Shifting Realities
CHAPTER 2
Adeel gazed at Mark with an expression bordering on adoration as he eagerly waited to hear how he could help Mark have sex with his wife and daughters. Mark considered for a moment before enlightening him.
“Adeel, you want to head straight for the nearest sex shop and purchase as many toys, ointments, lubricants, costumes, and lingerie sets that you think will fit your family members as you can. You want to keep shopping until you have completely maxed out your highest limit credit card, at which point you will bring all your purchases back here. Oh, and you want to buy a chastity cage with a butt plug insert for yourself. You want to do this because you know that doing this will be so helpful to me in having sex with your wife and daughters.”
That was all Adeel needed to hear. Without questioning it, he stood with a smile on his face, collected his keys and wallet, and walked out the door. He couldn’t wait to help in any way he could.
Samira returned a few moments later and set a cocktail glass on the coffee table in front of Mark. “Here you go!” she said in a chipper sing-song voice. She was so thrilled that this man was going to be living here now. She took a seat on the couch across from Mark and waited to see if he enjoyed his drink. Mark took his time sipping the concoction, openly eyeing the attractive older woman’s body while she just remained happy that he was there, eagerly anticipating his review of the drink she had made.
“Mmm, nicely done,” Mark commented on the drink as he delicately tasted it. Samira beamed. Making sure the drink was made well had really been the only thing concerning her up until this point, and the knowledge that she had succeeded was a huge victory in her mind. Only when she had received that affirmation did she look around and notice Adeel had left.
“Is Adeel in the bathroom, or…?” she began to question, but Mark had the answer.
“You don’t care where he went.”
He watched the relief wash over her face as she realized she really didn’t care.
“Anyways,” Samira said, having lost total interest in that line of conversation, “we are so thrilled to have you living here. But it occurs to me, I didn’t catch your name!”
“My name’s Mark. It’s lovely to meet me.”
Samira couldn’t agree more. “Mark! What a great name. It’s so great that we’re meeting like this.”
Mark took a large swig and leaned back in his chair. “Making me this drink made you happier than you have been in a very long time.”
Samira was practically glowing. Despite being a practicing defense attorney, it had been forever since she had done anything that made her feel this fulfilled in life. Everything about this just felt so right.
Mark continued, “what is it that you do, Samira? Do you work?”
Samira nodded, unable to stop herself from smiling broadly. “I’m an attorney!” she said proudly.
Mark smiled, knowing he could have some fun with that later. “That’s impressive. Imagine how impressive and fulfilled you would be if you were a practicing attorney and working fulltime as my servant on top of that! You would feel as happy as you did while you were making my drink every single day!”
Samira’s eyes widened. While that sounded exhausting, it was also hard to deny how happy that would make her. “Wow, I never thought about that! It sounds like a lot of work, but I’m a hard worker! I can see how that would be very fulfilling work.” Samira gazed off, seemingly awestruck by the possibilities.
“What do you say, Samira? Want to take charge of your happiness and be my servant? You do,” Mark added, answering the question for her before she could.
Samira barely considered the question before smiling and saying “absolutely, Mark. Let’s do this.”
Mark grinned. “Excellent. You know this is the best decision you have made in a while and it will greatly advance your career.” Samira completely agreed. By serving Mark, the sky was the limit.
“What time do you have to go back to your lawyer gig, Samira?”
“Oh, I have to be back in the office bright and early at six-thirty tomorrow.”
Mark glanced at the clock on the wall. “Perfect! That gives you a solid opportunity to start your servant shift now and, once your eight hours are up, you’ll have roughly four hours left to sleep!”
Samira hesitated. While that sounded perfect, four hours of sleep wasn’t much to go on for her big day of meeting clients tomorrow. “That’s perfect Mark, but maybe I should wait until tomorrow to…”
“You want to start now,” Mark interrupted.
Samira sprang to her feet, as she really wanted to get this new job going. “Where should I start?”
Mark looked around. “Maybe start with scrubbing the floors?”
Samira nodded and went to go fetch the mop from the closet. Mark saw what she was doing and stopped her.
“Oh no, the only way to properly clean a floor is with a toothbrush on your hands and knees.”
Samira blushed, embarrassed that she, as the matriarch of the home, had forgotten such a fundamental cleaning rule. She hastily pushed the mop back into the closet. “Sorry about that Mark, I’m not sure what I was grabbing a mop for. I’ll look for a spare toothbrush if we have one, but—”
“Your toothbrush will work fine.”
Samira nodded and went to go fetch her toothbrush. It would work fine. A few moments later she returned downstairs, toothbrush and cleaning solution in hand. She gave Mark a big smile and dropped to her knees on the living room floor before meticulously beginning to scrub the floorboards, one inch at a time.
“I’ll leave you to it then,” Mark said before turning and going upstairs to see what Alia was up to. He found her in her bedroom, typing away efficiently at a Word document.
“Oh, hey Mark!” Alia said. “I completely forgot you were here. I’m just finishing up this resignation letter for the dean.”
“That’s good, Alia. You’re totally focused on that and don’t notice what I’m doing in your room.”
Alia said nothing, but simply turned her attention back to screen as if Mark wasn’t even there. Mark took the opportunity to open her dresser and begin rifling through her clothing, starting with her underwear. He started holding each article of clothing up one by one and made two piles on the bed. The first and much larger of the two piles consisted of all the items Mark deemed to be conservative or made for comfort over sex appeal. The second, much smaller pile, was reserved for the items Alia owned that Mark thought would look really sexy on her. As he sorted through the dresser, Alia obliviously typed away at her letter, humming to herself contentedly. She finished spell-checking her work, dropped the file into an Email, and hit “send,” just as Mark finished the last bits of sorting. Only then did she turn around and notice what Mark had done.
“Woah! What are all my clothes doing out?”
Mark gathered up the small pile of sexy garments and gestured toward the remainder. “You hate all these clothes so much. Take them into the backyard and burn them.”
Alia furrowed her brow in annoyance. It was about time she got rid of these clothes. God, she hated them so much. A small voice in the back of her mind pointed out that it was strange that she had been wearing these items every day for months despite hating them so much, but that thought was drowned out by her relief that she was finally getting rid of them. She scooped the pile of clothing into a basket, crinkling her nose slightly in disgust, and carried them downstairs while Mark returned her handful of sexy thongs, nighties, crop tops, and skirts to the now significantly lighter dresser.
Alia walked through the living area on her way to the backyard. She cried out and nearly toppled as she tripped over her mother who was on her hands and knees on the ground. The basket had completely obstructed her view of the woman.
“Mom! What are you doing!?” Alia took in the sight of her mother scrubbing at the ground with a toothbrush.
Samira looked up from the floor. “Oh, just cleaning the floors, beta,” she said with a smile before returning her focus to her task.
“With...a toothbrush? But why?” Alia asked over her shoulder as she continued taking her repulsive clothing towards the backdoor.
Samira gave Alia a strange look and scoffed. “It’s the only way to properly clean floors, Alia.” Samira made a mental note to give her daughters cleaning lessons later. They would make poor spouses someday if they went out into the world without even knowing the basics of household chores.
Alia was already in the backyard before she could think of how to respond. Weird… she thought to herself as she dumped her clothing into the family’s firepit and produced some lighter fluid and a box of matches from underneath the grill. Apparently, she would have to remind her mother that they owned a mop once she was done burning these god-awful clothes. She doused the fabric in the lighter fluid and tossed the lit match, watching with a sigh of relief as the clothes which she hated so much finally burned away and out of her life.
“Hey! Alia, what are you doing?!”
Alia looked up and saw the family’s middle-aged Latina neighbor, Mrs. Ramirez, looking over the fence with a face of bewilderment. Alia gave a friendly wave as the flames reached their peak behind her.
“Oh hi Mrs. Ramirez! Just getting rid of some terrible old clothes.”
Mrs. Ramirez’ face did not change. “Clothes? By burning them? Alia, there is a county burn ban in effect. Also, why not just donate them?”
Alia scoffed. “I wish, Mrs. Ramirez, but no one is going to want these clothes. I hate them!” Alia didn’t seem to notice her neighbor’s bewildered expression. “Anyways, thanks for letting me know about the ban. That’s all the clothes I needed to get rid of, so no worries, I’m done now. Sorry if the smoke bothered you!”
Mrs. Ramirez looked like she wanted to say something else but Alia set the fluid and matches back under the grill and disappeared back into the house before she could formulate what else to say. She shook her head in confusion and turned back to her gardening, covering her mouth and nose with her shirt to avoid inhaling the noxious black smoke.
Back inside, Alia saw her mother had not moved from her spot on the floor, meticulously scrubbing the floorboards like she was trying to personally ensure every grain of wood was spotless.
“Mom, you know we own a mop, right?”
Samira sighed. She was hopeless, this one. “Alia, I’m going to have to give you and your sister lessons on how to clean if you think a mop is going to get these floors clean. Any job worth doing is worth doing right.” She leaned deeper towards the floor, picking up her pace to scrub at a particularly stubborn speck of gunk.
“Mom... are you feeling alright?” Alia asked, her concern visible across her features.
Samira looked up, a big smile on her face. “I’m great, honey! I’m so happy that Mark is living here now.”
Alia balked, her eyes widening in surprise. “Living here!? What?” She tried to make sense of what her mother was saying. Sure, Alia had been thrilled to introduce him to her parents, but he was still basically a stranger, albeit a kind and insightful one. Moving in after only just meeting was crazy. Even crazier was that her parents seemingly were on board with the idea.
“Yeah! Your father and I both couldn’t be happier. Plus, he’s really helping me advance my career!”
Alia scrunched her face. This was getting stranger by the second. “Your…career? What, does he, like, work at a law firm or something?”
“Oh no, nothing like that. He’s letting me be his personal servant! It’s such an opportunity for me!”
Alia’s mouth dropped open in horror. “Y-your personal servant? Mom, what the fuck are you talking about!?”
“Hey, hey! Watch your language. You may be an adult, but this is still my house, and I raised you better than to be disrespectful, young lady.”
“Seriously mom? You’re concerned about language after telling me someone we barely know just made you his…his…servant? What is wrong with you!?”
Samira’s smile faded as she looked up at her daughter, somewhat wounded. “Alia, I thought you would be happy for me. This is incredibly fulfilling work, and a huge career opportunity.”
“Career opportunity!? You’re a lawyer! How is scrubbing floors a career opportunity? It’s not even someone else’s floor!”
Samira opened her mouth to retort, before her brow furrowed slightly in confusion. This was the first time she was really having to confront the logic of it. “I… it’s going to... um... it will… look, it’s Mark’s first day here, so we have plenty of time to work out the details. But all I know is this job makes me happy, and I thought you would be happy for me.”
Alia took a step back and shook her head. She didn’t want to hurt her mother’s feelings, but something incredibly strange was happening here. Alia was determined to get to the bottom of it. “I’m going to figure out what’s going on,” she said to no one in particular as she turned and ran up the stairs to confront Mark.
“Alright, but don’t you dare be rude to our guest, Alia! He lives here now!” Samira called after her, never taking her attention off the dirt she was scraping out of a narrow slit in the floor.
Alia stormed into her bedroom. She was so intent on getting answers she almost didn’t even register that Mark was rifling through her nightstand like he owned the place.
“Mark! We need to talk. What the hell did you say to my mom? And, hey! Why are you looking through my stuff?! Get out of there!” Alia demanded, crossing her arms.
“You don’t remember whatever it is you’re mad about,” Mark said calmly without looking up.
Alia blinked. She uncrossed her arms and touched her head lightly, a vacant and confused expression on her face. What had she come in here for? “Um… sorry, what were we just talking about?” Alia asked, hoping Mark could help her recall.
“We were just talking about how you’re so happy that I’m going to be living here now,” Mark said matter-of-factly.
Alia’s expression immediately softened and she grinned widely as she reclaimed her train of thought. “Oh, right! Yeah, that’s so exciting, Mark! So, what, are you going to be taking the couch then?”
“I’ll be taking the master bed.”
Alia was confused again. “What? My parents’ bed?”
“That’s the only arrangement that makes sense.”
Alia nodded; of course, Mark would be sleeping in her parents’ bed. What else would make any sense?
“Be polite to your guest. Go strip the sheets and wash them for me, so I have a fresh place to sleep tonight.”
Alia turned on her heel and went to go do the laundry as requested. It was the polite thing to do. As she stripped the sheets off her parent’s bed and began moving them to the washing machine, she thought about the wild events that had happened just that afternoon. Mark moving in was incredibly exciting and it made her really happy. It was hard to believe they had only met that day. But already, he had not only won the trust of her protective parents, but had also encouraged her to take the big step of dropping out of college and embracing what she really wanted to do; that being porn. It was frightening, but also exhilarating. Though she knew she still had to have the big talk with her parents sooner rather than later. Maybe Mark would be able to help her find the right way to broach the subject with them. She knew his insights could be helpful, and he may know exactly the right thing to say to help them understand.
As she carried the sheets through the living room to the laundry room, she noticed her mother was on the ground, fervently scrubbing the floors with what looked like a…. toothbrush? She quickly tossed the sheets into the washer, turned it on, and came back out to inquire about what her mother was doing, having completely forgotten she had seen this same scene just minutes prior.
“Mom? What are you doing?”
It was Samira’s turn to look confused. “What? I told you; I’m cleaning the floors.”
“With a toothbrush?” Alia tilted her head to the side.
Samira looked at her daughter with slight concern. “Alia, honey, are you feeling alright?”
“What do you mean?”
“We just had this conversation a few minutes ago.”
“What? No, we didn’t.” Alia was adamant. She hadn’t even come downstairs for anything in the last few minutes except to burn those nasty clothes of hers.
“Um, yes, we did, honey. I thought Mark was explaining the situation to you.”
Alia shook her head. “No, we were just upstairs talking about how exciting it is that he’s moving in with us.”
Samira smiled. “It is very exciting, isn’t it? Your father and I couldn’t be happier.”
Alia nodded in agreement. “Same. But what were you talking about? What ‘situation?’”
Samira hesitated. She was concerned about her daughter’s apparent lapse in memory, but also didn’t want to get into another argument about her accepting the job as Mark’s personal servant. Ever since Alia had pressed her on it, she had been scrubbing the floors while quietly thinking to herself about how doing this made any sense as a way of progressing her career. She had not come up with any answers yet. She knew it was a great career opportunity, of course. But until she could explain it better and hopefully get more details about the arrangement from Mark, she didn’t feel like rehashing the discussion with Alia and risk sounding dumb in front of her daughter.
“Honey, did you get enough sleep last night?” Samira asked, hoping that a lack of sleep might at least explain the first part of her conundrum.
Alia rubbed the bridge of her nose. She hadn’t. She had been up late studying. But now was not the time to tell her mother what a waste of time that had ended up ultimately being. “Not really.”
“Maybe you should lay down, and we can talk later.” Her mother suggested.
Alia nodded and went back upstairs. A nap did sound good, but first she would ask Mark if he had any idea what her mother was on about. She found him still in her room, now rummaging through her closet. Something about that seemed odd also, but she couldn’t remember what it could be.
“Hey Mark, did you say something to my mom? She was acting kind of strange and- “
Mark cut her off with a groan and stepped out of the closet, rolling his eyes. “Jesus Christ, you’re so stupid, Alia.” Alia nodded in somber agreement. There was a reason she had to suck all her professor’s dicks to get as far as she did in college, after all.
“Follow me” Mark commanded and walked past her out of the room and down the stairs. Alia followed dutifully, back into the living room with her mother.
“Listen up,” Mark said to the two women, who both turned their complete attention to him. “Samira is my live-in servant now, and we all agree that it is a great career opportunity for her and very fulfilling work. Alia, you’re very happy for your mother. She’s scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush because it’s obviously the correct way to clean floors. Neither of you have any questions about this arrangement, you’re just excited that it’s happening. Neither of you want to mess up such a great opportunity, so you won’t raise any further concerns you have about it.”
Any confusion or trepidation the two women had vanished from their faces in an instant. Alia’s face lit up with pride for her mother.
“Mom, this is so great!” She said as she ran to hug Samira, who sat up on her knees to meet the hug halfway.
“Thank you, beta,” Samira said as she embraced her daughter. It felt good to do something that made her children proud of her.
“Glad that’s settled,” Mark said. “Samira, take a break from scrubbing and go make me a sandwich.”
“Right away!” Samira said as she set the toothbrush and cleaning solution aside and stood up, moving swiftly to the kitchen, leaving Alia and Mark alone. She felt so fulfilled in this moment. This was the best decision she had made in a while. Her co-workers would be so impressed!
“Thanks for clearing that up, Mark,” Alia said. “It’s great that you’re- “
“Sleep,” Mark interjected.
Alia’s eyes rolled back into her head as she lost consciousness on the spot. Mark dexterously caught her as her body began to fall. He took the opportunity to cop a feel of her impressive breasts before moving her and dropping her unceremoniously on her back onto the couch. Her arms flew up above her head and her legs hung out over the side of the couch, as her face pointed straight up in a way that caused her to snore, her mouth hanging open in an unflattering manner. Mark turned and went back upstairs to resume his task of sifting through the family’s belongings to learn everything he could about his latest targets in peace.
Mark was in the master bedroom sorting Samira’s clothes into piles of sexy and non-sexy when Samira entered with the sandwich he had requested. A look of anger flashed across her face as she saw what he was doing with her intimate garments, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt that there was a reasonable explanation, as she didn’t want to risk the great employment opportunity she had with him now.
“Um, Mark, what are you doing?” Samira asked, still holding the plated sandwich.
“Sorting through which of your clothes are worth keeping. You’re happy to let me do it, and you’re grateful for my help.”
Samira sighed in relief. Mark was so helpful, and it was great that he was contributing to the household already and not taking advantage of their hospitality. “Ah! That’s great, thank you, Mark. Here’s your sandwich.” She set it on the nightstand. It occurred to her that sheets were missing. “Hey, were you washing the sheets too?”
Mark shook his head. “No, that was Alia. She wanted to make sure I had a fresh bed to sleep in tonight.”
Samira was taken aback. “A fresh bed? Oh, Mark, I’m sorry, there must have been some miscommunication—this is mine and Adeel’s bed. I’m sorry, we don’t have a guest room, you’ll have to take the couch.”
“I’m taking this bed. You’re taking the couch. Adeel will be sleeping in the garage. Everyone agrees this is the arrangement that makes the most sense.”
Samira nodded. It was agreed unanimously that this made the most sense. Mark finished putting the last bit of Samira’s clothing into piles. He gestured to the conservative pile.
“Take these to the backyard and burn them, you hate these clothes and you want to be rid of them immediately.”
Samira didn’t hesitate. She scooped up the hideous clothes into a basket and began carrying them downstairs as fast as she could. She truly couldn’t wait to finally be rid of them. Mark sat back and enjoyed his sandwich as he watched her go. As Samira crossed through the living room to the back door she glanced over and saw Alia sprawled out on the couch, snoring. Wow, she must have been more tired than she let on, Samira thought to herself. She entered the backyard and was surprised to see there were some embers already smoldering in the family’s fire pit. Samira thought that was strange, but decided it was fortunate since it would make the disgusting articles burn even easier, and she wanted them to be rid of them immediately. She dumped them all onto the hot embers and watched as the fire began to climb once more.
“Oh, for crying out loud! What is going on over there!” A voice from behind Samira cried out. She turned and saw her neighbor, Mrs. Ramirez looking over the fence, looking annoyed.
“Oh, hi Isabella!” Samira said. “I didn’t see you there.”
“What on Earth is happening, Samira?” the neighbor asked, looking at the stack of clothing that was going up in flames. “I let it go the first time, but you’re now burning more clothes? Haven’t you heard of the Goodwill?”
Samira wasn’t sure what her neighbor was talking about, or why she was so upset. “The first time? Was someone burning something out here earlier?”
“Yes! Your daughter was burning clothes also just a while ago. I told her that we aren’t supposed to be burning things right now, according to the county, and she said she was stopping! Your pit is close to my fence line, I don’t want any dry brush igniting! That’s a real hazard what you’re doing!”
Samira considered what her neighbor was saying. She was aware of the regulations, but she just couldn’t wait to get rid of those terrible shirts and pants of hers. It was odd that Alia had had the same idea though. Samira would have to ask her about that when she was done with her nap. “I’m sorry Isabella, you’re right, I should have disposed of them better. I just hate them so much; I needed to be rid of them. This seemed like the fastest way, I guess.” Samira looked down sheepishly, somewhat embarrassed to be chided by her neighbor.
“That’s what Alia said too. Why do you guys hate your clothes so much?” Isabella asked, genuinely perplexed by her neighbor’s bizarre behavior.
“Well, they’re…. um…” Samira tried to answer. She knew she hated most of her clothes. But now, being pressed on why, she was hesitant to pinpoint exactly why that was. “They’re just…. really awful!” Samira said lamely.
Isabella looked at her neighbor with concern. Something weird was going on. “Samira, is everything alright? You and Alia both seem- “
“Is everything alright out here? I thought I heard someone yelling.”
Samira and Isabella both turned towards the back door and saw Mark stepping towards them.
“Oh, hey there Mark!” Samira said. “Yeah, everything’s fine, I was just talking with my neighbor. Mark, this is Isabella. Isabella, Mark.”
Isabella eyed Mark with a glint of suspicion in her eye. “Hello… are you a friend of Alia’s?” She guessed, judging by his comparable age.
“Yeah, you could say that,” Mark said. “What were we talking about?”
“Oh, I was just burning my disgusting clothes out here and Isabella was letting me know that there’s a burn ban in effect.”
“Yeah…” Isabella added, giving Samira an odd look as her neighbor once again demonstrated a bizarre, extreme hatred for her own wardrobe. “We’re uh… not supposed to be burning things right now. Plus, that’s a large fire given how close it is to my house and- “
“Oh, I get it,” Mark cut her off. “You’re a nosy bitch.”
Both women reacted to the harsh comment in tandem, but in very different ways. Isabella’s eyes widened and she sputtered to try and retort, while Samira looked at her neighbor with a fresh look of annoyance and crossed her arms.
“I’m not…ah…h-how dare you! Who are you, you little bastard?!” Isabella demanded, now suddenly much more hostile and more curious for information than she had been a few seconds before.
“You are being pretty nosy, Isabella. Also…mean,” Samira agreed with Mark, still being her polite self and thus choosing a more euphemistic word to describe Isabella’s behavior than what she really was thinking about her neighbor in that moment. Isabella was such a nosy bitch!
“You don’t want to be a nosy bitch anymore,” Mark said calmly. “You want to change your ways by always ignoring everything that happens over here and staying inside your house, minding your own business.”
Isabella’s angry expression faltered in the wake of Mark’s words and she visibly relaxed. “I’m sorry, this was all my fault. I’ll get out of your hair and stop being such a nosy bitch.” She sheepishly backed away from the fence and turned to go back into her own house, leaving her gardening tools strewn about on the ground.
Samira watched her go before looking back at Mark, her expression caught somewhere between fear and wonder. From her perspective, Isabella had gone from being a raging bitch to timidly returning to her home and wanting to be a better person in an instant. All because Mark—a younger boy she had never met before—had told her to. The whole exchange had been baffling to witness.
“What was that?” Samira asked.
“I put that bitch in her place,” Mark said. Samira made an “ah” motion with her mouth as the explanation took hold. That cleared that up.
“Seeing me assert myself like that was extremely hot,” Mark added.
Samira didn’t say anything but the blush on her cheeks was unmistakable. She averted her gaze, not wanting Mark to see the effect that such a display of alpha male confidence had had on her. She was embarrassed by the thoughts that came to her head; thoughts a married woman shouldn’t have, let alone for someone her daughter’s age.
“Go clean my plate out of the master bedroom and then get back to scrubbing the floors.”
“Of course, right away!” Samira said, feeling younger than she had in a long time as she scurried away.
“Oh, and Samira?” Mark said, stopping her just before she passed through the door.
“Yes, Mark?” Samira asked, trying not to show her nervousness (and failing).
“You work for me now. You should show some professionalism and refer to me as “sir.”
Samira’s eyes widened as she realized her faux pas. He may be younger than her, but Mark was still her boss and she owed him some professionalism. “Yes, sir! I’ll remember, sir.” Her cheeks flushed an even deeper red and she hastily retreated into the house.
Mark trailed behind her, eager to sift through the youngest daughter Ari’s clothes before she got home and joined the fun. All three Davi women would need suitable attire for their first evening with their new housemate, after all.