it wasn’t what Henry meant, but I couldn’t help getting a little worked up.

“What if I am? We’re happy.” I didn’t mean to snap like that, but I found that I’d been hoping I could prove that I’m the lucky one now, and that brought me over all defensive. “Sorry, I mean, yeah. Maybe. That sounded bad, I guess.”

“It’s cool,” she smiled, “You always worry what other people are going to think when you’ve got someone you really like. You want everybody to think he’s as great as you do, right?” I just nodded. As much as I’d liked Henry and wanted to be a good friend, I’d always kind of thought of her as the shallow girl who’d never have those kind of problems. It looked like it was me who needed to be a little more open minded today.

“Yeah,” I eventually gave the answer I should have found to start with, “I’m dating a geek. Not the kind of math and pocket protectors nerd, but she’s into so many awesome things, and it’s all so much more interesting than I ever thought it could be.” She raised an eyebrow at ‘she’, maybe still a little surprised than I’d thought. But she didn’t say anything, and we quickly ended up trading anecdotes about life since school. While i’d gone off to college, she’d decided to work for a year to try and save up some money and make it a whole lot less stressful. For all her popularity at school, Henry’s family had been struggling and she didn’t want to fall back on charity from her uncles to afford college fees.

We ended up giggling like best friends, and promised to stay in touch. Then we chatted some more, and it was only a reproachful glance from her manager that brought the conversation to a close.

It wasn’t until she returned to working that I found out I couldn’t move. I finished my drink, went to stand up, and my legs just ignored me. For a second I almost panicked, but only a second. I’d had quite some experience now with losing control, so my first assumption was that Jim had done something. He’d known I was coming here, so if he didn’t want me to move that presumably meant he was planning to join me.

After about ten minutes, I was starting to feel awkward. I guess this was another branch of the humiliation thing they’d been talking about, making me helpless in public in a way that nobody could ever notice. I kept looking around, wondering if anyone would start to notice I was still here. My cup was empty and my plate was clear, but I was still sitting. I knew nobody would notice, it wasn’t the kind of thing you paid attention to, but I couldn’t stop worrying. If someone did ask why I was there, there was no way I’d be able to come up with an answer, and I wouldn’t even be able to escape. After so many things I’d done over the years, could sitting in a popular café really turn out to be the most embarrassing?

Even as I thought about it, I knew it could be. The fear of being discovered, even if I knew it couldn’t really happen, was starting to turn me on. I wondered if anyone else could tell, and I knew that was irrational. Nobody looked that closely, nobody would see me blushing. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, and every time I realised how easy it would be for him to make me really humiliate myself, that just made it more intense. I could practically feel my pulse racing, and my mind was filling with more and more impossible thoughts. Would he make me touch myself when I thought nobody would notice? Would he make me so horny I couldn’t help myself? Was my fear of exposure always so closely tied to arousal, or was that something he’d enhanced for today’s fun and games?

“Hey, you waiting for your beloved geek?” I looked up, eyes wide with surprise as I heard Henry’s voice again. “Want another tea, cake or something while you wait?”

“No, no,” I muttered in surprise, putting both my hands on the table suddenly and hoping my friend hadn’t seen that I seemed to have little control over them today. “I mean, sorry, tea would be great. Sorry, I was lost in thought, you just startled me.” She didn’t say anything, just went away to sort my order. Of course, having another drink would remove any chance of someone else being suspicious, why hadn’t I thought about that before? Though if I couldn’t move from my seat, I had to hope I wouldn’t need the bathroom before Jim got here. I really should have asked for a cake, rather than another tea.

And then I wondered for a moment if I was waiting for him after all. Was Henrietta’s knowing grin just amusement at my nervousness, thinking I was waiting for my girlfriend? Or was she in on the joke, had Jim recruited her somehow to collaborate on my delicious torment? I knew it was a crazy thing to think. Henrietta was one of the most mainstream people I knew, if I was going to think she might have hidden depths of kink I might as well start wondering about Jaye, Britney, or even little Lauren. Or I might as well imagine the guy at the next table turning around to take me on the table with everybody watching, and finding myself unable to say no.

I wasn’t masturbating. I wasn’t letting that image linger in my mind when Henry came back with my drink, I just had my hands in my lap. I was so excited from whatever Jim had done that even the slightest friction, the tiniest amount of pressure on my jeans was unbearable. I had to concentrate on restraining myself, and that was so exciting in itself. I didn’t know how much longer I could put up with this.

But at least I had tea, and a complimentary sample of a new chocolate they were going to start offering next month. If I was trapped and helpless, I could think of much worse places to be…