Her Coffee Slave Ch. 02

"I have to use the restroom. Ali, come with me?" Julia said, interrupting the girl's work.

Ali winced for a moment but lovingly set down the feet of the woman she was massaging and scurried after Julia into the bathroom. Erin gave her a sympathetic glance as the Asian girl blushed. In other places it'd be normal for two girls to go to the bathroom together, but here it was just another way for Julia to put her employees in their place.

Because the employees in Romm's Coffee all wore shoes, Julia deliberately went barefoot so she would stand out from the others and customers would know not to order her around. The tile in the bathroom was unheated, though, and was always cool to the touch. Julia quickly came up with a solution to her problem. Each time that she had to use the bathroom, she would have one of the girls follow her in. The girl's purpose was to kneel in front of Julia as she used the toilet, and offer her lap as a footrest for the woman to make her more comfortable.

On longer visits, Julia might ask the girl to read her news articles, or to think of general ways to improve the cafe. It was almost like a business meeting except for the absurd nature of it, and Julia often counted it as the girl's 10 minute break. With Erin in particular, she seemed to pull her away whenever she was trying to eat something and insist she bring it into the bathroom with her. She nearly wretched each time she had to eat on the bathroom floor at Julia's feet, but it still wasn't as bad as Ali or Cami had it.

According to Ali (although it was harder and harder to understand what she said), whenever Julia had to pee she would make Ali lick her clean afterwards. Sometimes, she would have the girl linger for much longer than necessary, and Erin would see Ali come out of the bathroom, her face wet in a very suggestive way. Julia would be glowing for the next few hours, of course. As for Cami, Julia usually wanted the girl to suck on her toes while she used the toilet. She never said why, although it seemed like the perfect way to humiliate Erin's formerly straightlaced friend.

The cafe, its patrons and its customers had changed so much over the past few months.

Since that night Julia had fucked Erin's boyfriend in front of her, she no longer had the confidence to stand up to the woman. She was meek and submissive every time Julia made a demand, and quickly gave in to anything the woman had asked her to do. This included renovations to the cafe which took more than $100,000 to complete, although Erin was sure that Julia had deliberately overcharged so she could keep the excess money. Its look was quite different now, more to the taste of its new clientele.

The floor was made of white Calcatta marble flaked with actual gold, heated by an expensive network of coils installed beneath its surface. The eclectic furniture was long gone, replaced with the kinds of things featured in a luxury Fashion and Design magazine. There were chairs made of the softest leather (each with a matching footrest, for the employees to sit as they worked on their guests' feet), dining tables made of rare Ebony wood, and stylish Japense partition panels installed throughout the place to give certain booths a 'private' feel.

Even the silverware had changed. Every utensil was now made of silver, and Julia required one of the girls to polish each piece by hand at the end of every day, since it created the brightest shine. Their ceramic coffee cups now were each a masterwork object d'art, made of delicate porcelain and rimmed with gold trim around the lip. These too had to be washed by hand, and washed very carefully because they were so fragile. One time Cami had accidentally broken a cup in a hurry washing it, and Julia took her into the break room for a 'talk.' Cami never spoke of what went on in that room, but from that day on whenever Julia looked at her she would bow her head and look down at the woman's feet.

The renovations also added new features to the cafe, moving it in an entirely new direction. Now, in one corner of the dining room, there was a walled-off area with a massage table. Here, customers would receive luxurious massages as a thanks for patronizing Romm's Coffee. The massages, although of the highest quality, were always free. Usually it was Ali who did the massages, and she was constantly studying from her Reflexology and Massage handbook printed in Chinese. Sometimes, though, the customers would ask for Cami or Annie to do the massage.

For the most part, it was the wealthy men and women who Cami had opposed in her campaigns to help the poor that requested her services. Each time, Erin would notice the burning anger in Cami's eyes as she deferentially waited outside the massage room while her customer stripped down and settled beneath a sheet. Still, Cami always smiled and was excessively polite to the array of trophy wives, spoiled brats, and boorish businessmen that took advantage of her services. The men in particular would sometimes swagger out of the massage room, looking dumbly pleased with themselves with Cami coming out a few minutes later, looking flushed and appaled, adjusting her skirt before meeting her next appointment with a vacuous smile. Sometimes she would use the restroom between clients, bringing a towel with her for some unknown reason.

The businessmen would then put $20, $50, and even $100 in the tip jar, a smug grin on their faces before they went out to greet the day. Occasionally, Cami would pull a bill out of her bra and put it into the tip jar as a guy watched on with obvious pleasure. It seemed like Cami was patronized by the same men, usually old enough to be her father, and they all enjoyed being addressed as "Sir," or "Mr. Soandso." Although the men would get Cami gifts of cheap jewelery that just made her look like a tart, Julia kept nearly all of the tip money they contributed. She awarded only a few dollars to her employees.

Julia had also moved in with Erin, much to her dread.

As Erin expected, living with Julia brought her to a deeper level of servitude. Julia was more demanding in her home life than she was in the cafe, and now Erin had no escape from the blonde goddess and her constant needs. She wasn't paying rent, of course, and she expected Erin to do all of the domestic responsibilities of the house for the both of them. Julia had the finest taste in everything: Egyptian cotton sheets, wild-caught fish, luxury beauty products that were hundreds of dollars for a small bottle. Erin quickly became familiar with Julia's beauty routine, and was always at hand in case the woman wanted help.

A typical day would go like this: Erin would drive the both of them home, and help Julia off with her shoes at the door. Usually, she wore some expensive stilletto that further emphasized her height over Erin. Then, Erin would fetch some Rose hip / Lavender oil and massage Julia's feet for a long while, as the woman decompressed from the day and played around on her phone.

Erin would always be completely focused on Julia's feet, which she now knew to be size 10, as she carefully kneaded the woman's soles and stretched her long toes. Julia especially enjoyed it when Erin would put a finger between each of her toes and use her other hand to firmly do all the strokes Julia had taught her. After so many hours at Julia's feet, Erin practically had them memorized: her high arches, the way her slender toes curved, and the look of her perfectly shaped nail beds always sported a fresh pedicure (which was Erin's doing, of course).

After an hour or so of carefully kneading Julia's tired feet, Erin would get Julia a glass of very expensive wine. For Julia, a bottle that cost less than $80 was cheap and sometimes they ran as high as $300. She was the only woman Erin knew who drank champagne regularly, which she usually had imported from France. Although Julia drank as much as a bottle a day, she never seemed really intoxicated beyond seeming giggly and a little buzzed. Usually, Julia wanted to be alone as she sipped her wine, only calling on Erin to refill her glass when it was empty.

Erin would use this time to complete the endless list of chores Julia assigned her: polishing the woman's shoes, handwashing her laundry, researching beauty products and techniques that she could use on the woman, and learning new recipes to cook. Julia took Erin's cell phone whenever they got home, so she could only use the computer to do this research. Additionally, Julia put a lot of restrictions on the wifi so that Erin could only access the sites Julia wanted her to see- usually frivolous, girly websites about home economics and beauty. One of Erin's responsibilities was to do outreach for Romm's Coffee, which entailed messaging models and conservative-leaning figures and asking them to stop by the cafe for a free cup of coffee and a massage. Very few turned her offer down.

Erin would start cooking dinner in the early evening, and the only way she could enjoy her own cooking was an occasional taste of it to make sure the seasoning was good. Otherwise, Julia kept Erin on a strict diet of bland food: unseasoned brown rice cooked to a gruellish consistency, underripe bananas, and liquid whey that had an acidic, sour taste. She wasn't permitted to use salt, sugar, or any sort of seasoning on her own food and she was always hungry from the small portions Julia allowed her.

Only rarely would Erin sit at the table with Julia as they ate. More often, she would stand at Julia's side in case she wanted anything, serving her food and refilling her drinks. Julia insisted that Erin watch her eat the food to help her be more 'mindful,' but Erin was sure that it was to torment the poor girl by seeing someone else enjoy a feast while she herself had only poor scraps. Already, Erin had lost 15 pounds. When she saw herself in the mirror, she always noticed how frail and skinny she looked.

After dinner came the exercise.

Erin dreaded each night for this reason. When Julia had her fill of delicious, healthy food, she would order Erin up to the exercise room to relax and watch the girl's gruelling fitness routine. The room had been converted from a bedroom into a mini gym: it had an exercise bike, mirrored walls, a treadmill, and other pieces of workout equipment. Erin would change into short shorts and a tank top, put on some running shoes and prepare for the night's torture.

Here Julia really showed her fiendish ingenuity. Erin, having failed so many times to live up to Julia's impossible standards of fitness, felt nauseous every time she even saw the treadmill. It was remote controlled, so Julia could set the pace. She always did it in a way that Erin couldn't keep up with - too fast, a high incline, but she was careful to dangle success just outside of the girl's reach.

For example, one time Julia told Erin that if she could run two miles, she would be excused from her tasks around the house for an entire week. The pace kept increasing, though, and Erin only made it a mile and a half before she had to step off, nauseous from overexertion and utterly disappointed in herself for her failure. That wasn't even the end of the workout session, either. Erin still had to ride the exercise bicycle and climb 30 flights on the stair machine. At the end of the night, Erin was drenched in sweat, pale, and trembling from exhaustion. She could barely walk, and felt her body eating its own muscles to get energy.

When she mentioned this to Julia, the woman opened up a can of cheap tuna (practically cat food quality) and put it onto a plate for Erin so she could have some protein. Erin nearly gagged as she ate the awful, slimy stuff, and this somehow became a ritual at the end of each night's workout. Erin would then draw a bath for Julia and help the woman bathe, rubbing expensive soap on her toned body and shampooing her hair lovingly. When Julia stepped out, Erin would apply a coat of lavender oil onto Julia's entire body to help her moisturize overnight, then fetch her a bathrobe. She then had five minutes to take a cold shower and meet Julia in her old bedroom to rub the woman's back and legs as she drifted off to sleep.

Usually Julia would give Erin some demanding homework assignment to take care of for the next several hours, so that Erin would only get about five or six hours of sleep each night. The tasks ranged from photoshopping pictures of Julia to make her look more perfect, to reading strange stories about girls in abusive relationships where they were subjected to all manner of bondage and discipline. Julia insisted that Erin highlight certain passages and write in the margins of the pornographic books, and she would often be tested on their plot and contents.

It was one such night that Erin came up with her plan for escape.

Erin was bone tired from having so little sleep and so little nutrition over the past several weeks, and reading the stories she knew that the future would only hold worse things. Earlier that day, a group of arrogant businessmen from China came to invest in the company. Julia had Ali dress up as some kind of geisha and serve the men tea. Ali, who once despised the chauvinistic attitudes of such men, was now the picture of obedience, greeting their brash insults with giggles and efforts to try harder.

Erin was struck by this because Ali had researched these men before: they were the corrupt, brutal men who lorded their power over the citizens they were supposed to serve. Ali barely spoke above a whisper as she dutifully completed every demeaning task they gave her, and as they drank their rice wine they became more handsy and brash. One man wanted Ali to try the dumplings, but instead of allowing her to use chop sticks he insisted that she eat the food out of his hands as though she were a dog.

To make it worse, he told her to suck the residue off of his fingers afterwards, so he would not have clean hands. Ali meekly obeyed, the glare in her eyes the only way Erin could tell she hated such treatment. This scene went on for quite some time, with Ali lighting their cigarettes and occasionally drinking rice wine at their request. Ali left with the men after they had a short talk with Julia, hopping into one of their luxury cars with a resigned look on her face.

It was then Erin figured out what was happening: Julia was finding out targeted ways of humiliating each girl. Cami had to obsequiously serve the rich people she used to despise, and Ali had given up her education to be some kind of business whore and some womens' foot slave. Annie was practically the cafe slave, moronically obeying the guys she once openly made fun of. Erin had no idea what was in store for herself, but she didn't want to find out. That night, as she was watching a tutorial on how to do a bikini wax, she racked her brain to think of anything she could do.

She remembered watching that stupid video Julia showed her, and how afterwards she felt sick when she thought of disobeying the woman. Although she couldn't remember much of its content, she remembered the name Barry Glaston. The next day, when Julia took her lunch break, Erin borrowed a girl's phone at the cafe on the pretense of finding her own lost phone. A quick search revealed that Barry Glaston did tattoos in her own city, and that his store was about half way across town. She quickly memorized the address then deleted her browsing history, handing the phone back to the bratty blonde she borrowed it from.

The hardest part was finding an excuse to be away from Julia. Erin had already observed that the woman was in constant contact with her: they worked together, lived together, and Julia was always thinking of ways for Erin to occupy her time when they were apart. The only time Erin had to herself was when Julia had to meet with investors. Erin found the quickest route to Barry's tattoo place and waited for an opportunity to present itself.

A few weeks later, she had her chance. Julia was taking Annie to meet with some lawmakers at a hotel downtown, and would probably be busy all night. Erin saw them off: Annie dressed in fine jewelry, a nice black dress and strappy high heeled shoes while Julia was wearing a fine pants suit and flats. Annie was withdrawn but beautiful, wearing elaborate makeup and staring listlessly at the ground as Julia gave Erin her jobs for the evening. Annie wore lace stockings, with the straps of a garter belt barely visible if you looked closely. The two women got into the car and drove off, then Erin took her bicycle and pedalled to Barry's shop as quickly as she could.

Her time on the exercise bike paid off, and she made it there quicker than she had expected.

Erin was disappointed when she saw the receptionist. It wasn't Andrea, but some petite blonde girl with lily-white skin. The girl looked up at Erin with her big blue eyes, and immediately Erin understood why Barry hired her.

"What's up, where's Andi? I was supposed to meet her here," Erin asked, walking up to the blonde girl's reception area.

The blonde girl scoffed in response. Erin saw she was wearing a name tag that read, "Liana"

"She was in here a few hours ago, begging to borrow some money from me. That girl has no class," Liana said.

"Yup, that's Andi for you. So what's up, is she coming back? She owes me money too," Erin lied.

Liana rolled her eyes.

"She's probably at that trashy club she works at all the time. With how much she works, how come she's broke all the time?" Liana mused. Erin had some ideas.

"What club?" Erin prodded. The blonde girl narrowed her eyes a little, as though to size Erin up. She must have decided Erin wasn't a threat, then spoke.

"She works at the Lavender Lounge downtown. I wouldn't ride your bike there, though, if I were you."

Erin thanked her and hustled out of the building, afraid that Barry would see her talking to his receptionist. She felt guilty for not warning the girl about Barry and Julia, but knew she would just sound like a crazy person if she tried. Her neon blue hair certainly didn't give her any credibility.

The bike downtown took a lot out of her. Erin had to go through the worst parts of the city, seeing crack heads, homeless people, and prostitutes on her way. She nearly lost her nerve when she heard the things they'd shout at her, but Erin knew this was her best chance to break free. Dripping with sweat and out of breath, she arrived in front of the converted warehouse that was the Lavender Lounge.

There was a strange mixture of looks that people gave her as she walked in. The guys smoking cigarettes outside glared at her like she was a piece of beef, and the bouncer raised an eyebrow when he noticed her. Still, he let her in without question, and without asking for the $20 cover fee the club had that night.

It was hard to see inside, the main light coming from lurid blue spotlights illuminating a single dance stage. It smelled like sweat and chemical disinfectant, and for some reason the air conditioning was so strong it was colder here than it was outside. The club wasn't too busy: a few guys seated at the main stage and a few more sitting in groups farther back. Erin took a seat and tried to look nonchalant, eyeing each of the girls to look for Andi. But she didn't have to look for very long.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen," an annoying voice declared on the loudspeakers, "Let's welcome Glass onto the stage!"

Clad in a seethrough white blose, clear high heels, and a matching set of lace bra and panties, Andrea walked onto the stage and began her dance. Erin approached, noticing that nearly every inch of the young woman's body was covered in tattoos. Her hair had been dyed platinum blonde and straightened - it was hard for Erin to recognize the girl. The look in her face was inscrutable: sexy but defeated, like she had been hardened by her time here.