As fun as the idea of the shared bath had sounded, once all three of them were in together, both girls laying their smooth, wet bodies on top of Josh, facing each other with their heads on his chest and one of his hands on each of their rumps, the tub, which was only a normal bath after even, even if it was a little larger than average, was uncomfortably full and although they tried to tease him with their hands under what little water fitted in around them, this mostly resulted in the girls awkwardly bumping into each other and, funny as this was, prompting a lot of giggles, it was far from the erotic experience either of them had hoped for. It was not long, therefore, before Samantha made the altruistic decision to leave her Daddy and her friend alone.

“You two enjoy your bath.” she grinned, climbing out and towelling herself off while Josh sat up a little and pulled Amelia onto his lap the way his first bath with Samantha had begun. “I’m gonna go see what Mummy’s up to. Hope she’s not been feeling too left out today!” She winked at the pair in the tub. “Have fun you two!” She hung the towel back up and left the room naked, not even bothering with a robe, and it was clear that she was not just planning to go help her mum with the dishes or washing the swimming gear!

“Mmm this is nice!” Amelia sighed contentedly as Josh used his toe to turn the hot tap on, wanting to fill the bath back up now that there was one less body to displace the water. “Thank you so much for helping me prepare for the spit!” Josh gave a little chuckle. “What’s funny?” she asked, not cross, just a little puzzled.

“Oh, nothing really!” Josh explained apologetically, stroking her taught belly. “It’s just, with all the fun we’ve been having, I had kinda forgotten that’s why we were doing it!”

“Ooh I see!” Amelia giggling, rolling onto her tummy and folding her arms on Josh’s chest. “Well that’s the excuse I gave my mum anyway!” They kissed deeply and Josh stroked her wet, meaty rump. Provocatively, sensuously, Amelia rubbed her tight, wet body up and down against him until she felt him rock hard beneath her then lifted her hips enough to take him inside her. Josh continued to stroke, caress and kiss her as they made slow and gentle love before laying together in the water in a soggy but satisfied embrace.

“Hey! Isn’t this water, like, freezing cold by now?” Amelia woke with a start as Samantha slapped her backside which crested the water among the remnants of the bubbles. “Never mind your fingers,” Samantha giggled, “I’m surprised your butt isn’t all wrinkly by now too!” Amelia sat up a little, feeling Josh slip out of her, and gently shook his shoulders.

“Huh?” Josh opened his eyes and sat up. “What’s going on?”

“I think we fell asleep!” Amelia giggled. “How long have we been in here?” she asked Samantha.

“Um, like, two hours?” her friend informed her. “We realised you’d both gone really quiet so we thought we’d better come check you hadn’t drowned!” It was only at her mention of “we” that Josh realised Laura was also in there, stood in the doorway with her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. “Come on!” Samantha laughed, helping her friend out of the bath. “Let’s get you dried off and into bed!”

“Don’t worry,” Laura whispered softly to her husband as they made their way to the bedroom, “I spoke to her mum while she was grabbing her uniform. She’s promised we’ll get an invitation to the Christening so you’ll get to enjoy that sweet little body in the other way too!”

When morning came, it seemed that the girls had at least got some sleep. They came downstairs, both in their school uniforms, just as Josh was finishing his coffee and getting ready to head out to work. They kissed him sweetly on either cheek as if they were both his daughters and wished him a good day before he left. A short while later, once Laura had made sure they both had a good breakfast inside them and had prepared each of them a packed lunch, they set off to walk to school together, invitation for Rob and Amanda along with the letter Laura had written to their carers safely nestled in the front pocked of Samantha’s backpack.

The siblings, who were just under eleven months apart in age with Rob being the elder but whose birthdays fell in such a way that they were in the same school year and both in Samantha and Amelia’s class were delighted with the invitation, promising to reply as soon as they had permission and also explaining that Wednesday was the day their home normally encouraged visiting friends as it was the evening with the least staff-members on duty. Samantha said that she was sure this would be fine and promised to relay the information to her mum. Although she was looking forward to seeing her parents again, Amelia felt a little sad to be going back to her own house that afternoon but Samantha promised to call her later, once she was back from Sidney’s, and expressed that she could not see her parents having any objection to her visiting again the next weekend and suggested that this time she come Friday night, after school, to make the most of the “Family Fun Nights”.

At lunch time, the Amanda and Rob came to sit with Samantha and Amelia, eager to find out more about the Christmas plans. Although they were not twins, there was no mistaking that they were siblings! Both were redheads but Rob’s wavy hair was a little darker than Amanda’s long corkscrew curls but perhaps only because he kept it on the shorter side. Both were pale and lightly freckled with Rob’s eyes appearing more green and Amanda’s more blue although both definitely fell somewhere on the spectrum between those two colours. Rob had always been the taller of the pair although Amanda was now catching him up thanks to a recent growth-spurt that he was yet to enjoy.

Samantha knew from earlier conversations that their parents had died in a plane crash when they were just two and three and they had been taken in by their widowed grandmother who cared for them very well but had, nearly three years ago, suffered a fatal heart-attack leaving them truly orphaned. With no other family to take them in, they had entered the care system where everyone knew an older child’s chance of getting adopted was minimal at the best of times and next to zero for a pair of siblings who did not want to be separated and so the pair had resigned themselves to living in the group home until the “aged out”, at which point they would be given some degree of support to find a flat of their own and get work.

A concession that had been made for them, given their emotional closeness as well as their proximity in age, was that Rob would be permitted to stay in care until Amanda turned eighteen rather than having to move out on his own as soon as he did, that way they would be able to move out and into a place together when the time came and continue to support each other.

Animatedly, Samantha told them about how she had always fantasised about being a Christmas turkey just like Rosie in the book and how excited she was to finally make that dream a reality. She also told them about her trip to the butcher and how she had been graded, although she left out the detail that Amelia had joined in as well – that was her own story to tell if and when she was ready. She explained how they had watched Emily receiving her grade and how they would be going back on the Saturday before Christmas to watch her harvested. She had agreed with her mum that she would not mention having them to stay on Christmas Eve just yet in case the home were not amenable to the idea, not wanting to get them excited about something that might not happen, although she could not help dropping into conversation that her parents had promised to buy some girl-meat for her last proper meal to make it special! When the bell rang at the end of the lunch hour, the siblings went back to class more excited for Christmas than they had been since their Granny died!

Since they had needed to make a fairly early booking to get in, there was not an awful lot of time for Samantha to get ready for her meal out after school. To speed things up, Laura had picked her up and Miranda had promised to do the same with her girls. On the way home, Samantha explained that Wednesday would be the best day to have her friends over for dinner and Samantha promised to discuss it with the carers when they phoned later as she had requested them to do in her letter. That would also be, she promised, when she discussed Christmas Eve with them and hopefully made arrangements for them to stay over. Samantha had intended to ask if anyone had replied to the invitations yet but it completely slipped her mind in the excitement of getting ready for Sidney’s.

As soon as they got in, she raced up the stairs, shedding her coat on the stairs as she often did despite, as Laura never tired of reminding her, there being perfectly good hooks by the door. In her bedroom she saw the outfit that her mum had picked out as a suggestion and approved – it was the red velvet dress she had worn when they went to her grandparents last Christmas and the white tights with golden sparkles in them that had been bought to accompany it. A very Christmassy outfit that was pretty and elegant, the sort of outfit that showed that you had made an effort, without being overly formal. Sidney’s was, after all, a family restaurant that was intended to be accessible to most people, not an exclusive fine dining establishment!

Quickly, she peeled off her school uniform and dumped it on her bed then ran naked to the bathroom where she showered before coming back to her room in nothing but a towel around her head. Laying this over the back of her chair, she sat and dried her hair before using her iron to give it a slight curl just as she had when posing as Sidney. Finally, she got dressed and finished the outfit with a pair of white leather shoes and a spray of perfume from the expensive bottle she had got for her birthday. Holding the bottle in her hand and seeing that it was not even a quarter used gave her an idea for the Christmas party but that would have to wait for another time.

Looking in the mirror, she realised that the dress which had been fairly loose-fitting a year ago now clung to her young adolescent curves, the stretchy velvet showing off her developing figure very nicely, making her feel ever so grown-up. She heard the doorbell and raced downstairs to see her mum welcoming Caroline and Ella, both wearing coats but clearly with nice outfits like hers on underneath to judge from their tights, Caroline’s red and Ella’s white, and shoes which were red in Ella’s case and black in Caroline’s. Their mum was stood behind them, talking to Laura, and over her shoulder Samantha saw her dad’s car pulling into the drive.

“Right on time!” Laura grinned and he got out of the car and waved but made no move to come into the house, knowing that he would have to head straight out again to get the girls there on time. As he waited, he thought to himself how fortunate he was that his work had been so accommodating and how many favours he was going to owe in the new year!

“Okay, have fun!” Miranda kissed both her daughter before thanking Samantha’s parents profusely once more and heading back across the road to her own house.

“Don’t forget this!” Laura smiled, passing Samantha the envelope with her voucher in once she had her coat on, the big one this time that she had used to cover up when going across the road to invite the other girls.

“Thanks again, Mummy!” She leaned up to kiss Laura on the lips. “We promise to be good!”

“I don’t doubt it!” Laura chuckled. “Now go on, enjoy your dinners!” All three girls waved and made their way over to the car where they all piled into the back, Ella, as the smallest, in the middle.

“Where to, ladies?” Josh asked in imitation of a cab driver.

“To Sidney’s!” the well-dressed trio punch the air in unison.

“Sidney’s it is!” chuckled Josh. “Let’s go!”

“So was your friend pleased with his invitation?” Samantha asked once they were on the road, knowing that he had taken it to work with him that morning.

“Delighted!” Josh grinned. “In fact he kept it propped up on his desk all day!”

“Hope he wasn’t too distracted to get his work done!” Samantha giggled. “I guess he’s really gonna love the gifts in his stocking!”

“I think so!” Josh agreed with a chuckle. “So anyway, that’s two more definite yesses!”

“Oh crap!” Samantha exclaimed. “I meant to ask Mummy if anyone else had replied today!”

“Don’t worry,” Josh assured her, “I’m sure she’ll tell you later. She’ll have it all efficiently noted down somewhere, probably on some sort of spreadsheet!” They both chuckled affectionately at this very accurate observation about Laura’s organisation. “Can you imagine if I’d married someone like me?” Josh laughed, addressing all three girls, “I can barely keep track of what day of the week it is!”

“Well as long as you don’t forget to pick us up after dinner!” Ella giggled. “Maybe they put unclaimed children on the menu?”

“Maybe!” Josh nodded sagely. “It would be a sensible solution! But don’t worry,” he assured them, “I plan on staying in the car park while you eat. I brought a book!” He held up a chunky if slightly “well-loved” hardback that was on the passenger seat to show them.

“See?” Caroline tried to compliment him. “You can be organised sometimes!” This made Samantha burst into more giggles. “What?” her friend asked, confused as to what could be so funny.

“Mummy handed him that book as he was leaving for work this morning!” explained Samantha and Josh looked a little sheepish. There was more giggling and chatter as they completed the journey. Since it was still quite early evening, there was still a lot of space in the car park and Josh had no trouble finding a space quite near the entrance.

“I’d better come in with you.” he smiled. “Just make sure everything’s okay?”

“You’re just hoping to see some meat-girls in their birthday suits, aren’t you?” Samantha teased but without meanness. Josh let the girls go ahead as they quickly climbed the white marble-style steps to the front doors which were made from glass with polished brass handles. Inside, they found themselves in a large atrium-like lobby, the already dark and star-filled sky visible through the glass dome in the ceiling. Straight in front of the entrance was a reception desk which they approached.

“Good evening, ladies!” the young woman behind the desk, dressed in a pink polo-shirt with the Sidney’s logo embroidered in gold thread over one side of her rather ample chest, smiled at them. “Are you here to eat or be eaten?”

“Reservation under the name of Martin for five o’clock?” Josh offered.

“That doesn’t really answer my question, does it?” the young woman teased, winking at the girls who all giggled. From the way they were dressed, it was fairly obvious that they were diners. Meat-girls tended not to arrive in their “Sunday best”, usually preferring either casual, comfortable clothes or sometimes a bikini or just underwear if they arrived wearing anything at all with many feeling that the full “meat-girl experience” required walking through those big glass doors wearing the same outfit in which they would be served. Still, it was fun to have this kind of ice-breaking banter with the young female customers.

“We’re here to have dinner!” Samantha giggled. “Not to be anyone’s dinner, not this time anyway!”

“That’s the attitude we like!” the young woman grinned, looking up their details on the computer, “Never say never, eh?” Samantha was about to explain their Christmas plans when the woman continued. “Ah, yes here you are!” she smiled. “Your table should be ready in about ten minutes. Feel free to look around and someone will come and get you when it’s time.”

“I’m not dining with them,” Josh explained, “but I’ll be just outside in the car. Did you want me to leave my number with you?” To his slight surprise, rather than giving his phone number to the young woman, she read it out to him.

“Don’t worry,” she smiled once he confirmed that it was right, “there’s already a note on the account. Your wife called and sorted everything out.”

“Of course she did!” Josh chuckled, wondering why he was remotely surprised. “Is it okay if I stay with them until they go in?”

“Of course!” she smiled warmly. “The exhibition and gift shop are always open to the public!”

“Gift shop?” Samantha explained and took off towards the area behind the desk with its racks of shelving. “Come on, Daddy! I bet there will be some stuff for the party!” With a slightly apologetic smile to the receptionist he followed her and the other girls to look at the merchandise on sale. There seemed to be everything from costumes, dolls, cuddly toys, books and the typical keyrings and magnets found in any gift shop to ornaments and other trinkets actually made from preserved body-parts. There were articulated hands labelled as “Phone Holders” but with several posed to suggest alternative uses, jewellery made from finger bones, bookmarks, keyrings and bracelets made from tanned girl-skin and even whole heads preserved either as wall-mountable trophies or as something labelled “Happy Ending Heads”, the purpose of which was far from ambiguous.

“Aren’t these cool, Daddy?” Samantha picked one up to admire, choosing one with a similar hair length and colour to her own. “Too bad I plan on going in the oven with my head on, eh?” she giggled, “Else you could have had one of these made! Or would you prefer Amelia’s head?” she asked a little archly. Fortunately, he was saved from having to answer by Ella calling her to look at something else. “We really do need some of this stuff for the party!” she exclaimed again. “Can we, Daddy? Please?” she wheedled, putting her hands together as if in prayer and fluttering her eyelashes in an exaggerated manner.

“Don’t we have enough for the stockings?” he asked a little nervously, knowing full well that his daughter was a Not-Enough-Bookshelves kind of girl. “I don’t think we could really fit more in!”

“Not for the stockings,” she sighed and shook his head as if he was being especially slow, “but there’s going to be games, aren’t there? And games need prizes!”

“Oh I see!” Josh relaxed just a little, understanding that at least he would not be expected to buy twenty of everything but also wondering just how extravagant she would want to be with said prizes!

“You can wrap them if you like,” she suggested, “to be surprises. Or maybe put them out on a table and let people choose? We should try to keep everything to roughly the same value so it’s fair.” This was at least some relief to Josh as it seemed she was not likely to demand multiple Happy Ending heads! Taking charge just like her mother, she instructed Caroline to find a basket then together the girls started to pick out things they thought the party-goers would be pleased to win, the two sisters having a vested interest as they would be guests at the party and the likely recipients of at least one prize each!

“This is cool!” Caroline observed, picking up a glossy, A4 paperback book that reproduced all of Sidney’s posters, billboards, flyers and other ads as well as stills from some of her TV appearances.

“This would be a good one for the grandparents!” Samantha observed, picking up a hardback with the famous picture of Sidney looking back over her shoulder on the dust-jacket, entitled “Eat Me: The Sidney Roebuck Story” and claiming to be the authorised biography. They also picked up a couple of colouring books in different styles with different age-groups in mind, the pictures inside either depicting Sidney herself or other girls in various stages of preparation and cooking. Moving on from the books they found that the hands were actually very reasonably priced so added two to the basket, one with pale skin, the other with dark brown for variety.

Trying to make sure there would be things to appeal to everyone, they added a large mug with two pictures of Sidney on, one from the front and one from the back, a desk diary with pictures of her, whether from photo-shoots or campaign posters in between each week, an art set in a zip-up folder with Sidney on the front including felt tip pens, coloured pencils, normal pencils of varying hardness and some other useful pieces like a sharpener and eraser and finally one of the plush Sidneys which had cute embroidered nipples and a line of peach thread slightly darker than her skin to represent her fillet and a simple Barbie-style doll, albeit anatomically correct and significantly less developed than the average Barbie, with removable hat and boots. There were other dolls in a variety of styles that were very beautiful but these were expensive, the kinds of dolls that should be given as a special Christmas or birthday gift.

“Martin party of three?” a young man in the same uniform as the receptionist approached them with a smile.

“That’s us!” Samantha confirmed, thrusting the shopping basket into Josh’s arms. “Pay for these, please Daddy!” she asked without even looking at him. “Is our table ready?”

“It certainly is!” he grinned. “Follow me, please!”

“Have fun, girls!” Josh waved to them with his free hand. “I’ll be here when you’re done!”

“Thank you, Daddy!” Samantha blew a kiss over her shoulder. “Love you!”

Chuckling to himself, Josh browsed the shelves for a little longer, picking up an old-fashioned looking joke book that identified itself on the cover as a facsimile of the one that had inspired Sidney’s campaign. Flicking through, he found the idea rather unlikely and probably some sort of cover story to distance Sidney from the online fetish community to whom she must have felt like a gift from the gods but it was a part of Sidney lore after all so he added it to the basket. As a final touch, he picked up a six inch resin statue of Sidney in her famous salute pose, likely intended as a desk ornament and presented in a sparkly pink gift box then, not seeing anywhere else to pay, took the basket to reception.

“The hands come with gift boxes too.” the woman behind the desk smiled. “Would you like me to fetch them for you?”

“Oh yes please!” Josh smiled. “Sorry, I didn’t realise.”

“It’s no problem at all!” she assured him. “Gold or silver?”

“One of each?” suggested Josh and she nodded approvingly, returning moments later with two cardboard boxes that were lined with cheap satin and padded on the inside. After consulting with Josh, she put the darker skinned hand in the silver box and the paler one in the gold.

“Would you like bags?” she asked, taking some large, pink laminated paper bags from under the counter.

“Yes please!” Josh chuckled, looking at the rather large pile of merchandise on the counter. The young woman rang the chosen items up and carefully packed them into two bag. Josh gave a slight exhale or alarm when she told him the total but tapped his card without complaint, folding the receipt and putting it in his wallet. At least there would not be any other Christmas shopping to do as the party and the associated gifts were their present to the family that year.

“Do you want me to keep these behind the desk while you check out the exhibition?” she asked. “Since you’re just going to be waiting anyway?”

“Thank you! That would be nice.” Josh smiled and the helpful young woman took the bags off the counter and put them down beside her chair. “Oh, sorry!” he exclaimed, realising another family, a couple with two daughters, were waiting behind him. The receptionist smiled at him as he stepped aside.

“Well hello there!” she smiled at the girls. “Have you come to eat or be eaten?”


To be continued...