It's December, and I have started working at a law firm. I file, type, and transcribe, and after my first few days on this job, when I showed up on time- not too hard to do considering I lived only a few blocks from the building- and did my job competently and professionally (their words), I was welcomed with open arms. You see, I replaced someone who set new standards for incompetence and tardiness, so when I show up right at 8 am, I am greeted by happy faces, even weeks after I started.
This job is a breeze. It isn't even work I have no idea what I am filing, typing, or transcribing and it doesn't matter. It's eight bucks an hour and I'm living the good life, high off the hog. On my right sits a beautiful, athletic looking gal named Jo. She has short dark hair, brown eyes, and a well shaped nose. Her perfume and Australian accent drive me wild. She's in love with the outdoors. There are photos of her rock climbing, skiing, and kayaking with friends on her desk along with pictures of her husband and daughter. She has a beautiful ass. Her clothes cradle it perfectly and I carefully steal a guilty leer when she walks away from me. In the three weeks that I've worked here, Jo and I don't say much to each other except for the obligatory small talk, but I cherish every opportunity to hear her voice. Her eyes sparkle and her teeth are almost perfect. She mentions her family, and her husband seems like a decent guy based the pictures she has on her desk. He appears to be tall with bushy brown hair. He works for an engineering firm in Snohomish County. Their daughter is three years old.
One particular cold morning, not long after the inception of my employment, she comes in late and smiles at me but doesn't say hello. She goes to hang up her coat and doesn't return for a few hours. After I finish transcribing an insurance interview, I get up to replace some files in the file room. I push a metal card that is nearly overflowing with these things for a couple of hours. Finding exactly where to put them is difficult because of the Karen fallout. She had no coherent filing system to refer to except that they went in this room. So while I file, I find myself in the grind of picking up the pieces. I've been in here a couple of hours and Jo walks in. She smiles and says hello and I nod in her direction. She's a couple of aisles over, looking through the files. "God Dammit! Where is that bloody file? I could kill that girl!" she says in exasperation when she can't find what she's looking for. She comes back to me and is suddenly embarrassed.
"Oh....pardon my French. Could I look through these?" she asks.
"Be my guest," I reply, standing up straight and stretching. She leans over and thumbs through my stack and finds the one she's looking for.
"There it is!" she says with embarrassment. "I've been looking for this for hours."
"It was on my desk. Some guy brought it over early this morning with some other files and asked me to put it away when I got a chance," I reply.
"Bet a bear would have bit me!" she says. "Well, thanks." She smiles at me for a beat and I shyly return the favor. She's wearing a creamy green blouse and sweater with black piping, a black skirt and tights, and a gold necklace. She turns to leave. After she's gone, I can lift up my hand and almost feel her soft skin.
A little bit later, I'm back at my desk after finally making sense of the filing I had to do. It's about 12:30 and Jo comes back and gets her purse out of her desk.
"Are you hungry? I was going to get some lunch. You're welcome to come if you like," she says as she buttons her coat. I am surprised and excited at her invitation, and eagerly accept.
"Yeah, that sounds good." I find a good place to stop, shut off my computer, and get up to get my coat. We head over to some yuppie zoo on 5th. Nothing but suits and white people. It's crowded, so Jo suggests we sit in the bar. She orders a glass of wine.
"You want anything?"
"Rainier'll be fine."
"Do you have a deathwish, Jack?"
We take our drinks to a booth. I am the only man in the restaurant not wearing a tie. She lights a cigarette. "You are welcome relief around the office, Jack," she says. "Karen made a mess of everything she touched."
"Sounds like she was the inverse of King Midas. It's amazing to me that she lasted so long."
"It was her tits and ass. They loved her for that."
"That was enough to compensate for her incompetence?"
"Steve was hoping it was. He used to take her out to lunch, help her move. He even gave her rides to and from work, going out of his way to drop her off at places she said she needed to go to."
"It doesn't sound like that paid off."
"Guys like him will never learn. Anyway, if you need help working your way through it, let me know."
"I could have used your help this morning. There was no logic to the way she filed. It seems like she just put things wherever she wanted." I finish the rest of my beer. "I'll get another round if you want another."
"Yes, I would. Thank you," she replies. I give the order to the nearby bartender. "Are you going to get anything to eat?"
"Probably not," and she finishes the rest of her wine.
"Are you looking for a permanent job?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't want one."
"Why don't you want one?"
"I don't know. I just don't. I'm not very career minded right now."
"Temp jobs don't last forever."
"Neither do permanent ones. But, I've got a lot of money saved up," I lie. Nintendo wasn't that good. "I'm in no hurry to get on a career path. How about you?"
"I'm not a temp, but I started as one. They made me permanent three months ago. My benefits will start pretty soon. You should see about coming on here."
"Really?"
"Yeah, we all like you Jack." She smiles and glows at me. I look at her teeth, then her eyes. I drink some more beer. She drinks some more wine.
By 1:45 we've had a couple more rounds of drinks and we head back to the office.
"Do you always drink like this at lunch?" I ask.
"Sometimes I've gone back to work a little pissed," she says. She takes my hand and gives me some tic tacs. "These will help your breath," and like a high schooler attempting to mask the fact that I was off school property drinking when I should have been in study hall should I be confronted by a teacher or hall monitor, I take them.
"You think they'll notice we're late?"
"No they're pretty lax around here."
"What about me?"
"I told you. We all like you, Jack." She turns and smiles. We walk past the smoker's ghetto in the front of the building and go through the front door, ride up the escalator to the elevator lobby, her ass beckoning to me like a 14 ounce steak. We get on the elevator and ride it to the 23rd floor. We walk past the receptionist who is on the phone. "Here, I'll hang up your coat for you." She takes it and goes to the closet. I go over to my desk to sit down, and turn on my computer. A new stack of files awaits me along with two new long memos to type. Jo comes back and puts her purse back in her desk. I get up with the files and head back to the file room. After about 45 minutes, Jo comes into the room and steps in front of me and starts sticking those long brown folders into the shelves.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"My job."
