"Please come in and take a seat, Miss. Rose" he said without looking up from his computer screen.
"Call me..." she began before deciding to save her breath as he clearly wasn't listening.
This was not how she wanted to start her new job. Waiting for her employer to acknowledge her presence, let alone deign to look in her direction. To fill the time she looked at the sterile surroundings, hoping to see some sign of life or personality from the man sitting opposite her.
Instead, he matched the surroundings perfectly; all sharp edges and clean lines.
She could hear the ticking of a clock somewhere in the distance echoing down the lifeless corridors.
Lyla began to wonder about the rooms she had passed on her way to the office at the heart of the building. Their opaque surfaces drew in the artificial light. The only flourish of colour upon them, the unmarked chrome handles. None of the doors had markings or signage giving any indication of what lay beyond them. Once she was in possession of her security pass, the first task would be to find out.
"Please excuse me for just one more moment." He said standing up and leaving her alone beneath the artificial light of the windowless room.
She dove her hand into her bag and Searched out her phone. She didn't know how long he would be gone for but maybe she could find a distraction on social media to occupy her mind while she waited for something, anything to happen.
She secretively flicked her finger up and down the screen, roaming through pictures of cats, complains for acquaintances about airlines and random memes culled from old television shows. Had she made a grave mistake was this job, whatever it actually turned out to be, not for her.
Maybe paying the rent isn't for you either, a voice chimed in from the back of her mind. She liked to think it was her future-self, older and wiser, somehow passing on sage words of advice from someday yet to come. If truth be told, however, Lyla knew that the voice belonged to her mother.
Her train of thought was derailed by the door opening and her new employer returning.
In his hands, he held two boxes. Placing them both down on the desk and making a show of opening them one at a time. The first contained a pair of black leather shoes and the other some kind of black garment.
Lyla knew next to nothing about clothing but even she could tell the shoes where expensive. The sharp smell of leather filled stung nose as she tentatively reached out towards the red-soled heels.
Returning to his seat he locked his dull blue eyes firmly upon her face.
"Now, I am going to need you to remove your clothes". His face remained expressionless as if he had just asked her the time or directions to the bathroom.
Lyla didn't move for a moment. She just flicked her gaze from him to the velvet-lined boxes and back again. She was sure she must have looked like a deer in headlights.
"Is there a problem? Was this not all explained to you when you signed your contract of employment and your non-disclosure agreement."
This was her last chance to walk away, to leave the building and go to work in a supermarket or a fast-food outlet.
"No." She said standing up and removing her jacket.
For a moment she felt self-conscious, standing before him. Upon getting the job she had gone out and bought a brand new dress and underwear set. Both far in excess of her normal spend for such things, but Lyla found herself worrying that to his refined tastes they would seem cheap.
She reached down and pulled the dress up and over her head. She shook it loose from her main of thick red curls and neatly placed it upon the chair.
Lyla had been a cam girl for little over a year so she was used to men objectifying her body. Hundreds of men had gazed upon her pale skin with every conceivable emotion. Desire, Despair, Disgust even devotion but the blue eyes moving across her curves now held nothing but indifference.
To her surprise, she found the experience was making her angry. Just what did he want? The list she had been presented along with her contract when she met with Mr Sinclair had been exhaustive. If the money was not enough to set her up for life, she would have stopped giving any thought to the offer by the time she got to the third item down the list.
