Claudia had a busy enough Christmas, between family and social obligations, giving some as much time as she could afford and others just enough to seem polite. In the evening she spent her time reading. She hadn't really bothered with feminist literature since reading The Second Sex in college. Her discussion with Jay at Petra told her she had a lot of catching up to do.
She glossed over second-wave feminism, finding very little there that resonated with her. She did spend some time on standpoint theory after she had gotten home on Boxing Day/ She quickly realised that she had a lot more reading to do.
The reading did provide her with some distractions from Linda, at least. It had felt very odd loading her sheets into the washing machine after she had left, the droning machine soon erasing most physical evidence of their one night stand. But she knew Linda would be there, waiting for her at half past eight in the morning of the twenty-seventh.
She had actually considered coming in fifteen minutes early just to catch her personal assistant off guard. But she was pretty sure that if she did that, Linda would predict it.
She wasn't disappointed. As the elevator doors to the office slid open she saw Linda sitting there, busily typing away at her desk. It was oddly relieving to see that she was dressed exactly as she always was, a modest sweater and a long skirt.
Linda brightened up when she saw Claudia. "Morning, miss Braddock." she said in a way that could only be described as 'chipper.' "Your breakfast is on your desk, and a courier came by earlier with the proofs for the Stetilia account. I put them up in your office."
"Thank you Linda." Claudia nodded. For a moment she hesitated, wondering if there was more she should say. But then she forced herself to enter her office. Better to let things return to normal as soon as possible.
As Claudia enjoyed her breakfast bagel she studied the prints that Linda had put up. The printer had done a pretty good job with them, even if Claudia found the posters incredibly tacky.
The campaign was for some sort of cloud computing app. The executive in charge of the project had explained the idea with breathless excitement. Claudia had jotted down some key words but hadn't bothered to try to wrap her mind around the principles behind it all. She didn't need to know the minutiae to be able to sell the product.
The posters all showed more or less naked people, although they had been airbrushed to the point of sexless androgyny. Crisp black lines ran over the figures' skin to create the illusion that it was made up of segmented plastic plates, and they a variety of poses that all had one trait in common - outstretched arms reaching upwards, dissolving into polygonal segments around the elbow to fade into the background.
Claudia sighed as she sipped her coffee. The work was technically proficient, and the artist had done a pretty good job giving the people behind the company what they thought they wanted. That didn't change the fact that they could do so much more if they were allowed to work outside those constraints. At least tech companies never asked them to use Papyrus or other tacky fonts.
But it didn't matter. Not overly much, anyway. The project had been delegated entirely to her team, with Claudia doing little other than being the face of her company. She rarely got to get personally involved with the design of campaigns these days.
Claudia polished off her breakfast and coffee while eyeing the designs, trying to put herself in the shoes of somebody seeing them as a poster in the subway, or as a glossy full page advertisement in a magazine. It was close enough to what the customer had asked for that it would probably meet their approval.
Her gaze shifted from the prints to the office beyond the glass wall. Slowly her staff trickled in. They'd be running at a third of their usual capacity for the coming week, most of her staff choosing to fill the days between Christmas and New Year with vacation days. Of course she had never doubted that Linda wouldn't be one of them.
It wasn't until halfway through the morning that Claudia stepped into her private bathroom. When she did she immediately noticed the duffel bag. It was small, made of navy canvas. She noticed a sticky note attached to it. She picked it up and read it.
'Miss Braddock. I needed to bring in some things for the next time we're working late. I would prefer it if you didn't look inside.'
Claudia frowned at that. Having a mystery bag in her personal bathroom was an invasion of her space. And yet she already knew she wouldn't look inside it. The request might have come from Linda, but Claudia had a feeling that the only reason it wasn't signed by 'Mistress Linda' was on the small chance somebody other than Claudia found the note first. The only concession she made to her curiosity was to nudge the bag with her foot to test its weight. It seemed to contain clothing, but without breaking Linda's trust there was no way she would know.
She tried to put it out of her mind but every time her attention strayed from her work it inevitably wandered back to the mystery bag. Occasionally she watched Linda sitting at her desk. Without any work to do her personal assistant was working on some sort of puzzle, a set of linked plastic triangles that she twisted into various geometric shapes. She called it her mental bubble wrap.
Saturday was another quiet and uneventful day, with even less of the staff coming in to work. Sunday was a busy day for Claudia. The homeowner's association in her building had its annual New Year's Eve party, and she was on the organizing committee this year. It meant a lot of empty bickering in group text chains about the colour of tablecloths and such.
She had actually forgotten about the bag by Monday until she almost tripped over it when she went to use her bathroom. She glared at it, as if it had personally offended her. But still she resisted the temptation to look into it. She did call Linda into her office.
"Yes miss Braddock?" her always cheerful personal assistant asked as she stood in front of her boss's desk.
"Linda... your bag." Claudia sighed. "Can't you keep it anywhere else?"
Claudia watched her personal assistant more closely, watching for any reaction to her question. Linda just smiled. "I can miss Braddock, but I think it would be best if I kept it nearby..."
Claudia nodded at that. Linda wanted her to think about the bag. She figured as much. "How long will you need it?"
"Until the next time we're working late, of course." came the calm reply.
Claudia exhaled slowly through her nostrils. She was outwardly passive, but Linda could clearly see the frustration in that subtle gesture. "And when do you think we will need to work late?"
"It will probably be another week or two." Linda shrugged. "With the holidays and all... unless you feel the need to work late today or tomorrow?"
That actually caused Claudia to pause. This was the first time that she was being given the chance to initiate working late. She had always trusted Linda to make that decision for her. Had something changed? The past few days had been more or less normal between the two of them, as she had promised herself after their one night stand. Now Linda suddenly tossed something new in her lap. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Are you really telling me I can pick the time of our next play?"
Linda nodded. "Yes miss Braddock." she said calmly. She looked completely calm. Perhaps she was simply eager to engage in this particular play? Either way, she looked at her boss expectantly.
Claudia considered her options. Today or tomorrow... Tomorrow was definitely out. She wasn't about to go to the building's New Year's Eve party with rope marks or welts on her skin. They could do it later, but that would mean uncertainty... which she really couldn't deal with right now. Finally she made up her mind. "Very well Linda, I would like to work late tonight."
Linda just smiled and nodded. "Alright miss Braddock, I will make sure to order us some delivery for dinner."
"Thank you Linda." Claudia sighed. She frowned a little as she watched her personal assistant depart. Would it really be as simple as that?
Dinner turned out to be from a place that was vaguely Mediterranean without settling on any kitchen in particular. But the couscous with beans and goat cheese and the stuffed grape leaves on the side were both excellent, so Claudia wasn't going to complain about the less than authentic experience.
As she went into her bathroom to clean her hands after she finished the dinner she was confronted by the mystery bag again. She sighed softly but forced herself not to think about it. She would know what its contents were soon enough.
She returned to her desk to watch Linda pick the last of her own dinner out of its styrofoam container with a plastic fork. She couldn't help but wonder, how long would Linda have waited to bust out its contents? She didn't think Linda was so manipulative as to leave the bag out as a distraction but she still couldn't shake the feeling that it was somehow meant as a test - and one she had probably failed.
She returned to her desk and turned her attention to her monitor. By now her employees had all gone home, all but Linda, of course. She probably would have done the same if it weren't for the fact that Linda had agreed that they'd be working late tonight.
So now all she could do was wait. Her attention wandered back and forth between reading news on the screen and watching Linda beyond it. She noticed that Linda had pulled out a Chromebook, busily tapping away at it. Probably for want of anything work related to do. Claudia frowned a measure. She couldn't help but wonder whether her personal assistant was deliberately drawing things out.
