It started out like any other day. After Nate had collected his office clothes and lunch into his backpack, he biked away from his condo building on his way to work. His bike rides allowed him time for his mind to wander hither and yawn and this morning was the same. The usual mental meanderings started with the how close he had come to defaulting on his condo mortgage last month. He had been out of work for almost 9 months and his savings were totally depleted before he landed his current job. The money was flowing again so his worries didn't overwhelm him.
His thoughts drifted back to what had happened at the office yesterday. The power company was involved in a month long fund raising drive for local charities and as such, they had a number of volunteer events that employees could take part in. They had hosted a sandwich making event where employees assembled ham and cheese or peanut butter and jelly fixings into bagged sandwiches that were then delivered to local food kitchens. It was a little ridiculous, but it was a good opportunity to mingle with people from other departments. Usually, Nate spent his day behind his desk writing code or documenting processes and not interacting with many people beyond his team and his boss. At the sandwich making event, dozens of people were there from all over the company.
There were people from all different backgrounds. Young, old, workers, managers, executives, men, women and every ethnicity imaginable. While everyone was waiting to get started with the sandwich assembling, he stood around a little awkwardly. His team was late arriving and since he was new, he didn't know anyone. One of the HR ladies that was at his orientation session last month came over and chatted with him briefly, but then her co-workers showed up and she wandered off with them. It was a few minutes later that another lady came over.
As he learned shortly, her name was Sandra and she was in upper management somewhere. The conversation had started cordially with her introducing herself and asking how long Nate had been with the company. She was quite pretty in a sophisticated way. She looked to have some Asian features, so it was difficult to guess her age. On the surface, she looked to be in her early thirties. She was about 5 cm shorter than Nate, had long black hair, and clearly worked out frequently. Her business skirt showed off her well defined calf muscles along with wonderfully shaped hips and waist. Her blouse had a v neck line that hinted at a modest and perky chest and although he couldn't see her arms, her handshake left no mistake that she had some solid arms to go with the rest of her toned body.
Nate wasn't fazed by her looks. As a frequent gym goer, seeing gorgeous women wearing revealing attire was normal, so he was able to maintain his composure quite easily. During the conversation, people around them milled about until at one point, they were separated from the nearest person by several metres. It was at that point that she said it. It was fast and casual and almost missed.
"You should come over to my place some time soon. I think that you'd look fantastic naked, tied to my dungeon's ceiling."
Nate's face had gone blank. Did he just hear what he thought he heard? "Um, did you... what? I think I misheard you."
"I said you should come over to my office some time soon. I think you'd have some fantastic ideas that are tied to my computer's desktop feel."
Nate blinked. That... didn't.. sound like what she said. It was only a momentary pause before he opted to convince himself that he had indeed mis-heard her. He relaxed and nodded, "Sure." He paused as he looked at her sly grin, "Well, let me know when is a good time and I can come by."
"Super. In that case, I'll call you shortly. Talk to you soon, Nate," she said as she stepped away and blended in with the crowd. He spent the rest of the sandwich making event in a distracted state, wondering if he had mis-heard her. Was she serious? Did she want to have him tied and naked? Wasn't that a sexual harassment thing? Is it still sexual harassment if it's done by someone as pretty as her? What would that be like, to be tied up by someone he had just met?
Nate pushed the thoughts aside as he was finishing up his bike ride. Once he had his bike put away, he walked through the halls to the locker room. The office had no shortage of nice looking women and he was sure that on more than one occasion, he caught one or another of them staring at him. He was a good looking guy, without a doubt and at the office, the business casual dress code allowed him to choose smart, crisp shirts and trousers. It wasn't intentional, but the clothing definitely showed off his body nicely. Some of his team members had made comments about his appearance, which felt a little odd to him, but it was nice to be noticed. While he thought about it, he realized that at the sandwich making event yesterday, his table was all women except for him.
His day dreaming was inevitably interrupted when he arrived at his desk. The open concept office made it easy to move around and collaborate with other team members. While he worked on another web app for the company he was suddenly attuned to the fact that there were an awful lot of women from the office walking down the aisle where his desk was. They walked by in pairs and in groups talking quietly as they did. He hadn't noticed this much traffic before today. He donned his earbuds and did his best to fixate on his computer screen. It was mostly working before his phone rang.
"Hi Nate, it's Sandra. I need you to come to my office. I see on Outlook that you don't have any meetings, so can you come over right away?"
He checked his calendar and she was right. "Ok, can do. Where's your desk?"
It was five minutes later when he was at her office door. Vice President Sandra Chu. He had no idea yesterday that she was a VP. He knocked.
"Come in, please."
He entered. The office was huge. It was dominated by a large oak desk with a plush leather chair behind it. To the side was a couch and a work table. On the other side of the desk was a series of shelves with a myriad of books and journals on it. Sandra looked up and smiled at him. Today, her suit jacket was hanging on the coat rack near the window, leaving her in just a sheer, what looked like silk, blouse. He could see a hint of a lacy black bra strap peeking out from below her collar.
"Please, come in, grab a chair. I need your help with this website," she said as she motioned to the screen.