The Rescue Mission

"Excellent!" Eris chirps in delight, and produces a tablet with a Square chip reader attached. "We bill in advance here. The auto-calculation tool is working out the cost now." She hums for a second, staring at the screen. "Ok. I'll be $475."

Alice nearly faints. "Four hundred seventy-five dollars??" she repeats in shock.

Eris frowns. "Yeah. Well, you've got a lot of fu-" she claps a hand over her mouth. "Woops. I'm sorry. I almost just said 'fur'. I don't want to sound insulting. But you do have an awful lot of it."

Alice grows a little confused. "It is fur, Eris. And I do have a lot of it. Why would I find that insulting?"

Eris's eyes run up and down Alice's body. "Umm.... it's just... er…." she stammers, then shrugs it off. "Well, good then! No one's upset. So are you ready for me to take care of all that ...fur... of yours then?" She bites her lip playfully.

"Oh, having my fur cared for would be so lovely, but $475 is a lot," Alice frets.

Eris smiles. "What if I gave you a nice discount? I have to admit, I'm kind of looking forward to helping you out too. I think I can make you look and feel so amazing." She leans in and whispers. "How about half off? $240." Her eyebrows shoot up expectantly.