The Coffee Shop Pt. 04

"Texas, how about some pillow talk?" Andy asked as he walked me towards the bedroom. (Like I was going to resist a big handsome strong lug in tight blue jeans? Get real!)

"In the bedroom, dear heart?" I asked him with a slight twinkle in my eyes.

"Unless you'd prefer to talk in front of the television," Andy answered me with a chuckle.

"What about supper?" I asked. "I don't know about you, but that one piece of pie didn't fill me up. I'm hungry. I think all the activity with Todd caused me to work up an appetite."

"I'm only hungry for the touch of your hands on my body, and the feeling of your skin under my fingertips," Andy cooed to me. A loud rumbling came from the vicinity of Andy's stomach. I howled with laughter as Andy blushed a bright red. "Dang it! Betrayed by my own stomach," Andy avowed sheepishly. "So what do you feel like tonight?"

"Food wise, I would say pizza works for me," I answered once my laughter had subsided.

"Pizza it is then," Andy agreed. "There should be some frozen pizza in the deep freeze. I really don't feel like driving all the way back to the city for pizza."

"Makes sense," I agreed. "I'll set the table and put the coffee on. You can take care of the pizza and bring up the rest of that chocolate cream pie for desert."

"On my way," Andy said as he turned and headed for the basement. I sighed as I watched that pair of beautiful denim clad buns walk away from me. Only when Andy was out of sight did I turn about and head off to the kitchen to my own tasks. My heart was a lot lighter and my spirit a lot more buoyant than when Todd had first appeared.

The rest of weekend was quiet. We did not have any more uninvited guests, and we managed to talk out our guilt over the humiliation of Todd. There was a lot of pillow talk that Sunday night, and the holiday Monday that followed. I even hypnotized Andy into doing a strip show for me. (Like I had to twist his arm?) Did we have sex again? No. By mutual consent we agreed to hold off on that. There were so many other things to discuss and to do, that we decided to save the sex for some other night when we didn't have so many things on our minds. Or to put it another way, Todd's presence was lingering about the country house and that was constantly throwing a pail of water on the fire of our desire for each other. Todd's lingering presence had completely wrecked the mood for the entire weekend. Sometimes, you have to wait. Oddly enough, we didn't miss it that much. Andy was so nice to snuggle up with and to cuddle. He was like a big warm teddy bear. I even told him that. His reply was that he likened me to a security blanket, soft warm comforting, and always there when you need it.



Chapter 10. There Is A Penalty For Early Withdrawal.

As the days and weeks passed, my life and Andy's settled down. We worked through our guilt and saw no more of Todd. We finally got back to our normal routines, which was a welcome relief. We saw each other when we could and even managed to get away for another weekend, but at a different house, of course. I even hypnotized one or two guys, but it wasn't anything all that interesting. The only fallout from our little adventure with Todd was that Andy's friend Jonathan Briggs, the owner of the country house, got weeded out of Andy's life. Andy wanted nothing more to do with Jonathan. (Can you blame Andy for that?) As for Jonathan, he was probably just as happy not to have to deal with Andy any more. So life for Andy and me went on with all its usual mundane routines, like having to do your banking.

Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) have allowed me to do nearly all of my banking, without having to go to the bank. This was one of those rare times when I had to go to the bank in person. It seemed that I needed to order some additional personal cheques, as my supply was nearly exhausted. So when lunch hour rolled around on this particular Wednesday, I headed over to the nearest downtown branch of my bank to take care of this minor if annoying chore. As I walked over to the bank, I tried to look on the bright side of the situation. Maybe I'd see some good looking guy in a suit while I was at the bank. It was a workday after all, and banks do have managers, not to mention business customers on a weekday. These thoughts brought a smile to my face as I drew closer to the bank building. I knew I'd never find anyone as good looking as my Andy, but that didn't mean I couldn't have fun looking. So I headed off to the bank with a light heart, wondering if I was going to get lucky.

After a short ten minute walk I arrived at the local branch of my bank, opened the door and walked in. As I headed off to the customer service desk I was pleased to discover that there were only three people ahead of me. A young woman, in a light tan skirt and a white blouse, a young man in a dark blue two piece suit, and another young man in a pair of khaki casual pants with a dark blue denim jacket. All in all unremarkable. I patiently waited my turn. There appeared to be only one person working at the service counter, a well groomed young man wearing a light gray two piece suit of some kind. I was too far away to make out many details other than he had sandy blond hair and looked to be on the slim and trim side. (Blonde, young, slim and trim, and apparently well dressed to boot hmm looks good so far, wouldn't you say?)

I had just walked up to the counter for my turn when it happened. All hell broke loose. It happened so fast that I was unsure of what happened exactly. All I can definitely remember is the sound of gunfire and ducking down in sheer terror. My heart was racing and all I could seem to hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears.

"Everyone on the floor!" Boomed out a loud and commanding voice from somewhere off to my right. "Nobody try to be a hero and we are out of here in ten minutes! Your choice! Drop or be dropped!" Three more times I heard the sound of a very large caliber gun being fired. Don't ask me if it was a shotgun or a machine gun. I'm no gun expert. To me it sounded like a howitzer going off.

I'm not a coward, but neither am I a fool. I dropped to the floor and hugged it like I was in love with it. (No I did not imagine that the floor was Andy. Andy didn't even enter into my mind at the time. I was busy wrestling down my fear.) I had no intention of doing anything other than hugging that floor for all I was worth. After all it was the bank's money that these robbers wanted, not mine. I wasn't about to risk my life for the bank's money or even to protect my own money. Money can be replaced, a life cannot.

This gang was well organized and knew what they were doing. They had ski masks pulled down on their faces, so identifying them was clearly out of the question. In less than a minute they had managed to gather up all the customers and staff and herd them to a semi open area behind the bank counter. They had us stand there with our arms raised high in the air. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but I wasn't about to complain about it, either. They plucked the bank manager and the assistant bank manager from out of the collection of scared people. The robbers were able to identify these two men immediately, which suggested that this bank heist had been carefully planned. I didn't get much of a chance to look at either man though, as they were shuffled past the rest of us rather quickly. I stood there with the rest of the captives, wondering what was going to happen next. I focused my attention on my breathing in an effort to calm myself down. After a minute or so, I felt it start to work. My initial terror melted away. I was still scared, but I wasn't paralyzed with fear anymore.

My attention was wrenched away from my breathing by a labored cry of "Help I can't breathe!" coming from someone nearby. I looked about and saw that a man had fallen to his knees with his hands clawed about his throat, as he gasped for air. The man was kneeling away from me so I couldn't see his face. I could see part of the seat of his pants what with the way his suit jacket was hiked up by his upraised arms. However, this was not the time to be noticing such potentially erotic details. I didn't hesitate. I lowered my arms and walked over to where the man was to see if I could help him.

"You, get back to where you were!" Cried out one of the bank robbers who was guarding us.

"This man needs help," I calmly answered. "Unless you want to be held responsible for this man's death, I suggest you let me see if I can determine what the problem is."

"You a doctor?" The robber asked gruffly.

"No," I answered as I knelt down beside the stricken man, turning away from the robber. "But you certainly can't afford to take a look at this man, and he needs help."

"Be quick about it," the robber snarled at me.

I ignored him and placed my right hand on the shoulder of the man kneeling beside me as I talked to him, pitching my voice in my best soothing tones. "Don't to speak, sir", I said to him softly. "Just nod your head for yes, or shake your head for no. Understand?"

The man nodded his head.

"Are you having an asthma attack?" I asked him.

The man shook his head.

"Some other type of attack or condition that needs medication?" I prompted him.

The man shook his head again.

I thought for a second. "A panic attack of some kind?" I asked him.

The man nodded his head vigorously.

"Hyperventilating?" I asked him.

More nodding, but frantic now. The man looked up at me, and then slowly raised one trembling arm and pointed to one of the desks across the way. I was more focused where the man was pointing then on what he looked like or how he was dressed.

"There's a paper bag in your desk drawer and you need it, right?" I asked feeling sure that I had figured out what the poor man was trying to tell me.

More frantic nodding.

"Excuse me, sir!" I called out to the robber who was guarding us.

"Yeah, what is it?" the man grunted with a sneer in his voice.

"This man is hyperventilating, due to the panic attack he is having. He needs to breath into a paper bag. He pointed to that desk over there." I answered as I slowly and carefully raised my right arm and indicated the desk that this poor man had pointed out to me. "I would like your permission to help him over there to get the bag. Please, it's very important."

"All right," the robber agreed with obvious reluctance. "But I'm coming with you, to be sure that neither of you try anything. So you can forget about pressing the silent alarm button located under the front edge of that desk."

I looked at the robber in stunned surprise. I had not known about that. Clearly this was a very professional gang, which made them all the more dangerous. "Yes, sir, I understand," I replied meekly, not wanting to escalate the situation any. I helped the young man stand, and let him lean on me as we slowly made our way across the bank floor towards the desk we were seeking. The bank robber followed keeping a close eye on us.

As we walked, I looked over and saw that one of the other bank robbers was taking over the guard duties of the man who was escorting me and young man I was helping. Slowly it dawned on me that this young man must be a bank employee. In fact I recognized him as the cute young man behind the customer service counter. Any other time I would have been thrilled to be so close to a young man such as this, but this was not the time or place to consider anything like that. If something went wrong we could all wind up dead. (There's a thought that will take the wind out of your sails.) I'm sure the bank robbers didn't want that, but who knew what might happen? At least the security guards were not going to try anything. As soon as the robbers had all of us on the floor they had relieved the security guards of their weapons. I only noticed all this now, as I took the opportunity to look around.

When we arrived at the desk, I noticed that there was a nameplate sitting on the front of the desk, with the name T. Carson on it. "It's okay, sir, we're nearly there," I said softly into the man's ear. It was probably his desk, but now was not the time to be asking the poor man his name. He dropped to his knees in front of the desk, pushing aside the chair that was behind the desk. He clawed at the left bottom drawer. He yanked it open a second later and snatched at the brown paper bag that was lying on top of some files. He popped the bag open and plastered it over his mouth and nose, holding it there with both hands. I grabbed him by the shoulders to steady his shaking body. The bag inflated and deflated as he breathed into it. After about a minute or so his labored breathing slowed down and the tension in his body seemed to lessen somewhat. I kept a strong gripe on his torso to give him a feeling of support and comfort. (It was also a very nice feeling, being this close to such a good looking blonde haired young man. Hey, just because I was in a dangerous situation in a bank heist, didn't mean I couldn't appreciate the local scenery.)

"Here let me help you into this chair," I said to him as I took a firm gripe on his shoulders and helped him to stand up. He nodded his head once as I helped him to sit down into the chair that he had pushed away a few minutes ago. Once I had him settled into the chair I snagged a chair from one of the nearby desks, rolled it over to where this man was sitting and sat down in that chair so that I was sitting next to him.

"I take it this is your desk?" I asked him. He nodded once. "So you are Mr. Carson?" I asked. Another nod of his head. "You look better. How are you feeling Mr. Carson?"

"I can breathe a lot easier now," he answered. He took the bag away from his mouth only long enough to answer my question, then he replaced the brown paper bag over his mouth. His breathing still wasn't normal but it was much easier.

'How's he doing?" The bank robber asked me. I had nearly forgotten he was there.

"He's better now, it would seem," I answered cautiously. "But I don't think he's done with the bag yet." Mr. Carson confirmed my guess as he emphatically shook his head side to side in a definite 'no'. His breathing quicken at the mention of giving up the bag.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it appears that you will be blessed with our company for a bit longer," called out one for the bank robbers from the vicinity of the bank vault. "A slight problem has developed with the locking mechanism on the vault and we will be here for another thirty to forty-five minutes." And with that the bank manager and his assistant were shoved out to join the rest of the cluster of captives. Neither man looked as if he had been enjoying a good time. Both walked with limps, and held their hands to their faces trying to nurse the accumulated lumps and bruises that resided there. I didn't even want to try imaging what had happened to those men. One thing was for sure, they had not passed the time playing 'Go Fish'.

As soon as he heard the announcement, Mr. Carson's panic attack came back in full force. It was a wonder that he didn't pass out. His breathing rate skyrocketed from almost normal to maximum overdrive. If it hadn't been for that brown paper bag, I don't know what would have happened.

The bank robber looked down at the two of us and sighed. "Hmm.It looks as if you're going to have to stay with him for a while longer, but we can't leave you here near all these alarm buttons," the robber said coldly. "I wouldn't want either of you to start getting any ideas. Let me think for a moment." The robber tapped his ski masked enshrouded chin thoughtfully. (I kept my mouth shut and waited patiently. I knew better than to suggest anything unless asked first. These men were in control of the situation and there wasn't much of anything I could do about it. Besides it would be only for a another half hour or so.)

"Take him over there," the bank robber said as he pointed to the semi enclosed area where people dealt with their safety deposit boxes. I looked at him as I slowly rose to my feet. I tugged at Mr. Carson's arm as I pulled him the direction the bank robber had indicated. It was a short trip. I kept telling Mr. Carson that it would all right and the whole thing would be over very soon. We selected one of the rooms near the back and pulled up a couple of chairs so that we could sit together and talk. We certainly weren't going to sit there and do nothing. We settled down and Mr. Carson kept that brown paper bag clamped over his mouth and nose like his life depended on it.

"My name's Paul. What's yours?" I asked him once we had settled ourselves in.

"Ted," he answered, taking the bag away just long enough to answer me. Clearly he was still scared. "Thanks for helping me, Paul," he said a few moments later.

"You're welcome, Ted. Are you feeling any better?" I asked him softly, as I gazed at him. I successfully fought the urge to take an inventory of his appearance. I wanted to do that, but Ted needed my help.

"As long as I don't have to take the bag off, and those bank robbers keep away from me, yes," he answered, forcing the words out in a rush.

"Maybe if you concentrated on something else it would help you to relax," I suggested, as an idea popped into my mind.

"Like what?" Ted asked, as he started to focus more on what I was saying and less on worrying about the bank robbers.

"Well, my eyes come to mind," I said jokingly. "You can try gazing into them. They're not exactly the most stunning eyes in the world, but I think they're better than looking around at the bank robbers."

"Okay," Ted said as he looked over at me and made eye contact.

I gazed back into his eyes and sent in a few simple and light commands suggesting that he would find it very easy to look deep into my eyes and to follow along with what I said. I was hard pressed to conceal my surprise and delight in finding out that Ted's mind was practically fully open to me. I barely had to push my commands into his mind. I had never encountered a person with so little resistance before. His mind absorbed my instructions like a sponge sucking up water. It was amazing to say the least. "That's fine, Ted," I said as I modulated the tones of my voice into smooth and even tones. It was the prelude to my usual hypnotic induction. "Go ahead and keep the bag on your face, it will help you to breathe easier. All I would like you to do is to keep looking into my eyes. Let your attention center on them. Don't push yourself, just let it happen evenly and naturally."

I paused for a few seconds to let Ted get accustomed to the low even tones that I was using. I wanted to get him accustomed to having to concentrate and to listen to my voice, since that would aid in the induction. "Just let your eyes blink normally. Don't try to stare into my eyes, just look at them, like you would at a television set. Just let your eyes gaze into mine, blinking normally to prevent your eyes from feeling any strain. And soon and very soon indeed you'll find it becomes just a bit easier to keep you gaze focused and locked on my eyes."

Ted blinked his eyes a few times, as he listened to my words and let the meaning flow into his mind. His hands were still clasped on the neck of the paper bag and his breathing was still somewhat faster than normal. But it had slowed down a little bit. At least I thought it had.

"Knowing that you and I are safe, here alone by ourselves. Away from everyone else, it is just the two of us, so you can let yourself go. You can really use your powers of concentration to focus your ears on the words that you hear me speak as you let your eyes stay fixed and focused on my eyes," I encouraged Ted. I was delighted to see an ever so slight nod of his head. I pushed on. "Ted, the amazing thing that I'd found with most people is that the more intelligent they are, the easier they find it to keep looking into my eyes, as they continue to listen to my words. The words are like a even smooth steady stream that seems to reach out to them and just guide them along as they keep looking into my eyes."