Three weeks have passed like hunting hawks in flight. We haven't stopped to talk about what we're doing, only acted on what we both probably fear is a doomed relationship but both of us too excited to stop it before it goes too far. Stolen moments, fleeting glances, and knowing looks that are probably held way too long are all that we can share at work. It's not proper for a boss to be fooling with his administrative assistant.
I must be horribly old fashioned because in my brain, I keep starting to say, "secretary." You've corrected me more than once; in fact, you've put me in my place in front of the two warehouse drones and that battleaxe of a part time "assistant" that corporate saddled us with. They all are probably losing respect for me as their boss, but I don't give a shit. Corporate has written off our branch as dead weight and the only thing that keeps us in our jobs is their greedy desire to keep at least some of the parts flowing to old customers since that might actually pay the expenses on the building that they built at the height of the real estate boom and now have hanging around the figurative neck of their balance sheet like an albatross. In fact, if we were better at marketing, our huge inventory would probably be moving faster, selling down to a more manageable level, and making our jobs more and more superfluous until the day they send a liquidator in to assess our remaining inventory and blow it out the door at a rock bottom price right after letting the five of us go.
But for now, I'm feeling proud of myself in a completely selfish way. I feel that through careful management of the flow of parts, I am delaying our sell-down and putting off that inevitable day when they say, "That's it. You folks can go home. We might pay you through the end of the year, but get your personal things and turn in the keys. We're closing this branch."
Why "selfish," you wonder? Do you really have to ask? Because the only reason I'm not online all day pimping my resume is that while I'm employed here, I have a relationship going with my lovely assistant who I'm secretly dating after work and really secretly boinking while I'm AT work. I don't really know how to search for that kind of job on Monster.com since I think banging the help is frowned upon in other, more successful companies. I may be wrong. I don't know.
And every day when those two doofuses from the warehouse head down the road for their "lunch break" to sit at the end of the international airport's runway, watch planes land, and smoke joints, you and I are playing. The admin sent in by corporate is never here at lunch time so it's only us and we make good use of that time. And every day that I don't seem to "notice" that the two stoners are coming back later and later, it also means that I have more and more time to touch, tickle, fondle, feel, kiss, caress, tease, and please Miss Dressing Too Sexy For Work.
Today, you've got that skirt on that makes all the others look even shorter. Good Lord, those legs of yours do wonders for you. What they do to me however, is wholly unfair. If I hadn't bought you those shoes and that skirt, I would wonder if you were trying to give me some sort of heart condition. But since I purchased the entire outfit, I am well aware of the effect that the ensemble is meant to have on me. I wonder if you have followed the caveat that I laid down for when you wear it.
Doofus One and Doofus Two are finally gone. Battleaxe is nowhere to be found; most likely she's writing a report to corporate about the non-necessity of transferring any of us to the St. Louis home office. Or maybe she's planning her next transfer where she will surely spy on another mid level manager and report what she sees until that guy too gets laid off or fired in shame for doing dirty, dirty things to his willing secretary.
Dammit, Administrative Assistant. Says so right there on your business card.
Your back is to my office door as usual. But through the windows, I can watch your cascading black hair fall about your shoulders, see your dusky skin as you shuffle papers around your desk, and once in a while I can see your lips while you're talking to customers on the phone. Those lips. The things that you've done with them since that first day when we stopped talking and started acting would convince anyone at corporate to keep you on in whatever capacity you wanted.