Growing into the Job, Post 621: Collections (1) (Patreon)

"...what the fuck is this?"

Melissa looked over, laughing before she even saw the phone. It was so funny when Randi got mad. "What?"

Randi held it out, showing her friend of ten years her phone without slowing their pace. The two of them had just rounded the far corner of the rear employee parking lot, sneakers striking the cold November pavement in an easy rhythm. Beyond the rows of parked cars, the line of woods behind the Far Horizons campus had gone almost bare, the last stubborn oak leaves rattling in a breeze that should have felt much colder than it did to the two budding superwomen.

Melissa glanced down at the screen. It took her a moment to figure out what she was really looking at. "Oh - haha - wow,” she finally acknowledged. 

"Yeah, wow," Randi repeated.

The post filled nearly the entire display. A bosomy brunette in a white nurse’s uniform stood atop an emphatic caption announcing some sort of men's reproductive health collec- ah, let's just call it what it was: guys jerking off into cups, for money. The promise that participants would be contributing to some sort of cutting-edge biomedical research? Who knows what the hell that was. Anyway, it was posted on the main Far Horizons Evolution Center account and-

“Who even is that??” Randi asked. 

“She’s one of the Coronado girls,” Melissa answered, “Marjorie, I think. She works in the Evolution wing. And sometimes in the Fertility clinic.” She then tilted her head, noticing the date, the time, when it had been posted - two minutes ago. She immediately knew why Randi had been taken aback. "Huh."

"Yeah huh," Randi echoed, "Lexi put this up herself. She’s the only other person with the sign-on.”

"I thought you posted everything?” Melissa asked. She’d made her friend Randi Director of Social Media soon after she’d hired her, a position she kept even after the expansion and Lexi coming on to manage marketing. 

"So did I,” Randi agreed. Less pissed-off now than confused and a little curious. She had some questions to ask. Later, though. 

They continued across the crosswalk connecting the original medical building to the newest section of campus. Construction fencing still enclosed much of the landscaping, though fresh sod had already replaced most of the churned mud from earlier in the autumn. A crane eased an enormous pane of glass toward the third floor. Workers in reflective jackets - women, mostly - moved bundles of conduit toward the leased research building across the service road, where the steady percussion of drills and hammers echoed through the crisp afternoon air. 

Melissa glanced over automatically. "They're putting the glass into the west laboratories.” 

Randi looked up at her friend, who at this point was a foot taller than her. "How do you kn-?"

"I hear them speaking about it,” she answered, “inside the building.”

"Huh," Randi admitted, cocking her head. The din of construction drowned out everything. For her. Her hearing had gotten good. Not that good. 

Melissa only smiled.

The main Far Horizons building was behind them. Its exterior had been nearly unchanged in the past twenty years, but was unrecognizable inside. Compared to the sleepy medical practice Dr. J had built over the past decade and the smattering of other offices it had been just months before, it was now something completely different - an ultramodern facility humming with activity at nearly every hour. 

Patients moved in and out through the front entrance. Delivery guys from an office supply place were headed around to the back in a box truck. Somewhere inside, the afternoon had begun; even from out here Melissa could hear the distant laughter drifting through the open loading-bay doors.

Across the road, though, the new building felt different still.

The exterior still wore Sheryl's old ownership placard near the entrance, but temporary Evolution Pharmaceuticals signage now covered most of the windows. Delivery trucks came and went all day. Contractors disappeared inside carrying crates that somebody should probably ask something about.

Randi made a quiet, mental note. She’d start asking. She slipped her phone back into the pocket of her fitted athletic jacket, shaking her head.

“You’re still thinking about the post,” Melissa said. 

"Yeah I am,” Randi acknowledged, “why am I finding out about this because Instagram suggested it to me?"

Melissa shrugged. "Maybe Lexi forgot?"

"No that’s not it,” Randi answered. 

That, Melissa couldn't argue with, and knew her friend needed to vent. She’d given her a lot of responsibility, and asked a lot of her. She was grateful for everything Randi did for her, knowing she took her job - with social media, and really as her right-hand woman - seriously. There was a lot of money in it, now, and plus - she was a good friend. Randi knew how important Far Horizons was to Melissa, and she wanted to see it succeed. 

"Anyway,” Randi continued, “somebody needs to tell security we're about to have a whole new category of visitors."

Melissa laughed. "Why?"

"Because if the chick in that picture - Marjorie, you say? - is the one 'helping participants'," Randi said, making exaggerated air quotes, "we're going to have a line of horny guys wrapped around the building before lunch every day."

Melissa burst into laughter, the sound carrying strongly across the parking lot. Two women unloading lumber looked over automatically, seemed to smile simply because she was smiling, then went back to work.

Randi watched them, and filed it away without saying a word. It was a pretty nice day for November, and the energy here was good. Even though it was the Friday after Thanksgiving and most normal places would give people the day off, Far Horizons was buzzing with positivity. Anyway…

"Speaking of horny guys..." Randi said at last, glancing sideways at her friend, "Where's Squirt?"

 "Asleep,” Melissa answered, her smile softening immediately, fondly, remembering the past hour, “In my office.” His cock between her tits, the look on his face. She giggled. “Wore himself out,” she said, checking her cleavage quickly for any leftover evidence, “in here.”

Randi snorted. "I'd gathered that." They walked another dozen paces before Randi shook her head. "Between Thanksgiving dinner and the two of you going at it like rabbits, when I stepped on the scale this morning…" She groaned theatrically. "Six pounds since Wednesday. This Bliss shit is turning me into a tub."

Melissa looked her up and down with exaggerated seriousness. "Your butt does look really nice in that skirt. Big."

"Ugh."

Melissa giggled again, a pleased mother hen. "Don't pretend you don't love hearing that."

"Pfft."

Melissa bumped her shoulder with surprising gentleness despite the difference in their size. "Say it.”

“Say what?”

“Say: 'Thank you, Missy.'"

"Absolutely not, asshole."

Melissa laughed so hard she had to wipe a tear from the corner of one eye. She didn’t notice the car windows rattling twenty feet away, the wide eyes of the construction crew on the far side of the lot, or the final leaves falling from the oak. "Maybe we're all changing a little faster now,” she finally added.

Randi eyed her suspiciously. Melissa had been getting her clothing from Evolution, a new delivery every few days. Somehow they had tailors or whatever keeping up with her ever-expanding measurements. This tan number was an older dress, but not very, though. Probably too short, and tight everywhere - even by Far Horizons standards. Her friend’s body had been growing so quickly. "Dare I ask?" she…asked.

Melissa looked absurdly pleased with herself. "Seven-two... and a half."

“For real??”

Melissa nodded her head.

“Didn’t you just hit seven feet like, this past weekend?”

"Yep!” Melissa answered brightly, “Seven feet, two inches. And a half,” she then paused, for the drama. “Five hundred and thirty-five pounds."

Randi stopped walking. "You're kidding."

Melissa paused, looking back - and down - at her friend. She shook her head, pride unmistakable in her grin.

Randi let out a low whistle. "Jesus, Missy.” Then she started walking again. “That’s-”

“Hey!” Melissa gave her a playful look.

“No, dude, I wasn’t calling you fat…”

"I know. It actually wasn’t that,” Melissa laughed, “But it's okay. Just don't make a habit of it."

Randi’s brow knitted. “A habit of…what?"

“Using somebody else's name when you're talking about me."

Randi immediately understood what she meant. Her friend had become strangely particular about language that elevated anyone - or anything - into something approaching divinity. She seemed protective of the words her friends and other people chose.

Melissa resumed power-walking; Randi followed.

"Anyway," Melissa said brightly, patting her friend’s behind, "good thing we're taking this walk. Somebody has to work off Thanksgiving." 

Some of us more than others, Randi thought, Almost two hundred pounds she’s gained in less than two weeks? She knew better than to question where it was all going. Tits, yes. Butt and thighs and hips, sure. But it was something about Melissa’s…what’s the word, from science?...density that was also changing. Like Lakshmi could do on command. Melissa was now like that all the time.

Randi glanced back. 

“No cracks in the pavement?” Melissa asked.

“No,” Randi confirmed.

“I could if I wanted to.”

The two walked on, with their legs covering ground fast, though their pace did not seem hurried.

The two traded a few more niceties. After a minute, though, curiously unbidden, Randi found her thoughts going to Dr. J. "So…you're sure Squirt's okay, inside, right now, by himself?" Strange. The Randi Mongillo of three months ago wouldn’t have given a flying fuck about the guy.

"Aubrey's with him," Melissa answered, “Babysitting.”

That answer seemed to satisfy Randi. She nodded once, looking back toward the sprawling campus where people moved steadily between buildings, forklifts beeped somewhere beyond the loading docks, and the place Missy had imagined only months before continued, somehow,  becoming real.

Randi glanced toward the main entrance, which had just become visible to them again. She felt a strange pull towards it, and could almost feel what was happening, with him, inside. "He'll probably wake up before long,” she said, hearing the queer lilt in her voice herself, “I think he’s…hungry.”

Melissa nodded. "Aubrey knows where I am if he needs anything."

“You have some formula powder in your desk, right? I can text her…” Randi offered, feeling strangely nervous, “Or…you have some of the good stuff, what you pumped, right? In the break room freezer? She could-”

“No,” Melissa answered, a firm confidence in her reply, “not from the bottle, and not by anyone else - his first time having…” She paused, chuckling almost shyly, “... ‘me’. I want his first time having me to be from me.” She paused, seeming to gather her resolution. “And…I want him hungry. For tonight. At the lakehouse. So no bottle this afternoon…”

Randi nodded. Understood. The thought of him hungry, though…

Nnngh. Hungry for her.

…and then what he and Melissa would be doing together at the lake? Double Nnngh.

 "We’re all, uh, looking forward to your guys’ weekend,” was all she could manage.

Melissa's expression answered before she spoke. It had softened in a way Randi had almost never seen before, all the little-girl excitement that was so Melissa had given way to something quieter….but no less exuberant. "I am too,” Melissa replied, power-walking pace not slowing. Then she paused. “I'm so glad you found the place for us," she said, "I know it probably wasn't exactly easy booking something for a holiday weekend on, like, forty-eight hours' notice."

"Yeah it’s nothing fancy, believe me” Randi acknowledged, “but yeah I pulled it off." Along with organizing a charity event and all the other shit I have to do.

"You have talents," Melissa smiled.

"I really do."

"Thank you." She looked genuinely grateful.

The sincerity of it made Randi wave the appreciation away before it became awkward. "You don't have to thank me."

"I do," Melissa answered, looking back toward the building as they approached the sidewalk leading across the front of the parking lot, adjacent to the street, "I just...want everything to be right."

Randi understood that immediately. Her friend Missy approached nearly everything in her life with cheerful confidence - probably because the world tended to fucking bend to her will around her - but every now and then there were moments like this, where she wanted something that mattered deeply to her as a person. “It will be…” Randi said, imagining the moment, Dr. J in her friend’s lap, her hand behind his head, pulling him in as she let herself down, “...Perfectly perfect.” 

“Perfectly,” Melissa beamed, looking down at her friend, picturing the moment herself - alone, totally, with no one to bother them for the whole weekend, “Thanks to you.”

Randi scoffed, again in modest, self-effacing pride. The two turned a corner, drawing the eyes of several awestruck pedestrians. Then, in an uncharacteristically shy moment, she asked her friend how it felt.

“You mean my milk coming in?” Melissa answered, almost too casually, “It feels, I dunno, like my body’s finally doing what it’s meant to do? I’m, like, filling for him, for his needs. So we don’t have to rely on Evolution to make his formula for him anymore”  Casually, she adjusted a strap. “But - I am filling, fast. I should pump again, when we get back. Even this new expandable Polish bra can’t keep up!” 

She laughed.

Randi glanced sideways at her friend. Her breasts, truly, were enormous - definitely looking bigger today even than yesterday. How much could this woman be making? Gallons??

“Well, if you’re going to pump again, and won’t be using it,” Randi asked, “Can I have it? And maybe the stuff already in the freezer?”

“For what??” Melissa laughed, looking down on her friend with a sudden incredulousness.

“Oh, nothing fucking weird, you weirdo,” Randi answered, picturing the possibility of all those people this weekend, in the parking lot, lining up. “Well, maybe it is a little weird. But I’ll tell you if it actually happens.”

“Fine, sure,” Melissa agreed in a tone, again, almost too offhanded for what the idea portended. She seemed, somehow, to know what her friend was implying. “Plus, there’s bags and bags of his old powdered baby formula around. We won’t need that anymore.”

“That stuff, actually,” Randi replied, “Josie and Lakshmi had some ideas. Maybe big money.”

“Okay, great,” Melissa agreed, “We’ll need some help making the new apartments look pretty.” She would have left it at that but-

“Oh yeah, speaking of…” Randi began, fighting back a big smile as they continued around the perimeter road, passing a landscaped island where crews had only recently planted young maples that would not cast much shade for another decade. Beyond them, the upper windows of the building caught the pale afternoon sun. She pointed toward the upper floor. "Your apartment will be ready when you get back."

Now it was Melissa that stopped walking.

"It will?!?"

“They’re finishing the last of the painting tomorrow morning," Randi offered, seeing her friend’s face light up with almost childlike excitement, “Furniture comes in early Sunday.”

"No way!!”

"Way."

Melissa clapped once, laughing. "Oh my gosh!” Now Melissa looked up at the upper floor of Far Horizons, her eyes sparkling with a light that struck Randi as something besides just another reflection from the sun. Melissa was already thinking ahead. “Are all the apartments ready? For all you guys??”

Randi couldn't help smiling as she nodded, both at the idea of it and the new ebullience of the towering superwoman, her dearest friend. "So this is really happening? We’re all moving in together?”

“YES!” Melissa exclaimed, turning on her heel and walking again, with a new vigor to her step. "Can one of the girls pick up my things from my Mom's house while we're gone?"

"Of…course,” Randi agreed, putting one more thing on her mental to-do checklist as she jumped to catch up with Melissa.

"And..." Melissa hesitated, then smiled even wider, "His things too. From his apartment. Clear it out."

Randi raised an eyebrow.

“He’s going to be living with me.”

Randi looked back, and up toward the window of his apartment, over the front entrance. It was likely due for demolition soon, if not this weekend. “Moving back home with Mom?” Randi quipped, having fallen back into step.

“Yeah,” Melissa giggled, naughtily, “Mommy may never let him leave his room.”

“Good lord…” Randi scoffed, then rethought her words, adding, “...sorry.”

Melissa giggled at Randi's self-correction.

The two rounded another corner of the campus, the rear service drive giving way to a sidewalk that overlooked some adjacent woods and athletic fields - property that Randi knew Sheryl was looking into acquiring, adding to her collection. A handful of middle-school girls - preternaturally tall, preternaturally composed and athletic, here for the after-school leadership program - were already filtering into the side entrance, backpacks slung over one shoulder as they hurried toward the pediatrics wing and the training rooms.

Melissa watched them with a smile. Then she blinked. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me.”

"What?"

"When Jay and I are gone this weekend..." Melissa thought for a moment, "Can you make sure Tia has something to do?"

"The lifeguard?" Randi asked, “Blondie?” She furrowed her brow, in recall. Names, faces - and weirdly enough dates of birth and social security numbers - came popping into her head. “Mom’s Eva. McMahon. Patient here also, in Internal Med. Vida’s got her on Program.”

Melissa nodded. "Yeah I guess. Anyway, Tia will probably wonder why Jay isn't here for his weekend swim lesson."

"I can find something for her to do,” Randi assured her friend. Another note for the checklist. How the fuck am I keeping this all straight? Is it the EPIRI kicking in?

"Great thanks,” Melissa answered, “I don't want her to feel, like, forgotten."

Randi glanced over. "Why?" she asked, “Why do you care?”

Melissa frowned slightly, as though surprised the answer wasn't obvious. "I can feel her."

Randi waited, as Melissa searched for words.

"She's... starting to become part of us, part of our little henhouse,” the towering superhuman beauty explained. She said it so casually that it took Randi a second to process what she'd heard.

"You mean because of Product?" Randi asked, as again names, faces and this time appointment reminders from the old FHMA trial clinic again went through her mind, “her teacher is on it.”

"Yeah,” Melissa shrugged, "It started off right away, but it was just a hint. It was a struggle to try.” She paused. “It’s easier now."

"Easier?" Randi asked, “Easier doing what?”

"I can feel everybody who's taken it,” Melissa admitted, like she was doing something wrong, “almost see them, now. Where they are. What they’re doing.” She smiled apologetically. "Well... sort of. It’s still, I dunno, vague. And I can feel some better than others. But it’s more every day."

Randi didn’t say anything. But this was new. And it was big. 

Melissa tapped her temple. "And not just them, the ladies on Product, the ones that came to clinic…or the ones in other clinics, in other countries…”

Randi's expression sharpened. They were doing this in other countries? We weren’t the only clinic? "What do you mean?"

Melissa considered it. "If somebody's connected...to me…by being on Product, feeling its effects, affecting others,” she explained, making a loose circling motion with one finger, "I kind of feel their whole group, their whole…whatever. Hive. The girl actually on Product strongest. But the other people - women, sometimes men - too. Fainter."

"And as you're getting stronger..?”

Melissa nodded. "Mm-hmm,” she confirmed, “it’s getting easier. I can feel more. With them. Maybe someday…do more.”

“Chr-…crikeys, Missy,” Randi said, shaking her head at the implications. So much power, brewing, all bottled up in her big-boobed ditz of a friend…but bubbling to the surface. "And this Tia chick..?”

"I can tell she's getting closer to us,” Melissa said, “because I want it that way.” She didn't seem remotely alarmed by the admission. If anything, she sounded pleased.

Randi let the silence stretch between them. Not because she was frightened - no, it was hard to scare Randi Mongillo - but because she was thinking. Far Horizons already had its own dedicated security staff, all women. A dozen of them, a number that would likely soon be growing. Plus there were all of them, Melissa’s girls, growing and getting these weird superpowers. And now, apparently, whatever Melissa could do wasn't stopping at the walls of Far Horizons.

Interesting.

"So..." Randi said at last, as casually as she could manage, "This history teacher of Tia’s…”

Melissa looked over, down at her friend, the two not breaking stride as they rounded another turn in the sidewalk. 

"Could I...I don't know..." Randi gestured toward a pair of girls getting out of the backseat of a car in the rear parking lot, a mom waving them goodbye. Maybe it was a carpool. “Reach out to her? See if she’d encourage more of her, uh, students to join the leadership program?"

Melissa's gears - such as they were - turned. Then her grin returned instantly. "Yes!" She clapped once, delighted by the idea. Numbers, and faces, began to go through her own head. "Let's build our Girl Army!"

Randi laughed, a sharp bark. "You really heard yourself say that and thought it sounded normal?”

"It did!”

"It absolutely did not,” Randi scolded, playfully, “But okay.”

Melissa only laughed harder.

Ahead of them, the afternoon sun flashed across the glass of the new research building as another shipment disappeared through its loading doors.

Neither woman looked that way. One was thinking about apartments, girls' programs, and a weekend away. The other was already beginning, almost without realizing it, to think of networks.

And both of them kept walking.

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