Janice was eyeing the latest swim suit Maddy was modeling. This one was a showier swim suit than the others they had tried on already. It featured a tan, almost skin colored bottom connected to the top with thick bands of cloth of the same color that wrapped around Maddy’s body. To assuage any confusion though, the swimsuit bottom was thick enough to cover a diaper and the butt had ruffles on it. In fact, every swim suit Maddy had tried on that day had ruffles on the but, if not all over the swim suit itself.
The worker stole her own glance as she stealthily deposited a large bonnet that matched the swim suit. Janice quietly took it.
“I like this one,” Maddy smiled as Janice tied the bonnet over her head. “It’s sexy.”
“It definitely is a little on the saucy side,” Janice smiled and twirled her finger. Maddy performed a dramatic, princess like twirl, and even ended by putting her hand in the shape of the peace sign over her eye. Janice giggled a little in response. As she pondered her thoughts she looked into the basket at all the swim suits, they already had.
“Well?” Maddy said seductively.
“If you like it then we can get it,” Janice smiled. “But we may want to make this the last one,” she held up a basket full of swim suits.
“Oh yeah,” Maddy winced she felt the sting in her wallet, or where her wallet would be if Janice wasn’t holding it.
“I’ll go ahead and start checking you out,” the worker had quietly appeared and absconded away with the basket while suckling her pacifier. Maddy went into the small changing room that was also a changing room and after a moment emerged wearing the outfit she wore in.
“Wait,” Janice stopped Maddy from plopping into the waiting stroller immediately. She quickly lifted her girlfriend’s skirt and pressed against her diaper. “Those swim suits are surprisingly good at covering your diaper.”
“Well, it is supposed to keep water out of em … I think.” Maddy answered unsurely “Seems like a pointless exercise.”
“Might work better with swim diapers,” Janice mused while she squished Maddy’s diaper/ “You're wet” Janice said squishing the diaper against Maddy.
“When did that happen?” Maddy stepped back and felt her diaper herself.
“Probably while you were playing dress up. You want a change? This place does have the best changing tables.”
“I’ll live it’s just a little wet.” Janice gave a look that said it was more than a little wet but, Maddy was already securing herself back into the stroller.
With her passenger secured, Janice pushed the stroller to the register where the familiar clerk was waiting receipt in hand. With a wince she leaned over the counter to hand the receipt over to Maddy in the stroller who winced in kind.
“I did go a little overboard,” she said quietly. She handed the receipt to Janice who sympathetically put it in the diaper bag, before fishing out Maddy’s small pocket book and handing a card from it to the cashier.
“Thank you for making eyes bright!” She said giving a cute look by sticking the pacifier in her mouth.
“Yeah yeah,” Maddy said sarcastically. “You guys always end up takin all of my money.”
“Come again!” The clerk said with a knowing grin.
The two left and made their way to the next destination, which was thankfully nearby. This one was Bobby Jon’s surf shop, a rather generic surf shop. The inside was full of adults and older teens who were clearly showing off the fact that they were in pull-ups now and could therefor wear short clothes.
“Now I get to ogle you,” Maddy said devilishly.
“I’ll try and make sure you get a good show,” Janice replied.
She skillfully navigated the large stroller through the store. While it wasn’t made for stroller use like Bright Eyes was, the space between racks was still wide enough to accommodate for the most part. Plenty of parents still brought their stroller bound kids inside after all, even if none were in the store at the moment.
After a fair bit of shopping Janice had a basket similarly full of swim suits and beach wear and made her way to the changing rooms, which were noticeably smaller than the ones in Bright Eyes for lacking all the parts of the other kind of changing room. Janice locked the wheels of the stroller just outside of one of these rooms. Maddy kicked her feet excitedly as Janice picked out the first swim suit to try on.
What followed was a similar showing of a bunch of different beach outfits similar to Maddy’s showing at Bright Eyes. The difference here was the lack of ruffles on the butt and sizes that made Maddy’s one “Sexy” swim suit look like nun robes.
“Hubba hubba,” Maddy called from her stroller as Janice emerged with another swim suit. This swim suit was actually a one piece. A simple tight black one with a small hole in the shoulders and probably the least provocative of the swim suits she had tried on.
“This one is so modest!” Janice complained. “It’s like a school swim suit.”
“Yeah, you’re wearing the onesie for once.” Janice couldn’t help but laugh at the comment. “Turn turn give me a show!” Maddy commanded. Janice obeyed with a sigh giving an only slightly sarcastic model spin. “That’s a winner.”
“You said that about all of them. They can’t all be winners.”
“All of mine were, I got the credit card bill to prove it.”
“Well, I don’t think this one is.”
“Aww come on get the onesie swim suit,” Maddy looked to Janice with puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeease!"
“Ok ok,” Janice sighed as she entered the changing room. Maddy silently pumped her fist.
Janice reemerged shortly in her normal clothes with her own basket of beach clothes. The two made their way to check out where the line was a little longer than the one in Bright Eyes.
“So, we getting food after this?” Janice asked moving to the front of the stroller.
“Yeah, I am getting the cravin for Gatsby’s,” Maddy said happily as Janice quickly checked Maddy’s diaper again finding it no wetter than before, and noted that Maddy might not be hydrated enough.
“I’m getting a little hungry too,” Janice said while she grabbed a baby bottle of water from the diaper bag stored under the stroller and handed it to Maddy who started drinking away. While they were conversing, Janice made it to the checkout counter, and paid the much less invested store clerk.
“You paid way less than me so you got the food,” Maddy said as they made their war outside.
“I don’t think that’s how that works,” Janice replied sarcastically
The two made their way to the food court, which given the time of day was rather populated. Maddy and Janice passed unnoticed between the various groups of adults, families, and teenagers either just old enough to be on their own, or with parents nearby discreetly watching. Janice smiled a bit as passed one group of said teenagers. She could always point out the baby sitter friend in the group. Either the only one or the first one of the group in pull-ups whose presence allowed the rest of the group to be out on their own as they provided the supervision. This particular baby sitter friend was actually holding the reins on another member of the group. It reminded Janice of her own childhood where she was the babysitter friend.
Despite Janice’s protestations of the logic, she did in fact end up paying for the food. It took the two longer than they would have liked waiting in line, but they did eventually get two much too greasy burger meals and found a table. Janice pushed Maddy’s stroller to one side of the table and locked the wheels before she giddily started to set up the stroller’s tray attachment. She attached the stroller’s plastic arm and folded it down in front of Maddy. She the connected four disassembled plastic pieces that came together to make a tray that itself connected seamlessly to the stroller’s plastic bar. Once that was done, she sat the take-out box down on Maddy’s tray before taking her own seat at the table.
“This seems really unhealthy,” Janice grimaced as she held up her burger wet with grease.
“I know it’s so good,” Maddy said mouth already full of her own burger. Janice playfully rolled her eyes. As the two started eating. Janice and Maddy were both briefly distracted by a group sitting next to them who erupted into laughter as they held up French fries. Janice could tell by Maddy’s face she was confused.
“You never played that game?” Janice asked amazed.
“It’s a game?”
“Yeah. You draw fries. Person with the shortest fry has to change everyone’s diaper. Then the person with the second shortest changes theirs,” Janice said holding up a small fry in her hand.
“Usually, we just waited til we got home to change,” Maddy said grabbing a particularly long fry of her own. “The public changing rooms are always a little gross especially in places like this. Even when somebody did need a diaper change, they never asked me.”
“Really? I feel like I got asked all the time,” The two girls both gave each other a smiling look. “You ever feel stuck in your youth?” Janice asked with pointed sarcasm.
“Oh, shut up,” Maddy rolled her eyes. “You know I’d be happy to change you if you wanna start wearing diapers again. They aren’t that bad.”
“You look better in them than me,” mentioning looks triggered Janice’s memory. “Oh, do you still want to go shopping for that business outfit?” Janice asked in between bites. “We still have to get swim diapers too you know.”
“Yeah, if it’s ok with you,” Maddy said with a hint of trepidation.
“It is. I just … I don’t know if it’ll help.”
“You think it won’t?” the hint of trepidation was no longer hidden. Janice moved to say something, but she stopped when she looked at her girlfriend’s face.
“Well, I mean …” Janice stammered a bit before stopping again and abruptly changing her tone. Seeing Maddy so determined about this, she didn’t have the heart to tell her that her mother would probably never take her seriously no matter how professionally she dressed. Besides maybe she needed a little of that Maddy determination herself. “No, you’re right you need a killer outfit to kill your presentation.” Maddy’s mood immediately lightened on getting her girlfriends approval.
“I definitely need your help to pick it out. You always look so sharp at work I need those instincts.”
“I try my best.”
“And you’re pretty good,” Maddy punctuated by taking a bite of her burger. “Better than me.”
“We just have different styles. You’re more cutesy.”
“Well, the kind of clothes that go over diapers lend themselves to that.”
“Don’t blame everything on diapers,” Janice interjected. “You’re just naturally cute.” Maddy blushed a bit as she drank from her soda. “But I can make you fierce,” Janice continued. “I got some ideas though. By the time we’re done you’re gonna look like a ceo’s ceo.”
“That’s the goal.”
“Finish up and we’ll head over to Finer Things.”
“Finer Things?” Maddy questioned.
“It’s where I get my best outfits. My Bright Eyes.”
“Oooo shopping at Janice’s store,” Maddy said stuffing her trash in the to go container. Janice at the same time ate the last of her fries, taking her drink to go.
It was a bit of a walk to Finer Things, and Janice was dreading the walk back to her car on the other side of the mall they would have to make when they were done. Eventually they did make it to their destination. From the outside it was apparent that the store was very chic. The color scheme was a fashionable black and white. Janice was helping Maddy out of the stroller as there wasn’t room for it on the inside of the store. Thankfully there was a bike rack nearby that Janice locked the stroller too.
“We ready?” She asked Maddy with a smile.
“No leash?” Maddy asked.
“We’re shopping for a sharp serious business dress, right?” Janice said grabbing their bags from under the stroller to prevent theft.
“Right,” Maddy got the message. If she was shopping for work clothes doing it in a baby leash probably didn’t inspire the correct mindset. Plus, it didn’t seem like the store was very diaper girl friendly. Maddy definitely felt out of place with her current outfit. Even Janice’s current outfit seemed a little pedestrian, though she carried a natural aura that let her get away with it.
“Babe?” It was only after Janice got her attention that Maddy realized she had spaced out a bit.
“Sorry,” she swallowed the sudden anxiety and feeling of not belonging she had and crossed the threshold. There was a friendly chime as she entered and Maddy was still on the other side of the door. She felt a brief, annoyed, glance from the cashier located next to the door, but she was quickly ignored. Once again Janice was to the rescue. She strode confidently in and grabbed Maddy’s hand. Maddy found her anxiety immediately assuaged with her girlfriend’s hand in her own.
“Come on this way,” Janice said plainly. Maddy took her hand and immediately felt more confident as the two made their way into the store.
AUTHORS NOTE: Here's our next chapter everyone. Our little shopping trip continues and we get a little bit of world building as a treat. Now there's only one stop left, at the fancy big girl store. Stay tuned for more. If you want to read these as they come out check out my ream