Mistress L here, I'm super excited to show all of you the first chapter of "The Intimacy Slave." I worked real hard on making the characters realistic and believable while holding a certain amount of emotional depth. As such this first chapter will be set up for future chapters (depending on your reception), so don't go into this installment expecting immediate hot action. It, and further depravity, are quickly coming.
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The day started as any other, and I woke with no reason to believe that, hiding under the sun somewhere, was a woman who would so drastically alter my life- for the better, or the worse? I can't say necessarily; what I can say, is that after this... change, I have slowly witnessed myself becoming a happier, or at least healthier person. One who can anticipate a future of more perpetual satisfaction. One who, to the exclusion of her entire past, knows now where she belongs.
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My bed was left a mess after I kicked out of it, a vampire from her stuffy coffin. The sun shone in from the window adjacent to my bed, rudely blinding my groggy eyes and heating my bedroom to a cozy temperature. Everything in my body was at war with itself; some more primal instincts tempted me to crawl back into that stuffy coffin and hibernate until a more opportune time to rise presented itself. My civilized instincts were all too kind to remind me that, if after that hibernation, I wanted to food to eat, I would need a paycheck today to buy that food. In the end my civil side won out.
Waking up has always been a struggle of mine, one that worsened as I got older and progressed further into my late thirties. Perhaps if I had more incentive to wake up it would be easier, but for now I was stuck in my soulless corporate job at an advertising agency, a higher-up who managed the actual talent, resigned to be office bitch even though, truthfully, I hated being the hard-ass. But you don't get paid the big bucks for being everyone's friend.
I washed my face and looked deep into my reflection in the mirror to find myself starring back. I saw my dark brown hair with its caramel highlights fading out, my even, healthy skin, full lips, and blue-gray eyes. I also saw a scar running from the jaw under my left ear immediately down to my clavicle. It was a light scar which I acquired from a surgery when I was only 14, faded enough over time so I could cover it with a healthy amount of concealer, the only makeup I applied on an average day.
I didn't so much neglect to wear make up for feminist reasons, or to "fight the man," but rather because I was just too tired to wake up early to pretty myself up. It didn't seem worth it.
Once washed, and teeth brushed, I dawned a professional dress and adorned it with a nice a belt and deemed myself ready for work, then left.
I arrived at about 8:30, half an hour early so I could tie up a few loose ends from Friday. I have always been rather diligent with my work and took pride in my close attention to detail. But lately that had gone out the window. I can't remember any specific event that caused my relative laziness, rather it had been a gradual decline in my work ethic, originating from somewhere close to a year ago. Perhaps it started when my boyfriend of 9 months split with me, or when I got promoted to such a bleak position, but that's just speculation.
Eventually the rest of my coworkers arrived, all them ambitious like I was when I held their titles, full of ideas. There was Finn, the most well rounded of the bunch, always able to think up slogans that never failed, but never reached the moon either. As time went on Finn and I had gotten to know each other well, and even shared a few one-night stands. He knew however that they meant very little and would never come to influence how I treated his work. Then there was Alice, a striver, able on occasion to create your "Just Do Its" and "Got Milks" when she wasn't failing utterly on her other projects. Alice was also indulging her own series of one-night stands, not with Finn, of course, but with young and attractive guys able to match her own caliber of energy. There were others, surely, but the best of the lot was Tess, who walked into work everyday radiating her good ideas and positive attitude. That attitude, however, extended only to her own advances for conversation. If you were to approach her first, you would witness a somewhat tightly wound exterior- she enjoyed her privacy. That's not to say her friendly persona was disingenuous, rather that she preferred instead to be in control of her conversations and interactions, something that I didn't disagree with.
As of late, I had been supervising as all of them came up with ideas for a national produce chain. This was on pace to be our largest client of the year, and as such, stakes were high and the pressure was on for my subordinates. We were half way through our allotted time and no ideas stuck with the client. To inspire my workers I scheduled constructive evaluations for today, an opportunity for each of them to show me what they've been working on and for me to offer my own input. I didn't want to discourage them, so I planned on keeping my criticisms brief and my praise lengthy so they could fully flesh out their work.
I waited until noon to begin, allowing them all to tie up their own loose ends, before I called Alice into the meeting room, where only I sat. She looked peppy with her runner's figure and chestnut hair as she connected her laptop to the projector. Her eval lasted half an hour, though I was mentally present for only half of it, blanking out after she suggested we call vegetables "the new technology." I was really hoping this client would get one of her stellar ideas, instead they got a dud.
Finn's eval went a bit smoother than Alice's, though he didn't have anything that I could confidently take to our monolith of a client. When he saw me initially losing confidence in his ideas, he would flash me warm smiles, as if to melt me. In truth, his efforts were somewhat successful, anything could sound good with his deep voice, presented along side his chocolate skin and welcoming gaze. But my logical mind was left to decide that his plan wouldn't work.
Last up was Tess who I was anxious to hear. I decided before her evaluation that I would be tougher on her than I was with the others as she was the one I had come to rely on. Plus, I felt like some pressure would do her good. How does the saying go? Something about pressure on coal making a diamond? She was going to be my diamond whether she liked it or not.
Tess entered like everyone else with her laptop under her arm and took a generous amount of time setting it up. I watched as she did, analyzing her look, her essence. She was Asian, Chinese I suppose, though I do believe she was born in America as she lacked any accent, and she wore jet black hair with smoky eyes. Her figure was perfect, standing at 5'6" (2 inches shorter than me), owning a blend between a runner's body, like Alice, and a soccer players proportions with a healthy waist and strong legs. I made a mental note to ask her if she ever played soccer if she ever chose to engage me in conversation. She was utilizing the energy her mid 20's possessed well.
When her laptop was ready, she began her 30 slide PowerPoint. Her idea was to market the product like we do thanksgiving meals, showing consumers the time families will spend together cooking and eating. To begin my "tough love" evaluation, I told Tess how I thought her idea was cliché and lacked inspiration.
"I've been working on this for a month. The test groups love the idea and have given me only positive feedback."
"They like the idea because it's familiar, it's safe. They've seen it a thousand times and have come to know it as a non-threatening idea," I spit back.
"And that's bad?"
"No, it's lazy."
"So, what do you want me to do? Restart the project? Begin from square one?" She was yelling now, and people were watching.
"I'm going to be honest with you, Tess, if that's what it takes, then yes. You have to understand, this is a huge client and they don't want safe, they want big, and revolutionary. They want everything we have to give. And this," I pointed to her slides with the tip of my pen, "is not everything."
She began collecting her belongings. "Fuck you, Harper. I've been working my ass off and while you listened to Alice's idea and told her 'keep on working,' you single me out for dissection?"
"It's not that. I—"
"What? You think her idea was better than mine?"
"If you would sit down I can explain—"
"I'll be in my office." She left, slamming the door.
The day from then on was rough as I receded into my office away from the onlookers. I wasn't quite sure if Tess was my diamond yet. The entire situation was so unfortunate, as she did have the best presentation by far, even if it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I decided to send her an email, professionally, to apologize for my intense criticism, and to encourage her to expound on her idea. Hopefully this would motivate her to keep on working as I couldn't only be left with Finn and Alice. She never responded.
As the day unfurled I was left to a mountain of paperwork which I mostly finished before 6, and spent another hour and a half overtime completing. By the time I was ready to leave, the sun was down and the stars were out.
Tess was also outside, although I don't remember allowing her any overtime. Maybe my email resolved things for her and she took it upon herself to stay late fixing her proposal. She wasn't. She was waiting for me by my car, still obviously angry from earlier. As I approached her I looked to talk."
"Tess, it's almost 8. What are you doing here so late?"
"The way you treated me in there was unacceptable. You were overly harsh, rude, and immature."
"If you want to talk to me about your evaluation you can see me tomorrow in my office. Right now, it's time to go home." I began walking past her.
She calmly turned around and placed her hand on my shoulder. I stopped where I was.
"Turn around and look at me like an adult." I turned around. "You don't get to be a bitch to everyone in the office and just leave like you're above it."
"Look, I didn't mean—"
"Let me speak." She silenced me. "I had a good idea in there and you know it. I don't care how the others did, I really don't, because I know I did the best. I did research, I ran mock ads, I took polls. Everyone likes my idea. I know you enjoy your power, but I—"
"If you would just let me explain—" she slapped me across my left cheek.
