"That bloody man Weinstein is making life difficult for every man around. What with that and @MeToo, it looks as though about ninety percent of us are predatory paedophiles according to the female of the species."
Chris was sitting in the pub with the four women and two men who made up his work force. He was a twenty seven year old who had inherited a small failing business from his father and had built it up into a very successful IT company. As was normal at the end of the month, he had treated them to a round of drinks and a lunch in the local hostelry, and he was bemoaning the effect of a series of disclosures in the media of sexual predation, particularly by men with some authority against young women.
"Never mind, Chris, we'll come and visit you in prison after you get caught groping some innocent young girl."
This was from Pauline, a well built young woman, who tended to be the noisiest of the bunch, always full of life and ready to laugh at anything, especially a dirty joke. The other girls were Laura, Ella and Maureen. Pauline, Ella and Laura were all in their early twenties, not long out of university, and excellent programmers, as were Chris, Freddie and Rob. Maureen was older, in her early forties, and unlike the others, was much more reserved. She was a brilliant administrator who had quietly taken over the day to day running of the business, leaving Chris to concentrate on obtaining contracts for the company and running the projects involved.
The conversation continued for a while, the younger women making fun of the three men, but soon they had to wrap it up and return to work. Apart from odd comments and the occasional squeal of "Don't you dare touch me." whenever one of the men got near a girl, no more was said, but a few days later, when every one was together in the office, Pauline raised the topic again.
"You gentlemen -- using the word loosely -- will be pleased to hear that we members of the superior sex have discussed the topic of inappropriate touching, and we wish to establish the ground rules as to what we expect from you -- no Rob, don't splutter like that -- and these are they: by and large, the odd pat or stroke here and there is not unacceptable, but in depth groping is out -- tits and crutches are definitely no go areas. Nasty innuendos about women in general, and us in particular, are not on, but general piss taking and dirty jokes are expected and are likely to be be reciprocated. In other words, carry on as usual and I doubt any of us are going to complain."
"Bloody marvellous." This from Rob "What about women getting onto men? We've got to behave, you lot can grope away to your heart's content."
"You should be so lucky. No, I suppose the same rules apply both ways."
Chris decided it was time for him to speak. "Look, ladies, I'm not aware that any of you have had cause to complain in the past, and I hope you won't have to in the future. I can only say that, if you have any concerns, speak up, whoever is involved, specially if it's something I've done. Is that OK?"
There was a general murmur of assent, and there the matter rested as far as the younger women were concerned. However, Chris wasn't convinced that Maureen was totally happy about the state of affairs, so he waited till he was alone with her in his office before bringing it up.
"I got the feeling that you weren't altogether on the same hymn sheet as Pauline? Does it give you a problem?"
"Sorry, I guess I'm not quite on the same wave length as the other girls, probably because I'm nearly twenty years older than they are. It's not that I really disagree with them, it's just something I find a bit embarrassing to talk about. It's all a bit academic anyway. No one here is likely to want to grope my old body."
"Don't undersell yourself, you're a long way from old. Anyway, I don't imagine anything is going to change, really. I reckon that Pauline and the rest were just trying to let us men know that they're not likely to get upset at nothing."
That appeared to be the end of the topic, but a little while later he asked her to find him a document that he knew perfectly well was in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. Thus, Maureen had to bend down to open the drawer, and she then squatted to search for the document. While she was doing this, he picked up her mobile phone from her desk and quickly shot several pictures of her bottom, which was nicely outlined by the tight pair of slacks that she was wearing. When she stood up, he handed her the phone with the pictures displayed.
"There, I told you that you're not old, and you certainly don't look it in these pictures, do you."
" You rotten sod, fancy taking pictures of me, though I doubt you'll bother to circulate them."
"They are on your phone, not mine, so you can do what you like with them."
"You're still a rotten sod, but I must say my bum doesn't look too unsightly."
"Sorry, I shouldn't have done that, it breaks more rules of decent behaviour than enough, but I've been looking at you for two years now. You are a nice looking woman with what seems to be a pleasant body, and it pains me that you seem to have so little self respect. Oh, and by the way, you are a bloody good worker as well and a pleasure to have around the place."
She just looked at him, and he could see tears welling up as she rushed out of the office and into the toilets. When she came back, she was red eyed, but self composed again.
"Sorry about that, I'm not used to compliments, and thank you for them. Now, did you really want those papers, or was it really an excuse to ogle my bum? By the way, I think I'm happy to go along with the other girls on office etiquette."
He walked round the desk to her and very gently patted her buttock.
"Lovely -- but I won't do it again."
Of the younger women, Ella was much the quietest. While she always joined in with any fun going on around the office, she never instigated any of the activities, and tended to be an observer. She was the youngest of the three, at twenty three, and not long out of university. She was a very petite girl, little over five feet tall, and with a slim figure, small breasts and very trim legs. She usually wore shortish skirts, which showed her legs off to advantage, but when she wore tight jeans they showed off a lovely rounded bum. She was engaged, and her marriage day was near, when one evening she stayed late at the office, with only Chris for company. He had told her there was no need to stay, but she said she wanted to tidy up the project she had been working on as she would be taking two weeks off for her honeymoon.
Chris was working in his office when she came in to join him, carrying two cups of coffee. He looked up and smiled at her, thinking that her fiancée was lucky to be marrying such an attractive girl, who also was very pleasant company. She sat down beside him, and they chatted idly about where she was going for her honeymoon and where they were going to live when they returned -- just idle chat, so he was astonished when she put down her coffee cup and raised the last subject he might have expected.
"This inappropriate touching and so on -- you've never touched me, have you. Don't you fancy me?"
"I don't think I've touched anyone inappropriately, certainly not deliberately. And I fancy all of you ladies, and quite a few others, but it doesn't mean I go round groping them. I'd be scared shitless that I'd get slapped or worse, and, in any case, touching for me is a sign of affection, not just lust."
