Ann: A Love Story Ch. 78

"Is this our version of The Leather Door?" I asked Ann, referring to the adult store in California where Ann's friend...and my friend, Missy worked.

"I don't think so...at least, it's not based on what Tina told me. But I think we're going to like it a lot," she grinned as she opened the huge, heavy front door.

Much like The Leather Door, the main floor had been gutted, making it wide open, except for the tiny staircase in the very center of the place that led to the upstairs. The staircase was like an island and all around it were racks upon racks of clothes. While there were a lot of clothes, very sexy clothes, the place was mostly filled with lingerie and undergarments. They also had body lotions and oils...and there were a few odds and ends but it was a lingerie store.

The distinct difference between Henrietta's House and The Leather Door was the sex toys. There weren't any to be seen in the little house we were standing in. It was like a privately-owned Victoria's Secret, with a more intimate feel to it. It was a cozy little place, and I quickly felt right at home. So did Ann, and a big part of that was the welcome we got.

We were browsing through racks of silky negligees, Ann brushing her sexy ass up against my stiffening cock, when we noticed an attractive woman in her middle 30s walking toward us. The little bell hanging above the doorframe had hit the door, jingling to announce our arrival. And that cue brought the lady with long, dirty blonde hair and a curvy figure out from behind a counter to greet us with a warm smile and a warmer southern accent.

"Welcome to Henrietta's House. I'm Mary Ann. How are y'all doing this afternoon?"

Ann flashed a sexy grin that fit in perfectly with our surroundings. "We're fine, Mary Ann. I'm Ann...and this is my fiancé, Neil."

"Well, hello Ann. Hello, Neil. I don't believe I've seen you two in Henrietta's before."

"No...you haven't. I wasn't sure we were going to find you either. I heard about your store from a friend...I was beginning to get frustrated."

"We get that a lot. People that hear about us think we're in the outlets. But I think being in this house gives what we do a lot more charm, don't you think?"

I nodded as I looked around the place. "I'll say. So...you remember everyone that comes in?"

"I'm pretty good with faces. And I'm here all the time...this place is my life," Mary Ann chuckled.

"Well, I'm surprised it's not called Mary Ann's House then. Where's Henrietta?"

"She's no longer with us."

"She's not? Then why'd you keep the name? That seems odd," I said, not clueing in, thinking she was talking about a former owner.

"No, Neil. She's dead," Mary Ann said rather bluntly.

Suddenly I flushed and I tried to extract my size 12 foot from my mouth. "Oh my God... I'm so sorry, Mary Ann."

"Oh...Neil, there's nothing to be sorry about. Henrietta was my Great Great-Grandmother. She owned this house...bought it in 1911 with her husband when she was 19. It's been in the family ever since."

"I'm still feel bad...I was just trying...."

Mary Ann put her hand on my arm, her gentle touch making me relax. "There's nothing to feel bad about either, sweetie. It happens all the time. I really should be more tactful when I tell people that Henrietta's gone. But she wouldn't mind...she was a real card. Come on...let me give you a little tour of her house, and what we have that would look fantastic on you," she said as she looked at Ann.

"I wonder what she'd say about her house being a lingerie store now," Ann giggled.

"She'd love it," Mary Ann grinned.

"You sound pretty sure about that," I said with a laugh.

"I am. She'd be happy the house is still sort of in the business."

"What's that mean?" Ann asked.

Mary Ann let out a naughty little laugh and said, "Well, this used to be a brothel. Henrietta used to be the Madam. She started that in 1915."

I know I let out a little gasp as I stopped in my tracks. Ann's mouth dropped as she quietly said, "You're kidding."

"Oh, don't be embarrassed; I'm not. It's common knowledge...she's part of the town's history. And for the record, I'm very proud of her. That's why I named the store in her honor. She was way ahead of her time," Mary Ann said as she took Ann's hand and led us through the store.

"Your Great Great-Grandmother really ran a brothel?" Ann asked.

"Yes, she did, sweetie...a very successful one. When they built the textile factory across the street, she opened up her business. She had four girls working along with herself, and they'd take care of the workers during lunches, dinners and whenever they got off work."

"Lunches AND dinners?"

"Well, the factory worked two shifts back during its heyday, and some men preferred to spend their lunch or dinnertime here. And of course there was a lot of action after work too. So the girls were here a lot of hours...but it's not like they worked all day long. They had some nice breaks during the day."

"That's incredible," I said, still somewhat stunned. "Did she ever get in trouble...you know...with the law?"

"No...she actually had several police officers that were regulars too."

"Really?" Ann laughed.

"Yes. She gave them what they wanted for free and in return, the police left them alone. They kind of watched over the place too...made sure they were safe. When Henrietta first started out, times were good. But you have to remember that shortly after came Prohibition and then the Great Depression. People around here were struggling, so they looked other way. Since people couldn't drink, the sex trade kind of flourished."

We were walking past clothes rack after clothes rack, each containing dozens of beautiful, sexy garments. We'd passed a couple displays of bustiers, and garter and bra sets and we'd gone past a rack filled with nighties of all kinds and colors. Most of the stuff I saw was pretty standard fare. But in each section, whether it was bras, nighties, or whatever, there was always a smaller rack off by itself, each only big enough to hold the three or four items on them...items that seemed different. They were more ornate, like they were specialized in some way. I looked around and counted six of the small racks, wondering why they were there.

I was going to ask Mary Ann, but Ann was still curious about other things. She asked, "So...when did Henrietta stop?"

Mary Ann was still focused on telling us her family history too, along with that of the store. When Ann asked about Henrietta and when she gave up the business, Mary Ann thought about it for a second. It was like she was deciding how much she wanted to tell us, when she smiled.

"She didn't quit, Ann. After she stopped, you know...she still was the Madam, running the place. In fact, my Grandmother Bonnie worked here too. It was my mother that broke the string, so to speak. When my Grandmother died, my mother was going to sell the house...but I talked her into letting me buy it instead and lived here for a while. By then this was a nice, quiet neighborhood; the plant had been shut down for years, and no one came down this street unless they lived here. A few years ago, the developers came in and tried to buy the house when they started renovating the factory into the outlets, so I decided to go into business for myself."

"What did your mother say about you going into the lingerie business?" Ann asked.

"At first she was upset. She spent years living with the image of coming from a line of women that worked in a profession that isn't exactly well thought of by mainstream America. That was hard on her as a little girl. I guess people expected her to follow in the footsteps of the women before her. She kind of viewed this as an extension of that."

"You said at first. Does she feel different about it now?" I asked.

"She must...she's my partner," Mary Ann laughed.

She explained that her mom had come to terms with what her own mother and grandmother did for a living, mainly because of the success that Mary Ann had early on in the store. It was when she tried to congratulate her daughter for being the first successful woman in her family that Mary Ann set her straight.

"I told my mother that Henrietta had been the most successful businesswoman in the history of the county. She not only ran her own business, she turned a profit during the Depression. And then I told her that Grandma Bonnie was a success too. She took over the brothel and found a way to get her girls medical benefits...and she had profit sharing. That was unheard of in the late '40s in regular businesses, never mind a brothel."

"And that convinced your mother?" Ann asked.

"Not entirely. Not until I mentioned to her that she was the first one in our family to ever go to college...and the only reason that happened was because Grandma Bonnie was a good businesswoman too, and she paid for it. That's why my mother didn't have to go into family business, like she used to call it."

Ann stopped to look at a rack of sexy cocktail dresses, and said, "You really have a beautiful store. I can't believe there are so many different things here...a lot more than just lingerie. Oh...I'm sorry. You were saying your Mom's now your partner?"

"Yes. She loves it. In fact, she's the one that got us into creating specialty items and doing more than just sexy lingerie. She wanted to do sexy clothes for everywhere, like those dresses. Come upstairs and I'll show you."

Mary Ann took us towards the tiny old staircase in the middle of the house. The stairway was narrow...so narrow that we could only go up the stairs one after the other. I followed the ladies, loving that I could stare at Ann's tight ass all the way up. When we got to the top, Mary Ann took us to a room filled with dresses and Ann let out a little sigh.

"See...we make evening dresses too. Granted, they're a little sexier than most, but they've become really popular," Mary Ann said proudly.

"You MAKE them?" I said, looking at the overstuffed room. It was a small room...but there must have been close to a hundred gowns inside.

"Well...I don't. That's what my mother does, her and Joanne, the other seamstress we hired. They also make the special lingerie we have downstairs. We buy a lot of things through distributors, but we also do our own items."

"So THAT'S why there are all those little racks downstairs. All those items are one-of-a-kind."

"Well, they're not exactly one-of-a-kind. We have more, but we don't display them all because we don't have room. My mother designs them, she and Joanne make them and we put one of each downstairs. If we don't have your size upstairs or in storage, she'll take your measurements and make it for you. That's one of the things that makes us unique."

Ann looked at the prom dresses in the room and smiled. "Wow, Mary Ann...these are beautiful. You don't make wedding dresses, do you?" she kidded.

"That's right...you're getting married. When?"

"December 2nd. Neil just got a job a new plant they built outside of town."

"Oh...the Armada plant. That's been big news around here. Congratulation, Neil."

"Thanks," I said politely.

Ann said, "Yeah, he started already. I came out for the week to look for a place for us to live. He's staying at the Sheraton right now, but we need somewhere to go once we're married."

"So...we're you serious about the dress?" Mary Ann asked Ann.

"Why? Do you make them?"

"I don't know...let's go ask," Mary Ann said as she led us out of the little room and down that hallway.

As we neared the room on the back right, I could hear the whirring of a sewing machine and it sounded like it was flying. We walked into what had to have been the master bedroom of the home. It was still rather tiny, but it was bigger than the other rooms that we'd passed along the way.

Behind the sewing machine sat a silver-haired woman, likely in her late fifties. Her eyes were hidden by half glasses and her hands were sure as they guided the delicate red silk under the rapidly firing needle. She was so focused on her work, she more closely resembled a librarian.

"Mom, we have a customer," Mary Ann said as she pointed toward Ann and me.

Pulling her foot off the pedal, the woman took off her glasses, letting them drop on their chain to her chest. She stood up and came around the sewing machine.

Ann smiled shyly. "Well, I'm not sure I'm a customer yet."

"Neil...Ann, this is my mother, Camilla. Mom, this is Ann and Neil. They're getting married in December and she has a question she'd like to ask."

Camilla looked at Ann and said, "I don't usually get requests for honeymoon attire with the groom in the room. You two must be a special couple."

"Well, we're different, that's for sure," Ann said as she looked at me, giving me a sexy wink. "But I'm not here for honeymoon attire...well, I AM...but that's not why we're here."

Ann giggled when she admitted she was thinking about something for our honeymoon, but that was going to be over a year away because of the new job. There'd be plenty of time for her to shop for that. I wondered if maybe she meant for the night of the wedding...but who knew.

Camilla said, "Well, what can we do for you, sweetie," her sweet southern voice and affectionate way of addressing us sounding just like her daughter.

"I asked Mary Ann if you make wedding dresses."

"Wedding dresses...I don't know. I've never done anything that formal before. Everything we make is geared more towards...well, showing off a woman's body. Even the evening dresses show a lot of skin."

"I know...that's kind of what I'm hoping for. Everything I've seen or tried on I hate. I've worked in fashion my entire adult life, Camilla. I know what I want in my head...but I can't find it anywhere. Not even close."

"Sounds like you want something a little hotter than the standard wedding gown,"

Ann nodded and said, "You could say that."

"Well...maybe we CAN help you. What are you looking for?"

Ann looked at me, and then at Camilla...and then back at me. I knew instantly what she meant, and so did Mary Ann. She took me by the arm and said, "Come on, Neil. Let me take you downstairs and show you what we have for men."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mary Ann had been keeping me company for about twenty minutes while Ann was upstairs describing to Camilla the wedding dress of her dreams. And apparently, they were erotic dreams. The way she described it, what little she did, made me think that Ann was going to dress provocatively for our wedding day. It wasn't something our small town would likely be used to, or maybe even ready for...but it was certainly Ann. That's the way she thought, because that's the way she was. And the thought of that got me excited.

Still, as Mary Ann showed me sexy men's underwear like she had been since we'd walked downstairs...my thoughts were wandering on me. I was back to thinking about the house I was standing in and what it had been used for. There was something that Mary Ann had said came to mind...something that didn't quite fit.

She saw me staring into space, a perplexed look on my face, and she asked, "What's the matter, Neil? Are you worried about Ann and the dress? I'm sure we can help."

"I'm sure you can too."

"Well, what's on your mind?"

"It's nothing, Mary Ann. I'm fine."

"I know better than that, sweetie. I come from a long line of women that can read men like a dime store novel. What's bothering you?"

"Nothing's bothering me. And it's really none of my business anyway."

"Ha...you said that like it pertains to me. Why don't you tell me and let me be the judge of whose business it is."

"Well, you said something earlier...and it didn't hit me at first. But, well...you said Henrietta bought this place...with her HUSBAND. And I was wondering...."

Mary Ann nodded and said, "Henrietta WAS married...to George Walker. He was drafted into the Army in 1914 and he got her pregnant the day before he was shipped over to Europe during World War I. He never came home...never got to see Grandma Bonnie. We're not even sure if he knew he was going to be a father."

"Oh my God," I said, shocked to hear something so tragic, even though it happened over 70 years before.

"It's okay, Neil. Henrietta dealt with that long ago, and believe it or not, she had a great life. She loved what she did."

"But...how did she end up turning to...well, that as a profession?"

"She was a 23 year old single mother, Neil, back when single mothers stayed single the rest of their lives. No one married a woman with kids...it just wasn't common back then Also she had no brothers or sisters and her parents had both passed away, so she was on her own."

"What about HIS family?" I said.

"From what I heard, they didn't care for her because she was Protestant, so they pretty much disowned her and Grandma Bonnie. They weren't from this area either...George's family lived in New York."

"So...she just one day decides to open a brothel in her house?"

"Well, it wasn't just like that. She had a baby to feed, no income and no way to get a job because of the baby. The Army paid her some death benefits and she used most of that to pay off the house. When the money ran out, she needed a plan and had three things going for her; she had brains, the house and her looks. On top of that, she had discovered during her brief marriage that she loved sex. At 23, she had no intention of going the rest of her life without it, especially with her sexual prime ahead of her. She knew another marriage was out of the question, but she still had a daughter to care for, so she might as well get something out of life for herself."

"Wow...this is such a fascinating story, Mary Ann. How about your grandmother...how did she get into the business?"

"She lived here...right upstairs. While Henrietta tried to shield her from it when she was little, it wasn't like Grandma Bonnie wasn't going to find out what happened in the house. There were four other women working there...and all kinds of men in and out of the house at all hours of the day and night."

"Well, you have a point there," I said with a nod.

"The truth is, Grandma Bonnie looked up to her Mom. When she was old enough to realize what happened to her Dad and what her Mom had to do to make ends meet, Grandma Bonnie had this sense of appreciation...a kind of family pride. So, when she turned sixteen, she asked her Mom if she could go to work."

"SIXTEEN?"

"It wasn't like today, Neil. Girls got married young back then. My goodness, most of them had two or three kids by the time they were in their early twenties. The women in my family mature pretty early. I had 36-inch breasts when I was thirteen," Mary Ann said as she proudly pushed out her chest, which had to be 40 inches now.

"So, Henrietta was okay with that?"

"Obviously she was. She handpicked the men that could be with her daughter...and she watched over her pretty closely. Jobs were still scarce in the area and it was a way for them to bring more money into the house...Henrietta didn't have to spend so much on Grandma Bonnie once she went to work herself."

"And that went okay then?"

"It did until she got pregnant with my Mom. Then she had to stop for a while. But shortly after, Henrietta started taking care of my Mom, and Grandma Bonnie took her place. Henrietta was still the Madam and she worked a little whenever Bonnie would take a day off, so my Mom was raised by both of them. I guess the important thing was that my Mom was never in the house. Bonnie and Henrietta got a place of their own by then, so this house wasn't a home any more. Not until I moved in anyway."

"When did your Mom find out what they did for a living?"

"She started getting teased in the third grade. It hurt her, but she learned to deal with it."