I awoke late morning, still groggy from the night before. Looking at the clock, I realized I only had an hour until my meeting with the mystery woman. Not caring to look all that spectacular, I threw on the attire from the day before and walked out the door and down the hall to the elevators. As with most mornings, coffee was essential keeping me awake and coherent through most of the day. I chose the nearest coffee shop, and walked in. I lived in a unique area which bordered between two very different districts. Lower Heights was an area mostly populated by men, while Brickston was more so women, but women toward the bottom of the income chain. Not poor, but also not a lot of excess money. Occassionaly they wandered into Lower Heights to mingle among the men. I was never sure if it was out of necessity or if it served as an ego boost for them since compared to other women, they were nothing special.

Joining the back of the line, I found myself behind one of these wanderers. She wasn’t terribly tall, and looked to be just shy of 4 feet, but was surprisingly attractive. I didn’t have much of a view of her face, but my face was dead even with her ass. Her rounded cheeks facing in my direction. I zoned out as she began ordering, wondering how the world became the way it was when another customer made a remark as he walked by.

“Don’t drool.”

I snapped out of my trance to shoot a threatening look at the guy, but it didn’t matter since he was off and out of the coffee shop. I turned back to the girl in front of me who was looking over her shoulder down at me.

“What are you staring at?” I asked sternly, still irritated.

Her smile turned to a scowl and she walked away to grab her drink. I ordered my own and gave the cashier my card to pay, impatiently hurrying the process along. I just needed my coffee and then I would feel so much better. I stood at the far end of the bar waiting for my name to be called when a worker finally shouted out “Ross!!!” I looked up to see that the woman in front of me grabbed my drink, her other hand already clutching her own, while staring at me straight in the eye. She then took off out of the coffee shop, forcing me to weave quickly through the busy coffee shop and down the street after her.

“Hey give me my fucking drink!” I screamed.

I caught up to her when she finally turned around to me, offering my drink back. As I went to grab it, she lifted it higher, causing me to miss. I immediately jumped, hoping to snatch it before she was ready, but once again lifted it higher and out of reach above my head. She dangled it there for a moment.

“Come on, you almost had it.”

I looked at her with disgust. “Fuck you, you goddamn whore! I’m not gonna play your game. You just need an ego boost for your shitty life.”

I turned and walked away, amazed with how the morning had started, when I was struck in the back, causing me to stumble forward until faceplanting into the sidewalk. I rolled over, holding my face, tending my forehead, when the woman stood over me.

“Don’t forget your place little man. You are after all still just that...a man.” She stepped over me before tossing my drink to the ground, spilling it everywhere.

What a bitch. I wasn’t the nicest guy in the world, but this type of shit happened all the time. Men were literally nothing to them. It defined all of our lives, no matter who we were or what we did. That woman was right, we were just men. Feeling indignant, I began making my way to our meeting place which was still a few blocks away. At least I was awake, even if it was for very different reasons. I finally made it the place, seeing that it was just a small bar. Why would we meet here I thought, seeing there wasn’t a lot of room, and a few women near the bar. A woman tapped me on the shoulder, so I spun around to look up at her face.  

“Hi, are you Ross?” The woman asked.

“Uh yeah, are you…”

“This way sir.” She interrupted, guiding me to a back room. “Just down those stairs, she’ll be waiting for you.”

The hostess walked away, leaving me alone at the top of the steps. The back was very quiet and also very dark, making it hard to distinguish what the place was for. I looked down the steps, unable to see anyone at the bottom. Figuring there was only one way to find out, I began making my way down the steps, which was extremely difficult given they were just about my height. Exhausted, I finally made it to the bottom, but saw nothing but a chair that sat under a small light, illuminating only a small portion of the large room. The desk was clearly made for a man, given it’s small state, and the light fixture hung from the tall ceiling, but only shined light downward. It was nearly pitch black everywhere else: the corners of the room, the ceiling, as well as much of the floor space.

I casually walked over to the light when a voiced boomed out from one of the dark corners in the room.

“Hello Ross, glad you decided to come. Now take a seat.” The anonymous woman said.

Hesitant, I slowly approached the desk before sitting down. “So who am I speaking with?” I asked.

The woman laughed. “ I cannot tell you who I am, I will not show you my face, but I can assure you that I hold influence in this world, and fortunately I want to help YOU.”

“Well then how can I possibly know that you have any influence?” I asked, legitimately concerned.

Heavy footsteps echoed from the corner of the room, each sound coming nearer until a foot stepped into the light, and then the other. The turquoise nail polish glistened in the dim light. Her face was hidden in the dark still, her head far above the light. She was gigantic. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, when she stepped right in front of my chair, her toes resting just in front of my feet. Her longest toes each about the same length as my feet were incredible; I guessed each foot must have been nearly the same size as me. I gulped at the enormity of this woman, somewhat intimidated by her presence now.

“As you can see, I’m rather tall, and you know what that means.” She said. “But don’t let my size intimidate you. I play nice.”

Her foot came forward and gently knocked me from my chair before pinning me to the floor. I squirmed underneath her warm bare sole, attempting to free myself. She lifted her foot up slightly before suddenly pinching my head between her long, freshly pedicured toes. Their warm aroma crept into my nose as she moved my head around from left to right as though inspecting my features.

“You’re pretty cute in all honesty. I think this plan will work after all.” She commented as I struggled to pull me head free. It was somewhat humiliating to be treated like a toy, and overpowered by merely her foot, but at least she was in fact much more gentle than other women.

“Glad you think so. So what is this plan? I thought I came here to create change for men, not be treated like a doll.” I shouted at her.

“I’m simply reminding you that a brave man such as yourself can still found himself in trouble with any woman of this world. I do want to create change, but there are risks. Can you handle them?” She asked.

“Of course.” I said. “But I want to be sure that it’s worth it.”

“It will be.” She said confidently. Surprisingly I believed her. “Now let’s discuss what you must do for the time being.”

“You tell me.” I responded.

“In about one hour, you will attend a yoga session in the Uptown district and find a girl named Zara. Simply befriend her. She will be important for our upcoming plans. I've gone ahead and purchased VIP service for you at a club tonight. Use it. She likes to party.” She informed me.”Here’s the address for both places.”

I remained, lying on the floor anticipating more directions, but instead was met with silence and only a torn piece of paper with the addresses written on it that she dropped to the floor. I grabbed the piece of paper as the woman disappeared back into the darkness, glancing at the addresses and the time of the class. Checking my watch, I was disappointed to see that I again had less than an hour to hurry to the address. Getting to my feet, I began making my way back up the stairs, thinking about my next move. For some reason, I genuinely trusted this woman, and felt compelled to do as she asked.

I glanced down at the paper and memorized the address, before taking off down the street towards Uptown. Uptown was a rather affluent area, and so the average height if woman jumped up considerably as I passed through the neighborhoods. Most women paid no attention to me as I strategically avoided their footsteps as I passed them on the sidewalk. The buildings  were new, the women were pretty, and everything seemed perfect. Life seemed effortless here. Just as I began to envy the lifestyle, my eyes ran across the sign for the yoga place.

I opened the door, expecting a pile of women inside, only to be met by a couple of younger females who were whispering back and forth to each other. Looking around I made my way to the yoga room, searching for any sort of instructor. Nothing. Looking down at my watch I noticed I still had another 15 minutes before class started. I snagged a spot on a bench next to the girls when another young woman opened the front door.

“Zara!” The girls cried out.

“Hey girls!

Bingo! That made it so much easier on me. I observed for a few moments as the girls spoke quietly amongst themselves, giggling from time to time. Zara was over a head taller than the other girls and looked absolutely stunning. After several minutes an instructor came out informing everyone is was time to begin, breaking my stare. The four of us and the instructor funneled into a room, with me in the very back. All the girls were wearing spandex, revealing their slim and curvy figures. All the girls began rolling out  their yoga mats, making me come to the realization that I didn’t have one. Looking around in a panic, I saw nothing that I could grab or use. Zara noticed my lack of a mat and kindly offered me to share hers.

“You can use the front part of mine. You shouldn’t take up too much room.” She said, making all the girls giggle.

I walked onto her mat, the foamy pad feeling much softer on my feet and offered my hand to her. “Thank you. My name’s Ross by the way. I’m fairly new to yoga too, so maybe this is for the better.”

She extended a couple fingers outward for me to shake. “Zara. Nice to meet you Ross.”

I turned to watch the instructor who immediately began with various poses. At first things weren’t so bad, until about halfway through the class, the instructor showed various advanced poses that required a lot of core strength to balance. I was completely unable to do them. I glanced around the room to see all the girls doing it. I made eye contact with Zara who laughed at my predicament. It was so obvious I shouldn't have been in this class.

“Don't laugh at me!” I told her jokingly.

“I can laugh at whatever I want.” She replied with a smile.

“Fine then. I was gonna offer you something but now I'm not so sure you deserve it.”

“Oh yeah. What could a man possibly have for me?” She asked.

“VIP service at Dark 30 tonight. I was gonna ask you to come with me.” I told her, not entirely sure what it meant and if it was even worth anything.

She looked at me bewildered and snapped out of her yoga pose. “There's no way. That's one of the most exclusive clubs in town. I haven't even been yet. I only hear stories. Are you lying?”

“Nope. Be there tonight at 11.” I said while walking towards the exit. “Thanks for letting me use your yoga mat, Zara.”