“Sorry, Vi. She came back just before three. I told her you left an hour early. Should have remembered to tell you that when you walked in. Guess I was a little distracted,” Kate grinned in her direction at that last bit.

  “Damn. Well, still, thanks for covering for me,” Violet smiled back at Kate for a moment as she tamped and started a shot, then reached under the counter for the milk.

  “So, what’s the occasion?” Kate asked, and Violet inferred she was referring to her appearance.

  Violet shrugged as she poured the first drink, “No occasion, just thought it’d be fun.”

  “Latte,” Violet called as she slid the drink toward the end of the bar, and the couple waiting there paused their conversation.

  “Thanks,” the man said as he reached for his drink. Violet felt his emotions spike as they made eye contact. Nervous, but also thrilled. He immediately looked down to the drink and returned to woman he’d been talking to, some of the initial intensity fading as he turned. For the briefest moment she could have sworn she’d felt guilt, then she tasted the warm coffee while some of his nerves fade to pleasure. The woman noticed none of this, as far as Violet could feel.

  “Oat chai latte,” Violet called a minute later, and felt the woman’s similarly warm pleasure as she took her first sip. It was sweet, and Violet found herself wishing the spice had come through a bit stronger.

  Or is this her sense of the taste?

  She would need to find a way to test that. The woman gave her a warm smile paired with a quick flash of gratitude as she said thanks, then followed the man to a table.

  “Have a nice day,” Violet called, feeling the words deliver another blip of pleasure.

  This is weird. It feels so manipulative.

  “Oat latte,” Kate said to Violet.

  Lust washed over her, bringing a sudden heat between her legs that started to throb. She started to panic, remembering the state she’d been in when she left work yesterday.

  Please no, why now? Why here?

  It felt strange to suddenly be this turned on with no trigger or target or source. There should have at least been a thought of some kind. The throbbing sensation was too strong, the textures on her skin were all wrong, her pants were too tight, and somehow asymmetric–

  Oh.

  Violet looked up to scan the room, straight into the eyes of a next customer at the end of the bar waiting for his drink.

  Got you!

  He quickly looked away and the feelings faded slightly, mixing with a hint of shame and a debilitating avalanche of self-conscious anxiety. Violet looked down as well, hands shaking slightly.

  If I don’t find some way to control this I’m going to be at the mercy of whatever mood walks in here next for the rest of the day. Not to mention whatever the hell that just was. Jesus Christ.

  She tried focusing on herself, but trying to separate her own feelings from the constantly changing noise around her was proving extraordinarily difficult, and left her mostly with anxiety as the only feeling she was sure was her own.

  Maybe I can focus on Kate the way I did with Meryl.

  It helped, a little. She couldn’t ignore everything, but she did find that any time she felt pulled particularly strongly in some direction she could instead pull a little more from Kate’s stable mood. It almost felt like she was drawing her in.

  The door to the back opened and Anne, long white coat in hand, waved at them briefly as she left. Now it would just be her and Kate and at least another hour of this lunch rush.

  Hopefully it isn’t nearly as busy when Kate leaves in a few hours.

  As the next two hours passed, Violet felt an astonishing range of emotions. It was like the crowd of the night before, but instead of a sea of mostly indiscernible feelings it came as a steady stream. Each customer brought all their emotional baggage up to the bar, dumped it on her for a minute or two, and then picked it up and took it away again.

  The feeling that surprised her the most was envy. There was at least a dash of it in many of her interactions, and in some it felt like a blazing fire. That two of her most strongly envious interactions came from men surprised her even more. It was an exhausting emotion, often fading to a slight bitterness that Violet was pretty sure was her own reaction to the experience, since it would often last until something new and stronger pushed it out, even after its original owner had left.

  She felt attraction and arousal often as well. That on its own didn’t surprise her, but she was continuously caught off guard by how persistently people stared. Had she just not noticed before? She was also astonished by the wide variety of people who were intensely attracted to her. She’d expected it from many men, but she had not expected so many women, and the large majority of those presenting a less explicit binary, though the sample size there was smaller.

  Is it the ears? Maybe a shocking number of people are really into cosplay, she laughed to herself. I guess I do have boobs now. That probably helps.

  The powerful sway she had on almost everyone’s emotions during their seconds long interactions made Violet increasingly nervous. It was rewarding to brighten peoples’ days, but she was beginning to realize how much influence she could have over most people, as well as the completely dominating influence she could have over a predisposed few.

  She nearly burst into tears when a couple bickering viciously in hushed tones approached the bar. One of them felt betrayed and was on the verge of tears themselves, looking away as the other irritated one quickly ordered two drinks. Over what, Violet had no idea, but she quickly wiped away a tear as it formed and told Kate she would be right back. She hid in the relative silence of the bathroom for a few minutes, then focused on Kate as strongly as she could as she returned.

  The first break in the line of customers came about thirty minutes later. Violet collapsed onto one of the stools they kept under the counter.

  “Hey,” came Kate’s cheerful voice, “Ayesha and I are going out tonight. Probably to Eva. You want to come?”

  Now that Kate was focused on her again, Violet felt a surprising amount of attraction. She knew Kate was gay, but she had a hard time believing Kate’s feelings could be this strong without her ever having revealed them in the year they’d known each other.

  I guess we are coworkers. Maybe she’s just been sitting on this for months.

  Kate was still staring at her, and she noticed Kate’s eyes starting to bounce from her own to her ears, curiosity building. Could she tell they weren’t fake? Violet poured every ounce of her willpower into not letting them twitch – something they really seemed to want to do under this sudden attention. She felt her face going flush.

  Wait, what did she just ask me? Right, Eva.

  That would be fun, and it had been a while since she’d seen them outside of work, or Ayesha at all. Ayesha mostly worked the same shifts Violet did on the days Violet had off, so they didn’t get to interact at work very often. Violet briefly worried whether a busy club would be overwhelming for her new senses. Maybe, but she would have to figure this out one way or the other eventually. She could always leave. Her appearance probably wouldn’t matter either. She would fit in better there than she did here, anyway. It would be fine.

  “Yeah, I’m in,” Violet finally responded.

  “Good!” said Kate, smile broadening. “Those ears perfectly match your skin, you know. And they look so real! They’re amazing! Where’d you get them? Are they glued on or something?”

  Shit, didn’t expect to be asked where they were from.

  She had her hair covering as much of them as possible, but she couldn’t do anything about the tips. Maybe a hat would have helped if they’d pointed up and back, but instead they stubbornly insisted on pointing almost straight out.

  Violet laughed nervously, “My friend gave them to me. I’m not sure.”

  And now I’ve implicated Meryl in my schemes.

  “Are your eyes… purple? You’re all in on this fantasy theme. I kind of love it!”

  Violet forced another awkward laugh, feeling like the most incapable liar in the world, “Yeah, she gave me these contacts, too…”

  “Does she dress up too? That sounds adorable! Oh! You should totally wear all this tonight! It’s really cute. And invite your friend if you want!”

  Violet laughed softly as she looked down, trying to avoid eye contact.

  “Ok, I’ll ask her.”

  Oh god, is she expecting Meryl to come dressed up, too? That’s absolutely not an option. It would just make me stand out even more. Though, it’s not like I’m going to be able to hide this stuff for long if it’s really here to stay… What am I doing… There’s no way anyone will actually believe this ‘cosplay’ thing for more than a few days.

  A girl wearing headphones around her neck and a beanie over her long brown hair approached the bar, saving Violet again from Kate’s bright green, exploring eyes. She ordered a mocha and Kate started on the milk while Violet prepped a shot over chocolate.

  Kate felt extremely confused, a feeling she’d felt a few times toward her already, but it was quickly growing much stronger. She kept glancing sideways at Violet as they worked.

  “What?!” Violet whispered, startling Kate.

  “…Vi, I’m not crazy, right?” Kate mumbled out the side of her mouth.

  “Huh?”

  “You were literally taller than me yesterday and you can’t even see over this machine right now! I’ve been thinking about it and you usually wear sneakers to work, so it’s not like you’ve been in huge platforms this whole time. Please tell me I’m not crazy.”

  She took the pitcher from Kate’s hand and finished beanie girl’s mocha, giving her a quick smile as she handed her her cup.

  Violet sighed, “You’re not crazy.”

  Confusion flickered more intensely in Kate.

  “Honestly, I have no idea why and it’s kind of freaking me out too,” Violet added.

  Violet glanced back at her freckled face nervously a few times, only to break their eye contact a moment later to look at the floor or the espresso machine.

  Eventually, Kate said, “Come to think of it, you really look a lot different. I assumed it was just this outfit or something, but– Wait–“

  Kate’s eyes widened before flashing quickly across the café to see if anyone was paying attention to them, then she pointed toward Violet’s chest.

  “Are those real??”

  It would have been hard to deny. Her sweater wasn’t that loose, and she’d picked it last night specifically because it revealed a little cleavage. Violet blushed brightly. How much should she tell Kate? She was already putting the pieces together, and they were pretty close friends, after all. This probably wasn’t the place for that whole conversation, though.

  Violet resorted to another small nod and Kate’s eyes somehow got even bigger. Suddenly, Kate started scanning her from head to toe, as though it was the first time she was seeing her ‘costume’ again.

  “Hi, what can I get you?” Violet called past Kate to a customer who’d just approached. He looked to be a student.

  Kate kept staring at her as she made the student’s order.

  “I’ll tell you tonight,” Violet eventually told her quietly. “Promise.”

  Kate felt like she was going to explode, but she didn’t say anything else about it during the last few minutes of her shift.

  Violet pressed the call button on Meryl’s building. The last few hours of her shift had been tiring but, thankfully, uneventful. She had even received a number compliments, mostly on her hair and ears. A few had been extremely shy about it, which she thought was cute. Getting compliments was actually kind of nice.

  About an hour earlier Violet had texted Meryl two words, “I’m hungry.”

  She’d intended it as a joke in her head, a reference to Meryl’s the previous night, but as she typed out the message she’d realized it was just the truth. It was slight, but she could feel that powerful desperation threatening to creep back into her.

  To her surprise, Meryl hadn’t treated it as a joke either, replying only with, “I’m home.”

  She pressed the buzzer again when the first went unanswered and was about to try calling instead when the door buzzed open.

  To Violet’s surprise, Meryl opened her apartment door in her underwear.

  “Sorry, I fell asleep,” she said as Violet entered.

  She set down her coat and purse, then turned back to Meryl and smiled.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” Meryl whispered, “And still real.”

  Violet blushed and looked down at her mostly naked friend’s feet, “Are you ok? You seem really tired.”

  “Oh, yeah, long day, and we barely slept last night. I was just taking a nap. Aren’t you tired?”

  “Nope. I should let you sleep.”

  “No, come,” Meryl reached for Violet’s hand and pulled her back to the bed, turning to give her a kiss on the forehead before reaching for her sweater.

  “Thanks again for the clothes, they fit pretty well,” Violet said as she allowed Meryl to undress her.

  “Of course. I can’t wear them anyway, don’t know why I still had them. Probably a few more things you can take in there,” she gestured sleepily toward the closet.

  As they climbed into Meryl’s bed, Violet felt conflict in her friend’s emotions. Meryl really did feel tired, but she was also excited for what they were about to do. Still, there was more there than Violet had felt last night. A little bit of worry, and that envy she’d felt so many times at work. Violet considered asking Meryl about her feelings, but it felt so invasive. She already could sense too much. Was not asking breaking her promise? She should at least be honest with Meryl about her own, growing hesitancy.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Meryl looked up into Violet’s eyes, her blonde hair spread behind her on the bed. She smiled softly and nodded, reaching up to hold Violet’s head in her hands. Some of the conflict within her faded as she pulled Violet into a slow kiss. Violet decided to go slowly as well, gently exploring with her fingers while they continued to kiss.