She was between boyfriends at t his time, but felt very comfortable just enjoying the party as an unattached woman. She enjoyed the light flirtations she got from the guys, none of whom she was serious about, and her girl friends knew that and thus did not feel threatened by her. She was an attractive 28 year old, with long lustrous brunette hair, a lithe athletic body and gorgeous legs. Her size 7 feet were perfectly proportioned for her 115 pound, 5-foot 6-inch frame.

This was an occasion to dress up, and she did. She wore a bronze colored flowing silk blend wrap dress. It was a little light for winter, but she had a nice coat and would not have to be out in the weather as the hotel had a parking garage attached, and she only had a short walk from the car to the lobby. To complement her bronze dress she wore a pair of amber metallic pantyhose in a shimmery style, purely holiday as they sparkled and shimmered as she moved. On her feet were a pair of calfskin high heels in a beautiful brandy leather. They were Nickels, had 3-inch heels, were cut low and sexy as she knew many guys loved to see. A strap ran across the front attached to a bronze metal buckle, purely for decoration. These shoes went perfectly with her dress and this was the first time sheıd worn them. When the dancing slowed down she thought she might dangle them and give the guys looking her way a little thrill. But not just yet, let them mellow out first.

The buffet meal was good, drinks were nice (though she didnıt consume enough to lose her head, she was feeling pretty good). She commented to Mary that her shoes were not broken-in enough for all the dancing she wanted to do, she might have to ditch them soon. Mary looked under the table and spotted the brand new shoes. She reached down and grabbed JoAnnıs right foot, pulling it out from under the table to get a closer look. JoAnn was a little shocked, and yelped "Hey, what are you doing?"

Marsha leaned over to see what they were doing and her eyes gleamed at the glossy new shoe and a devilish grin surfaced on her face. JoAnn had a premonition of what was coming, and she felt a distinct tingle descend down her spine and center between her legs at the thought of something happening to her beautiful new shoe, though she could not imagine what could happen. She was extremely aware of Maryıs warm hands holding her foot, caressing the leather and feeling her foot through the shoe. Mary looked at Marsha who gave a tiny nod. Mary yanked the shoe off and held it up for all to see, like a trophy prize.

She said "My lord, what a fine shoe! Isnıt it a fine shoe, Marsha?" Marsha agreed, reached out an took the high heel and held it up to see it better, stroking the smooth calfskin and feeling the leather strap and buckle ornament. JoAnn said "Come on, guys, give it back. I donıt want to dance barefoot yet."

Marsha replied "Certainly not, my dear. Here, this should satisfy you," as she pulled off the high heel mule she was wearing and tossed it into JoAnnıs lap. This was not what JoAnn wanted, she wanted her shoe back before something happened to it. But, she didnıt know how to protest and not sound like a ninny. The mule was nice looking, in black leather with a heel just about the same height as her shoes. This meant she could wear the heel without that funny limp that one has wearing shoes of different heel heights. It also had a strap and buckle design on the front, though of course it lacked a back to the shoe. Slipping it on her foot, she found the pantyhose slippery in the shoe and wondered if she could keep it on her foot. Again, she felt that warm tingle of anticipation at losing this shoe on the crowded dance floor. It was one lovely, sexy high heel. She looked at Marsha as her friend slipped JoAnnıs shoe on her own foot. Marsha was not wearing nylons, having tanned her legs in tanning booths. Thatıs how she could keep these mules on so well. "Well, weıll see how well I do," JoAnn thought to herself.

One of the single guys appeared and asked JoAnn to dance. She really didnıt want to leave her brand new shoe with Marsha until she knew what was going to happen, but he was insistent and she knew he was a fun dancer. She followed him onto the dance floor, feeling Marshaıs mule slipping on her foot. The guy noticed her mismatched shoes and asked what was going on. She shrugged and just said Marsha had "borrowed" her shoe and she was forced to dance like this. He shrugged and they started dancing. It was hard keeping the mule on, and it slipped off several times. Once the couple next to them bumped it knocking it away and she had to leave her partner to run retrieve it.

She returned to her table and asked about her shoe. Mary said "Itıs around somewhere, donıt worry, itıll turn up." JoAnn said she wasnıt worried, but wanted it back. She looked around the dance floor and spotted Marsha dancing with her shoe and the other mule. When Marsha returned JoAnn asked for her shoe back, but Marsha said "Not yet, Iım enjoying it too much," and smirked at Mary. Mary was now sitting on JoAnnıs left side. She slid her foot under JoAnnıs chair and captured JoAnnıs left foot. JoAnn squeaked out a "Hey, what?" as Mary captured her foot between both her own and started pushing the high heel off JoAnnıs foot. JoAnn clinched her toes, flexed her foot, fighting to keep her high heel on. But, the slick nylons and Maryıs dogged persistence doomed her. The shoe slowly slid further and further off her heel.

That strange thrill surged through her again as she realized both her beautiful, brand new high heels were going to disappear into this party crowd, to an unknown fate. She suddenly became aware that Marsha was also kicking at her right foot knocking the mule off. She soon found herself barefoot, in nylons with her left shoe sliding under the table and Marshaıs mule doing the same on the other side.

Marsha slipped her mule back on and got up to dance with a guy. JoAnne saw that her right shoe that Marsha danced in previously was no longer in sight.

She also saw one of the girls on the other side of the table had reached under and retrieved her left shoe. But, to her surprise, the girl, Amanda, squealed in glee, held the high heel up like Marsha did, and waved it around yelling "Who wants a shoe? Anybody want a shoe? Going once, going twice! Speak up!"

Amanda was a quiet, almost shy girl, but apparently sheıd had a little more social lubricant than JoAnn had realized. She crooned on, waving the high heel at a group of single guys who had been drinking more than they probably should. She grinned lasciviously and said "Donıt you guys like high heels?

Any Romeo's left who know how to toast champagne from a sexy ladyıs sexy high heel? How about it, Big Boys?" Then she lightly kissed the toe of JoAnnıs shoe a couple of times. When she saw sheıd gotten the guysı attention, she let the tip of the toe press inside her lips, and gave the shoe a sexy wet kiss, even letting her tongue dance over the leather as she drew the shoe from her mouth, teasing the guys with a sly smirk on her face.

Since Amanda had kicked her shoes off earlier and was running around in nylons, the guys probably assumed she was holding one of her own shoes, but anyway one of the guys ran over and took the shoe, ignoring JoAnnıs yelps of "Hey, thatıs MY shoe!" as she tried to get her shoe back. But the tables were set so that it was a long way around to the guy and Amanda, and they got away before she got there. As she came around she saw the guy dragging Amanda by her hand over to the rest of his group. A bottle of champagne appeared and one of the guys tipped the bottle into the shoe, filling it up.

Amanda was giggling, as were several other women watching the episode. Two of the guys grabbed Amanda by the arms and made her take the first sips of champagne from JoAnnıs shoe. She resisted a little, but took several long swallows from the pump.

The guys passed the shoe around, each taking a drink from the shoe then refilling it and passing it on. JoAnn was close, but the crowd of guys and gals watching this new attraction was blocking her from going straight to her shoe. Several of the women also sipped from the shoe, a couple were forced by their partners, spluttering and protesting amid giggles to the delight of guys and gals alike. JoAnn finally made it to the group intending to rescue her high heel, but found that the guys had other plans.

As JoAnn started to ask for her shoe, two guys grabbed her arms and held her. Her own high heel was thrust up to her face and she was told that ifshe didnıt drink from the shoe they would hold her head back and pour it into her mouth. She felt a surge of thrill run through her as she looked at her own sexy shoe held by one of the guys just inches from her face. She could see the champagne was soaking into the brandy colored calfskin of the shoe, turning the leather dark.

One of the guys held her head by the back of her hair while the shoe was held to her lips. There was no way she was going to escape, the champagne was going to be poured either into her mouth or all over her face if she didnıt cooperate. She could smell the sensual aroma of the new leather mixed with champagne and even that wet leather smell. As her head was pulled back some of the women and guys were chanting "...chug it, chug it, chug it..." JoAnn kept her mouth closed as the back of her shoe was pressed against her lips and the shoe tilted up. The guy holding the shoe twisted the lip of the shoe against her lips, forcing them open a little and then he tilted it more letting the champagne pour out. Some flowed over her mouth and down her chin, dripping on her breasts. She even felt the cold liquid dribbling onto her nylon covered feet.

Not wanting to get soaked, and feeling a very warm sensation coursing through her body at the sensual attention her shoe and now she were receiving from these guys (and gals), she opened her mouth and let the sparkling liquid flow in. After a couple of serious gulps she was released and the shoe taken over to the bottle for more refills and toasts. She was not able to get through the group to grab the shoe and had to watch her brand new high heel shoe as it was passed back and forth, slowly moving away from her into the crowd, getting wetter and wetter.

She noticed that the floor was increasingly wet from spilled drinks, especially the champagne. High heels were not made for holding a drink, and the champagne had sloshed out of the shoe as it was wafted around. She now wanted a pair of shoes to dance in so she would not be walking in the spilled drinks.

She began looking around for a pair. She spotted Amandaıs shoes. Amanda was not dressed as formal as JoAnne, going for more of a funky look. Her dress was a short brown tweed jumper with chevron patterned tights and brown leather high heel oxfords. These had 3-inch stacked heels and a wing tip design with decorative perforations. They were not your hiking shoes, by any means, but were not dainty shoes either. They actually looked very comfortable for dancing, now if they were only close to a size 7...

She picked them up and pulled the untied laces looser. Slipping the right one on it seemed to fit quite well. She slipped the left shoe on. They were a little loose, but only by about a half size and pulling the laces tightly she tied them and admired them. Not really the right shoes for her delicate dress, but theyıd serve a lot better than no shoes at all.

Marsha and Mary would have to work to yank these off her feet! She made sure she pulled the bow knot tight, just in case. Another guy came up to her and she returned to the dance floor. "My gosh," she thought to herself, "If they pour champagne in one of these shoes it will hold double what my dainty high heel held." She hoped those guys did not repeat the champagne thing with one of these, sheıd have to let the stuff pour all over her face as sheıd had her limit for the night.

Wow, these shoes were comfortable. While not sexy, she would be able to dance all night in them, and she wondered why Amanda had slipped them off to begin with. As she danced for the next couple of hours she keep a lookout for both her shoes. From time to time she spotted her left shoe, now soaked from the champagne, as it seemed to make itıs way around the revelers. The right shoe had disappeared. Damn Amanda, Marsha, and Mary. It was one thing to have her shoe soaked with champagne and another to lose a shoe entirely. She spotted Marshaıs shoes too. Seems like Marsha wore them for awhile, then kicked them off under the table when she sat down. But what has she done with JoAnnıs right shoe?

Marsha had let the mules drop off her feet as she sat at the table, the shoes lying on the floor under her chair. After a few minutes she slid her chair up close to the table to listen to the the couple across from her. This left the two high heels exposed behind her. People walking between the tables to and from the dance floor were stumbling over the shoes. One woman stepped down on the toe of one. The other was knocked away, sliding under the tables behind Marsha. Then the first one was knocked forward, toward the edge of the dance floor near JoAnn and her dance partner and where Marsha could not see it.

JoAnn felt a surge of revenge come upon her as she moved over to Marshaıs slightly crushed mule. She non-chalantly walked on the poor shoe, further crushing it under her foot. She turned to the guy she was dancing with and said "Look, some woman lost her high heel shoe. Letıs have some fun, shall we?" Then she stuck the toe of Amandaıs high heel shoe she was wearing inside the dainty mule. With another of those thrills running through her at the abuse she was going to give the mule, she wormed her shoe inside, putting all her weight, like she was trying to slip the mule on over the shoe she was wearing. Feeling the shoe slide a little bit inside the mule as the soft leather stretched, she grinned at her date and pressed even harder.

The leather was stretching as the mule deformed to take the shoe. She pulled her foot out and looked at the mule. Her partner seemed to be enjoying this so she slid the slightly mangled mule over to him saying "Bet you canıt get this on your foot!" He slipped off his right loafer and eagerly tried to force it in the poor mule. She felt a sharp thrill this time, watching his foot distend the mule even more. She thought she heard a seam pop or maybe the lining tear. When he pulled his foot out she stepped on the toe of the mule and callously ground it under the shoeıs lightly lugged sole, pressing down and twisting her foot at the same time. She noticed the soft leather was now wrinkled and looked like a shoe that had been worn well past its prime.

Feeling some satisfaction at her revenge, she inserted the toe of her shoe again into the mule and kicked it off into the busy dance floor where it was bound to get trampled even more. She now spotted her left shoe, the one that was soaked with champagne. It had been tossed aside (or kicked around) and was lying under the edge of a table, half hidden by the table cloth that reached the floor. Her dance partner had left and she felt like calling it a night. She recovered the shoe and started looking around for the other. It wasnıt under this table. She looked around the dance floor, walking around it checking under tables, chairs, and the dancersı feet. No shoe. Now she was worried. She returned to the table where her purse was and sat down.

She was getting mad now. She yanked Amandaıs high heel oxfords off without untieing them, then had a thought. She carefully pulled each end of the bow knots out so they could not be untied by pulling on them. Then she pulled each knot very tight. Amanda was going to have to work to get these shoes untied, and she would not be able to slip them on her feet until she did. She tossed one shoe in one direction and the other shoe in the opposite direction, grabbed her purse and went searching.

No sign of her missing shoe anywhere in the ballroom. She moved out into the hotelıs lobby, checked out the ladies room. Even asked a guy if there were any shoes in the menıs room. He looked at her strangely, and she said "Some of us girls are playing pranks on each other, and someone stole my other shoe. They might have thought it was funny to toss it in the menıs room." He checked, no shoe. Now she was getting really worried.

Back to the ballroom. She found Marsha (who was still in stocking feet) and asked her. She said she didnıt know, sheıd set the shoe down somewhere and didnıt remember seeing it again. JoAnn could tell Marsha was telling the truth. It was getting late and she had to leave. Sheıd check with the hotel desk and leave notice for them to call her if her shoe showed up. She left her phone number and was assured by the clerk that all kinds of shoes, glasses, and gloves turned up after a party like this and sheıs probably get her shoe back the next day. JoAnn thanked the nice woman and left feeling a little better.

JoAnn walked through the hotel lobby to the doors to the parking garage, dangling her champagne soaked high heel from her fingers. Emily and her husband were walking behind her and Emily caught a glance of something in an alcove off the lobby that struck her as strange. On a table with a reading lamp next to an easy chair was a strange potted plant. The plant wasnıt strange, the pot was. It looked just like a womanıs high heel shoe. She stopped and pulled her husband over to it and looked at it. Yes, it was a shoe. Someone had filled the shoe with potting soil and planted a jade plant inside the shoe. Theyıd even watered it recently, the obviously new, glossy brandy colored leather was turning very dark where the water pooled inside the shoe. Some of the wet dirt was smeared around on the shoe where the person who potted the plant handled the shoe with muddy fingers.

Emily and her husband giggled at the unusual pot, and walked away discussing it. No one else leaving the party noticed the potted plant at all, nor the empty flower pot sitting at the bottom of a waste basket in the corner.

Another unusual item went unoticed by everyone at the party. It was on the mantle above the fireplace where gas logs burned brightly. Next to a clock was a high heeled black mule, with a dried floral arangement inside, the glossy calfskin leather gleaming. As Marsha walked through the lobby with Mary she was griping about losing her mule. The only one she was able to find looked like it had been on the field of a football game. It was torn, rumpled, and didnıt fit her anymore. She was trying to wear it to protect one foot from the rough pavement in the parking garage, but she kept walking out of the mule because it was stretched to much for her to wear anymore. Mary told her to toss it away, but she refused. She was going to check with the hotelıs lost-and-found where she was sure her mule would turn up.

Amanda was leaving in a bad temper too. She was unable to untie her shoes to slip them on. The drinks she had during the party hadnıt helped either. Her date tried but he fumbled more than Amanda. Finally she slipped the shoes on the best she could, clinched her teeth and tried to press the back of the shoes flat. This was not easy to do, and she worked and worked before slipping them off and getting her date to stand on the backs and crush them flat. Once done, she slipped them on and wore them like mules, regretting that they had to get damaged like that so she could wear them. Had she had less to drink, it might have occurred to her to break the laces which could have been replaced for a couple of dollars.

On the way to her dateıs car, the group of guys who instigated the whole champagne affair came out into the parking garage. They were chasing some of the single girls threatening to give them a "Hell of a holiday goose". The girls were running from the guys, squealing. Especially one girl who received her special "goose" with a highly vocal reply. Two of the guys were bearing down on Amanda who started running to her dateıs car. Besides her shoes being so high, they were hard to run in with the backs mashed down flat, and as she got to the car she lost the right shoe. Not caring about the shoe as much as getting caught by the drunken guys, she chose the safety of the car, leaving her shoe behind.

The two guys picked up the shoe and returned to their friends waving their trophy. Amanda never asked about it and the guy who ended up with her shoe could not remember how he got it or what happened at the party. The shoe spent several years in a bachelor pad where it was on display on a coffee table. It was used in many different ways. At poker partys it was an ash tray for the cigars the guys smoked and showed the burn marks from the hot ashes. Sometimes it became a drink coaster, holding a cold can of beer or soda and showed the stains from the condensation and drink splatter. For a while it became a bank for a penny collection. Sometimes a nut and snack tray for a party. And it functioned as a candle holder for those romantic evenings, the hot wax dripping down into the shoe adding its own patina to the ash burns, and drink and food stains.

JoAnn had to cross the lawn of her apartment and she hated to do it in her nylons. It had gotten cold and the grass was soaked with a heavy dew. She reluctantly slipped on the champagned soaked shoe, wincing as it made a little squishing noise and the champagne that had soaked into the lining and insole squeezed out wetting her foot. Then her other foot had to walk through the wet grass all the way to the apartment entrance. She was thankful that sheıd met no one, not realizing that several people watched her limp across the lawn. With the security floodlights lit, they saw her nylon covered foot get soaked, her high heel sink into the wet turf, and could see that her one shoe was soaking wet. It was a good thing that no one was close enough to smell her shoe, it smelled like champagne.

JoAnnıs shoe was kept at the hotel as a plant pot until the humidity in the summer caused the leather to become moldy and smelly. It was then tossed in the garbage. No one at the hotel connected the unusual plant pot with that well dressed woman who had lost her shoe at the party.

Marshaıs mule remained on the mantle until the lobby was redecorated the next year. All the items were taken to a flea market and sold.