THE PHONE RANG TWICE AND then someone picked up.
“Argenti Manufacturers.” The voice was soft and somewhat effeminate. It was impossible to accurately determine the person’s sex.
Wendell suddenly felt foolish and asked, “Have I reached the ordering department?”
“Yes Sir, you have. May I have your store ID and PST number?”
Wendell fumbled through some papers on his desk and quietly cursed underneath his moustache for being so disorganized.
“Sorry for the wait,” he said, adjusting his glasses so they perched correctly on the bridge of his nose. “The ID is 35862ARP and the PST number is 334560999002.”
“Thank you sir, and how may I help you today?”
“Um, well, I need to order some mannequins.”
“Yes sir of course, we only sell mannequins.”
“Ah, right.” Wendell felt lost and the person on the other end of line tried to help by continuing to probe with questions.
“How many do you need sir?”
“Um, I would say six would do fine.”
“Female or male?”
“All female, it’s a women’s store.”
“With nipples or without?”
“Excuse me?”
“Do you want the female mannequins to have nipples or not to have nipples?”
“Don’t all women have nipples?”
“Real women surely do sir, but with our mannequins you have the choice.” Wendell slumped back in his chair and rubbed his fingertips across his perspiring brow.
“I see, well, I’m not sure. Why do you make them two different ways?”
“It depends on how you want your display to look. A mannequin with nipples will create the illusion of firm nipples beneath the garment whereas the mannequin without nipples will not. The mannequins with nipples have a more obvious erotic feature to them. It depends on what you’re looking for.”
Wendell swallowed hard and wondered if the person on the other end could hear. “I guess I’ll order the mannequins with nipples. It seems more natural, doesn’t it?”
“I think so sir.”
“Okay, then let’s do that.”
“Do you want full bodies or just torsos?”
“Full bodies. They’ll be wearing pants so I’ll need full bodies.”
“Fine, sir. Now how about colour?”
“Colour?”
“Yes of course, we have all the most popular ethnicities.”
“White. All white,” he felt he answered too quickly. He realized he had no idea who the person was on the other end of the line. Wendell wasn’t even sure if the person was male or female. “Maybe one bla… ah, African American and five whites.”
“That’s fine sir, however the Asian mannequins are quite popular.”
Wendell felt defeated for some reason. “Okay, fine, make it four whites, one African American and one Asian.”
“Very good, sir. I’ve entered the order and it should ship in about five business days.”
“Alright, thank you.”
“My pleasure sir, have a wonderful day.”
Wendell held the receiver to his ear for a few moments longer, then hung up as well. He leafed through some papers on his desk and found the phone number for his next call. He read the company name on the business card between his thumb and forefinger and somehow felt this call would be worse.