Is This What You Really Want? Ch. 05

"Sugarcane flavor!" piped up Patricia. "Consumers will taste the sugarcane in the drink and their brains will associate the flavor with sugar, even though it's not actual sugar...just the flavor. That way the drink will taste sweet, but without the calories!"

"Intriguing!" said Ashley, nodding her head as Katie "oooed," showing that she was also impressed with Patricia's idea. "That would involve us getting shipments of raw sugarcane made directly to this plant, though," continued Ashley thoughtfully as she mused out-loud. "Where is our crop grown right now?"

"Trinidad and Tobago," said Katie.

"Hmmm...Trinidad, huh?" said Ashley, biting her pen as she whipped out her phone and did some calculations. "That's...what...500, 600 miles away?"

"But what about from the nearest port?" asked Patricia.

"200, 300?" said Katie, who also had her phone out, doing calculations.

"Hmmm, not too far," said Ashley, jotting down some numbers.

"But," said Patricia, "remember that if we're just shipping the raw sugarcane, it's gonna weigh a whole lot less than our current shipments of pure cane sugar."

"Ooohhh, that's right!" said Ashley excitedly. "Good point, Trish!"

Timothy's head was already spinning. It was all he could do to keep up with how fast the conversation was going. He was stunned by how quick and snappy his co-workers were...how fast they thought on their feet, how immediate and crisp their ideas were, and how effortlessly they played off each other. With each passing moment he felt increasingly desperate to get some kind of word in. After Patricia's point, he saw his chance.

"Uh...how are we...ummm," and he felt the red deepening in his face as he felt three pairs of eyes on him as he stammered around. He felt that as soon as he opened his mouth, it had become abundantly clear who the low-level employee was. But he pressed on: "Are we...uh...wouldn't...umm...the sugarcane actually weigh...uh...more than the sugar?"

There was silence for a moment as the three women stared at him blankly. For a moment, Timothy felt like he had raised an important point, and some hope rose up in his chest that he was making a positive contribution.

"Uh, no Timmy," said Ashley, seeming a little perturbed at his question. "We'd just be extracting the flavor from the sugarcane, which means we wouldn't need that much of it shipped here."

"Oh, we...we wouldn't?" he asked, feeling increasingly stupid.

"Uh...no," said Ashley matter-of-factly. "No we wouldn't." A few more seconds of silence passed, with Timothy looking totally bemused.

"One of you wanna tell him why?" said Ashley to the other two women, not bothering to hide her annoyance now.

"Flavor extraction means we get "concentrated" product," said Patricia quickly, turning to Timothy and speaking in an exaggeratedly slow manner.

"And "concentrated" means that a little goes a long way," added Katie, speaking just like Patricia in that condescending tone.

"I know what "concentrated" means!" snapped Timothy, not being able to help his almost childish response.

"No need to get snippy now," said Ashley, turning to him and narrowing her eyes. "You're the one who needed us to explain something that should be common knowledge to you at this point, even if you're just a batch mixer." That dull ache in the bottom of his stomach made Timothy realize that he was shrinking again, ever so slightly...which annoyed him. He felt like it was getting out of control. Ashley stopped speaking and seemed for a moment to realize how her tone of voice sounded to him, and what she had actually said...it seemed like she might backtrack and apologize for her condescension, but instead she just breathed in thought her nose, collecting herself as she turned back to Patricia and Katie.

"So...anyway...what were we saying before all that?" she said.

"Trish was pointing out that we could cut down on our shipping weight if we just get the raw cane shipped here," said Katie.

"Oh right! Yeah, that's right," said Ashley, swinging back into the saddle. "And that's definitely one positive...a big positive to Trish's idea. At this point the only question I have is...well...will it work?"

"You mean will it actually taste good?" asked Patricia.

"Yeah!" said Ashley. "I mean, what does raw sugarcane taste like, anyway?"

"Not like that much, actually," said Katie. "It tastes like sugar, but like...watered down."

"Kind of like slightly sugared water?" asked Ashley.

"Yeah, exactly," said Katie.

"Hmmm, well customers probably won't care too much for that," said Ashley, jotting down more notes.

"No, but we could just up the flavor concentrate," said Patricia. "That way we intensify the flavor."

"But how much cane juice concentrate would we be adding?" asked Ashley. "The more concentrate, however small, the more calories. And you heard Clare — we've gotta keep it to a minimum."

"Mint!" came Katie's excited voice. They all turned to look at her, and she beamed back. "We don't have to up the sugar cane concentrate!" she said enthusiastically, "We just need to add the right compliment that accentuates the flavor of sugar and amplifies it — brings it out!"

"Aha!" said Ashley, nodding her head in approval as her hand moved quickly to write down these ideas. "Mint definitely compliments sugar really well — good start! What else?"

"Ginger!" chirped Patricia.

"Oh hell yeah!" said Katie, "those sugared ginger drops from the farmer's market are to die for! Imagine drinking a fizzy drink that tasted like that!"

"I love it, I love it," said Ashley with energy, her writing hand going over and over the page.

"Grapefruit!" enjoined Katie. "Especially for the hotter summer months we're in right now."

"Sweet and sour — I'm all about it!" said Ashley, nodding her head vigorously.

"Mango!" called out Patricia. "To add a heartier fruit flavor, you know?"

"Mango and grapefruit for the summer — it's great, guys!" said Ashley enthusiastically.

Timothy had been racking his brain, trying to come up with a flavor that he could call out that would contribute to the conversation. He was going to say "lime," but that sounded too easy, too generic. He had to think of something that none of the other girls would think of...something that only he would say. After Patricia said "mango," he suddenly got it.

"Papaya!" he called out. The three women turned to look at him again, and he immediately felt the crushing weight of their eyes. His idea had not been well-received, and once again, he had derailed the conversation.

"Too close to mango," said Ashley with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Heavy fruit flavor, but not as naturally sweet...mango's better. What else, girls, what else?" Ashley had turned back to Patricia and Katie, as if she was now convinced that she was only going to get acceptable ideas from them. Timothy felt the burn of humiliation in his cheeks accompany a twinge of anger as he felt himself shrinking a little again. This wasn't right — his ideas were just as good as theirs! He just wasn't as quick with them. He had to say something else...he had to.

"Kiwi!" he blurted out. Ashley turned to him, now clearly annoyed; Katie sighed in vexation as Patricia just stared at him.

"The US supply of kiwi comes from California," said Ashley. "Do you really think we have room in our budget to ship kiwi in some tractor trailer all the way across the country?" Timothy felt his mouth go dry as he sat there stupidly, his legs dangling off the desk, as the other women stared at him. In that moment, he felt the intense professionalism of the three women, and felt positively blown away by how on top of everything they were, and how adult and competent they all looked. He felt like some kind of child around them...an ignorant, incapable, untalented, and clumsy child who was smaller than them in every way. And it was true.

"You know, Timmy," said Ashley after a few moments of silence, "if you don't have anything useful to contribute, please don't say anything at all instead of trying to impress us. It just comes off as silly and immature, and we really don't have time for it, ok?"

"O-ok..." said Timothy, his face now really burning in shame. Another stomach twinge...he was shrinking again.

"Ok, two more flavors, please," said Ashley, returning to Patricia and Katie, "and make them something other than fruit, alright? We need variety."

The women thought for a few moments, as Timothy's mind had been wiped blank with the humiliation of the previous exchange. His clothes hung on him looser, and his loafers were now almost dangling off his feet.

"Vanilla," said Katie quietly.

"Vanilla..." said Patricia thoughtfully, as if pondering the idea.

"Vanilla!" yelled Ashley excitedly after a few more seconds of thought. "And we could add some cinnamon and licorice root in with it and we'd get something close to a root beer flavor, except with our own little twist!"

"Brilliant, Ashley!" said Katie, clapping her hands.

"Ok, now one more...one more," said Ashley, breathing in and out enthusiastically. "Isn't this awesome, ladies?" she suddenly added, looking up from her notepad to Patricia and Katie, positively beaming. "We're just nailing all these ideas, ya'll! Clare's putting a lot of faith in us here, and we're delivering for her!" She laughed out loud as Patricia and Katie assented their approval. "I mean, we're doing it, girls! We're cooking up these flavors that we're gonna see on TV and supermarket shelves in no time. That's us! How cool is that?!"

"Super cool, Ashley," said Patricia, smiling.

"Ok, ok, one more, one more," said Ashley again, careful not to get too caught up in the moment, and the three women lowered their heads to their notepads, and the sound of pens hurriedly moving across paper filled the room. Timothy sat there on Ashley's desk, feeling totally left out. This meeting had really hit home the reality to him — he just wasn't up to speed. He wasn't on their level. They knew more than him, thought faster than him, were more creative than him, and were therefore more confident in their ideas than him. They were all just...better than him. It had never been more clear to Timothy why these three had received promotions and he had remained a batch mixer. As they all three jotted down their ideas and continued to talk amongst themselves, Timothy found himself noticing more and more how their outfits and bodies fit their positions. Here were three hard-working professional women, loving every minute of their job as they lived and breathed vigorous life and creativity into their work. They all looked so established and adult...so much...older and grown...so much more...developed. And he looked down at himself and his over-big clothes, at his baggy pants and loose t-shirt, at his tiny wrists that were looking more and more child-like, and at his thin little thighs that were absolutely swallowed up by his jeans.

He glanced down at Ashley's lap and saw her thick, developed thighs straining through her tight green dress. He felt his cock getting hard and thanked the stars that his jeans were baggy enough to hide it. His eyes moved over to Katie, who had pulled up the sleeves of her cornflower-blue blouse and was leaning on her bare arms as she hunched down in concentration. Her white arms looked so plump and full...so...developed and womanly. Timothy gave his own arms another glance and couldn't stifle a little exhale of arousal — her arms had to be at least twice as thick as his now...to say nothing of her thighs and her...huge ass. Another little disturbance gurgled about in the bottom of his stomach, and he suddenly felt one of his loafers, which had been dangling from his foot, drop off and fall to the floor.

All three women looked up to see what the noise was, and Timothy attempted to rally an apology.

"S-sorry," he said, hoisting himself down off the desk with difficulty to retrieve his fallen shoe. "My, uh...my shoe just slipped off." He got down to retrieve it and tried to put it back on. He discovered with anxiety that his foot fit so loosely into it that he realized that he was going to have to hold both his feet up a certain way to keep his shoes from slipping off again. Looking up, he also realized that Ashley's desk was just about even with his shoulders. He had shrunk another few inches.

"You got smaller," said Ashley suddenly, her eyes still fixed on him.

"W-what's that?" he asked, hoping that she would get back to her work without belaboring the point. He was definitely aroused by his shrinking, but he was getting the uncomfortable and increasingly desperate feeling that it was getting out of control.

"My desk was chest-high to you when you walked in here this morning," said Ashley, looking straight at him and speaking seriously. "Now it's as high as your shoulders. You shrunk again." Katie let out a little cry of excitement and she rushed over to compare herself with him, standing up next to him and stretching herself up to her full height. It was inescapably true — he had shrunk.

"Oh my god," she said quietly, almost unable to contain her excitement and wonder, "look at this! He doesn't even come up to my shoulders now!" Timothy felt the heavy weight of Katie's hand on the top of his head measuring it according to her height. She turned him around, easily maneuvering his body with her hands, so that he was looking straight at her. He was greeted by the sight of her impressive tits bulging out of her blouse...Katie had always had a nice buxom rack to go along with her fat ass, but Timothy had never remembered her looking quite this voluptuous.

"Holy shit he's looking straight into my tits," said Katie, bunching them up in his face. She put her large hand to the back of his head, and was about to shove his head straight into her breasts, when she apparently thought better of it and let him go, laughing and giggling as she returned to her seat.

"Well, this is certainly curious," said Ashley, eying Timothy intensely. "Do you feel alright, Timmy?"

"Y-yeah, yeah I'm fine!" he said, fetching the trash can and using it to help himself back onto the desk. "I'm fine! Let's go...let's do this."

"Uh...then maybe you'd like a notepad?" ventured Ashley. "You haven't taken any notes this whole meeting, Timmy."

"That's because he doesn't have any ideas," giggled Katie, her eyes dancing at him. She was clearly getting the biggest kick out of him shrinking.

"Well, let's see if he can come up with something," said Ashley, pushing a notepad in his direction. "One flavor, Timothy. Go! Ladies, let's leave our little Timmy to it and move onto logistics."

For the next hour or so, Ashley, Patricia, and Katie were deep in discussions of how this new idea was going to work, how they were going to implement it, and what its implications were for the future direction of the company. Timothy sat on a corner of Ashley's desk, with his back to them, as he tried and tried to come up with some kind of flavor that would earn their praise. Both of his shoes had now fallen off for the third time, and he hadn't even bothered to retrieve them. He hunched himself down, trying to concentrate, even though the rich voices of the other women were getting more and more distracting. Their discussion certainly sounded complicated — far too complicated for him to really understand or appreciate, but he wasn't distracted by the content of their conversation. Instead, he was distracted by the deep, vibrant, and resonant tones that their voices had taken on. All four of them sounded so...so elegant and savory...luscious, even. Surely they hadn't all sounded like this before...? Timothy wasn't completely sure, but he strongly suspected that the increased richness of their voices had something to do with Maia. When he had said "beautification," he hadn't really thought about the richness of women's voice tone, but there it was, in his very ears...the dulcet sounds of full, confident, feminine voices going on and on, talking to each other. He shut his eyes and sighed a little in pleasure.

"Timmy?" came Ashley's voice suddenly, with a bit of an edge to it, "I really hope, for your own sake, that you're working over there."

"I...I am, Ashley!" he said, fumbling with his notepad, which was seeming bigger and bigger in his hands.

"Well, I don't see anything written down on that notepad of yours," said Ashley. "Come on, Timmy — don't make me role-play Clare here."

"I'm...I'm working, I promise!" he called out, noticing that his own voice sounded smaller and higher-pitched than it had before. "I just like to...uh...brainstorm in my head for a while before I write anything down."

"Uh huh," said Ashley, sounding unconvinced. "Just...just please come up with something reasonable, ok, Timmy? We don't even have to use it as a final flavor. Just...something that I can show to Clare that proves that you've made at least some kind of contribution today, ok?"

"O-ok," he said in a small voice.

"She's trying to help you, Timmy — you know that don't you?" said Katie.

"Yes...yes, I know," he said in a slightly huffy voice, lowering his head down his his notepad. He tried to block out the rest of what Katie said in reply...she was saying something that included the words "wimpy" and "batch-mixer," followed by a couple of giggles, but he succeeded in shutting the rest out as he felt the hotness linger in his face.

By the end of the day, the three women had drawn up some impressive plans for the new drink recipes, complete with a detailed design of the supply and distribution logistics. Clare was overjoyed as Ashley led her step-by-step through each aspect of the prospective plan, and she uttered plenty of "ooohs" and "aaahs" as Katie and Patricia chimed in with their complimentary points and analysis.

Timothy was still sitting on the edge of Ashley's desk, a few little perfunctory notes scribbled down on his notepad, feeling very much left out of the dynamic four-women circle that was going back and forth, point after point, like currents of electricity in a glass ball that were making connections and attachments every which way. He felt dumb, slow, unintelligent, and small in every way. Though he was still conscious of his erect cock through much of the day, he couldn't say that he was exactly enjoying it.

"And now to our little Timmy," came Clare's voice suddenly as she turned to face him. The other three women all turned in kind, and Timothy suddenly felt the overwhelming energy of four pairs of intense, piercing eyes on his shrunken body. "Holy shit he's gotten even smaller," said Clare quietly, as if she could hardly believe it. She reached out and grabbed a baggy bit of his t-shirt and shook it. "He's literally shrinking out of his clothes!" Katie and Patricia giggled softly behind her while Ashley kept staring at him with an expressionless face.

"Which, speaking of clothes," said Clare seriously, releasing hr grip of his t-shirt, "I know you're just wearing what you can right now, Timmy, but no matter what's happening to that little body of yours, I still expect you to dress for work appropriately. And this...well, this doesn't cut it, you understand?"

"Uhh..y-yeah, yeah, of course," he stammered. "I'll...uh...I'll go shopping later today."

"Good," said Clare, nodding her head smartly. "Now tell me, what do you have for me today, huh? How did you contribute?" Ashley, Patricia, and Katie all exchanged knowing glances. Timothy was all of a sudden unable to speak, and he was only able to manage a dry cough or two.

After a few more seconds, Ashley came to his rescue.

"Timmy came up with a new flavor to go along with all the others," she said.

"Oh did he?" said Clare, cocking her head as she raised an eyebrow. Timothy couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "Well, let's have it from the horse's mouth. What's the new flavor, Timmy?"